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Old 07-15-2008, 08:01 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,710,930 times
Reputation: 1212

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I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Pittsburgh's population won't go below 300k. To be honest, I would find it a bit uncomfortable to be sharing this city with 600,000 other people. It's one of the main reasons I left San Francisco. It's true, there are quite a few abandoned houses, but it's far from a ghost town, which is what I was expecting the first time I visited. I also think the city-county merger will be a step in the right direction. There are quite a few companies still headquartered here, and they're doing well. What this city needs is a change in government and a dismantling of the Democratic machine, which doesn't mean the Republicans need to take over. There are other options. Seattle's government is far from perfect, and is often quite pathetic, but I like the fact that it's officially non-partisan.
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Old 07-17-2008, 11:50 AM
 
Location: Work is based nationwide
570 posts, read 1,411,243 times
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Creepsinc, there is no doubt that Grant Street needs to change..right on.
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Old 07-17-2008, 12:37 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,297 posts, read 120,694,120 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by creepsinc View Post
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Pittsburgh's population won't go below 300k.
I read a prediction that the population will go below 300K in the next census. I believe I read that in the P-G. The big issue will be how goes the metro?

Quote:
I also think the city-county merger will be a step in the right direction.
There is no proposal for that in the works that I know of. It just gets talked about all the time.

Quote:
What this city needs is a change in government and a dismantling of the Democratic machine, which doesn't mean the Republicans need to take over. There are other options. Seattle's government is far from perfect, and is often quite pathetic, but I like the fact that it's officially non-partisan.
When pigs fly! I agree, and that's how it is in Denver, and if fact, all of Colorado. It usually is obvious what party the mayor of Denver belongs to, but less obvious with the council.
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Old 07-21-2008, 05:47 AM
 
Location: Work is based nationwide
570 posts, read 1,411,243 times
Reputation: 133
All good points Katiana !! And I could really care less which political party has it's face on local politics as long as they have leadership skills and the talent to carry a city and region forward. Talented, capable and progressive politicians is something Pittsburgh has not seen for years.
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Old 07-21-2008, 07:51 AM
 
33 posts, read 152,693 times
Reputation: 23
Default Shrinking?

The Burg is my home town. I am 68 and I was born there as well as my mother. All this enlightened conversation rests on jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs. When people can earn a decent living, they will come. Jobs were an issue even when I was a kid and the mills were up. Other issues will be resolved once the economy in the Burg is strong. Those old mills do need to come down though.
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Old 07-21-2008, 09:11 AM
 
233 posts, read 701,048 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RockLobster View Post
Having to go back roughly to the year 1895 to reach the same population the city of Pittsburgh has this very day, the good news is the percentage of loss has slowed quite a bit as compared to a decade ago.
While we are a long way from our city high point population wise of 671.569 back in 1940 to our current tumble of around 311.000. Some census officals actually thought Pittsburgh would have fallen below the 300.000 mark for the latest figures.
Of course local media loves to ask when will the population decline stop and when might we actually see a rise in city population. I would ask this question. What will or would be the main factor for having a increase in Pittsburgh's population ? Will there be more than one large factor in growing the city's population?
And how about a wild card question.. Which will show signs of growth first.. City of Pittsburghs population or Pittsburgh International Airport?
Pittsburgh peaked not in 1940, but 1950 with a population of 676,806. I didn't read the whole thread, so maybe this has already been corrected. The entire Pittsburgh area has lost population since its peak in 1960, something almost unheard of. So while the US as a whole has more than doubled its population since 1950, the Pittsburgh area has actually lost people. Incredible. Pittsburghers and their government officials in Allegheny and the surrouding counties continue to sugarcoat the slow painful death of a once mighty metropolitan area that helped provide the muscle to win two World Wars.
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Old 07-21-2008, 09:35 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,297 posts, read 120,694,120 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RockLobster View Post
All good points Katiana !! And I could really care less which political party has it's face on local politics as long as they have leadership skills and the talent to carry a city and region forward. Talented, capable and progressive politicians is something Pittsburgh has not seen for years.
Agreed. The party is not that important in local politics.
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Old 07-22-2008, 08:07 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 33,003,811 times
Reputation: 2911
Just a little factoid:

I have been promoting the use of the Census-defined urbanized areas rather than incorporated cities for a while, since the Census ignores political boundaries and just tries to identify the areas within an overall metropolitan area that count as urban.

So I thought to check what happened with the Pittsburgh urbanized area between 1990 and 2000. Here is a source summarizing the Census data:

USA Urbanized Areas over 500,000: 2000 and 1990 Comparability

It turns out the Pittsburgh ubanized area grew in population, from 1,678,745 to 1,753,136.

That's pretty interesting, because the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area as a whole went from 2,394,811 to 2,358,695 in this time. See here:

US Metropolitan Area Population: 1990-2000

So what that all means is that the Pittburgh metropolitan area's population loss in this period was entirely due to the non-urbanized areas. Specifically, if you do the math the non-urbanized portions of the metropolitan area went from 716,066 in 1990 to 605,559 in 2000.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting.
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Old 07-24-2008, 03:40 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,710,930 times
Reputation: 1212
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post


There is no proposal for that in the works that I know of. It just gets talked about all the time.

There is a proposal, actually. I think the mayor and country executive are shooting for a 2009 ballot initiative.
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Old 07-24-2008, 04:06 PM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
12,529 posts, read 17,536,827 times
Reputation: 10634
A county-city merger will NEVER happen. And I would be one who would vote against it. Pensions for the city are 44% funded, for the county 96% funded. I could just see the city officials licking their chops to get a hold of county money.

While I realize the future of the area does rest with the health of the City, they have to take steps to get their budget in line with the suburbs.
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