44 days here- People really are that nice (Pittsburgh, York: Home Depot, neighborhood)

[PeterRabbit]

Originally Posted by Drover

I daresay that a return to Pittsburgh looks better with every new and innovative way that Chicago finds to extort money from its citizens who are already paying stupid amounts of money and taxes to live here. Last week's novel extortion method: to give me a parking ticket ON MY OWN FREAKING DRIVEWAY. Since I have no way to prove the metertwat lied about the infraction, I have little choice but to pay up. I wonder if they have any idea how many people they've chased out of this city with corruption big and small.

I've gotten tickets in the city municipal parking lots for expired meters because I take the vacant spots even when the meters are busted. When I've called and nicely explained the situation they always took care of the tickets. Phone calls have worked in the suburbs too. I got a street sweeping ticket when parked in my driveway. Some of the senior citizens they had hired to enforce parking laws/issue tickets thought the cars weren't to be seen at all, not just on the street.

[Drover]

Glad they're reasonable about parking tickets there. They're not here. The city doesn't even bother with the pretense of parking tickets being much more than a revenue source. Guess who walks around the city neighborhoods writing parking tickets? Answer: agents for the Department of Revenue. Cops will give out parking tickets too if they're not busy doing something else and you're actually parked illegally (many parking tickets are issued for things that have nothing to do with the way you've actually parked, such as a missing front license plate or a broken taillight lens), but they don't wander the streets writing tickets like the revenue agents do. That's the kind of atmosphere we live under around here.

The city of Chicago generates 150 MILLION dollars in revenue a year from parking tickets alone -- that's 5% of the city's annual budget. (Compare that to Pittsburgh generating 6 million a year from "fines and forfeitures" of all types for a total of less than 2% of its budget.[EDIT: Just found in the city budget that approximately 4.8 million is generated by parking fines for just over 1% of the Pittsburgh city budget.]) And with revenue sources drying up, the city has been quite public about cracking down on parking violations and raising the fines as a way to help make up part of the shortfall. I didn't realize they'd resort to actually making up infractions.

And that wasn't the only "made-up" ticket I got last week either -- I also got one for parking in a non-existent "no parking zone." That one I'll probably be able to contest and get thrown out with photographic evidence that the parking spot in question was not marked as a no parking zone. But the point is I shouldn't have to waste my time fighting a ticket that will obviously get thrown out, but the city knows that some people will just pay up instead of fighting, so they write them anyway.

[fleetiebelle]

I had what I think of as the typical Pittsburgh experience this weekend. My parents were in town, and Friday night we went to dinner at Satalio's in Mt. Washington. The waitress was new, and the kitchen was slow, but all the groups in the dining room were laughing and talking between tables. The chef/owner knocked 10% off of our check even though we didn't have a coupon. So it wasn't the best or most efficient dining experience, but I think everyone walked out of the restaurant with a good feeling.

[Bookratt]

So glad you all seem to love the 'burgh and burghers. We're overseas for another 1- 1/2 years, then we're coming home. 'Home' as I'm using it is relative, as neither of us is from there originally, but we're very glad we get to come back. We were there the last 10 years and felt very comfortable there.

People are friendly (unless they're tourists at Fallingwater--just kidding). You can get into and out of downtown with much less hassle than in other cities its size, and you can still afford to see an MLB, NHL or NFL event.

A great park system, access to wilderness and good trails within easy hiking, biking and driving distance, good shopping not too far away at Grove City outlets, no tax on clothing, etc.

Another great thing: the museums there charge less for family admission than in my old hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and they're world class. We've been to museums all over country and the world, and we still feel the 'burgh has some of the best. We especially love The Carnegie Natural History Museum and The Children's Museum.

[SteelCityRising]

Welcome to Pennsylvania! Ironically I will more than likely be relocating from Pennsylvania to your native Connecticut next year because the state recently legalized same-sex marriage and has more professional opportunity for someone with the degree I'll be obtaining in May 2009, but I'll still miss the subtle nuances that made the Keystone State so great.

Pittsburgh is a city I've only ever visited once, but it's also a place I'd love to consider living in someday, if even just for a few years. People WERE genuinely friendly when we visited---they were eager to give us pointers on the best places to eat and all of the best sites to see when they learned we were tourists (unlike some other major cities where residents and natives will get disgusted by tourists poking and probing their minds for opinions).

I agree about the spousal fighting issue. I work in retail, and not a day goes by that I don't encounter a husband and wife going at it. Just yesterday it was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with one couple. I was helping them to select an electric heater for their home. My phone rang, so I had to excuse myself momentarily to answer it (could be a mystery shopper for all I knew). When I returned the couple was already bickering because they couldn't decide which one they wanted. This is why I don't dig chicks! LOL!

[PeterRabbit]

Drover - I imagine NYC and other large pop. cities are like your experiences in Chicago. We aren't without fault here though.

Gf borrowed my car to visit her mother in the city near Wilkinsburg. Ten minutes after she parked, the car was stolen. The cops called the next day and said they found it in Homewood. I live in the east suburbs and guessing from where they found it, it would be towed to the pound in the Strip. No way!, it was at a pound out Rt. 51 somewhere. (Tow trucks charge like $5 a mile and probably more when working for the city.) The insurance company paid for it, but I bet they do stuff like that quite often and the bigger the city the bigger the money-grabbing slick tricks.

The people at both pounds were very courteous and pleasant in spite of my ranting on about how senseless they were.

[Scientist Mom]

I also think the people here are nice. I was semi-blown away yesterday because my neighbor gave me a 2 L bottle of ginger ale when she heard my daughter had a stomach virus and we didn't have any. I didn't even ask her for it. My neighbors in Houston never would have done that. Of course, her house is closer to mine than my Houston neighbors and the fence between is chain link rather than the 6 ft wood fence of a planned/ HOA community. It just made me so happy with our neighborhood and seemed to help my kid.

I also loved that at the Pitt football home opener, my husband and daughter waited in line for 20 min behind Jamie Dixon to do a bungee trampoline attraction. Gotta love a town where the head coach of your championship caliber basketball team waits in line with his kid like everyone else.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

I agree about the spousal fighting issue. I work in retail, and not a day goes by that I don't encounter a husband and wife going at it. Just yesterday it was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with one couple. I was helping them to select an electric heater for their home. My phone rang, so I had to excuse myself momentarily to answer it (could be a mystery shopper for all I knew). When I returned the couple was already bickering because they couldn't decide which one they wanted. This is why I don't dig chicks! LOL!

I think the spousal fighting is a universal thing. I work in a pediatrician's office, and just yesterday had to deal with a couple arguing about which immunizations their kid should get and when. They even brought up their upcoming trip to Hawaii. I just wanted to say, "Make up your mind so I can get on with it!"

Re: Pittsburgh friendliness, I grew up there and of course had no basis for comparison as a kid, but I never thought people were particularly "nice". I can remember mean neighbors, mean teachers, mean kids, etc.

When Pitt played Nebraska at home a few years ago, the Nebraskans commented on how nice the Pittsburghers were. (These are the ones you see dressed in red at every Nebraska game, including away games, so they have a basis for comparison.) When we were at Pitt two years ago, the students seemed genuinely helpful when we looked lost (it has changed a lot since I went there, lol!). More helpful than students I have encountered at the University of Colorado, anyway.

I guess what I'm saying is it balances out. Pittsburghers may be more outgoing, thus more likely to give help. We noticed this in Albany, NY when we lived there, as well. But in your day to day life, you are just as likely to have a neighbor with a dog that barks at all hours, etc.

[bboy36win]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

I went to fallingwater today, it was absolutely beautiful but nobody even made small talk in my tour group.

They were tourists from Central PA ... where the introverts look at their shoes and the extroverts look at your shoes.

[Copanut]

I don't think any area has cornered the market on rudeness. People are people.