Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-30-2009, 09:26 AM
 
2,488 posts, read 2,915,286 times
Reputation: 830

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by steindle View Post
Where exactly do you live? "Vagrants wandering the streets?" You make it sound like the turn of the last century -- do you mean homeless people? Good luck with finding a city lacking in them.

As has been mentioned several times, the crime rate in Pittsburgh is not at all bad in comparison to most cities, and is largely concentrated in avoidable areas. I live in an area that is questionably avoidable (Lawrenceville, where many suburbanites fear to tread), but I routinely walk around at 2-3AM and have never had a single problem.

I can't really speak to the "lack of shopping" and "lack & cost of parking" concerns because in my opinion these are silly reasons to live in a city. In terms of shopping, I've never had trouble finding anything I need in the Strip, somewhere on Butler St/Liberty Ave/Penn Ave, or if absolutely necessary the South Side Works. In terms of parking, who cares? Areas that you might have trouble in -- the South Side, Downtown, and Oakland -- are the most accessible areas of the city by bus. You might even accidentally help the environment and learn to tolerate diversity a little while you're on one.

In terms of education, it's weird that the schools are uniformly bad and violent since I graduated from 12 consecutive years of "inner-city" public schooling and went directly into one of the 10 best private colleges in the country. This August it's on to a Top 20 law school. You should really tell my close friends from high school who work for the New Yorker, have started their own design companies, and work for international development organizations how awful and dangerous our schooling was in the city of Pittsburgh.
Don't feed the troll. I don't know if Sr1234 is actually a troll who just stirs up the pot, or is just somebody with a absolutley negative outlook on everything. Some people are meant for towns like Charlotte that have no "real" city characteristics to them, and have uptowns that are stripmalls and subdivisions. Instead of Squirrel Hills, there are housing subdivisions as the uptown neighborhoods. Sounds cool right?

Our lack of downtown development? Like redoing all of market square, and pnc place? I just don't get the stupidity on this board. Some want all new shiny cities that are pjust starting to put up modern highrises. But some people are not intelligent enough to walk through the Golden Triangle and see the stuff that Pittsburgh has that the whole sun belt doesnt...............A lot of old and unique architectural highrises. We already boomed a century ago like sunbelt towns today are. I personally would rather live in a older town with cool architecture, instead of some lame town just laying its history down with no character. That is just me though.

I am not even going to respond to the "Vagrants" comment. It was the stupidest thing I have ever seen on this board. Try Baltimore................
"Oh my god, a major city has bad areas!" Jesus, name one city that doesn't have areas that are bad and with crime.

I will agree that our highway infrastructure sucks. Highways with enterences and exits on the same ramp, pot holes, narrow lanes, etc. However, I can deal with some negatives. I lived in three major metros (one which is considered Heaven on Earth to some), and all places have their negatives. It takes me 30 minutes to drive from Wexford to Pittsburgh for my job each day. In Denver it took me 30 minutes to go from Glendale to Downtown (5 miles) each day. It really doesn't make me any more upset. But I am not a whinny negative guy.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-30-2009, 09:51 AM
 
457 posts, read 1,276,009 times
Reputation: 272
Quote:
Originally Posted by Awesomo.2000 View Post
Don't feed the troll. I don't know if Sr1234 is actually a troll who just stirs up the pot, or is just somebody with a absolutley negative outlook on everything.
I wouldn't expect any better of a response from Pittsburgh cheerleaders. That is another CON about the city, if you happen to have an opinion that doesn't mesh then they attack you. We have lived all over the country - Pittsburgh is full of mean and rude people who are narcissistic. We won't even wear our real football team colors around town because we have been insulted so many times. Pittsburgh is a town full of close-minded haters.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:12 AM
 
Location: O'Hara Twp.
4,359 posts, read 7,488,583 times
Reputation: 1611
I have a few complaints about Pittsburgh. I really don't think that there are many great jobs here. It seems that it is easier to find a good job in other cities. Housing prices for older smaller houses are cheap in some less desirable areas which means that just about anyone can buy a house. On the other hand, new houses cost a lot here. If you watch HGTV, many southern cities and cities in Texas allow someone to buy a new or newer for far less than you would pay for one in Pittsburgh. Not sure why this is but a friend in the industry told me that raw materials cost less there and labor prices are much less there as well. Our public transit stinks. This fact is made worse everytime I hear on the news how over paid everyone at the Port Authority is. Oh yeah, how can I forget about the Pirates. They are so bad that I really don't follow baseball anymore because I know that they can never win.

On the other hand for a city this size we have wonderful cultural institutions, the zoo, the symphony, the opera, museums, etc. Even if our roads are awful, traffic still isn't that bad. We also have an impressive looking downtown unfortunately it really isn't that great because it is pretty empty after 5. Sure downtown has gotten better recently but it was much better forty or fifty years ago. Lastly, Pittsburgh is a pretty friendly city.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:15 AM
 
70 posts, read 510,945 times
Reputation: 61
Quote:
Originally Posted by sr1234 View Post
I wouldn't expect any better of a response from Pittsburgh cheerleaders. That is another CON about the city, if you happen to have an opinion that doesn't mesh then they attack you. We have lived all over the country - Pittsburgh is full of mean and rude people who are narcissistic. We won't even wear our real football team colors around town because we have been insulted so many times. Pittsburgh is a town full of close-minded haters.
...yet Awesome-o should allow you your close-minded hating? Find something better to do than bitching and moaning all the time... you might enjoy life.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:16 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
29,633 posts, read 34,129,603 times
Reputation: 76637
Quote:
Pittsburgh is a town full of close-minded haters.
You seem to be one of them.

I agree that if you've already got a job offer there's no reason not to look at Pittsburgh. If you're just moving without solid work or school plans it might be a little dicey.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:20 AM
 
2,488 posts, read 2,915,286 times
Reputation: 830
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhen View Post
...yet Awesome-o should allow you your close-minded hating? Find something better to do than bitching and moaning all the time... you might enjoy life.
LOL, How was my post "closed minded hating". I have that SR guy on ignore now, so I see his post when you guys quote him. There is no reason to feed posts that are ignorant and offering nothing intelligent to the board. If somebody doesn't like our city, fine. I understand that it is not for everybody. That is why I stated Charlotte is better for some. I personally would rather have a old walkable neighborhood then a town where subdivisions and strip malls are the uptown. However, if somebody post nothing intelligent on the negative aspects of what they find, and just blabber things that are half-truths or flat out lies (like our downtown development), just ignore it.

PEOPLE DONT FEED THE TROLL!

I made a post explaining what I found unique and cool about Pittsburgh. How we have an already aged and developed downtown. (one of America's best IMO). I explained my hatred towards our highway infrastructure. Just stop feeding this guy. He sits by his computer writing negative stupid crap getting off everytime somebody responds to it.

However, posters like Nuwaver post great information on developments in the city, and you guys let it sink to the bottom. I am going back to SSP, far more better dicussions there.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 11:10 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
1,519 posts, read 2,663,905 times
Reputation: 1167
AfKy,

It might help to know what you are looking for. Pittsburgh is a city. That means that there are city problems, like any other city. There is more crime in Pittsburgh than in Wyoming, but less than NYC. Or Baltimore. Or (probably) Cleveland. (I'm not a crime statistics expert.)

Here's my anecdotal evidence -- I've lived in the Pittsburgh area for 33 years. Never been a victim of any crime. I lived in the U.K. for 6 months, I was robbed at knifepoint in London. I lived in State College, PA for 10 years, my apartment was broken into once. I live in a city neighborhood. I went out one Saturday and just plain forgot to close my back door. It was wide open for 8 hours. Nothing happened. I frequently forget to lock my door at night. I've not been robbed or murdered in my sleep. Now are there areas of the city you probably don't want to walk around alone at 3:00 am -- absolutely. Do you need to use common sense -- yes. Do you have to fear for your life -- no way.

Pros:

Big city amenitities in a small city. Theater, symphony, opera, ballet, all much more than most cities of comparable size. Ditto the museums.

Outdoor activities -- lots of parks, biking trails, kayaking and boating on the rivers, hiking.

Beautiful architecture. I like things with history. If you only like "new" forget it.

Overall low cost of living. Taxes may be high, but I own a house that I certainly would not have in D.C., LA, Chicago, NYC, Boston or a myriad of places where you can't touch real estate below $200,000 or $300,000.

Cons:

Lack of major highways. (That said, I don't think traffic is bad. I have spent a lot of time in D.C., Atlanta and New York. That's what I think of as traffic. Here there are rush hour backups that are a headache and you move slowly, but it is rare that everything is at a standstill, and you can find alternate routes. And there's construction season that causes traffic.)

Weather. Of course, I'd say that about just about any place other than San Diego. 75 degrees and sunny doesn't happen that much here. It's either colder, wetter, hotter, more humid or more overcast than I'd like. But it's not like you can't spend time outdoors or there's 6 months of total darkness or anything...

No beach.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 11:14 AM
 
15,633 posts, read 26,132,202 times
Reputation: 30912
Quote:
Originally Posted by Awesomo.2000 View Post
LOL, How was my post "closed minded hating". I have that SR guy on ignore now, so I see his post when you guys quote him. There is no reason to feed posts that are ignorant and offering nothing intelligent to the board. If somebody doesn't like our city, fine. I understand that it is not for everybody. That is why I stated Charlotte is better for some. I personally would rather have a old walkable neighborhood then a town where subdivisions and strip malls are the uptown. However, if somebody post nothing intelligent on the negative aspects of what they find, and just blabber things that are half-truths or flat out lies (like our downtown development), just ignore it.

PEOPLE DONT FEED THE TROLL!

I made a post explaining what I found unique and cool about Pittsburgh. How we have an already aged and developed downtown. (one of America's best IMO). I explained my hatred towards our highway infrastructure. Just stop feeding this guy. He sits by his computer writing negative stupid crap getting off everytime somebody responds to it.

However, posters like Nuwaver post great information on developments in the city, and you guys let it sink to the bottom. I am going back to SSP, far more better dicussions there.
I think he was supporting you there, Awe, and telling Sr bunch of numbers to cool it -- and not feeding the troll is always a good idea.

If we moved back to Pittsburgh, we'd be moving back to family. Never a bad thing. But we'd end up out of the city and into upper Beaver County to be close to Cranberry, where my mom lives. Our reason is we are thinking of land. I'm thinking about horses...

I'm here right now in the San Francisco bay area, and I hardly ever go into SF -- there's no need. I'm just not a city person. The last time we went into the city for a show was Graham Norton. Or was it Dame Edna? A WAY Long time ago.

I abhor shopping. And as far as eating out we like diners. We had to go to Chilis two weeks ago because our favorite local Mexican place was closed for vacation -- it was not good. How do those places stay open?

And why are there so many of them? Chilis Applebys TGIFridays -- smae restuarant different flair.

I'd rather cook... I can leave out the onions and the hot spicy powder that has no taste it's just hot....

Last edited by Tallysmom; 04-30-2009 at 11:23 AM.. Reason: Mean to add why I'd move to Pittsburgh
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 11:17 AM
 
1 posts, read 2,564 times
Reputation: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by AfKy View Post
Hello all,

I have been reading mix reviews about Pittsburgh. I have read that it's got air pollution problem and the crime rate is high. On the other hand, it's called one of the best (livable) cities in the US. Can our Pittsburgher friends share their experience and help me get over my confusion?

And oh yeah, how's it like living in Pittsburgh? The goods and the bads?

Thanks..
I moved to the Pittsburgh area (Cranberry Twp) in 2003 and left last summer (2008). I can understand your confusion about the area and people…I found my experience with both, a dichotomy.

First, Pittsburgh didn’t seem to me to have an air pollution problem or crime rate any lower/higher than most major US cities.

Good: Beautiful City (I’m an amateur photographer and found Pittsburgh a photogenic city)….The Pittsburgh Steelers rock!!!….good mix of cultural things to do, restaurants, shopping and recreational parks to the north…local music is great….people in general have solid values….

Bad: There are many areas that are still recovering from the bygone steel mill era and are rundown, so those areas can be very dreary and depressing looking…I felt I had stepped back in time about 40 years when it came to peoples’ social attitudes in general. Those of us who were not “natives” to the area were misunderstood (in a negative way) many times for our different mannerisms and ways of expressing ourselves/speaking, perspectives and dressing! Pittsburghers have “an edge” to them that borders on mean-spiritedness, being critical and rude, plus an unnerving disguised prejudice against blacks, and gays (I am neither, by the way)….and all from generally ‘good’ people!…unfortunately, they failed to see that I was just as ‘good’ as they were! While there, I did connect with several people that have become dear friends…3/4 of them are from out of state, though.

I do have fond memories of my life there… overshadowed by the daunting and hurtful personal situations I experienced… and witnessed…so I don’t believe I’d ever want to live there again.

Last edited by TrueBlue50; 04-30-2009 at 11:23 AM.. Reason: Formatting needed correcting
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 11:20 AM
 
487 posts, read 1,376,431 times
Reputation: 149
Quote:
Originally Posted by Awesomo.2000 View Post
It takes me 30 minutes to drive from Wexford to Pittsburgh for my job each day.
You live in Wexford?!?!? Man, I didn't see that coming.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top