Pittsburgh Transit vs. Other Cities (shop, bus, skyline)

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

What I hear in the Pittsburgh media: local crime, local fires and Steelers. If I only listened to Pittsburgh media, driving past Cleveland would entail dropping off the edge of the world, ancient Greek-style.

Sparta!

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

So here is a list of U.S. cities by area:

List of United States cities by area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alaska dominates the top, which I guess makes sense, and Honolulu is up there too. But for the CONUS, looking just at decent-sized cities (i.e., ones I have heard of), you've got Jacksonville, Butte, Oklahoma City, Houston, Phoenix, Nashville, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Suffolk (VA), Indianapolis, Dallas, Chesapeake (VA), San Diego, Kansas City (MO), New York, Augusta (GA), Fort Worth, Lexington, Memphis, Austin, El Paso, Virginia Beach, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus (OH), California City, Boulder City (NV), Tucson, Colorado Springs, Scottsdale, Tulsa, Albuquerque, New Orleans, Norman (OK), San Jose, Huntsville, Montgomery, Corpus Christi . . . and finally Denver (and again I edited out places outside the CONUS or that I didn't know anything about).

So yeah, there is a noticeable Western theme, but also some representation in the Midwest and South. Given its population, Denver isn't even close to being particularly notable by that point in the list (I'd say the same of New York and Chicago--both are large enough in population to justify their relative geographic size).

That said, one really obvious thing is the lack of Northeastern representation at the top of this list outside of NYC (which I again think is not really notable given the population in question). So while large city areas may not be universal in the West and not exclusive to the West, it does appear it isn't a Northeastern thing.

Some of these western cities have annexed a lot of undeveloped land; land that probably will never be developed, at least in my lifetime. Albuquerque is one example. I don't know what the deal is with Colorado Springs. So yeah, it's all an apples and oranges thing.

[dugdogmaster]

Anyone notice St. Mary's, PA on that list?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

What I hear in the Pittsburgh media: local crime, local fires and Steelers. If I only listened to Pittsburgh media, driving past Cleveland would entail dropping off the edge of the world, ancient Greek-style.

It is a recurring theme on this board, and from others in Pittsburgh, such as my now-deceased parents, that western ciites are gobbling up all the land around them, making their population growth look bigger than it really is. It's fed by something.

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by Katiana

It's fed by something.

Rumor

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

What I hear in the Pittsburgh media: local crime, local fires and Steelers. If I only listened to Pittsburgh media, driving past Cleveland would entail dropping off the edge of the world, ancient Greek-style.

That has been the case for the local media almost everywhere I have lived, particularly if you don't count any newspapers with national subscribers. It used to drive me nuts growing up in the Detroit area when my mom was getting all her news from the nightly news on the local TV channels--I couldn't understand why she was so interested in all the murders (remember, this is Detroit), arsons (ditto), and so on.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

It's fed by something.

I think the seed of the idea isn't too mysterious. We don't seem to have had much annexation in the Northeast recently, and there are at least some cities out west that have been more aggressive about annexation recently, and that has led to some cities out west having faster population growth in part (but not exclusively) due to annexation. Again, I would agree it is overstating the point to turn this into a blanket generalization about annexation policies in the West, or to attribute all relative population trends to this factor. But while not excusing this habit, it isn't uncommon for people to take a few prominent examples of something partially true and turn them into a blanket generalization which has been overstated.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I think the seed of the idea isn't too mysterious. We don't seem to have had much annexation in the Northeast recently, and there are at least some cities out west that have been more aggressive about annexation recently, and that has led to some cities out west having faster population growth in part (but not exclusively) due to annexation. Again, I would agree it is overstating the point to turn this into a blanket generalization about annexation policies in the West, or to attribute all relative population trends to this factor. But while not excusing this habit, it isn't uncommon for people to take a few prominent examples of something partially true and turn them into a blanket generalization which has been overstated.

Probably true. The only city I personally know of that does a lot of annexing is Omaha, NE, a city which is a laughingstock to both coasts.

When my parents were carrying on about this in the 80s, Pittsburgh was hemorraging population to some of these western cities. I think it was an item in the popular media. My dad was a pol, and did read more of the paper than a lot of people.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

When my parents were carrying on about this in the 80s, Pittsburgh was hemorraging population to some of these western cities. I think it was an item in the popular media. My dad was a pol, and did read more of the paper than a lot of people.

Part of the explanation in that case may be that if you look at the cities that were aggressively annexing, they tended to be in the southern parts of the country (e.g., Virginia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and SoCal), and that was also where a lot of people from Pittsburgh were heading in that period (at least among the ones that weren't heading to BosWash).

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Probably true. The only city I personally know of that does a lot of annexing is Omaha, NE, a city which is a laughingstock to both coasts.

What are you trying to do here? Haven't you seen their pedestrian bridge to Council Bluffs? Haven't you ever heard of their zoo? Have you seen what their skyline might look like in 2015? You will, trust me. Here it comes.