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Old 01-07-2010, 02:53 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
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There is no such momentum. But with the previous Portland discussion...this goes well with it. AUSTIN is famous for it's slogan, KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD.

Apparently Louisville has capitalized on the same thing, they have a website, keeplouisvilleweird where they talk about supporting local businesses. One statistic had that supporting a local business, $45 out of your $100 stays locally and in the community. If you go to a chain restaurant/store, than only $13 out of $100 stays in the community. Pittsburgh could thrive on marketing that concept with how many non-chain businesses owners seem to thrive in the city.

Apparently Portland Oregon has recently capitalized on the same concept, 'Keep Portland Weird' - they also support all of the offbeat and interesting things, the probably bigger meaning of the slogan.

Found this very interesting article written in the Post-Pittsburgh Gazette and the concept: Cultivate your inner oddball and then share with Pittsburgh

Doesn't sound so promising at this time...but interesting reads nontheless! Here is another one:
Keep Pittsburgh Weird

Part of the articles talk about the 4 dimensions of urban success: Talent, Innovation, Connections and Distinctiveness. I don't know about the first 3 for Pittsburgh, but it does seem to overflowing on distinctiveness, and certainly not capitalizing on it or letting it be known. Then again, with the strong and crazy growth with Cranberry, maybe Pittsburgh aren't really aware of what they have themselves either.

Last edited by Tiger Beer; 01-07-2010 at 03:10 AM..
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Old 01-07-2010, 06:38 AM
 
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So although not branded "weird" per se, I think Pop City Pittsburgh has the same sort of spirit:

Pop City - Pittsburgh

Here is also a little discussion of Pittsburgh's "pockets of weirdness":

Pittsblog: Pockets of Weirdness

I tend to agree with the commentator who suggested the whole City is weird, with the weirdness peaking in the neighborhoods that combine both the older demographic and young hipsters (which is really the City in a nutshell these days).

Edit: Oh, and I have some skepticism about being too self-conscious about weirdness. Like humor, it seems likely to me that the more you analyze it, the less of it you actually have.

Last edited by BrianTH; 01-07-2010 at 06:53 AM..
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Old 01-07-2010, 06:52 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,857,468 times
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Another random thought:

So there is a well-worn concept of "Rust Belt Chic", which I would suggest is a kind of institutionalized glorification of a certain kind of weirdness. Here is a random but interesting discussion of the concept (perhaps not surprisingly, from the same person whose comment I just endorsed):

Greater Youngstown 2.0: Promoting Rust Belt Chic

One of the things I find interesting about Pittsburgh is that even within the broader category of Rust Belt cities, I think it is weird. As I have noted I grew up in the Detroit area, and when I have been in places like Cleveland or Chicago or so on, they feel familiar to me in at least a broad sense. But from the first time I stepped foot in Pittsburgh, I've felt like I was somewhere a bit more different.

In that sense I think the comparisons to Baltimore are apt: all the BosWash cities are distinct in their own ways, but Baltimore also always struck me as at least a half-step in some other direction than the rest of them. Pittsburgh is sorta the same way with respect to the Rust Belt as Baltimore is with respect to BosWash--at least a half-step off.
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Old 01-07-2010, 06:53 AM
 
Location: RVA
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NOOOOOOO!!!! To those of us who were actually born weird, such trite slogans adopted by people who are "weird" as an affectation are offensive. The last thing Pittsburgh needs are the white, dreadlocked trustafarians coming in and "keeping it weird". No thanks.
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Old 01-07-2010, 07:12 AM
 
381 posts, read 811,023 times
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If weirdness is something you feel the need to brag about, its a bit disingenuous.
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Old 01-07-2010, 07:23 AM
 
226 posts, read 586,023 times
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I think Austin owns it -- let them have it! We can Keep Pittsburgh...Hilly. Riparian. Rusty. A Secret.
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Old 01-07-2010, 07:25 AM
 
Location: RVA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dcsfanatic View Post
If weirdness is something you feel the need to brag about, its a bit disingenuous.
A thousand times agreed. I'd rather not be weird, it's something I've learned about myself the hard way.
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Old 01-07-2010, 07:27 AM
 
Location: Saint Petersburg
632 posts, read 1,733,076 times
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The original article's assertion that Pittsburgh is one of the less "weird" cities in the U.S. is puzzling to me.

I've lived in and visited a lot of places around the U.S. and throughout the world, and I would honestly put Pittsburgh near the top of the list for "contains lots of weirdness".

Seriously, *everything* in this city is weird when compared to how other places function (especially other cities in modern America), from street layouts and naming conventions, to the quirky houses and their widely varied and eclectic paint colors, to the hidden neighborhoods, to the age demographic stuff people mentioned up thread, aspects of the city's history, the funiculars, the extreme importance of neighborhoods and their very subjective boundaries, the weather, labeling stuff like staircases as streets, etc etc.

There isn't much about Pittsburgh that is "normal" by my definition. That's what made it so appealing to me when I came here 6 years ago.

Maybe they're defining weird as "has lots of hipsters and the housing costs are too high for what you get"???
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Old 01-07-2010, 08:15 AM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,692,803 times
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Default !

Quote:
Originally Posted by subdivisions View Post
The original article's assertion that Pittsburgh is one of the less "weird" cities in the U.S. is puzzling to me.

I've lived in and visited a lot of places around the U.S. and throughout the world, and I would honestly put Pittsburgh near the top of the list for "contains lots of weirdness".

Seriously, *everything* in this city is weird when compared to how other places function (especially other cities in modern America), from street layouts and naming conventions, to the quirky houses and their widely varied and eclectic paint colors, to the hidden neighborhoods, to the age demographic stuff people mentioned up thread, aspects of the city's history, the funiculars, the extreme importance of neighborhoods and their very subjective boundaries, the weather, labeling stuff like staircases as streets, etc etc.

There isn't much about Pittsburgh that is "normal" by my definition. That's what made it so appealing to me when I came here 6 years ago.

Maybe they're defining weird as "has lots of hipsters and the housing costs are too high for what you get"???
Yes! That's exactly how most of the "Keep ____ Weird" types define weirdness. Pittsburgh is one of the truly weirdest areas in the country, in the real, David Lynch definition of the word. I'm all for keeping it "backwoods West Virginia" weird, but if the dreadlocked hipsters come in, it'll drain the weirdness out faster than you can say Portland, Oregon.
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Old 01-07-2010, 08:24 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,857,468 times
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This is the description of the methodology of the Portland-based economist's "weirdness index" designed for use by CEO for Cities that scored Pittsburgh so low:

Quote:
The index is compiled by assembling a composite based on consumer activities and spending behavior that measure the differences between the residents of a particular metropolitan area and those of the typical American consumer. It identified for each metropolitan area the 10 behaviors that differed most from the national average and summarized those differences by computing the variance -- a statistical measure of how much each metro area differs from all others.
In short, they are judging the relative weirdness of cities based on what people are buying, and to me it is obvious that sort of approach is going to miss the vast bulk of what makes Pittsburgh weird. I'm sure our spending habits do look pretty normal (although are they aware of things like chipped ham? my guess is that sort of thing would just go down in the books as deli meat), but none of the things just listed by subdivisions were about consumer habits.

And not to get on a soapbox, but I think the idea that you can measure weirdness by consumption habits is exactly what you would expect from a Portland-based economist devising something for CEOs (even hip CEOs).
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