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.
As for your gripe about the dating scene, where did you meet your husband? Were you at one point single in Pittsburgh and then found the love of your life here? If so, it looks like your own situation somewhat proves your complaint unfounded. Even still, if thats not the case, I'm still confused as to why you would be upset enough about the dating situation here to complain about it. You are married!
Quote:
Facts are facts. Studies are studies. You can't twist things to your liking as you have done with the singles study and the # of clear days.
When you say something like Pennsylvania has the worst roads, that is not a fact my dear. That is an opinion, even if it is a study. It may be based on facts (most potholes, most cracks, most amount of time between paving) but that itself is a subjective statement. When you say that Pittsburgh has an average of 59 days of 0-30% cloud cover, that is a fact. The statement that Pittsburgh has 59 SUNNY days a year, however, is an opinion, based on someone's definition of the word sunny. I was merely saying that the number 59 doesn't accurately portray the number of days that you can walk outside and look at your friend and say "Wow, it is gorgeous outside today."
I think that you will find life much more enjoyable if you just chill out and have some fun. I know that its impossible to have fun when there are clouds in the sky, or when you have to drive around a pothole to get somewhere, or when your small suburb of a small city doesn't have the corporate-america national chain trendy restaurants that San Diego has... but you can still try.
Moderator cut: personal
Pittsburgh is not a terrible place to be single if you either live in the "city" and/or manage to venture into the neighborhood haunts beyond the national chain lameness that is Station Square and the Waterfront. Frankly, The people I've met with the most down on Pittsburgh attitudes have been locals from the suburbs. The urban dwellers and newcomers have found this place to be one of the most livable and authentic medium sized cities to live in the country.
To be honest, if my goal in life were to have a need for perpetual air conditioning, a McMansion and TGI Fridays as a gauge for fine dining then Pittsburgh would not be my choice for best place to live. Thankfully, those are not my indicators.
It didn't used to. Cranberry was a pretty cool place to grow up, when I grew up there. It was so small and so rural, that our local pharmacy sold horse tack (saddles, bridles...) and feed.
We used to ride our bikes down Freedom Rd to go to the fudge lady's and pick up a small bag of fudge to split. We carried Kool Aid with us, in a thermos. After we went to the fudge lady's, we'd get back on our bikes and ride father down Freedom Rd to the little antique store that was in an old house that sat at the corner of Darlington and Freedom -- a little road that doesn't exist anymore, there's condos there now. We'd go down Darlington and catch Powell Rd and ride up to Rochester.
Now -- depending on whether or not my one friend was talking to her other friend, we might go up Powell more to see her -- or just back down on Rochester, down Haine and home... or maybe down Haine and head to the one lane bridge on Freedom Rd -- because someone put a really cool rope swing down a pathway there over Brush Creek, which should have been named Brush Mud. It wasn't much of a creek.
And we'd be gone all day till dinner, and as long as our parents had a general idea of where we were it was fine. Lots of watchful eyes on kids all over, with those watchful eyes that knew who to call when someone got out of line.
I can remember we found this old tree that had fallen over, and we were climbing in the branches and bouncing in them, when, from the field across the street, a buck, a doe and a fawn came bounding out at us. Something must have frightened them out of the cover of the field -- and they didn't notice us. So they jumped over the tree, but under the branch we were sitting on... we reached down and touched the fawn as he passed under us.
In the summer, we'd go to Mr Meeder's farm for fresh picked corn -- he was at the corner of Rochester and Rte 19 -- the farmhouse may still be there, but the land's been sold.... and in the fall that's where we'd get field corn for the blue jays to feed off for the winter, our pumpkins to carve and the best fresh pressed cider ever.
All this stuff is gone, paved over for housing, and stores and family style restaurants..... and every one calls it progress.
Well -- now that I've depressed myself...
I am a Cranberry native. My parents have lived there since they were married so I know a lot of what you are saying. You probably passed my parent's house a ton of times because they live right on Rochester Road and still do! I am not sure though if at that time they owned it, but their house were one of the first ones built.
My mom and I would walk to Mr. Henry's farm that was on the corner of Rochester and Powell. I remember when he died and his kids sold the land several years later.
I remember The Crossings plan being built and was amazed at how big those houses were. hehe Now those houses are tiny compared to the huge housing plans in Cranberry.
I don't know where this was but I remember buying milk in glass jars on a farm off of Powell Road or maybe Glen Eden Road. The memory is so faint. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever when I young, but as you have stated it is all gone. Paved over and tons of houses built. Your post depressed me as well. This place wasn't always so bad.
I am a Cranberry native. My parents have lived there since they were married so I know a lot of what you are saying. You probably passed my parent's house a ton of times because they live right on Rochester Road and still do! I am not sure though if at that time they owned it, but their house were one of the first ones built.
My mom and I would walk to Mr. Henry's farm that was on the corner of Rochester and Powell. I remember when he died and his kids sold the land several years later.
I remember The Crossings plan being built and was amazed at how big those houses were. hehe Now those houses are tiny compared to the huge housing plans in Cranberry.
I don't know where this was but I remember buying milk in glass jars on a farm off of Powell Road or maybe Glen Eden Road. The memory is so faint. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever when I young, but as you have stated it is all gone. Paved over and tons of houses built. Your post depressed me as well. This place wasn't always so bad.
The other posts I am ignoring.
Glen Eden Dairy, off Glen Eden Road. Sold thier milk in glass half gallon bottles -- we 'd go once a week and return the bottles and get 3 gallons of milk -- six bottles, in a wire crate. It wasn't grand, it wasn't tarted up -- it was a working dairy -- and you drove up a dirt and gravel track -- two stripes -- not a proper driveway -- and the black and white Holsteins were grazing in the fields right beside your car. I can't remember if they sold anything other than milk, but I would think they would have sold cream and butter...
I remember driving by myself, so they must have still been working in 1975. A lot of my friends had horses, too -- so I did a small amount of riding.
Our big houses were Canterbury Trails -- I think that's what it's called -- down past Rowan Elementary.
Pittsburgh is not a terrible place to be single if you either live in the "city" and/or manage to venture into the neighborhood haunts beyond the national chain lameness that is Station Square and the Waterfront. Frankly, The people I've met with the most down on Pittsburgh attitudes have been locals from the suburbs. The urban dwellers and newcomers have found this place to be one of the most livable and authentic medium sized cities to live in the country.
To be honest, if my goal in life were to have a need for perpetual air conditioning, a McMansion and TGI Fridays as a gauge for fine dining then Pittsburgh would not be my choice for best place to live. Thankfully, those are not my indicators.
I couldn't agree with you more. If someone is looking for what you suggested then there are a lot of other options out there. I would suggest Charlotte, NC or Pheonix, AZ. Lots of sun, chain strores and chain restaurants as far as the eye can see. The types of places that could be anywhere, USA and you wouldn't notice any difference. Every bit of local flair, taste and character is removed and dropped into similar strip malls across the USA.
As far as property taxes go, sure they suck, just like all taxes suck. It has been my experience after being moved around a lot, that you pay pretty much the same amount everywhere, if you are a homeowner making a fair salary. You either pay more in state and local income taxes and less in property or more in property and less in income taxes. Either way you lose.
Some areas of high growth have slightly lower taxes now, due to lower legacy costs, but they are catching up. In my uneducated opinion, I also feel that in time a lot of these places will eclipse our levels of taxation due to poor planning for the rapid growth. A lot of the roads being built to accomodate this growth in these areas are woefully inadequate and will cost far more to expand than they did to initially build. In addition a lot of the roads in North Carolina are put onto an inadequate road base, so in the extreme heat the roads tend to get mushy in heavy traffic.
It doesn't take long to break down the pavement and cause similar problems that our thaw/freeze cycle subjects our roads to every winter. Trust me in a lot of areas of Charlotte, NC the roads are as bad or worse than ours. But in the high growth areas such as this, the true cheerleaders never mention their poor and over-crowded schools, deteriorating roads, inadequate roads, illegal immigrant problems, gang problems, understaffed police, understaffed judicial staffs and over-crowded prisons.
If anything, I would say most people in the Pittsburgh area are far more likely to complain about problems in the city than almost anywhere else. I don't think people here are the type to brush things under the rug. I just think that some of the cities problems aren't able to be fixed in a year, they are longer term high capital cost problems. Sewer and water line repairs, road and bridge expansion and repairs, school system problems and brownfields.
Progress is being made on all of these fronts, and in time will make the city an even better place to live. While the other cities lose their low tax advantage over Pittsburgh and other older cities, because they will soon have no choice but to face facts and pay up to re-do what they slapped into place trying to keep up with growth. That will force them to raise taxes to levels as high or higher than what the people/businesses that relocated to these new "hot" areas were trying to flee in the first place. The problem with all of these high growth areas is that they have attracted a lot of people that will pack up and go at first sight of a problem, because the city down the road now has an even newer TGIF with the latest fad built right in.
The problem with all of these high growth areas is that they have attracted a lot of people that will pack up and go at first sight of a problem, because the city down [/b]the road now has an even newer TGIF with the latest fad built right in.
Shades of my father (may he rest in peace)! See my post on the weather thread for details. Having lived in a high growth area for 27 yrs now, I can tell you the above statement is incorrect. In fact, during one of Denver's recessions, a professional engineering journal stated that people move to Denver for jobs, and like it so much if they lose their job they will take one doing anything else, including working at Burger King, to stay there. Now I know there are people on this forum who think Denver is the Gobi desert revisited, but people keep on moving here. In the link I provided on another thread, you can look and see that Denver only lost population one year since these stats have been compiled (I believe 1971) and then only a small number.
Shades of my father (may he rest in peace)! See my post on the weather thread for details.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pittnurse70
This so reminds me of my father. If it's sunnier somewhere else, there's something wrong with the place. Ditto for warmer or anything else positive, if it's better than Pittsburgh, there's surely something bad about it.
I'm surprised you don't recognise the similarities between what you've shared about your father's attitude and what you post here in the Pittsburgh forum.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pittnurse70
In fact, during one of Denver's recessions, a professional engineering journal stated that people move to Denver for jobs, and like it so much if they lose their job they will take one doing anything else, including working at Burger King, to stay there.
Pittsburgh has many families that did the same thing after the crash of the steel industry.
They're labeled backwards people who don't have the sense to leave Pittsburgh for their own good, but people who won't leave Denver are proudly considered lovers of Denver.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pittnurse
Now I know there are people on this forum who think Denver is the Gobi desert revisited, but people keep on moving here. In the link I provided on another thread, you can look and see that Denver only lost population one year since these stats have been compiled (I believe 1971) and then only a small number.
I'm not aware of any Pittsburgh forum members who spend their time posting and trashing Denver in the Colorado forums.
I personally think Colorado is a lovely state. But I can still like Pennsylvania too!
I think I will have to agree with Pittnurse on this one... I lived in Denver for 5 years, and for some reason EVERYONE was in love with the place. I personally didn't like the city very much, but the way I handled it was to get up and move to a city that I enjoyed. You don't see me bitching on the Denver forum about how bad the traffic is coming back from the mountains on Sunday, or how Vail is taking over the state's awesome resorts and commercializing the hell out of them, or how the state ranks 49th in funding for education, or how T-Rex is a mess during rush-hour, or how the "natives" all thumb their noses at you because you weren't born there, or how nothing grows unless you water it -- and if you do too much you there's a drought and you can't wash your car.
Instead I am posting on how much I like the city I moved to. Its much easier to make friends that way -- being positive about things. Moderator cut: personal
That Forbes "study" on best cities for singles is really silly. I don't think it proves anything about any city. The year Pittsburgh was ranked last, they chided us for building stadiums, then in their write-up about Atlanta they mentioned professional sports as a positive.
And one of the criteria they included was "buzz," which was literally just a web poll. There is nothing scientific about that, because the sampling is not random, and people can vote multiple times.
As for things to do here besides go to bars, there are tons of options. Theater, sports, outdoor activities, art galleries, museums, restaurants, shopping, or just plain walking around in one of the many gorgeous and interesting neighborhoods. Plenty more, too, if you take the time to check the papers and see what's happeneing. In fact, I subscribe to an email list called thisishappening which sends me about 20 suggestions every week for things that are going on.
Any time someone tells me it's "boring" here, I ask them what they want to do that they can't find here. NEVER has anyone been able to answer that question, except with vague statements begining with "well, in other cities...." No one has ever given me anything specific or even mentioned a specific "other city."
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.
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.
