Calling all Pittsburghers to defend our home
Some guy in Seattle, Dave Fox’s Outbursts does not seam to think there is much to be happy about in Pittsburgh. I would say go over there and tell him what you love about Pittsburgh.
Some guy in Seattle, Dave Fox’s Outbursts does not seam to think there is much to be happy about in Pittsburgh. I would say go over there and tell him what you love about Pittsburgh.
Sorry Mike. I love Pittsburgh so much I moved a few states over and calling it “$h|tsburgh” now. It’s a dead city. 7th fattest (used to be 2nd) and 2nd oldest (avg. age of resident) per capita or something close. The only job opportunities is with UPMC that runs the city. The steel mills killed off one of the two uses for this city – the second being the three rivers, giving good access via boats (doesn’t matter much due to airplanes in modern times). Drive around 2nd Avenue in Hazelwood, that’s what the city is all about. CMU is the only tech-related area in the city and thats mostly due to government contracts. Over 2/3 of the CS graduate department in Pitt are asians where most plan to return to their country (I asked!). Young people are leaving the city left and right, though it’s tough to move from a slum into a better city for a better job. The city is in denial about itself and will eventually turn into something thats inevitable. Since UPMC and medicine runs the town, Pittsburgh is trying to lure in retirees to the area. The only problem is Boca Raton has better weather, otherwise they’d stay. They’re trying with their “shady side medical shuttles” (funny how you don’t see them in a poor area). You of all people don’t need to be reminded about the corrupt politicians in UPMC, Pitt, and Pittsburgh. Remember when they tore down the gorgeous Panthers Stadium and the crappy 3 rivers stadium? Now they have two stadiums so close to each other that you can throw a ball between the parking lots. What is really so great about Pittsburgh? It’s a nice place to visit, the downtown area looks good, PPG, Point Park, but other than that, what else is there? Not too long ago, Pennsylvania ranked as the worst place to start a business out of all the other states. It’s an alright place to retire, but I suggest you move on in the future.
What is so great about Pittsburgh? Well it is the culture that is here, it is a beautiful city. It is clean, it is one of the friendlier cities out there, low cost of living. I admit we have some problems, but that is because of the politicians and the unions, people here still think the unions are good for the city, they have not realized that unions are killing the city. We have great sport teams, and great fans. Heck if another city had won the Super Bowl they would have more damaged, all we had in Pittsburgh is 1 over turned car a few garbage cans set on fire and a few couches set on fire, all of this pretty much in Oakland on the Pitt campus, the rest of the city was relative calm.
I still believe we can turn Pittsburgh around, we are getting google here in Pittsburgh, Intel has opened a lab here. There are other high tech firms here, we need alot more but what we got now is a good start. We have a model Linux User Group here, other groups are using us as a way to go.
Also Pittsburghers rivers give our city a character that no other city could ever hope to have.
It is not a dead city, it might be dieing, but there is still hope for it, there are many that would love to help bring it back to life, it would be hard job, but I think maybe Pittsburghers are up to, we can do it, if we could just get rid of the old ideas, and the unions.
Ya Boca Raton may have better weather, but live in Pittsburgh you have a better chance of living longer, better heath care, it might not be good that UPMC runs the place, but heck you can not get better health care.
The problem with the young leaving the city, major problem, but if we could get companies here they would not leave, I have talked to people that have left Pittsburgh, and they still wish they could have stayed, you might be the only exception Max.
What culture? Sure, there is some, but ask most people and it’s a good bet to say that active people always do something that involves driving, drinking, or going to downtown/oakland. I doubt opera, poetry, or cinema (not movies) is up there. If you think it’s clean, you never swam in any of those rivers (I don’t suggest it). Walk around Squirrel Hill, a supposedly good area, and there’s trash on the street. Low cost of living is due to nobody wanting to live there. If nobody wants to live there, housing costs go down. I just sold a house there, it would have fetched 1.5 million dollars here, but I sold it for less than a tenth of that. When we bought it ten years ago, the price of the house barely kept up with inflation! I agree that unions aren’t good for the city, but without unions you’d have mass layoffs with no reason, so some unions are good to have (not ones in PGH though). Good luck with google and intel, I hope it won’t fall through like walmart in downtown (or is that back on?). What I miss about pittsburgh is the friendships I had there, not the actual city, its “character”, or anything else about it. I miss the friends and hanging out, but that’s part of college.
I take it you have not heard of the “Pittsburgh Public Theater Group” my sister did many plays with them before she got married. There is the world famous PSO. I been to a poetry reading, I did not go back to that groups events I just found it boaring to me but that is not to say other would not enjoy it (also I should note that none of these are affeliated with the Universities)
There is Culture here, but when I said culture I did not mean Culture, I ment culture as in the way of life here.