Good and bad like everywhere, but a very nice plac
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5/14/2006
I moved to Pittsburgh by choice in 1990 to go to school at Pitt. I've lived in several other places but the minute I set foot in the City for the first time in 1989 I fell in love with it. When I graduated in 1995, I moved to the Hudson Valley area of NY, but promptly returned in 1997 & have lived here since. It really is a gorgeous city with a lot of history, culture & personality. Beautiful views abound. While there are self-centered idiots everywhere, for the most part, drivers - and people in general - are more polite, kinder, more helpful and less aggressive than I have seen other places. Drivers let you in and wave their thanks to each other. Another plus is that the crime rate is far lower than in many other cities Pittsburgh's size. The police, fire and EMS departments are decent, though grossly under-equipped and under-appreciated for their importance for maintaining a high level of quality of life. The public schools leave a lot to be desired, depending of course, on your neighborhood. One of the things I do NOT like about Pittsburgh are that the taxes are INSANE. Property taxes here are just plain obscene (among the very highest in the nation and getting higher all the time); City income tax alone (not property tax or school district taxes, those are separate and additional) is just shy of 4% and you also get hit for occupational tax at the beginning of the year. The unbelievable taxes have contributed greatly to sending a large chunk of the upper and middle classes screaming for the suburbs, then the brilliant politicians, who of course can't figure out why people are leaving, raise taxes even higher or add new ones to fund their pet projects. Our last mayor was a complete moron and ran Pittsburgh into the ground financially, but we now have a new mayor and are hopeful that some of these issues will improve. The weather is very rainy most of the year, the winters can be brutal in terms of cold and snow/ice, but the fall and spring are beautiful (and humid) Homes are very reasonably priced but very OLD. The average building in Pittsburgh was built in the 1870s-1940s, my house was built in 1925. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING is on a hill, and not a little hill, either - not a problem unless you like to ride a bicycle, walk places or dislike sliding down a steep hill on the ice in the winter. There are places to go, cool things to do, decent places to shop and superb hospitals and colleges. Jobs in certain fields can be very difficult to
Julie | Pittsburgh, PA