Don't believe the statistics!
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11/19/2007
America's most livable city... Let me share with you the reality of living here. You can read all the good things other places... and there are plenty of good things like low crime rate and the associated demographics. I encourage you to read about Pittsburgh, it may just be for you! However, you should keep the following in mind before you consider a move here:
1. You will not be able to drive to work and park your car! You will be forced to use public transportation or to pay through the nose for parking (in cash at the cheap $5 lots). If you park at the stadiums you will have to find another place on game days. Your employer will offer no help here but will just expect you to do what people here have always done. You'll find that is the attitude. Not a very forward thinking city or people, they are stuck in the past.
2. There is no bypass around the city connecting the suburbs. In fact the "neighborhoods" are very badly connected. People here stay where they live and don't venture far from home very often. The roads are narrow, winding, hilly, un-lit, dangerous, very few if any turn lanes or shoulders, etc. There are many deer who routinely lose their lives because people can't see where they are going on these roads.
3. The houses are mostly very old. Unless you live in Robinson or Cranberry, your house will probably have been built in the 50's or earlier. These houses are all multilevel requiring constant climbing of stairs. Ranch housing is almost non-existent, and every house here has a basement, which tend to have moisture/mold problems. Outside of downtown and a few inner city neighborhoods, you won't find many sidewalks or streetlights (Again deer beware). That just isn't the way that they used to build them, and nobody has done anything to modernize anything outside of downtown.
4. You will pay 4% of your income in the city or 1% if in a suburb to your local municipality, "just because".
5. Droves of young talented people have left this city for decades. The people that have stayed have done so either because of family connections, or fear and anxiety of the outside world. It is extremely difficult in this situation to break into anyone's circle in order to have friends or some semblance of normal relationships with people. You will be constantly watched by people, but very few of them will befriend you. They will all be very polite, and give you directions or such, but don't ask more than that, you aren't getting into their clique!
6. I thought I was getting away from “rednecks” when I came here. It turns out that this is a very backwoods city. There are tons of deer hunters and pickup trucks. I’m just sayin!
7. The Steelers are a religion here. Don't get caught at the grocery store during a game. The employees will scowl at you because you should be at home with your fat but on a recliner with an iron city beer in one hand and a terrible towel in the other watching the game instead of making them work! I’ve decided that the reason for this is that because it is too cold and dreary to have any regular outdoor activities here, watching sports has become the pastime. As evidence is the devotion these people have to Pirates baseball and Penguins Hockey. There is no season here without an emphasis on black and gold sports.
8. You will work downtown. There are very few big businesses (Robinson excluded) that have nice suburban locations. Pittsburgh keeps the city center crime free by cramming all its citizens into the inner city during business hours, and then trying to keep some of them there with restaurants and theatre (very expensive). The problem here is the parking problem mentioned above, and the general feel of crowdedness. A better approach would have been to build a loop around the city and locate businesses around the loop rather than have the city collapse around its center each day.
9. Finally, the weather. Sure, this is the north, and it is cold most of the year. Additionally you need to realize that Pittsburgh is geographically in a big bowl. It is why when they made steel here the smoke couldn't escape and it literally coated the city in soot. The smoke and soot aren't a problem anymore, but the bowl still is. Weather patterns hold over the area and moisture collects and can't escape. The skies are gray and clouded from November till April (no exaggeration). Humidity is generally high making it hard to breath and irritating sinuses. If you think you may have anxiety or depression issues, especially if seasonal, you will want to think about this one really hard.
All that said, get yinz ohve hear! If none of this is a problem, and you can find employment here, more power to ya. Obviously I chose to live here for a reason (I wasn't born here). I am getting out as soon as I can though just like all the other young talented people that have come before me, but Pittsburgh has taught me a lot of life lessons that I'll take with me where ever I go, mostly how not to set up my life.
Chris | Pittsburgh, PA