I just read an article in the USA Today that said Pittsburgh is a great town but it just can’t seem to shake it’s run down steel town image. So as a long time resident of Pittsburgh I was curious to get some outsider opinions of my hometown.
When someone says Pittsburgh, what comes to mind?
and
Why can’t Pittsburgh shake it’s bad rap?
Here’s the article if you’d like to read it for yourself:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-07-17-pittsburgh_N.htm
Professional sports
Shrinking population
The hills and the rivers
FTR, I’ve driven through Pittsburgh dozens of time but I’ve never spent any time in the city.
GF and I was there last weekend for the Biennale at the Carnegie. We could easily live in Pittsburgh; scenic landscape, active downtown, neighborhood business districts that are busy (South Side Flats, Squirrel Hill, Oakland, and others), and great cultural attractions and public art.
What’s wrong with Pittsburgh?
Nasty traffic; not just the “Can’t get there from here” layout of the roads, but when you can find a way to your destination, there’s construction along the way. It shouldn’t take an hour and a half to drive from the Robinson Town Center area to the Arts District downtown after rush hour, but it did.
Seems to have a dirty, grimy feel, like it needs a good scrubbing. Lots of curb weeds, litter, grease-caked sidewalks, and the like.
Outside of the city, the commercial districts seem kind of rough; far more “mechanical commercial” uses like used car dealers, body shops and the like than in other regions.
Suburban areas also seem rough; tiny, run-down rowhouses are everywhere.
I was born in Pittsburgh and lived there until I was three years old. I have been back twice, once at 13 years old and once at 26. Both times, I was struck by how the “mood” of the city matched my early childhood memory so precisely: gray, dreary, inconvenient, and perpetually stuck in 1983.
Pittsburgh has some great museums and restaurants, and the view across the valley at night is breathtaking. Unfortunately, much of it is also run-down and all of it is difficult to navigate. The city’s culture isn’t appealing either, even in contrast to the Indiana/Illinois culture I’m used to now. There are all the drawbacks of an urban population, without any of the appealing hipness or good taste. One begins to smell it somewhere in the middle of Ohio, when one drives there.
Landscape and city culture. Doesn’t matter how many museums and restaurants you have. The city just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
The downtown is pretty dead in the evening.
Never been there, but I picture it as a bigger, shittier, Cincinnati.
Don’t meaan anything by it… just giving you an honest opinion, sight unseen, and tongue in cheek.
I would probably like Pittsburgh if I were to visit. I mean, Detroit has a bum rap, but I think it’s not neaarly as bad as it’s made out to be.
Not to hijack, but the question reminds me of when, a few years ago, Kansas City decided it was time to shake its cowtown image. At no little expense, the powers that be hired a surveyor to go to New York City and find out what the typical New Yorker thought of KC.
The answer was that the typical New Yorker did not think of Kansas City. Not good, not bad, not at all.
I’m sure Pittsburgh has many great qualities, and I think the view from PNC during a Pirates game is great. But Pittsburgh doesn’t really register with me.
The film Groundhog Day, even though the city is shown only very briefly.
I seem to recall, as a child (around 1980), I would watch Steelers games on TV. The announcers would always make some comment about the city choking on its own factory smoke, river pollution, etc. That’s my mental image, having never been there. However, I do hear, occasionally, that the pollution is no longer as bad.
ETA: Come to think of it, I probably heard more recently that the pollution was not as bad while watching a Steelers game.
I lived in Eastern Ohio for two years and P-burgh was our “Big City” trip twice a month (for sanity’s sake).
I really like the city, especially around U of P and the Carnegie Museum. It wasn’t nearly as nd rusty as I thought it would be and the conjoining rivers and hills are quite breathtaking. I even considered moving to Pittsburgh and driving 180 miles roundtrip to work.
Forgot to add: however, getting around the city in a car is a nightmare. Mapquest can’t figure out how the city works and, as with earlier poster, the construction seems non-stop.
My buddy lives in Squirrel Hill and works at Pitt, and so I’ve visited a number of times in the past 5 years or so, tough I had never been before then. Also, I’ve been to 2 conferences at CMU.
I really like Pittsburgh, and I always say so when it comes up in conversation. I learned about the Sharp Edge here on the dope, went there on my next visit, and now claim it has the best drought beer selection I have ever seen. Squirrel Hill is a place I would be happy living in. In other words, I knew.
FWIW, I also like Baltimore.
Hip City U.S.A.? It’s the Pitts!
An affectionate account by Dick Blackburn (co-screenwriter of the film Eating Raoul), circa 1993, neatly sums up my fond memories of the city back then. At this point I couldn’t stand to go back and learn that it’s gone forever.
My mom’s family’s from there. It’s a million times nicer than it was when I was a kid - in the summer I quite like it. The city’s beautiful when you come out of the Liberty Tubes and see it laid out before you. (My mom was weirded the hell out when she moved here to another city at the confluence of two major rivers and found that we only have three bridges or so.) I like the neighborhoods - they have real neighborhood bars and restaurants. I like how they’ll just stick a house any old place, too, right on the side of a cliff. The drivers are remarkably well behaved. There’s some very pretty country not at all far from the town, also, and Kennywood is a fun park with a lot of history.
On the other hand, the winters SUCK. It’s gray and bleak and depressing then. It’s hard to get around. There’s no jobs. It’s weirdly insular and segregated. I went to my neice’s high school graduation - public school - and not only weren’t there any minorities, there weren’t even any kids who didn’t have Irish or Polish last names. My mom says there’s black people around somewhere, but “they stay in their part of town.” Oddly enough, people up there get an attitude about how backwards and racist my hometown is! I’ve seriously never been anywhere in my life with such blatant de facto segregation. Also, like all of Pennslyvania Pittsburgh suffers from insane liquor laws, and again, this is coming from somebody from South Carolina.
I think it does suffer from a small town mentality in the negative sense.
And I hate that Macy’s bought Kaufmann’s.
Also, what the hell is up with the “belts”? Do they really go anywhere?
Went there once for a wedding and was very impressed with the town. The hilliness, not so much.
Former 'burg resident here. Moved away over 20 years ago but visit often.
First thing I think of when I hear Pittsburgh? “Here we go Steelers, here we go!”
After that… “Let’s go Pen-Guins!”
After that… “Do they still have a baseball team?”
Really I don’t think of it much that is positive although it holds a special nostalgic place in my heart from my youth. An earlier poster described it perfectly by saying it is permanently stuck in 1983. I would expand on that to say that it is the type of city where tight acid wash jeans, a mullet, and a Camaro will still get you laid.
MeanJoe
Being from Cleveland, the first thing I think of is “sucks!” 
But seriously… part of my family is from Western PA - Ford City and now Greensburg. I’ve been visiting the area for a long time and have seen a good bit of the outer/suburban area. Not really in Pittsburgh though. The outer areas seem a lot different than the outer Cleveland areas. I have yet to see any “fancy” suburbs like we have here. Just a lot of strip malls on hills and curvy roads. The greater Cleveland area has its share of run-down areas but they’re more “urban run-down” than “rural run-down” which is what I get from Western PA.
My brother has been to Pittsburgh and says it’s better than he’d thought. But then again, Cleveland can be a hole in places too.
The actual town of Greensburg is cute, and I like the landscape. My grandparents were in assisted living there for years - Weatherwood Manor, if you know it.
Grew up in the Pittsburgh 'burbs, went to school at Pitt, lived in Oakland, then in Shadyside when we were first married. I get back now and then to visit family and to show my kids their roots. I worked for a city councilwoman while in grad school, so I know a good bit about how the city operated. The city itself and the surroundinging areas still need a lot of work to rehab them and get rid of the air of decay.
Unfortunately, it is more than just an air, as Allegheny County is one of the oldest counties in the US demographically. I just read an article in the IHT about someone shooting a new post-apocalyptic film in and around Pittsburgh, because of the large number of abandoned factories and other desolated settings.
Health care, the many universities, and some high-tech work is going on there, but in many ways the city and the region are dying, due to lack of opprtunity for young people. The post-industrial economy has hit the place very hard. There are pockets of vibrancy and the cost of living there is very cheap. Rand Corporation, the massive think-tank, has opened a branch there.
The entire region needed to upgrade the transportation network twenty or more years ago. The city is perfectly situated for heavy industry, with the rivers and the railroads, but moving people has been a handicap, as workers usually lived in communities hard-by the mills where they worked. The region is trying to play catch-up now, but no longer has the tax base or other resources to invest in infrastructure.
You can live well in Pittsburgh if you have a good job at one of the hospitals or universities. The neighborhoods mentioned above, plus places like Aspinwal or close-in communities like Edgewood are great. It is a small town, and the population is very old, so it can be hard if you are looking for a more vibrant place. Plus the weather can be pretty lousy – hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, and very gray often.
I’ve never been to Pittsburgh, but since you do ask: “When someone says Pittsburgh, what comes to mind?”, I guess my lack of direct experience doesn’t disqualify my opinion.
I have two co-workers from Pittsburgh: both witty, well-read, stylish young professionals just starting out, underpaid, but loving their jobs, kind, generous and a lot of fun. Annie Dillard is from Pittsburgh, and her "An American Childhood" is set there. "Queer As Folk" is supposed to be set there, though I think it's actually shot in Canada. I've seen a cartoon strip set in Pittsburgh that poked loving fun at the city's self-image/stereotype. And of course, who can forget the Steelers/Raiders rivalry of the 70's?
So my impression of Pittsburgh is of a vital and varied mix of quirky people, with college boys soaking up Iron City drafts next to guys just getting off the shop floor -- almost like "Northern Exposure" with unintelligible accents. I'd personify Pittsburgh as an grizzled, burly old plumber, navy vet covered with blurry tattoos, a quick and genuine smile, a lifetime of hard-won wisdom behind his anecdotes and stories, and the tolerant worldliness you sometimes find in blue-collar folks who haven't let a lack of opportunity stifle their curiosity and wonder. The kind of guy who knows the difference between book-smart and life-smart, but also knows that life's not an "either/or" choice between the two.
Yeah, I know it's a cliche straight out of a rye ad. And I've never been there. But Pittsburgh's awright by me.