Pittsburgh

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FISHMANPET
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Pittsburgh

Postby FISHMANPET » March 12th, 2014, 10:31 pm

I'm going to be in downtown Pittsburgh for a week and I'll have quite a bit of time to wander around and explore the city with my camera. Any ideas for things I should be looking for?

NickP
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby NickP » March 12th, 2014, 10:46 pm

LRT Subway :)

mattaudio
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby mattaudio » March 13th, 2014, 9:26 am

Funiculars

MNdible
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby MNdible » March 13th, 2014, 9:29 am

You should check out the awesomely named HOT METAL BRIDGE. I would also stroll along Carson Street on the southside.

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Andrew_F
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby Andrew_F » March 14th, 2014, 3:05 pm

To me the most interesting thing about Pittsburgh is the development pattern along the rivers, where you have small dense clusters every couple miles, each one essentially built around different large industrial facilities. Driving along any of the three rivers out of downtown for maybe 60 minutes in any direction is like hitting a long string of individual historic downtowns. It's s very foreign and fascinating development pattern to me.

The T is fairly disappointing, but worth riding out and back if you like seeing new transit systems. There are some really weird platform designs further out in the system.

As already mentioned, don't miss the inclines.

As far as best downtown, the Strip District is interesting. You can do the tourist thing and go to Parmanti Brothers, but make sure to go to the real one on the Strip if you do. Save yourself some time by going on a weekday (though the Strip itself is more fun on a Saturday afternoon).

Taking a bus up Forbes and then walking around Oakland and Schenley Park might be worth your time-- Cathedral of Learning, Carnegie Museums, ect.

Not sure how easy it is to get out to Carrie Furnace via transit, but it's cool to see, and there's a lot of the aforementioned older dense nodes out that way.

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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby talindsay » March 15th, 2014, 9:23 pm

The central downtown Pittsburgh area really impresses me, though probably mainly because I remember the dirty, post apocalyptic hollowed out Pittsburgh of my childhood (I lived in western Maryland, just southeast of Pittsburgh, when I was little). The urban renaissance Pittsburgh had experienced is like no other, absolutely amazing.

Creative urban reuse is all over Pittsburgh. Old industrial areas have been reborn with all sorts of interesting uses. My favorite is the Church Brew Works, a no longer need catholic church that was desanctified and turned into a brew pub. It's really cool.

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Andrew_F
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby Andrew_F » March 18th, 2014, 1:40 pm


Creative urban reuse is all over Pittsburgh. Old industrial areas have been reborn with all sorts of interesting uses.
This reminds me-- The Mattress Factory and the surrounding neighborhood would be a great way to spend an afternoon.

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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby twincitizen » December 14th, 2018, 10:05 am

Pittsburgh: population still shrinking, incomes rising https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-a ... ew-economy

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jtoemke
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby jtoemke » December 14th, 2018, 10:40 am

Pittsburgh: population still shrinking, incomes rising https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-a ... ew-economy
Wow that article. Opening line saying Pittsburgh lost 95,000 people - my jaw almost hit the floor - that would be 1/3 of their population.

They must mean the metro area because census estimates show that the city proper has only dropped about 3k people. So essentially, the core is staying strong and the suburbs are dying off. Interesting.

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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby twincitizen » December 14th, 2018, 11:43 am

Yeah that 95,000 must be the metro area drop since 2000, or a typo entirely.

Still, Pittsburgh proper has lost 32,000 people between 2000 and 2017. Most of that was 2000-2010, but the population has continued to shrink, losing a couple thousand in 2010-2017. What makes this super odd is the Pittsburgh economy / job base seems to be doing well (?) in that same time frame. What's nuts is the 300,000 people the city lost between 1960 and 1990. Pittsburgh today has literally half of its 1960 population (604k). How is that even possible? Pittsburgh is not a large city, geographically speaking. It's a slim 58 sq mi, very similar to Minneapolis or St. Paul. That would've been one dense place, even lasting into the 70s when it still had over half a million people.

My questions for those familiar with Pittsburgh - what's going on here? Is development & revitalization occurring downtown and in other close-in/hip neighborhoods, as in many other cities across the country? Where is the present-day population loss happening? Are the suburbs still growing as the city population is flat? Or is the metro area population flat as well? Is part of the story that Pittsburgh is fairly stable economically (recently anyways) but lacks large immigrant populations, which statistically have more children / larger households than whites? (that would partially help explain the flat/declining population as the older white folks die off / move out of PA).

EOst
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby EOst » December 14th, 2018, 1:10 pm

Pittsburgh today has literally half of its 1960 population (604k). How is that even possible?
Part of that is the shrinkage in household size, but it's also that Pittsburgh had some very dense neighborhoods that were partially or completely leveled for urban renewal, like the entire Hill District (some redeveloped as low-density townhomes, some just left devastated) and Uptown. There are also a lot of neighborhoods that were redlined/disinvested into widespread demolition, including Beltzhoover/Allentown, Homewood, Larimer, etc.

twincitizen
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby twincitizen » December 17th, 2018, 10:56 pm

Looks like my barely-educated guess wasn't far off: https://www.post-gazette.com/local/regi ... 1804020011

Basically, in addition to metro Pittsburgh having an atypically low foreign-born population, they also have a very old population, due to prior generations of young people leaving when the place was really tanking during late-20th Century deindustrialization.

P.S. Slap in the face to Minneapolis that we weren't included in any of the article's metro area comps, which do include the likes of Charlotte, Sacramento, and Kansas City. What are we, chopped liver? (EDIT: whoops...reading comprehension)

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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby Anondson » December 17th, 2018, 11:00 pm

The comps said they compared cities 1.5M to 3M, the Twin Cities is over 3.5M aren’t we?

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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby Silophant » December 17th, 2018, 11:14 pm

Yep. We're too big and important to be compared to little ol' Pittsburgh. :D
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Re: Pittsburgh

Postby alexschief » December 18th, 2018, 9:38 am

Keep in mind that while Pittsburgh's economy is doing well relative to where it used to be, but it's not exactly Austin of the Appalachians. It has one of the lowest rates of GDP growth among large American metros. It a medium-sized city that's somewhat geographically isolated. Its industrial mix took a near-fatal blow a few decades ago. It's hinterland is partly tapped out of its most lucrative raw materials. The broader region is poor and emptying out, but Pittsburgh isn't capturing much of that shift nor drawing immigrants (unlike MSP on both counts).

On the flip side, I think Pittsburgh has done a pretty good job marketing itself, especially its cheap cost of living, and it has a lot of really unique and interesting neighborhoods part because its geography is so wild. It has strong anchor universities which are fertilizing a growing tech scene. It has some innovative transportation solutions. It has a legacy sports, art, and cultural scene that is really exceptional for a city of its size. It has a really strong sense of place.

I'd probably feel more optimistic about Pittsburgh than some of its peers like Cleveland or Buffalo, but it's not a surprise to see it still losing population.


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