Is Pittsburgh the country's most livable city? Why or why not?

The Economist magazine has named Pittsburgh the most livable city in the United States and the 29th most livable city worldwide in its 2009 survey [ read PG story ].

If you agree, with Pittsburgh's ranking, what makes it such a great place to live?

If you disagree, what need to improve?

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Lots of outdoor events and volunteer-based organizations, such as mountain-biking (PORC), dragon boat paddling, river-side cycling, running (Hash House Harriers), orienteering (WPOC), geocaching (TriGO), hiking (Sierra Club, Meet-Up), canoeing and kayaking thanks to water released from dams, history, low crime compared to other cities.

I think Jake Haulk has got a more objective view of Pittsburgh than the apparent next Dem candidate for governor.

The city is for all practically purposes in bankruptcy, and I believe the PG reported it is the only area of the country, outside of Katrina devastated areas, to lose population.  The Economist isn't going to bailout all the underfunded Pittsburgh public pensions.

 Pittsburgh certainly is a great city - wonderful skyline, the picturesque qualities of the confluence, the sports teams, the people - in the summer. 

But man, oh man, winter time up there is brutal!  Scraping ice and snow off windshields, getting stuck in ditches, slipping and sliding down the Parkway during rush hour, and simply shivering in single-digit bone-chilling temperatures is not at all consistent with my idea of "most livable city" and in fact is the primary reason I moved to North Carolina in 1977.   Call me a weenie if you wish, but I prefer the warmer weather of the South.   Congratulations to my former home town, however, on this fabulous ranking and on the upcoming G20 summit.

Pittsburgh's a great place to live if you can find a decent job.

And that's what makes this city less livable: a lack of jobs.   We need to do better at nurturing our own, home-grown companies and helping them grow -- particularly technology companies of one sort or another (biotech, software, robotics, specialized manufacturing, and the service companies that support them).  Small, agile companies are where the job growth is, not the corporate dinosaurs that are supposedly too big to fail.

Pittsburgh is lucky to have two strong universities -- CMU and Pitt -- to drive our tech sector.  They've been instrumental in helping our local economy transition from heavy industry.  Our local and regional leaders need to work more closely with CMU, Pitt, and the other  educational institutions in our area to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start companies.  Assistance with business planning, small business loans and grants, giving local firms a shot at local government contracts, smoothing the regulatory path ahead of them, and helping with health care costs are good places to start. 

Please readers, don't believe everything you read. I'm going to be a downer in this note.  I'm really skeptical about this. I lived in pittsburgh for 22 years of my life and every year there's always a "most livable city" announcement. I think it's gimmicky and quite inappropriate due to the fact that the majority of younger population move out of Pittsburgh after graduating because there are no J-O-B-S in this city. Sure, if you are in the medical, finance and sciences, you have a good chance of finding a job. To top it off, the city is filled with abandoned buildings downtown that make it obviously, not a livable city.

"Most livable" definitely depends on the criteria used in the evaluation. As a long-time Bostonian who has moved to Pittsburgh, there are a number of deficincies. And while Shadyside is a lot nicer than my neighborhood at home, overall the city is sorely lacking.

1. The city is very racially segregated.

2. The Yinzers are an especially inhospitable type of townie.

3. The downtown is a deadzone.

4. The city is more of an extended suburb, as the actual downtown city is tiny.

5. For the amount of traffic, the major roads, bridges, and tunnels are extremely inadequate. 

6. The public transit is lame.

7. The quality of restaurants is very low. Even many of the highly rated restaurants are mediocre to terrible. 

8. Pittsburgh is not a healthy city. The proportion of obesity and smoking is very high.

9. While the airport is pretty nice, to get anywhere far, there are few direct flights.

10. The state controlled liquor stores makes things more expensive than elsewhere. (I realize this isn't PGH's fault.)

11. Gas is more expensive here than elsewhere.

On the plus side, 

- It seems to barely snow here, at perhaps last winter was unusual.

- I love being able to walk to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

- Cheap and easy flights to Boston, NYC, and DC.

reddot

I agree. Pittsburgh has lots of great things to offer including a low cost of living, great schools, lots of good restaurants, museums, parks, great sports, and an overall sense that people there are good hardworking folks.

The main drawbacks are the weather, and the lack of jobs. Hopefully in the future more jobs will open up as the region starts growing again. I plan on moving back as soon as I finish school so that I can help the revitalization of the great city.

reddot:

"Most livable" definitely depends on the criteria used in the evaluation. As a long-time Bostonian who has moved to Pittsburgh, there are a number of deficincies. And while Shadyside is a lot nicer than my neighborhood at home, overall the city is sorely lacking.

1. The city is very racially segregated.

2. The Yinzers are an especially inhospitable type of townie.

Ha-Ha!!! That's hilarious coming from someone from Boston. Boston has absolutely no right to accuse another town of any shortcomings involving race. Also, Bostonians long ago took over the title of most annoying people from New Yorkers.

I think Pittsburgh is incredibly livable - what I don't like is all of the publicity about it.

First of all, I'm tired of the hype.  I live in Lawrenceville and I don't need anyone else to tell me why it's an awesome neighborhood.  I live in Pittsburgh and I love it here; I don't need anyone else to tell me why my home is a fantastic place to live. 

We don't need the New York Times' seal of approval.  We Pittsburghers knew our city was great before all the 'big shots' took notice.  I'd hate to see our identity become lost in the sea of accolades - we shouldn't do what we do because we want to be noticed or be on someone's "Best of" list.  We should strive to continue to make Pittsburgh better for ourselves - not for anyone else.

And speaking of everyone else - another thing I don't like about all of the press about Pittsburgh (and Lawrenceville - which is crawling with reporters these days) is that part of what makes Pittsburgh great is that it's a well-kept secret.  Reporters:  Quit telling everyone where all the best restaurants and bars are - you're ruining them for the locals that created the unique environments in the first place.  Ok, I admit that the influx of non-locals is good for our economy, and something I'll just have to learn to live with.  I just hope we can prevent the things that make Pittsburgh special from becoming the things that make it generic.

I’ve been to Charlotte several times unfortunately, and I would never relocate there from Pittsburgh – it’s a precipitous downgrade.  Slightly better weather is all that they have: it was a 3^rd rate ‘city’ and is now on it’s way to 5^th rate town.   

There are plenty of jobs in Pittsbugh, plenty, and we are far better off than many other cities during this recession.  Opinions of people like Haulk are exactly what is wrong with the mindset of some uneducated Pittsburghers – they don’t know any better, don’t travel as much, and hear people like him downplay countless Pittsburgh accolades and think, “Gee if this guy in the paper thinks it, it must true.”  

I advise that Haulk, and those like him, actually travel around the US as much as possible, do some actual research and not just read the endless Charlotte promotional propaganda items constantly in US Air magazine in formulating opinions.  After, he or she should conduct a cost / benefit analysis – he’ll arrive at exactly what this study came to find – Pittsburgh is an incredible city when all factors are considered.  It’s the most under appreciated and misrepresented city in the United States - bar none.

And I honestly believe all of this population decline is largely overstated and inaccurate --- how can Cranberry be named one of the most booming areas in the US multiple times?  Cranberry is Pgh at the end of the day, and should be included in population studies.  Everywhere I look in Cranberry, East Liberty, Bloomfield, South Side, North Shore, Downtown, etc. there is expansion and new developments – sure seems odd for a city with a supposed population decline.  The problem is the legally delimited area of the city in how population is measured, and in turn the large scale hub and spoke dynamic of Pittsburgh.  In Houston, people move to the suburbs and they are still in the city limits.  Thousands of people here have moved to Butler County (Cranberry), and it’s purported that these people have left for another state.   

Like any city, Pittsburgh has its issues, but overall I think its a very good place to live. I'm a native Pittsburgher. After several years in Philadelphia, my husband and I decided we wanted to move closer to one of our families.  The choices were Pittsburgh or Boston. We would have prefferred to move to Pittsburgh but we were able to find execellent jobs in Boston and couldn't get anything comparable in Pittsburgh. I'm sure there are probably others likes us who, but for the lack of adquate employment options, would love to move to Pittsburgh. If the city hopes to reverse the current population trend, it is an issue that will have to be addressed.

To each their own, I suppose.  If you enjoy living in Pittsburgh, knock yourself out.  But 'most livable'?

Pittsburghers don't live.  They 'pretend'.  As long as we've got 'one of those, too' we're perfectly content.  Tapas bars all the rage in other cities?  The Pittsburgh response is 'yeah, we got one of those'.  You have a booming theater scene that feeds into the national dialogue?  'Yeah, we got a couple theaters, too.'  (Have you ever heard of anything originating at the Public and going national?  Unless it's a play about--of course--Art Rooney.)      

This idea that somehow cheap housing is Pittsburgh's trump card is a crock.  You get what you pay for.  Take, for example, San Francisco.  Real estate is expensive.  But you also get--for free--spectacular views, clean air, year-round livability, access to the Wine Country, national parks and the joie de vivre of a city that celebrates diversity and tolerance and whimsy.  In Pittsburgh, real estate is comparatively inexpensive.  And for that you get a few miles of accessibility along a couple of dirty inland rivers, fewer sunny days than Seattle, an intolerant, grumpy, racist population and risk averters.  And God forbid if you don't make the Steelers the focal point of your life.

One of the damning qualities of Pittsburgh is the inability to hold onto the world class students who come through CMU.  Compare Pittsburgh's retention rate to Northern California/Stanford, Boston/MIT, Boston/Harvard, Duke/North Carolina and other major universities.

Again, what is the standard of livability?  A city where people can afford big houses and large lawns and cut themselves off from the world outside of their neighborhood?  A place with a large reserve of museums and symphony halls funded by the remaining fortunes of the barons who polluted Pittsburgh and then took their treasures to other cities?  (It's telling that one of our major 'cultural jewels is dedicated to a man who was run out of town, hated Pittsburgh and never returned after he left.)  

Should we really be trumpeting an impressive health care system that thrives here because of the ripe pickings of an old, obese, sedentary population?  That's great if you're planning to have a stroke.  But take me to Denver, where the health care system might not be as good since people have less need for it.

Honestly, do you really think that the residents of comparably-sized markets--Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Portland, Baltimore, San Diego, Atlanta--would really trade places with us?  Really?

Life is about more than a big living room with a wide screen TV.

MAN!  Who wouldn't want to have the Kool-Aid for test111

Why are people saying that Pittsburgh isn't a great place to live? I love it here. I lived in Tampa for about 5 years and came back to Pittsburgh because I missed it. I have nothing bad to say about Tampa. It was a wonderful place but there wasn't as much culture as Pittsburgh. I actually missed the season changes. If you think Pittsburgh is such a terrible place to live you are free to move to another area of the country. As far as jobs are concerned. I have never had trouble finding employment in Pittsburgh. Last I looked our unemployment rate was under the national average. People bitching about the city reminds me of people who continually complain about their weight, lives etc...and never do anything to change it.