Bloomberg on Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is a great city with beautiful architecture and more bridges than any other city in the country. It's only a five-hour drive from Buffalo, but I'm surprised at how few folks think of driving down to Pittsburgh for a 3-day weekend.

Pittsburgh is a great city with strong public and private leadership...something Buffalo has lacked the past few decades.

It also has an incredible strong identity associated with its natural geography making visiting a memorable experience. Buffalo's weakness is the lack of relationship with it's natural asset. 90% of the waterfront is vacant, highway'd, or privatized. No leadership. Just look at the skyway - opportunity is knocking and Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. could care less. State just spent 50 million to rebuild outer harbor highway, tangle of skyway ramps to remain downtown, constant buzz of trucks overhead to continue at the central wharf. The state will spend hundreds of millions on the waterfront over the next few years with absolutely NO comprehensive vision. Waterfront work in Buffalo is a physical manifestation of the shortcomings of State leadership and the inability of local leaders to enact change. Even those who champion causes are beaten down (Higgins).

Pittsburgh really is a wonderful city. Its true that Pittsburgh is a very well balanced city, architecturally, geographically, business, technology, industry, etc.

(Its art museum is a little to focused on Andy Warhol but never liked the guy or his art anyway.)

The thing that catches my eye is how dense and focused the city is because its surrounded by water and mountains.

But here is the difference: Albany and downstate.

Pennsylvania is still a very conservative state (even though Philadelphia dominates the entire state as NYC dominates NYS). Pennsylvania is nowhere near the cliff of union controlling local government, of downstate socialists/communists controlling the democratic party and rigging it so its a one party state which would pushing their values on the entire state, nowhere near the cliff of multi-culturalism, immigration, political correctness, etc. The result is there is still civic unity, civic pride and civic loyalty for a better city.

E Pluribus Unum: From many, one. Thanks to the unionists and the downstate lefts...we have alot of the many here in nys but very little unity acting as one.

'(Its art museum is a little to focused on Andy Warhol but never liked the guy or his art anyway.)'

Yes, why does the Andy Warhol Museum have so much Andy Warhol stuff?

It also has some top universities located in the actual city. It brings people there as opposed to the brain-drain we have in Western New York.

pittsburgh is less than 5 hours from buffalo. more like 3-3.5

I like Pittsburgh, too. But before we get too gaga over it, listen to their locals. They have been losing population at very similar rates to us. They complain about taxes driving their young out of the area. It's a bigger city than Buffalo and has been for many decades, but there are more similarities than differences.

In addition, there's a very cool piece in the WSJ about Pittsburgh and the G20 summit - "Dreaming of Pittsburgh" - by Stewart O'Nan.

http://tinyurl.com/dreaming-of-Pittsburgh

It's got a lot of assets, not the least of which is the Univ. of Pittsburgh with its enormous life sciences footprint. Also, there are several legacy Fortune 500 companies there which continue to bring wealth into the area. Mellon Bank for many years refused to be acquired and stubbornly defended its civic presence and importance to Pittsburgh whereas so many other cities' large banks simply sold out. But Pittsburgh and Buffalo share many familiar characteristics such as a shrunken population and a downtown that has lost many retailers over the years. The loss of blue-collar jobs has not yet been fully surmounted and The metro area has lost major employers and thousands of people.

http://tinyurl.com/ntr8w8

http://tinyurl.com/mgmhms

Two of the less livable places, I guess :)

driven from Toronto , shocked to see a beautifully situated and vibrant city with stunning stock of cultural, commercial and housing. so impressed brought the whole family down again to visit, great for children. Buffalo has the bones, and have seen the gentirfication of your neigh. but really need the councillers or mayor to augment those efforts by cleaning up the deplorable condition of your streets and sidewalks, Buffalo is impressive but who takes care of your districts, are the councilers not embarrassed. I took the kids to the science museum in Buffalo, excellent and the kids loved it, but the the condition of the neighbourhood yuch! emulate Pittsburgh guys!

I went to CMU in Pittsburgh and feel yuns need a bit of a reality check. 1) since 2000 Pittsburgh metro has lost nearly twice the population based upon percentage that Buffalo has lost. In fact it has hat the largest percentage drop of any metro over 1 million in population.(source US Census Bureau) 2) so much retail has been lost downtown that for the g20 summit the City has agreed to spend $1.3 million to set up phoney storefront in enpty buildings - (source Pittsburgh Post Gazette) 3) Several downtown office towers are completely vacant and just last week one empty tower sold for the second time this year at half of what was paid for it by a NY developer. Upon leaving the developer said that he made the mistake of thinking of Pittsburgh as a major office market which he discovered it no longer is. Gone over the past years are the massive corporate HQ's of Westinghouse, Gulf and others.

Pittsburgh is not a role model for others as it is still in the midst of a major long-term decline.

I have lived in Buffalo for twelve years, and i am from Pittsburgh. While i share most of the above sentiments, Pittsburgh has an underlying "hick" element that really ruins all of the physical interest and beauty. The intolerant appalachia mindset is prevelant in the Pittsburgh area and it closes Pittsburgh off as a national treasure and even as a small international city.

But there are some great places to be in the city, The Carnegie is amazing, and Shenley Park Vintage Grand Prix is one of my favorite times of year! Kennywood is also a must see...but probably my favorite is wasting a day laying on the lawn at the Point.

I currently attend Pitt, and I have to say Pittsburgh isn't as great as people make it out to be. Sure they have bigger buildings downtown, but to be honest, there's nothing more to do in downtown Pittsburgh than downtown Buffalo.

And the G-20? The only reason why Pittsburgh got it is because other cities didn't want it. And for good reason, there is a sense of nervousness and fear for what the protesters will do. Almost everyone I know is leaving today and not coming back till after G-20. People are warned to stay away from national chains for fear of bombings and bricks being thrown through windows. UPitt is boarding up windows to buildings to prevent vandilism. Duquesne University, Point Park University, and Carlow University all were forced to close this week. Duquesne went so far as to force all the students that are dorming to go home. The G-20 is not something to be proud to have, just for what it does to your residents. I NEVER would want to see it anywhere near Buffalo.

I've traveled to Pitt a few time over the last couple years on business, and it is a pretty cool little city. The one thing I did notice walking around downtown last year was that there were a large number of empty storefronts. If Buffalo ever decides to build a new convention center, we should take a look at Pittsburgh's, Lawrence Convention Center I believe its called, its first rate.

Buffalo and Pittsburgh aren't that different, and that is why I love them both. (I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but moved here 2 years ago).

As much as I love my hometown, please let me share some of the ways in which Buffalo is AHEAD of Pittsburgh (and it hurts me to say these things, because I really am nuts about Pittsburgh).

Buffalo is way more bikable, not because of its trails (though there are some good ones) but because it is flat and compact, with wide roads and low traffic.

Buffalo government is more accessible. So are the non-profits. It is easy to find out who to go to, and speak to them.

Parks are better here. Point state park looks cool, and it's a great place for a festival, but Delaware park is way more useful.

Housing prices. Quite simply, I could not even come close to having a comparable home in a comparable neighborhood in Pittsburgh. You can get a good house for just a little bit of money here.

Traffic. Buffalo doesn't have it. Bridges and tunnels are cool, but each one becomes a bottle neck in Pittsburgh.

Buffalo does not have a casino. Pittsburgh does--I count this as a victory for Buffalo.

Buffalo's is near Toronto. Pittsburgh is near Wheeling--or Cleveland.

Buffalo gave the world Rick Hames. Pittsburgh? Rusted Root.

I lived in Pittsburgh for 2 years. I agree with the hick thing or Yinzers as thety call themselves. Two things suck about Pitt, the infrastucture is awful, roads very narrow and beat up because of it's topography making traffic AWful on the nicer east end of town. Second, Pitt is very isolated. When you live there it's pretty much Pitt or nothing for two hours in all directions evcept falling Water and Seven Springs. In Buff we have many more day trip options. That said Pitt is a pretty cool place to go to college and live in for a couple years, good restaurants and city neighborhoods.

I stopped over in Pittsburgh on my way to Falling Water, a real masterpiece and about an hour + away from downtown, which had universities and actual department stores which are sadly missing in the Buffalo core. The layout of museums and stadiums and access to the riverfront all in walking distance was a very convinient.....some city planning and thought are evident...things trampled over in Buffalo with empty shopping malls and an ugly convention center....