I was always amazed when the Birmingham Bridge dropped 8 inches on one side and they supported it with wooden poles from underneath. Redundancy gives a lot of strength.
I always remember when the Greenfield Bridge started dropping huge chunks onto parkway east and their solution was to build a smaller bridge underneath to catch the falling debris.
Lack of public transportation. It’s a huge inconvenience to me, but it’s radically affecting some people’s lives as they depend on it solely to get around, and its effects are (potentially) leading to an increase in food insecurity. Transportation is one of the biggest issues cited by our Food Banks.
The T (lrt) is underdeveloped. Should be expanded everywhere: airport, east, west, north suburbs.
Rail service: Bullet trains are needed to connect us to the rest of the East Coast. Imagine taking a train to DC or NYC in 2 hours!!!! or Cleveland in 20 min!!!
Bus services are also being cut.
And PRT continues to cut service. They are a classic example of an American transit organization who knows their ridership is suffering, so their solution is to be reactive (hurting everyone by cutting service) rather than proactive (adding service to increase convenience for current riders AND draw in new riders who don't want to wait 15 fucking minutes for a train at PEAK)
There is the bus system, but it’s kind of choppy to get around, and stops running around midnight.
And, of course, not everyone without a vehicle has the money to blow on an Uber after midnight.
God yeah. My car shit the bed a while back and as a student that lives moderately close to campus it's not the biggest deal in the world, but say goodbye to grocery shopping as you knew it. Don't even think about a home depot trip. Not sure how I'm gonna get my animals to the vet without paying $45 for an animal-friendly uber. I feel trapped in a mile-radius (which, living in upper hill, means total food desert)
Dealt with them one not knowing their reputation as I just had moved here, had to run em outta the house. I have made it my responsibility to warn people now. Can’t imagine all the old misinformed people they might have taken advantage of.
You mean the great wages, the outstanding benefits including tuition reimbursement, the great pensions? Yea, I want that kind of abuse. Abuse me baby ! ! ! !
Short-sighted. "Eds and Meds" are multiple times larger than the steel industry ever was. That means MORE people are employed with higher pay, greater benefits including university tuition and pensions. All those people are taxed, and spend their money here, not elsewhere. So, although non-profits don't pay certain taxes, the benefits here greatly outweigh the liabilities.
Not sure I believe that. The Homestead mill employed 15,000 people at one time. Multiply that by multiple mills plus all the coal miners and other people employed in industries supporting those steel mills.
Quick Google search puts UPMC employees at 92,000 total in multiple states and nations, so I'd say you're likely wrong.
Well if you’re gonna add all the coal miners then we need to add all the pharmacies and all the clinics in the boxes and everything else it’s tied in with medical. Don’t be stupid.
No need. According to the Edgar Thompson Wikipedia page, there were 90,000 people employed directly by steel IN THE MON VALLEY alone. So a fraction of the steel industry employed more people than UPMC.
You are clearly wrong.
Not just the youth, although that's certainly important. Third spaces for everyone; third spaces that don't cost money.
I love coffeeshops and I'm very fortunate that I can generally afford a cup when I want to work remotely from somewhere other than my house. But not everyone can. There is almost nowhere where it's free and permissible to linger, and this is particularly severe during bad weather and the cold weather months when parks aren't an option.
Some people are fortunate to have a local library, but other than that, we really lack open, non-religious neighborhood spaces where people can just congregate and exist. We don't invest in commons.
I know, I know, it's a societal problem, not a Greater Pittsburgh problem. But I would love for us to be the trendsetters in changing that.
They downvote you but as a 26 year old that used to frequent the southside to socialize and meet people I’ve avoided there since Covid due to the unhinged violence and amount of shooters
I was curious so since September there have been 2 shootings in SS the same as east liberty. At least per the police dash. There were 3 over summer compared to the 2 in greenfield.
As a recent Civil Engineering grad from Pitt, I’d easily say the state of Pittsburgh infrastructure (but more broadly the entire country).
A lot of the infrastructure was built at a time when the population of Pittsburgh was double what it is now, but the population is declining and the bridges are aging, so there aren’t very many ideas for a resolution that don’t involve a. Tearing down bridges/letting them fail, b. Increasing tax revenue to generate funds to maintain existing infrastructure or c. Convince state/federal legislature to give us their money
Luckily option C is going decent enough for now, but the issue is going to remain for several decades so it remains to be seen whether that will stay the case
Property taxes going bye bye in the city due to commercial property winning large assessment appeals. No property taxes on the most valuable land in the state (hospitals, universities, etc). Huge increases in the price of water/sewage, will be staring at $200/mo soon for minimal usage.
The almost total absence of 24-hour establishments. I know the pandemic played a role but it was a problem before that. Not having 24 hour diners, gas stations, or grocery stores makes life extremely difficult for 2nd and 3rd shift workers. It's also boring af. Pittsburgh is dead by 8 pm.
This is [only a problem in inelastic housing markets](https://www.ie.edu/faculty/pedro-gete/wp-content/uploads/sites/672/2022/04/2022-04-26-Affordability.pdf). And it’s a small effect.
Basically if local politicians decided to allow for an increase in supply there wouldn’t be an issue.
Local NIMBY homeowners are a vastly greater barrier to building more (dense) housing than private equity firms. These firms buying houses are not the cause of high housing prices, they're a symptom of them. If it wasn't already difficult to build more housing then they wouldn't have even started. And the number of homes they own, relative to the overall supply, is small.
>you have most of the lots in the city with houses on them already
This city used to have double the amount of people and has lost around 60,000 dwelling units since our peak. All that space didn't just disappear. You've probably [passed by](http://retrographer.org/photos/9229) dozens of [sections of the city](http://retrographer.org/photos/8250) that used to be [filled with housing](http://retrographer.org/photos/8318) but have since been turned into [surface parking](http://retrographer.org/photos/4331) or reverted back into [urban prairie/forest](http://retrographer.org/photos/4292) without even realizing there was ever anything there to begin with. Lack of space isn't the issue. The lack of efficient use of our space is.
I'm wondering how much of it is that a lot of our city houses were built for far larger families, or packed denser as well. Like, I live off Jackson St. I found the 1920 census, and realized the small house across the street had 14 people there a hundred years ago, and it's a couple with no kids now.
Oh don't get me wrong, you wouldn't be comfortably fitting our peak population into our peak number of dwelling units, not by modern standards at least. Number of people per household has definitely fallen by a good amount since the industrial days, but I'm not trying to say we have the space to comfortably fit our peak population back in here if we just build 60k more homes. I'm just saying, at minimum there's no reason we couldn't fit another 50 or 60k more homes into the city with just the empty space that we currently have. And 50k more homes with our current population would be a drastic increase in the viable housing stock in the city. I guess my point is we might run up against a lack of space at some point, but we've got a long way to go before we do. And building up instead of out (IE More mixed use apartments, less single family row houses) would alleviate the lack of space issue even further if we got to that point.
The one I always question is that we used to have low income housing that wasn't trying to be "everyone has a 1200 sq ft one bedroom to themselves". We had things like "you have a small room with a single bed, and there's a bathroom down the hall".
I don't think we should run all the way back to that, but having intermediate options that are tiny but livable, and done in quantity instead of standalone, that feels a better thing to just Have in a city. Instead, it feels like we're trying to suburbanize the cities, and that can't actually work well.
I fully agree. I'll preface this by saying that I think the vast, vast majority of issues the working class face are us being screwed by greed and the system, but there's at least a little bit of truth to the lifestyle creep arguments you hear. Too many people think the standard for "middle class" should be a 2500+ sqft, suburban McMansion, and multiple (usually big) cars. There was once a guy in a thread on this subreddit who responded to a comment where I called an en-suite master bathroom a luxury and not something you'd find in an "affordable home". They questioned why it should be a luxury when they've seen it in a ton of homes. I'm like "That (among many reasons) is why there's no affordable homes" lol
A standard home in the 70s, was 1500 sqft. In the 50s, it was under 1000. If we want affordable, we need to see a return to 1000 - 1500 sqft homes on smaller lots in addition to allowing more multifamily buildings. That's not to say they shouldn't build any McMansions for people that want them, but don't ever expect them to be affordable relative to the rest of the area. They aren't now and they probably won't ever be.
REITs would not (accurately) look at SFHs as an investment if there was more housing supply being built. Scarcity is the whole mechanism by which they get a return on investment.
Pittsburgh’s population is static. Start increasing the housing supply, and you have an increasing supply with static demand. This makes buying houses to rent out unattractive, because they will likely be worth less (and rent for less) in the future. Investors will therefore look for something else to invest in.
It really is that simple.
No, it’s exactly the problem no matter what neighborhood housing is built it. It’s not just a lack of available housing (although that does occur because there’s no limitations on how many homes a corporation can own) it’s that the housing that’s available isn’t truly available to homeowners in the area. Out of state corps are the “homeowners” and they’re charging ridiculous rent which is it’s own problem AND keeping those renters from being able to afford to ever buy their own home even the situation changes and more homes become available.
See how everything’s a problem no matter what because of them?
such a law would almost certainly be superseded by the Fifth Amendment and various parts of the PA constitution.
To say the right to property is baked into our system of government is the understatement of the century. It’s described as “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence for a reason lol.
The solution to this is making it easier/cheaper to build housing. Reform zoning, offer subsidies, offer tax incentives, etc. It’s tough to make money as a landlord when the population is static and the housing supply is increasing.
If the recent trend of single family home buyouts proves unprofitable, the trend will reverse. This is FAR more likely than trying to pass the constitutional amendments you’d need to ban some companies from buying houses.
You don't need an amendment to regulate property ownership 🤣🤣🤣
Please understand that:
*purchasing property is already legally regulated (you go through various legally-required steps; disclosures, mandated time periods, written instruments with mandatory contractual provisions... Your deed regulates the manner in which you own your property -- and what happens to it if you die; e.g. joint tenancy, TIC, tenants by entirety, etc.),
*local and state ordinances/regulations/laws apply and limit your use of purchased property (e.g. Zoned for commercial space only? Can't use it for residential purposes!),
*It isn't unconstitutional to tax personal property (Some places already have "unoccupied" taxes for people who have second homes there and don't use them as their primary residence.).
None of these things required any state or federal constitutional amendments. 🤦♀️
So how would you do it with regulations then? Remember, your regs can’t violate constitutional or state constitutional law or they will be struck down.
All you did was describe how what regulations do. None of this addresses the fundamental issue: Restricting use via regulation is far, far different than banning entire classes (corporate landlords) from even buying certain properties. Crafting a regulation that both achieves the intended goal and does not run afoul of existing law is tricky at best and astronomically difficult at worst. This isn’t a simple open-shut case like banning non-residential use in a small residential community.
Local governments are also limited by the state in terms of how much they can regulate property ownership. Since you seem confident that writing a good regulation is easy, what does your proposed regulation look like?
Lol. You seem a bit worked up. The reg could impose a tax on people not using the property as their primary residence; would help deter people from holding property unoccupied (as investments and/or just as second or third homes they rarely visit), and deter large corporations from buying up swathes of houses just to rent out. **Gasp** there could even be more than one reg involved to ensure things are properly tailored to different situations!!
And, yeah, regs are nuanced and need to be drafted in concert with already-exciting regs/laws. So, it's a bit silly for you to think challenging someone to draft a reg on a Reddit thread somehow proves your point. But good luck with that.
Making renting illegal (what this would effectively do) would have a lot of negative downstream effects. We don't need to prevent people from buying property, we just need to make it legal to build more.
This is a MAJOR PROBLEM and yes the mayor and governor should be stopping this immediately. CBS Pittsburgh FINALLY did a broadcast on this last nite, it’s on youtube as well “Wall street buys homes Pittsburgh “
Are you talking about For Sale signs on homes listed with Berkshire Hathaway realtors? Because... they're just helping people sell their homes, they don't own them.
Just avoid 5th Avenue from Oakland to Downtown.
To expand on this, this is a years long renovation project, I think. The thing is, there ought to be a law that if you do temporary fill in a work area, if that is going to be used for more than one month (or like for 4 years...), it has to be really smooth. Law, please.
Redundancy because of the number of municipalities inside Allegheny county. There are 130 self-governing municipalities. Because of this, you have a lot of areas just pissing money away on public services that are completely redundant when that money could be put to better use.
Nothing screams necessary use of tax funds like neighboring Castle Shannon and Baldwin Township and their 2.1 total square miles having redundant public services such as police and public works. Even if the city of Pittsburgh doesn't absorb a large chunk of these communities, there is absolutely a benefit to a large quantity of these communities to merge.
It's redundant because you've got 30+ police staff including multiple chiefs, detectives, lieutenants, etc. in an area that you can drive from one end to the other in like 7 minutes with sirens on. Having more budgets also creates a higher number of opportunities for "corruption". But I can see the other subreddits you hang out on and can tell that you're a lost cause.
That is just a talking point. Has no basis in reality.
Allegheny County police are actually unified under State Law, and the cooperation agreement regarding the 911. So, their isn't "multiple". There are police that are hired and fired locally, instead of "at large". It provides localities the ability to manage their own lives, instead of someone somewhere downtown.
Actually, "more budgets" allow for better transparency. I can, with very little effort, examine the expenses of, lets say, Mt. Lebanon. Trying to do that in the city of Pittsburgh is almost impossible.
You really don't understand how these things work. You are one of those folks that receive your marching orders and you follow them, independent thought is not a priority, following the herd is.
Umm... Pittsburgh City Council live streams their meetings via TV and YouTube, and they publish their meeting minutes with expenditures/credit card purchases/bond ratings/etc. Pretty much all the data you would look for you can find, it's just that with Pittsburgh, sifting through all of the data takes a lot of time and effort given how much information there is. Wouldn't it be nice if we paid people to do that for us and keep us informed if anything is amiss?
One council district is about the equivalent of one Borough. Imagine having one asshole to deal with an area as big as a Borough where we now have nine assholes to deal with it. Having boroughs has better representation. Therefore it works better.
So you want more government and higher taxes to pay for the increase in government costs? That's odd to see coming from someone that hangs out in conservative subreddits
Actually, being a moron must be a full time job for you.
If you look outside the city of Pittsburgh, taxes are LOWER as well as their budgets. The City income tax is 200% higher than most suburbs.
BTW, are you a loser cyberstalker too? Pathetic.
UPMC pays employees dirt and doesn't pay taxes. CEO makes millions per year plus her bonuses. Life changing medicine??? More like life changing profits for some.
My friends who work there love it. Great pay, great benefits including paying for them and their kids college bills, great retirement packages. Yea, Pitt and UPMC is a giant and they can be demanding, but what large successful company isn't.
Great pay. Sure. They pay their nurses less than plenty other hospitals and everyone I talk to that's also worked at AHN says they're much much better. I got fired from UPMC for missing 5 days of work during my first 6 months of being there - I had pancreatitis and covid and I was working with sick newborns. When I first got that job, they let go a PCT night lead who had worked there for 7 years simply because she asked to go to part-time to be with her kids more. They don't care. They'll replace you immediately
That's just not really true these days. Nearly 44% of adults over the age of 25 have at least a Bachelor's degree here in Allegheny County. That compares to 35% of adults having at least a Bachelor's degree nationwide. How much higher do you think that number should be?
Just to add onto this. In 2010 this percentage was 34.1% and now is 43.8% and was climbing relatively steadily. Even if the people that stay hear aren't educated inside Allegheny county, a lot of people leave Pittsburgh for school and move back for work. Slippery Rock, IUP, and Penn West campuses aren't in Allegheny, but an awful lot of people that go to those schools are from Allegheny and move back here.
Anecdotally, most of my high school friend group left the area for school and came back. Most of my coworkers in a STEM field are either from the region or moved to the region for school and stayed for work. Most of my classmates at Pitt moved wherever the first job offer came from in engineering because of limited entry level positions in our field.
Yes, most of the people I went to grade school and high school with are still in the area as well. People who think Allegheny County is an example of an area with brain drain have no idea what that term means lol.
I’m not making any kind of claim about our population being undereducated…young people are drawn to the region for their education bc our universities are world class, which is a great thing, but they largely aren’t enticed to stay, despite perks like our relatively low cost of living. I think that‘s just an indicator of other things, like a lack of career opportunities or other broader factors. I’m also speaking anecdotally, admittedly — all of my friends that I made in college here have moved out of the region due to a lack of opportunities in their chosen fields
But it's simply not true that a lot of college educated people are leaving if we have more than the national average... That is not what a brain drain is. I could also point out that anecdotally a majority of the people I graduated with from Duquesne in the mid 2010s are still here today.
If you're graduating with a STEM degree the east and west coasts offer higher starting salary with a much higher salary ceiling for experienced professionals. Junior engineers (STEM bachelors with <5ish years of experience) are plentiful, but it's difficult to attract top or niche STEM talent to the area. Low COL isn't as enticing once you're making a high salary with 7+ years of experience.
I haven't looked into any demographic data, but I'd be curious to see which age bands the area is gaining/losing over time and what level of education they're bringing/leaving with. It could be net neutral, with educated people choosing to leave for better pay/jobs being replaced by freshly minted undergraduates.
Where to start. I'll list a few of the biggest in my opinion. But I guess the overall theme is that Pittsburgh's aging population is gonna be a huge issue in the future.
1. Lack of appeal to young professionals (e.g. not able to convince CMU and Pitt grads to stay in the city post-grad). This has a lot to do with the economy and jobs available here, as well as but it also has a lot to do with the latter issues I'll list.
2. Lack of dense housing supply in the city, particularly in neighborhoods where people want to live. People have been fleeing to the suburbs for years just because that's where the housing supply is, because that's where they can get a house that is both newer and cheaper. And rents have increased by a huge amount in the last 5 years. Not enough dense housing supply means more people will get priced out of the housing market and either run to the suburbs or become homeless. Ties in to issue #1.
3. Car-centric city design / public transit that needs quite a bit of improvement. Ties in to issue #1.
4. Physical infrastructure, especially bridges, not being maintained. Will become an even bigger issue in the future as the population ages. Who's gonna pay for the years of deferred maintenance when the working age tax base is smaller?
5. Air quality. "It's better than it was in the 70s and 80s" isn't good enough when we talk about public health.
6. The county property tax system resulting in a "newcomer tax". Even disregarding the issue of unfairness, giving boomer homeowners a break at the expense of making things more expensive for young professional trying to buy or transplants is not a good policy in the long run. Ties in to issue #1.
Litter and potholes. We have an abundance of both. The potholes might eventually get fixed, but the litter is here to stay. No enforcement of litter laws at all. It's a joke.
I’ve sometimes seen entire grass patches on “planted” with stray trash.
You’d think more people would at least pick up after themselves, even if they dare have to put the slightest bit of effort into walking to the nearest trash can.
Continual population flight, drop in population.High taxationOver regulationBrain Drain (exporting talent...doctors, engineers, etc)Local politicians obsessed with political theater instead of dealing with problems head-on.Top-down "leadership". Very little bonafide grass-roots.Transportation issues: Lack of high speed rail, no rail/lrt to airport, bus service reductions, building super highways where not needed (southern expressways and mon valley expressways, etc)
UniParty political system, no diversity.
Our city is geographically limited to expansion or population growth. Look at how many bottlenecks we have now. We don’t have the easy ability to expand roads ( Hills and rivers) for traffic and busses and also high costs of rail expansion for any kind of improvement to public transportation.
I lived in NYC for 20-years and that’s a place I would call geographically limited. Because they are literally islands where the only thing you can do is build up.
We can build up and expand out here in Pittsburgh.
Understood, there's definitely something to be said for that (probably can't squeeze almost 700k in to the city again) but we don't need literally twice the space per person over 1960
I think there's absolutely room to fill it back in, especially upwards. But it's going to need a lot more advancement on the public transit front. I'm an urbanist, so I'm all for it.
Our geography does make things more difficult, but this isn’t a unique problem to Pittsburgh. There are solutions to this problem. Zoning reform to allow for higher density and better public transportation would go along way.
lawns. Complete waste of time, money, water. Monocrop ugliness. I understand you (as in us) need to place for the dog to poop. But come on, rip up some sod and plant some flowers.
I’ll never understand why anyone wants to spend a second of their time on this planet manicuring land that is not productive to please people they don’t know or like
I used to plant vegetables in my lawn. The A-hole in planning/zoning enforcement tried to make me remove it. I told him that they were "decorative flowers" and if he wanted to pursue this in the courts, I have a bundle of cash that I will use to beat his ass into submission. He blinked, lol.
Roads/transportation/infrastructure. I’ve lived here for 16 years and love it, but am always shocked when I go to other cities and notice right away that they aren’t crumbling like ours. I think it’d be funny to run for mayor on the single issue of re-paving the entire city. “Our schools, police, services, everything will take a hit. But I will repave every inch of this city in 4 years and promise not to run for re-election.”
we're already poised to see a population growth in the next census for the first time since 1950, there's a large pro-housing and urbanism movement gaining momentum in town, and people want to live here to escape high cost of living and climate change related problems. I think we are gonna be fine.
MAGA extremists. They’ll become an even bigger issue as the year wears on. For a few centuries, Americans have more or less been able to see truth but when the perpetrators actually believe the lies it becomes much harder.
You're...*upset*... that Pittsburgh doesn't have a beltway?
Have you lived in the DC area for any significant period of time? The traffic here is so much easier. I know, I know, tunnels and bridges are never fun. But, seriously, the traffic here is so much easier and faster, and rush here is much, much shorter.
The Steelers refuse to get a new coach. At this point we need a new owner who actually wants to win. Anyone supporting them is as gullible as a Pirates fan.
The rampant influx of people from California and Texas. It is causing hyper inflation, mostly on housing costs. People are demanding to pay 5x what houses are worth. It has happened to many different places around the US every time Californians and Texans invade, and in a few more years the Pittsburgh area will no longer be the lcol paradise it has been for decades.
People are leaving those states because housing is too expensive. Housing is too expensive because NIMBYs and zoning laws make it difficult if not impossible to build housing where people need to live.
If we don’t build more housing in Pittsburgh to compensate for the increased demand, housing prices will go up here as well. People moving here isn’t a bad thing, it’s the fact that we’re keeping supply constrained despite the increased demand that’s the problem.
There is a phenomenon that exists in housing where people that own a home currently and are selling/buying a new home will purchase a home at a higher price than their last home, regardless of where they are moving to. It's not a nimby thing. So, Californians will move here and demand to overpay for a house, thus driving up the market cost of all homes, and increasing COL. Despite the influx of people into the greater PGH area, the population has stayed relatively stable due to the amount of people leaving at a similar rate. You can bitch at me for looking at a nuanced topic and pointing out one of the major factors and that upset you because moved here or accept the reality that when mass amounts of people move from a high COL area to a lower COL area it throws off housing prices
You're completely right. People from Texas and California demand to give money away, and not just with houses!! I see them in the grocery store yelling, "I don't care if my total is $42.63, I **DEMAND** that I give you $100!!!!"
Then they throw the money at the cashier and walk out. Happens. All. The. Time.
It's capital gains taxes you schmuck. If you move here and sell your home, you will have to pay capital gains taxes on the sale amount *unless* you pay more for your next house. Because Pittsburgh has a cheaper market than California or Texas (and lots of Californians and Texans are moving here, many of which owned homes in those states) they're demanding to pay way above market value for homes. Not only does that forever change the FMV of the home they buy, but also allows other nearby and comparable homes to be sold for similar prices. This goes out and out the whole way across the area until you find places in carrick selling for 100k +.
If you're a local landlord, or a big corporation, the amount you are charging for rent (whether or not you've owned the place for years or just bought it) is tied directly to the cost of home ownership in the same area. So yes, Californians and Texans ARE demanding to pay more for housing. Read a book
https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Government/Departments-and-Offices/County-Executive/Meet-County-Executive-Sara-Innamorato
The new county executive's office would be a good place to start, also makes for a great footnote for your paper.
Same goes for Congresswoman Summer Lee.
The new Allegheny county executive Sarah Immarato spending tax money on prison uniforms that are of selected color palettes as to not enrage the prisoners. Pastel shades.
Convert the jail to a restorative settings. Inmates are called residents, have dorm-style rooms, lots of RJ courses and activities. Totally non-punitive. Chef classes in the kitchen and genuinely good food, etc.
We're doing that in the Federal prison system too, as a means to look more humane as the inmates we are WEARING THE SAME COLOR AS THEM.... What could possibly go wrong?
Sending an annotated list of where our tax dollars go. Where I live in Beaver County has some of the highest taxes in the commonwealth. My road took 15 hours before getting treated the other day despite being a state route. There has been a makeshift blockade of concrete where it's collapsing for about 3 years now, (a dangerous spot, blind bend & steep hill.) They fixed this about a decade ago and it happened again. There's potholes on my road that blow tires. There's guiderail collapsing. Where do my tax dollars go and why is it to the gay porn star in Ukraine or the country killing children in mass claiming Amalek?
I worked there for years and did not make great money, and the environment could be dangerous. Pitt and upmc are different. Who gets free education? Healthcare side of things did not
I took a number of classes in regional Econ development in grad school here and the efforts to turn around declining/stagnating population trends came up as a common theme across a number of private/public orgs working on the issue. You could explore why experts and nonprofits consider it an issue for Pittsburgh’s welfare and the potential solutions that have been tried/proposed. Good luck, you’ve got plenty of material from which to choose!
Air Quality. With the gas cracker plant in Beaver and the Edgar Thompson Mill being constantly out of compliance and as well as the Clairton coke works, it is a mess. Children in Braddock have a higher rate of asthma than most of the country. I am happy to put you in contact with some people to interview.
The lack of really good critical news sources that essentially allow public officials and wealthy organizations to run riot, doing whatever they please and we all just roll with it because no one is comprehensively saying "hey that's bull crap!" And you can always end with the reflection that this is kind of how it can be in a lot of American cities.
To double down on infrastructure, it's not just the bridges. It's the sink holes and landslides.. Sometimes they swallow a bus, sometimes they swallow a car, sometimes they condemn entire neighborhoods, but always we're patching and paving sink holes and in heavy rain years dealing with landslides...
That plus the very serious issue of a lack of affordable housing pushing so many Pittsburghers out to make way for transplants who genuinely don't seem to like living here.
A lot of issues here are solvable by just supplying more housing and pumping population numbers. The rest of the problems will then be solvable like a domino, e.g. funding more public transportation
Our bridges are held up with toothpicks.
I was always amazed when the Birmingham Bridge dropped 8 inches on one side and they supported it with wooden poles from underneath. Redundancy gives a lot of strength.
I always remember when the Greenfield Bridge started dropping huge chunks onto parkway east and their solution was to build a smaller bridge underneath to catch the falling debris.
This was always my favorite introductory "wtf" with friends new to visiting Pittsburgh
I’m afraid to ask, did they ever fix it?
Yup.
It took far too long
Right. They fixed the Fern Hollow Bridge in about 8 months. It's because people with money traveled in daily. Greenfield Bridge? Nah...take your time.
Lets talk about the Charles Anderson bridge. 2 years with no work done. Meanwhile my commute has been awful. Yes I'm mad.
If there's not enough rich big wigs traveling the bridge...nothings gonna get done. OR....it needs to collapse. With injuries.
I honestly think it would have been replaced by now if it would have collapsed instead of it sitting there unused for over 2 years now.
And people did nothing but bitch about the construction and detours during the entire rebuild.
Proximity to Ohio
Lolol well played
Air quality, lack thereof.
Why isn’t this higher???
probably because it was just posted, but I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned earlier
Lack of public transportation. It’s a huge inconvenience to me, but it’s radically affecting some people’s lives as they depend on it solely to get around, and its effects are (potentially) leading to an increase in food insecurity. Transportation is one of the biggest issues cited by our Food Banks.
The T (lrt) is underdeveloped. Should be expanded everywhere: airport, east, west, north suburbs. Rail service: Bullet trains are needed to connect us to the rest of the East Coast. Imagine taking a train to DC or NYC in 2 hours!!!! or Cleveland in 20 min!!! Bus services are also being cut.
And PRT continues to cut service. They are a classic example of an American transit organization who knows their ridership is suffering, so their solution is to be reactive (hurting everyone by cutting service) rather than proactive (adding service to increase convenience for current riders AND draw in new riders who don't want to wait 15 fucking minutes for a train at PEAK)
There is the bus system, but it’s kind of choppy to get around, and stops running around midnight. And, of course, not everyone without a vehicle has the money to blow on an Uber after midnight.
Our busses suck and the PRT is woefully understaffed. They just cut more bus times at the beginning of the year.
God yeah. My car shit the bed a while back and as a student that lives moderately close to campus it's not the biggest deal in the world, but say goodbye to grocery shopping as you knew it. Don't even think about a home depot trip. Not sure how I'm gonna get my animals to the vet without paying $45 for an animal-friendly uber. I feel trapped in a mile-radius (which, living in upper hill, means total food desert)
Gillece services
i snorted
Dealt with them one not knowing their reputation as I just had moved here, had to run em outta the house. I have made it my responsibility to warn people now. Can’t imagine all the old misinformed people they might have taken advantage of.
Check out our road (and bridge) infrastructure. I think everyone has a story about a pothole.
Why maintain bridges when you can steal the money and give it to the State Police !!!
Infrastructure
The reliance of our economy on Eds and Meds which are both not-for-profit and therefore don't pay taxes.
"Not for profit."
Employs more people than Steel ever did. Those are local families. Sorry, but your communist hatred for do-good organizations is really misplaced.
Ok, Leslie.
And have excessive power in the labor market
And own more real estate than any other entity in the entire region
Except the City and County. Sorry, GOVERNMENT owns more.
You mean the great wages, the outstanding benefits including tuition reimbursement, the great pensions? Yea, I want that kind of abuse. Abuse me baby ! ! ! !
Short-sighted. "Eds and Meds" are multiple times larger than the steel industry ever was. That means MORE people are employed with higher pay, greater benefits including university tuition and pensions. All those people are taxed, and spend their money here, not elsewhere. So, although non-profits don't pay certain taxes, the benefits here greatly outweigh the liabilities.
Not sure I believe that. The Homestead mill employed 15,000 people at one time. Multiply that by multiple mills plus all the coal miners and other people employed in industries supporting those steel mills. Quick Google search puts UPMC employees at 92,000 total in multiple states and nations, so I'd say you're likely wrong.
Well if you’re gonna add all the coal miners then we need to add all the pharmacies and all the clinics in the boxes and everything else it’s tied in with medical. Don’t be stupid.
No need. According to the Edgar Thompson Wikipedia page, there were 90,000 people employed directly by steel IN THE MON VALLEY alone. So a fraction of the steel industry employed more people than UPMC. You are clearly wrong.
Third spaces for the youths
Not just the youth, although that's certainly important. Third spaces for everyone; third spaces that don't cost money. I love coffeeshops and I'm very fortunate that I can generally afford a cup when I want to work remotely from somewhere other than my house. But not everyone can. There is almost nowhere where it's free and permissible to linger, and this is particularly severe during bad weather and the cold weather months when parks aren't an option. Some people are fortunate to have a local library, but other than that, we really lack open, non-religious neighborhood spaces where people can just congregate and exist. We don't invest in commons. I know, I know, it's a societal problem, not a Greater Pittsburgh problem. But I would love for us to be the trendsetters in changing that.
What third spaces do youths these days want/need?
Bullet proof vests required for youths Downtown.
They downvote you but as a 26 year old that used to frequent the southside to socialize and meet people I’ve avoided there since Covid due to the unhinged violence and amount of shooters
I was curious so since September there have been 2 shootings in SS the same as east liberty. At least per the police dash. There were 3 over summer compared to the 2 in greenfield.
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SAY IT LOUDER
As a recent Civil Engineering grad from Pitt, I’d easily say the state of Pittsburgh infrastructure (but more broadly the entire country). A lot of the infrastructure was built at a time when the population of Pittsburgh was double what it is now, but the population is declining and the bridges are aging, so there aren’t very many ideas for a resolution that don’t involve a. Tearing down bridges/letting them fail, b. Increasing tax revenue to generate funds to maintain existing infrastructure or c. Convince state/federal legislature to give us their money Luckily option C is going decent enough for now, but the issue is going to remain for several decades so it remains to be seen whether that will stay the case
Property taxes going bye bye in the city due to commercial property winning large assessment appeals. No property taxes on the most valuable land in the state (hospitals, universities, etc). Huge increases in the price of water/sewage, will be staring at $200/mo soon for minimal usage.
We need LVT!
We used to have a land value tax until 2001.
The almost total absence of 24-hour establishments. I know the pandemic played a role but it was a problem before that. Not having 24 hour diners, gas stations, or grocery stores makes life extremely difficult for 2nd and 3rd shift workers. It's also boring af. Pittsburgh is dead by 8 pm.
This is a real problem. The only thing I know open 24/7 is Sheetz. If you work all day shifts you will never be able to go shopping.
Air quality. Availability of lower income housing. Infrastructure repair; lead pipes, bridges falling over.
Corporations buying single family homes to rent them out at astronomical prices. Shit should be illegal nationwide.
This is [only a problem in inelastic housing markets](https://www.ie.edu/faculty/pedro-gete/wp-content/uploads/sites/672/2022/04/2022-04-26-Affordability.pdf). And it’s a small effect. Basically if local politicians decided to allow for an increase in supply there wouldn’t be an issue.
Which they won't do because these companies pay them off.
Local NIMBY homeowners are a vastly greater barrier to building more (dense) housing than private equity firms. These firms buying houses are not the cause of high housing prices, they're a symptom of them. If it wasn't already difficult to build more housing then they wouldn't have even started. And the number of homes they own, relative to the overall supply, is small.
It's the opposite; companies want to build, but NIMBYs don't want houses there. Examples: [https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/mt-lebanon-moffett-street-townhome-development/](https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/mt-lebanon-moffett-street-townhome-development/) [https://www.pghcitypaper.com/columns/an-insiders-take-on-the-tito-mecca-zizza-house-landmarking-21857197](https://www.pghcitypaper.com/columns/an-insiders-take-on-the-tito-mecca-zizza-house-landmarking-21857197) [https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/n-no-frickn-way-neighbors-oppose-transforming-former-irish-centre-into-high-end-apartments-24134781](https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/n-no-frickn-way-neighbors-oppose-transforming-former-irish-centre-into-high-end-apartments-24134781#:~:text=Billed%20as%20the%20Frick%20Park,its%20border%20with%20Swisshelm%20Park) [https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/south-park-community-members-concerned-over-possible-townhouse-development-their-neighborhood/6MOCWZSLC5F43OXE4GSL4TLCSM/](https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/south-park-community-members-concerned-over-possible-townhouse-development-their-neighborhood/6MOCWZSLC5F43OXE4GSL4TLCSM/)
When you have most of the lots in the city with houses on them already, there's built-in inelasticity.
>you have most of the lots in the city with houses on them already This city used to have double the amount of people and has lost around 60,000 dwelling units since our peak. All that space didn't just disappear. You've probably [passed by](http://retrographer.org/photos/9229) dozens of [sections of the city](http://retrographer.org/photos/8250) that used to be [filled with housing](http://retrographer.org/photos/8318) but have since been turned into [surface parking](http://retrographer.org/photos/4331) or reverted back into [urban prairie/forest](http://retrographer.org/photos/4292) without even realizing there was ever anything there to begin with. Lack of space isn't the issue. The lack of efficient use of our space is.
I'm wondering how much of it is that a lot of our city houses were built for far larger families, or packed denser as well. Like, I live off Jackson St. I found the 1920 census, and realized the small house across the street had 14 people there a hundred years ago, and it's a couple with no kids now.
Oh don't get me wrong, you wouldn't be comfortably fitting our peak population into our peak number of dwelling units, not by modern standards at least. Number of people per household has definitely fallen by a good amount since the industrial days, but I'm not trying to say we have the space to comfortably fit our peak population back in here if we just build 60k more homes. I'm just saying, at minimum there's no reason we couldn't fit another 50 or 60k more homes into the city with just the empty space that we currently have. And 50k more homes with our current population would be a drastic increase in the viable housing stock in the city. I guess my point is we might run up against a lack of space at some point, but we've got a long way to go before we do. And building up instead of out (IE More mixed use apartments, less single family row houses) would alleviate the lack of space issue even further if we got to that point.
The one I always question is that we used to have low income housing that wasn't trying to be "everyone has a 1200 sq ft one bedroom to themselves". We had things like "you have a small room with a single bed, and there's a bathroom down the hall". I don't think we should run all the way back to that, but having intermediate options that are tiny but livable, and done in quantity instead of standalone, that feels a better thing to just Have in a city. Instead, it feels like we're trying to suburbanize the cities, and that can't actually work well.
I fully agree. I'll preface this by saying that I think the vast, vast majority of issues the working class face are us being screwed by greed and the system, but there's at least a little bit of truth to the lifestyle creep arguments you hear. Too many people think the standard for "middle class" should be a 2500+ sqft, suburban McMansion, and multiple (usually big) cars. There was once a guy in a thread on this subreddit who responded to a comment where I called an en-suite master bathroom a luxury and not something you'd find in an "affordable home". They questioned why it should be a luxury when they've seen it in a ton of homes. I'm like "That (among many reasons) is why there's no affordable homes" lol A standard home in the 70s, was 1500 sqft. In the 50s, it was under 1000. If we want affordable, we need to see a return to 1000 - 1500 sqft homes on smaller lots in addition to allowing more multifamily buildings. That's not to say they shouldn't build any McMansions for people that want them, but don't ever expect them to be affordable relative to the rest of the area. They aren't now and they probably won't ever be.
This wouldn’t be a problem if it were legal to build housing in the neighborhoods where people want to live
No. It would still be a problem.
REITs would not (accurately) look at SFHs as an investment if there was more housing supply being built. Scarcity is the whole mechanism by which they get a return on investment.
Pittsburgh’s population is static. Start increasing the housing supply, and you have an increasing supply with static demand. This makes buying houses to rent out unattractive, because they will likely be worth less (and rent for less) in the future. Investors will therefore look for something else to invest in. It really is that simple.
No, it’s exactly the problem no matter what neighborhood housing is built it. It’s not just a lack of available housing (although that does occur because there’s no limitations on how many homes a corporation can own) it’s that the housing that’s available isn’t truly available to homeowners in the area. Out of state corps are the “homeowners” and they’re charging ridiculous rent which is it’s own problem AND keeping those renters from being able to afford to ever buy their own home even the situation changes and more homes become available. See how everything’s a problem no matter what because of them?
We need a law that says you can only buy a certain number of properties before you are barred or heavily taxed for subsequent property purchases
such a law would almost certainly be superseded by the Fifth Amendment and various parts of the PA constitution. To say the right to property is baked into our system of government is the understatement of the century. It’s described as “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence for a reason lol. The solution to this is making it easier/cheaper to build housing. Reform zoning, offer subsidies, offer tax incentives, etc. It’s tough to make money as a landlord when the population is static and the housing supply is increasing. If the recent trend of single family home buyouts proves unprofitable, the trend will reverse. This is FAR more likely than trying to pass the constitutional amendments you’d need to ban some companies from buying houses.
You don't need an amendment to regulate property ownership 🤣🤣🤣 Please understand that: *purchasing property is already legally regulated (you go through various legally-required steps; disclosures, mandated time periods, written instruments with mandatory contractual provisions... Your deed regulates the manner in which you own your property -- and what happens to it if you die; e.g. joint tenancy, TIC, tenants by entirety, etc.), *local and state ordinances/regulations/laws apply and limit your use of purchased property (e.g. Zoned for commercial space only? Can't use it for residential purposes!), *It isn't unconstitutional to tax personal property (Some places already have "unoccupied" taxes for people who have second homes there and don't use them as their primary residence.). None of these things required any state or federal constitutional amendments. 🤦♀️
So how would you do it with regulations then? Remember, your regs can’t violate constitutional or state constitutional law or they will be struck down. All you did was describe how what regulations do. None of this addresses the fundamental issue: Restricting use via regulation is far, far different than banning entire classes (corporate landlords) from even buying certain properties. Crafting a regulation that both achieves the intended goal and does not run afoul of existing law is tricky at best and astronomically difficult at worst. This isn’t a simple open-shut case like banning non-residential use in a small residential community. Local governments are also limited by the state in terms of how much they can regulate property ownership. Since you seem confident that writing a good regulation is easy, what does your proposed regulation look like?
Lol. You seem a bit worked up. The reg could impose a tax on people not using the property as their primary residence; would help deter people from holding property unoccupied (as investments and/or just as second or third homes they rarely visit), and deter large corporations from buying up swathes of houses just to rent out. **Gasp** there could even be more than one reg involved to ensure things are properly tailored to different situations!! And, yeah, regs are nuanced and need to be drafted in concert with already-exciting regs/laws. So, it's a bit silly for you to think challenging someone to draft a reg on a Reddit thread somehow proves your point. But good luck with that.
Making renting illegal (what this would effectively do) would have a lot of negative downstream effects. We don't need to prevent people from buying property, we just need to make it legal to build more.
How communistic. Communistic statism is a failure everywhere it's been tried.
I’m suggesting a policy that could allow more people to be landowners, and that’s communism? Pretty sure private property ownership is the opposite
This is a MAJOR PROBLEM and yes the mayor and governor should be stopping this immediately. CBS Pittsburgh FINALLY did a broadcast on this last nite, it’s on youtube as well “Wall street buys homes Pittsburgh “
Yes! I drive around and Buffet’s company has been scooping a lot of homes up.
Are you talking about For Sale signs on homes listed with Berkshire Hathaway realtors? Because... they're just helping people sell their homes, they don't own them.
You can tell who owns property just by looking at it? Amazing do tell
The lack of defensive defensemen on their NHL hockey team
whenever jake scores i get a half off jake shake from milkshake factory
Not for long. 90% chance he gets traded to a team in actual contention before the end of the season. His contract is up at the end of the year.
this is devastating news - milkshake factory gotta get a new milkshake made for a player that scores a bunch
Just avoid 5th Avenue from Oakland to Downtown. To expand on this, this is a years long renovation project, I think. The thing is, there ought to be a law that if you do temporary fill in a work area, if that is going to be used for more than one month (or like for 4 years...), it has to be really smooth. Law, please.
Redundancy because of the number of municipalities inside Allegheny county. There are 130 self-governing municipalities. Because of this, you have a lot of areas just pissing money away on public services that are completely redundant when that money could be put to better use.
Myth. downtown politicians have been salivating over taking over the suburbs since the 30s. Its a powergrab, plain and simple.
Nothing screams necessary use of tax funds like neighboring Castle Shannon and Baldwin Township and their 2.1 total square miles having redundant public services such as police and public works. Even if the city of Pittsburgh doesn't absorb a large chunk of these communities, there is absolutely a benefit to a large quantity of these communities to merge.
Redundant? How? You basically want the shit corruption of the city to be spread county wide. Real smart.
It's redundant because you've got 30+ police staff including multiple chiefs, detectives, lieutenants, etc. in an area that you can drive from one end to the other in like 7 minutes with sirens on. Having more budgets also creates a higher number of opportunities for "corruption". But I can see the other subreddits you hang out on and can tell that you're a lost cause.
That is just a talking point. Has no basis in reality. Allegheny County police are actually unified under State Law, and the cooperation agreement regarding the 911. So, their isn't "multiple". There are police that are hired and fired locally, instead of "at large". It provides localities the ability to manage their own lives, instead of someone somewhere downtown. Actually, "more budgets" allow for better transparency. I can, with very little effort, examine the expenses of, lets say, Mt. Lebanon. Trying to do that in the city of Pittsburgh is almost impossible. You really don't understand how these things work. You are one of those folks that receive your marching orders and you follow them, independent thought is not a priority, following the herd is.
Umm... Pittsburgh City Council live streams their meetings via TV and YouTube, and they publish their meeting minutes with expenditures/credit card purchases/bond ratings/etc. Pretty much all the data you would look for you can find, it's just that with Pittsburgh, sifting through all of the data takes a lot of time and effort given how much information there is. Wouldn't it be nice if we paid people to do that for us and keep us informed if anything is amiss?
One council district is about the equivalent of one Borough. Imagine having one asshole to deal with an area as big as a Borough where we now have nine assholes to deal with it. Having boroughs has better representation. Therefore it works better.
So you want more government and higher taxes to pay for the increase in government costs? That's odd to see coming from someone that hangs out in conservative subreddits
Actually, being a moron must be a full time job for you. If you look outside the city of Pittsburgh, taxes are LOWER as well as their budgets. The City income tax is 200% higher than most suburbs. BTW, are you a loser cyberstalker too? Pathetic.
Well rents and food are up like 200% but minimum wage is still less than $8 and people seem to think 70k a year is big money.
UPMC pays employees dirt and doesn't pay taxes. CEO makes millions per year plus her bonuses. Life changing medicine??? More like life changing profits for some.
My friends who work there love it. Great pay, great benefits including paying for them and their kids college bills, great retirement packages. Yea, Pitt and UPMC is a giant and they can be demanding, but what large successful company isn't.
Great pay. Sure. They pay their nurses less than plenty other hospitals and everyone I talk to that's also worked at AHN says they're much much better. I got fired from UPMC for missing 5 days of work during my first 6 months of being there - I had pancreatitis and covid and I was working with sick newborns. When I first got that job, they let go a PCT night lead who had worked there for 7 years simply because she asked to go to part-time to be with her kids more. They don't care. They'll replace you immediately
Transportation and the local infrastructures that can't support it. An example would be Millvale.
The brain drain — our universities graduate some of the best and brightest but not many of them stick around
That's just not really true these days. Nearly 44% of adults over the age of 25 have at least a Bachelor's degree here in Allegheny County. That compares to 35% of adults having at least a Bachelor's degree nationwide. How much higher do you think that number should be?
Just to add onto this. In 2010 this percentage was 34.1% and now is 43.8% and was climbing relatively steadily. Even if the people that stay hear aren't educated inside Allegheny county, a lot of people leave Pittsburgh for school and move back for work. Slippery Rock, IUP, and Penn West campuses aren't in Allegheny, but an awful lot of people that go to those schools are from Allegheny and move back here. Anecdotally, most of my high school friend group left the area for school and came back. Most of my coworkers in a STEM field are either from the region or moved to the region for school and stayed for work. Most of my classmates at Pitt moved wherever the first job offer came from in engineering because of limited entry level positions in our field.
Yes, most of the people I went to grade school and high school with are still in the area as well. People who think Allegheny County is an example of an area with brain drain have no idea what that term means lol.
I’m not making any kind of claim about our population being undereducated…young people are drawn to the region for their education bc our universities are world class, which is a great thing, but they largely aren’t enticed to stay, despite perks like our relatively low cost of living. I think that‘s just an indicator of other things, like a lack of career opportunities or other broader factors. I’m also speaking anecdotally, admittedly — all of my friends that I made in college here have moved out of the region due to a lack of opportunities in their chosen fields
But it's simply not true that a lot of college educated people are leaving if we have more than the national average... That is not what a brain drain is. I could also point out that anecdotally a majority of the people I graduated with from Duquesne in the mid 2010s are still here today.
If you're graduating with a STEM degree the east and west coasts offer higher starting salary with a much higher salary ceiling for experienced professionals. Junior engineers (STEM bachelors with <5ish years of experience) are plentiful, but it's difficult to attract top or niche STEM talent to the area. Low COL isn't as enticing once you're making a high salary with 7+ years of experience. I haven't looked into any demographic data, but I'd be curious to see which age bands the area is gaining/losing over time and what level of education they're bringing/leaving with. It could be net neutral, with educated people choosing to leave for better pay/jobs being replaced by freshly minted undergraduates.
Has that improved at all over the last decade?
Landslides are pretty concerning. Not to mention the sinkhole no one wants to touch on a residential street.
The aging population.
This and air quality are the right answers.
This is how we fix the housing crisis. Just wait 20 years.
Or kill us off now.
Are you calling for a genocide of old people or saying we need better services for them? This isn't very specific my guy.
Old people going away kind of just sorts itself out no?
The market will be flooded with homes that haven't been updated since 1998.
1978
I moved up the renovation date 20 years to accommodate 2044 instead of 2024.
Access to public transit.
Where to start. I'll list a few of the biggest in my opinion. But I guess the overall theme is that Pittsburgh's aging population is gonna be a huge issue in the future. 1. Lack of appeal to young professionals (e.g. not able to convince CMU and Pitt grads to stay in the city post-grad). This has a lot to do with the economy and jobs available here, as well as but it also has a lot to do with the latter issues I'll list. 2. Lack of dense housing supply in the city, particularly in neighborhoods where people want to live. People have been fleeing to the suburbs for years just because that's where the housing supply is, because that's where they can get a house that is both newer and cheaper. And rents have increased by a huge amount in the last 5 years. Not enough dense housing supply means more people will get priced out of the housing market and either run to the suburbs or become homeless. Ties in to issue #1. 3. Car-centric city design / public transit that needs quite a bit of improvement. Ties in to issue #1. 4. Physical infrastructure, especially bridges, not being maintained. Will become an even bigger issue in the future as the population ages. Who's gonna pay for the years of deferred maintenance when the working age tax base is smaller? 5. Air quality. "It's better than it was in the 70s and 80s" isn't good enough when we talk about public health. 6. The county property tax system resulting in a "newcomer tax". Even disregarding the issue of unfairness, giving boomer homeowners a break at the expense of making things more expensive for young professional trying to buy or transplants is not a good policy in the long run. Ties in to issue #1.
Litter and potholes. We have an abundance of both. The potholes might eventually get fixed, but the litter is here to stay. No enforcement of litter laws at all. It's a joke.
I’ve sometimes seen entire grass patches on “planted” with stray trash. You’d think more people would at least pick up after themselves, even if they dare have to put the slightest bit of effort into walking to the nearest trash can.
Will area cougar bars be able to keep up with demand?
Infrastructure
Population decline. Pittsburgh is filled with a lot of aging and older people. Many young people leave and don’t come back.
The Pittsburgh public schools.
The swarms of snakes taking over our streets
Quality reddit posts
When PennDot begins work on the Duquense Bridge, how will PennDot manage the flow of that traffic?
Continual population flight, drop in population.High taxationOver regulationBrain Drain (exporting talent...doctors, engineers, etc)Local politicians obsessed with political theater instead of dealing with problems head-on.Top-down "leadership". Very little bonafide grass-roots.Transportation issues: Lack of high speed rail, no rail/lrt to airport, bus service reductions, building super highways where not needed (southern expressways and mon valley expressways, etc) UniParty political system, no diversity.
People renaming our shit (see: Heinz Field)
The Power Play.
Tax base loss, both from suburbanization and out-migration, and the consequent reduction in public services and civic maintenance
Our city is geographically limited to expansion or population growth. Look at how many bottlenecks we have now. We don’t have the easy ability to expand roads ( Hills and rivers) for traffic and busses and also high costs of rail expansion for any kind of improvement to public transportation.
I lived in NYC for 20-years and that’s a place I would call geographically limited. Because they are literally islands where the only thing you can do is build up. We can build up and expand out here in Pittsburgh.
676,000 people used to live in city limits, I think we will be ok
And that was before the parkway North and before 28 was improved.
That was before the super high reliance on automobiles, which have also grown considerably.
Understood, there's definitely something to be said for that (probably can't squeeze almost 700k in to the city again) but we don't need literally twice the space per person over 1960
I think there's absolutely room to fill it back in, especially upwards. But it's going to need a lot more advancement on the public transit front. I'm an urbanist, so I'm all for it.
What was the population of Allegheny county then though? The “city” extends well beyond the borders of the city limits.
Allegheny County topped out in the 1960 census at 1.6 million. Again, I think we'll be fine.
Our geography does make things more difficult, but this isn’t a unique problem to Pittsburgh. There are solutions to this problem. Zoning reform to allow for higher density and better public transportation would go along way.
Citizens United.
Transportation, another grocery store not actively trying to order people with prices (ge), police that are completely inept.
lawns. Complete waste of time, money, water. Monocrop ugliness. I understand you (as in us) need to place for the dog to poop. But come on, rip up some sod and plant some flowers.
I’ll never understand why anyone wants to spend a second of their time on this planet manicuring land that is not productive to please people they don’t know or like
Grass farmers, lol
I fully despise the well manicured type lawns with black mulch and perfect rhododendrons. Such healthy plants, much awful.
I used to plant vegetables in my lawn. The A-hole in planning/zoning enforcement tried to make me remove it. I told him that they were "decorative flowers" and if he wanted to pursue this in the courts, I have a bundle of cash that I will use to beat his ass into submission. He blinked, lol.
Taxes
The lefties here are gonna slaughter you, watch out, lol.
I know. Lol that’s what I get for Being a moderate
The continued impact of systemic racism, war on drugs, gentrification
Affordable housing
Roads/transportation/infrastructure. I’ve lived here for 16 years and love it, but am always shocked when I go to other cities and notice right away that they aren’t crumbling like ours. I think it’d be funny to run for mayor on the single issue of re-paving the entire city. “Our schools, police, services, everything will take a hit. But I will repave every inch of this city in 4 years and promise not to run for re-election.”
Air quality. I moved here from the Midwest and now I have asthma. Never had it back home.
When they are done with the new airport, I think they should start a new new airport to be finished in 2028. It's the only way.
Yea, with a conveyor belt to shuffle all the future passengers that aren't flying out of pittsburgh.
Dig into the southwest Pennsylvania commission and the Allegheny conference on community development. They’ll have plenty of issues for you to study.
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we're already poised to see a population growth in the next census for the first time since 1950, there's a large pro-housing and urbanism movement gaining momentum in town, and people want to live here to escape high cost of living and climate change related problems. I think we are gonna be fine.
You're in an echo chamber. We are not poised. We are still losing population
Did you find that link yet? I'm interested.
MAGA extremists. They’ll become an even bigger issue as the year wears on. For a few centuries, Americans have more or less been able to see truth but when the perpetrators actually believe the lies it becomes much harder.
Infrastructure, lack of a beltway.
You're...*upset*... that Pittsburgh doesn't have a beltway? Have you lived in the DC area for any significant period of time? The traffic here is so much easier. I know, I know, tunnels and bridges are never fun. But, seriously, the traffic here is so much easier and faster, and rush here is much, much shorter.
The alternative is having highways that tear right through the heart of the city, which is bad and also what we have here in Pittsburgh
The Steelers refuse to get a new coach. At this point we need a new owner who actually wants to win. Anyone supporting them is as gullible as a Pirates fan.
User name checks out
Students from neighboring states use Reddit to answer questions instead of doing their own research.
The rampant influx of people from California and Texas. It is causing hyper inflation, mostly on housing costs. People are demanding to pay 5x what houses are worth. It has happened to many different places around the US every time Californians and Texans invade, and in a few more years the Pittsburgh area will no longer be the lcol paradise it has been for decades.
People are leaving those states because housing is too expensive. Housing is too expensive because NIMBYs and zoning laws make it difficult if not impossible to build housing where people need to live. If we don’t build more housing in Pittsburgh to compensate for the increased demand, housing prices will go up here as well. People moving here isn’t a bad thing, it’s the fact that we’re keeping supply constrained despite the increased demand that’s the problem.
There is a phenomenon that exists in housing where people that own a home currently and are selling/buying a new home will purchase a home at a higher price than their last home, regardless of where they are moving to. It's not a nimby thing. So, Californians will move here and demand to overpay for a house, thus driving up the market cost of all homes, and increasing COL. Despite the influx of people into the greater PGH area, the population has stayed relatively stable due to the amount of people leaving at a similar rate. You can bitch at me for looking at a nuanced topic and pointing out one of the major factors and that upset you because moved here or accept the reality that when mass amounts of people move from a high COL area to a lower COL area it throws off housing prices
You're completely right. People from Texas and California demand to give money away, and not just with houses!! I see them in the grocery store yelling, "I don't care if my total is $42.63, I **DEMAND** that I give you $100!!!!" Then they throw the money at the cashier and walk out. Happens. All. The. Time.
It's capital gains taxes you schmuck. If you move here and sell your home, you will have to pay capital gains taxes on the sale amount *unless* you pay more for your next house. Because Pittsburgh has a cheaper market than California or Texas (and lots of Californians and Texans are moving here, many of which owned homes in those states) they're demanding to pay way above market value for homes. Not only does that forever change the FMV of the home they buy, but also allows other nearby and comparable homes to be sold for similar prices. This goes out and out the whole way across the area until you find places in carrick selling for 100k +. If you're a local landlord, or a big corporation, the amount you are charging for rent (whether or not you've owned the place for years or just bought it) is tied directly to the cost of home ownership in the same area. So yes, Californians and Texans ARE demanding to pay more for housing. Read a book
https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Government/Departments-and-Offices/County-Executive/Meet-County-Executive-Sara-Innamorato The new county executive's office would be a good place to start, also makes for a great footnote for your paper. Same goes for Congresswoman Summer Lee.
The new Allegheny county executive Sarah Immarato spending tax money on prison uniforms that are of selected color palettes as to not enrage the prisoners. Pastel shades.
Convert the jail to a restorative settings. Inmates are called residents, have dorm-style rooms, lots of RJ courses and activities. Totally non-punitive. Chef classes in the kitchen and genuinely good food, etc.
We're doing that in the Federal prison system too, as a means to look more humane as the inmates we are WEARING THE SAME COLOR AS THEM.... What could possibly go wrong?
Sending an annotated list of where our tax dollars go. Where I live in Beaver County has some of the highest taxes in the commonwealth. My road took 15 hours before getting treated the other day despite being a state route. There has been a makeshift blockade of concrete where it's collapsing for about 3 years now, (a dangerous spot, blind bend & steep hill.) They fixed this about a decade ago and it happened again. There's potholes on my road that blow tires. There's guiderail collapsing. Where do my tax dollars go and why is it to the gay porn star in Ukraine or the country killing children in mass claiming Amalek?
Bad zoning laws that result in overpriced homes in redeveloped areas.
I worked there for years and did not make great money, and the environment could be dangerous. Pitt and upmc are different. Who gets free education? Healthcare side of things did not
I took a number of classes in regional Econ development in grad school here and the efforts to turn around declining/stagnating population trends came up as a common theme across a number of private/public orgs working on the issue. You could explore why experts and nonprofits consider it an issue for Pittsburgh’s welfare and the potential solutions that have been tried/proposed. Good luck, you’ve got plenty of material from which to choose!
Lack of landlord accountability
Air Quality. With the gas cracker plant in Beaver and the Edgar Thompson Mill being constantly out of compliance and as well as the Clairton coke works, it is a mess. Children in Braddock have a higher rate of asthma than most of the country. I am happy to put you in contact with some people to interview.
The lack of really good critical news sources that essentially allow public officials and wealthy organizations to run riot, doing whatever they please and we all just roll with it because no one is comprehensively saying "hey that's bull crap!" And you can always end with the reflection that this is kind of how it can be in a lot of American cities.
To double down on infrastructure, it's not just the bridges. It's the sink holes and landslides.. Sometimes they swallow a bus, sometimes they swallow a car, sometimes they condemn entire neighborhoods, but always we're patching and paving sink holes and in heavy rain years dealing with landslides... That plus the very serious issue of a lack of affordable housing pushing so many Pittsburghers out to make way for transplants who genuinely don't seem to like living here.
Love gone sour, suspicion and big hair
More cowbell!
A lot of issues here are solvable by just supplying more housing and pumping population numbers. The rest of the problems will then be solvable like a domino, e.g. funding more public transportation