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How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#51

Post by nunobrito »

avn2109 wrote: post #8
tacos wrote: post #5

It's as if he's never spoken to a Carnegie Mellon grad as to why they get the hell out of Pittsburgh after graduation...

Out of curiosity, why do CMU grads leave?

I'm from Europe but lived in Pittsburgh and graduated in CMU (software engineering). Really enjoyed the city and the people I've met there. CMU is really a place where you can discuss engineering breakthroughs while having breakfast or a coffee.

It is true that the coffee houses there tend to have their own personality and become really good places to study.

But still left the city and just returned to Europe. I've left because the poverty rate in the city was high at that time (2010) and was too easy to either get mugged on the street or get yourself inadvertently involved in some violent event.

Still, Pittsburgh is a special place in my heart and I still keep contact with friends there. Was happy to read this article, really happy to see the city getting better.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#52

Post by ausjke »

I went to Pittsburgh a couple years ago, the downtown is just slightly better than Buffalo, not fully a ghost town but pretty close.

Buffalo is worse because someone made the wise decision to move UB out to the suburb, which essentially rendered the already lost town to a ghost city.

Put young people into the center of town helped to sustain it, however a city's future is more decided by the overall economy development, both Pittsburgh and Buffalo are just _lost_ in recent decades on that part.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#53

Post by robg »

This is perhaps the first essay I read from pg and thought "You're hopping aboard this bandwagon now?". Even he admits to following the lead of the NY Times Food section. Having attended grad school in Pgh from 1999-2004, it was clear back then the city was on it's way back. Now with Apple, Google, and Uber, the question isn't how to make Pgh a startup hub, it's how much it will be.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#54

Post by saosebastiao »

wklauss wrote: post #44
saosebastiao wrote: post #31

Where is the actual evidence that strict historical preservation actually matters? The culturally important buildings tend to stay around whether they are "protected" or not...its really only at the margins where they do anything. And those margins tend to be pretty ridiculous. Seattle, for example, has upheld historical preservation status on buildings that were completely vacant and had no discernible written histo…

> Where is the actual evidence that strict historical preservation actually matters? In all the historic places you visit and that, in some parts of the world, add up to a significant amount GDP thanks to tourism or related activities. There are some intangible values as well as they help shape the history and evolve a community around specific places (think West Village, Manhattan for example). I know it can be frus…

> In all the historic places you visit and that, in some parts of the world, add up to a significant amount GDP thanks to tourism or related activities.

How did ancient Rome ever survive to the extent that it exists today if they didn't have historical preservation statutes? It has a lot more to do with protecting their buildings from angry invaders than it does with protecting their buildings from developers. In reality, developers have little innate interest in destroying the culturally valuable...it is too expensive.

> And what is not culturally important today might be a century form now, or viceversa. You are applying survivor bias. Think of all the historic places no longer with us because they were not deemed culturally relevant or properly protected in first place.

It is true, I'm applying survivor bias. But you are applying a bias of your own. Think of all the future historic places that won't exist because they never get built. At least with my bias we can reason that the buildings that were torn down were, at one point in time, more of a burden than they were worth. Can you imagine not having Independence Hall today because historic preservation statutes decided to preserve all the historic Chestnut Street homes that were torn down for it?

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#55

Post by cfallin »

Pittsburgh has a lot going for it, and it's been really cool seeing the growth since I moved to Pgh in 2009.

I think the one thing it might have against it is a growing anti-gentrification/tech movement. It's nothing like throw-rocks-at-busses San Francisco, but you do see things like this graffiti:

http://imgur.com/5T0iJQ6

And it's not just the fringe with these views, but (in my experience) reasonable people who are frustrated with rising rents and they scapegoat tech growth.

The housing market is also a little wonky. Pittsburgh is cheap on average, but it's sort of bimodal -- there are nice new shiny apartments being built, especially around Google (Bakery Square) and thereabouts, but they're going at maybe 1.5-2x the median rent. Then the rest of the apartment stock is just a little... old. I took for granted having parking and laundry and post-1950s wiring when I was on the west coast. There are a bunch of places here that haven't been renovated in 50 years.

In any case, I agree with PG that there's a certain pragmatism here and I think really great things are coming if the growth continues.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#56

Post by morley »

wklauss wrote: post #44
saosebastiao wrote: post #31

Where is the actual evidence that strict historical preservation actually matters? The culturally important buildings tend to stay around whether they are "protected" or not...its really only at the margins where they do anything. And those margins tend to be pretty ridiculous. Seattle, for example, has upheld historical preservation status on buildings that were completely vacant and had no discernible written histo…

> Where is the actual evidence that strict historical preservation actually matters? In all the historic places you visit and that, in some parts of the world, add up to a significant amount GDP thanks to tourism or related activities. There are some intangible values as well as they help shape the history and evolve a community around specific places (think West Village, Manhattan for example). I know it can be frus…

> historic preservation of places eventually pays off.

Historic preservation is no more than collecting, done by the government. There's no guarantee that what they collect will appreciate in value. For example, maybe they're preserving 1970's Kenner Star Wars toys, and maybe they're preserving the ones from 1999.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#57

Post by reneherse »

joelrunyon wrote: post #36
forrestthewoods wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you didn't have to attract the "most" 18 to 30 year olds? What if what you really needed was to attract an underserved niche of 18 to 30 year olds? I think Atlanta or Nashville is ripe. Northeasterners can and do move to California already. Southerners are much less likely to do so imo. The rural market is grossly underserved right now. Almost none of the efforts to get people into computer science are hittin…

Commenting to call out Nashville as the next Austin. Lots of similar characteristics, business friendly environment, and fast internet.

I concur, and will add: a growing developer community, bad (and increasing) traffic, and quickly escalating housing costs. :)

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#58

Post by gshulegaard »

ausjke wrote: post #41
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #12

Im convinced that the next valley will happen in the place that can attract the most unmarried people ages 18 through 30. What do these people care about? - night life - high density urban living - progressive local governments and freedom (drug and marriage decriminalization). - good public transportation - access to high speed internet - good universities As they grow older and get married, affordable and high spee…

While not a perfect fit, Austin seems like a good enough match for this.

And there is a burgeoning tech industry in Austin...if the choices of my fellow tech industry recent college graduates relocation choices is a reliable anecdotal indicator. I found out a fair number of my acquaintances from college (University of California) took jobs and relocated to Austin.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#60

Post by davidw »

santaclaus wrote: post #7
rdl wrote: post #3

I would love to see this happen. (I'd also love to see Portland Oregon, mentioned as an alternative, get the world-class research university it lacks now.)

Given unlimited funds, could a school like OHSU or PSU realistically gear up to 'world-class research' status quickly?

It's partially political: the University of Oregon is in Eugene, and has always been the main university in Oregon, followed by OSU in Corvallis.

Along these lines, I'm quite pleased that Bend is getting a university, OSU Cascades, which is something that has been lacking over here.

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