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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

#351

Post by cmonfeat »

colindean wrote: post #259
spudfkc wrote: post #200

As a native Clevelander, I love the idea of the a rust-belt city becoming the next big startup hub. Unfortunately, I can't help but disagree with several points in this article: Low cost of living: Sure, it's low compared to SF, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. Just look at how quickly housing prices have been rising the past few years. Maybe this isn't something to worry about - maybe it's just a sign that…

> Low cost of living: Sure, it's low compared to SF, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. Just look at how quickly housing prices have been rising the past few years. Maybe this isn't something to worry about - maybe it's just a sign that Pittsburgh is a place people already want to move to. I find it to be largely opportunistic at this point. A correction of sorts, as the real estate was underpriced significant…

I lived in PGH for 5 years and, unfortunately, I think he's right that there is a huge amount of racism in the area. It definitely wasn't most people I knew, but among people that grew up in the area it's definitely a thing.

Pittsburgh is one of the least diverse metro areas in the country (http://www.post-gazette.com/business/career-workplace/2015/0...) and it really is eye opening how segregated the city is when you live anywhere else. I discussed this with most transplants I knew there and they agreed. I think the effect of this was pretty apparent for my entire time there.

This makes me super sad, because I absolutely love PGH and am a huge booster of it. The lack of diversity was far and away the biggest draw back of living there for me.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#352

Post by needz »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #339
needz wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have 'Code for Birmingham' non-profit organization that works to build software for the city, a strong computer science department at the local major University (UAB), and a few tech incubators. We're lacking in the 'meetup.com' department of the tech scene, but the point is we're primed for an influx of entrepreneurs and startups.

How is the computer science program at University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa? Does it have a growing emphasis? Historically C.S. hasn't been big at SEC schools but I've no idea if that's still the case. (I grew up an hour west of Knoxville. And have family in B'ham/Tuscaloosa.)

Not too sure. I just moved to the area 2 years ago so aside from basic rivalry knowledge I can only speak for UAB, where I graduated from. Excellent professors and a strong sense of community among the C.S. undergrads. Also home to a very active chapter of the ACM that holds upper-grad presentations for lower-grad students and regular one-on-one study sessions between the two.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#353

Post by ProAm »

MicroBerto wrote: post #218
ProAm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too crowded and pricey currently. It was but I think it's losing luster because of those reasons.

Austin isn't even close to finishing its growth. It's currently "burroughing" out with me SoDoSoPa style mini-downtowns like The Domain and Mueller due to the awful traffic situation. There's an issue with getting huge money still, but you can live cheap in the burbs and bootstrap to your heart's content. If the REAL tech / hardware industry doesn't have a collapse, there will be no stopping the growth.

> If the REAL tech / hardware industry doesn't have a collapse, there will be no stopping the growth.

You're correct, but look at Detroit and look at the old steel and coal towns. There is always a collapse, and the collapses are happening in faster iterations as technology advances at a faster pace.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#354

Post by leesalminen »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #125
Yhippa wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either of these cities socially liberal? Hard to tell based on my visits there.

Less liberal than the coasts. More liberal than their surrounding rural neighbors. We talk about how women make up 50% of the population and if we don't hire women then we're leaving a lot of talent on the table. Well 50% of the country is conservative and if we don't hire conservatives we're also leaving a lot of talent on the table. Conservatives are people too. Many who are incredibly smart, talented, and hard wor…

But who wants to sit in a room with Bible Belt conservatives?

I say this as a fairly conservative person living in a very liberal city.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#355

Post by colindean »

cmonfeat wrote: post #351
colindean wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Low cost of living: Sure, it's low compared to SF, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. Just look at how quickly housing prices have been rising the past few years. Maybe this isn't something to worry about - maybe it's just a sign that Pittsburgh is a place people already want to move to. I find it to be largely opportunistic at this point. A correction of sorts, as the real estate was underpriced significant…

I lived in PGH for 5 years and, unfortunately, I think he's right that there is a huge amount of racism in the area. It definitely wasn't most people I knew, but among people that grew up in the area it's definitely a thing. Pittsburgh is one of the least diverse metro areas in the country ( http://www.post-gazette.com/business/career-workplace/2015/0... ) and it really is eye opening how segregated the city is when…

Go out a county in any direction and the culture leans racist. But in Allegheny County, with a few exceptions, the level of racism seems more-or-less passive, a.k.a. Wendy Bell Racism (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wendy+bell).

I'm not saying that it's not a problem where it happens, but I guess I have the fortune/privilege of observing it so rarely despite living in an suburban borough that is 29.25% White, 66.51% African American according to the 2010 census. I admit that I don't patronize its lone business district very often.

In the city, though, I don't have incidents in my memory that I can cite as evidence that racism is "huge" in Pittsburgh. Big incidents are in the minds of many, e.g. Jordan Miles incident (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jordan+miles) and to my knowledge and memory, are the exception, not the rule. Then again, I spend most of my time in the East End, which is pretty segregated.

I do concede the lack of diversity in Pittsburgh's tech scene though. The only quantification I have of it is C&S's meetup attendance, which is approximately 10% people of color on average (women = 20%). The number of PoC attending have been slowly but steadily increasing but the number of women fluctuates. We're working on encouraging both demographics to attend!

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#356

Post by rwhitman »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #281
rwhitman wrote: post #278

Pittsburgh is unfortunately kind of isolated transportation-wise, which I think is a bigger disadvantage than it looks on the surface. It was founded when waterways were the main transportation access point, and boomed as it was the intersection of 3 rivers. But today Pittsburgh has an airport that isn't a major airline hub, with limited flights that need a connection from most cities. Rail by Amtrak is infrequent an…

It's a good suggestion. Besides things like Hyperloop and such, even with today's train technology, a fast train (TGV, Pendolino, etc) could connect Pittsburgh to NYC in 2.5 / 3 hours. Unfortunately it would take 20 years to build it.

The frustrating part is that Pennsylvania has had tons of railway planning, infrastructure built - but it's mostly been abandoned or neglected for the last 70 years. So much of the state was born out of investment in rail connections and then economically smothered by the end of the railroads and never recovered.

Pennsylvania became an economic powerhouse because of the railroads, but without them it's just a sad shadow of it's former glory. If someone took the lead on rebooting the railroad industry in PA it would reboot the entire economy of the state.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#357

Post by dietlbomb »

I agree with PG that Mississippi probably isn't the right place for a startup hub, but it is disappointing that he contributes to the spin that Mississippi's religious liberty bill represents intolerance. It's these sort of religious protections that allow people of differing beliefs to live together, as opposed to the enforcement of secular norms found in jurisdictions that are supposedly more tolerant.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#358

Post by gshulegaard »

corin_ wrote: post #86
vonmoltke wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"[B]urgeoning tech industry"? For what definition of "tech"? Dell and various semiconductor companies have been down there for decades. The games industry has had a strong presence since the mid-90s at least. The startup scene might be considered burgeoning, but the tech sector in Austin as a whole is pretty well-established.

Burgeoning only means it's starting to grow fast, it doesn't mean it can't have been well-established already as well.

Thank you.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#360

Post by LordKano »

vacri wrote: post #282
LordKano wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not set on living in the city, housing is fantastic in the Pittsburgh area. I live 20 minutes from Downtown and I bought my house for $74,900 in 2008. 3/2, two car garage and driveway sitting on about 1/8 of an acre. It blows my mind when I hear how much money people are paying for housing in bigger cities. The salary would need to be significantly higher to make it worth my while to move to a place like SF…

> Additionally, this area is fairly centrist politically. I spent three months crossing the US in 2009 as a tourist. I had developed a light-hearted measure of the patriotism of an area by how many US flags were seen in suburban front yards. Before I visited Pittsburgh, I had rated '1 house in 4-5 with a flag' as a very patriotic area on this scale. Then I hit Pittsburgh, and the area where my hotel was had one house…

Out of curiosity, where was your hotel?
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