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Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

nytimes.com

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Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#81

Post by chebureki »

autokad wrote: post #75
Game_Ender wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming just because it's Pittsburgh pay from companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Uber will not be competitive. If there is any discount on salary it's on the 10-15% range, not 50%.

software developers for amazon in Pittsburgh make between 56 and 107k, 78k mean (glassdoor). Sanfrancisco, its 76 - 131k, 102k mean.

A side note. The cost of living here in Pittsburgh is much, much lower than in SF or in NYC. According to a Cost of Living calculator, to maintain the same living standard in Pittsburgh at $60K, you have to make $137K in SF.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#82

Post by CydeWeys »

graphitezepp wrote: post #56
CydeWeys wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the bike infrastructure? I get around pretty much everywhere in Manhattan and Brooklyn by bike; I only take public transit a few times per month. Also, I imagine the winters there can be harsh.

As much as I love it here, we got our share of problems. Winter is rough and so is the biking situation, due to bridge related reasons. However the city is very good at dealing with the bad weather and the current powers that be have been doing a lot to make infrastructure more bike friendly.

What are the bridge-related issues? You appear to have a lot more bridges than ManhattanBrooklyn, which is nice.

Is it the lack of proper bike lanes on the bridges?

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#83

Post by graphitezepp »

stcredzero wrote: post #74
bane wrote: post #48

Pittsburgh is a great town. It looks a bit like it was on the barely winning side of a fist fight, but it has lots going for it: - Two big, well funded, well respected schools cranking out talent. CMU is one of the top schools in the world for CS. - Cheap rent - If you want to buy a house, some really beautiful neighborhoods - SEI - lots of cyber security talent - Great food and activities, it's not hard to find plen…

Pittsburgh is a great town. It looks a bit like it was on the barely winning side of a fist fight I was born in Pittsburgh, and I have some experience with towns in the region and other rust belt river towns. Maybe I'm biased, but I'd say that Pittsburgh, in its good parts, looks better than most in the region. Also, I'm old enough to know the benefits of the Clean Air Act on that town. Once, you could literally smel…

Pittsburgh still is measured to have bad air quality compared to other cities, but it's certainly not bad enough that you actually notice it.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#84

Post by Avshalom »

closeparen wrote: post #79
Avshalom wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> lifestyle-type businesses e.g. profitable.

Which is great for the people living off that income, and not great for investors unless it's also valuable. VCs would need to take fewer, smaller risks if they're expecting smaller rewards per success story.

I feel like it's a pretty recent development that investors don't expect their investments to turn a profit.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#85

Post by graphitezepp »

CydeWeys wrote: post #82
graphitezepp wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I love it here, we got our share of problems. Winter is rough and so is the biking situation, due to bridge related reasons. However the city is very good at dealing with the bad weather and the current powers that be have been doing a lot to make infrastructure more bike friendly.

What are the bridge-related issues? You appear to have a lot more bridges than Manhattan Brooklyn, which is nice. Is it the lack of proper bike lanes on the bridges?

Yes. The incredible amount of bridges (most anywhere) makes it so a lot of roadways, be it the bridges themselves or just general weirdness begat from building roads in a river valley, are super not safe for bikers.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#86

Post by closeparen »

bane wrote: post #48

Pittsburgh is a great town. It looks a bit like it was on the barely winning side of a fist fight, but it has lots going for it: - Two big, well funded, well respected schools cranking out talent. CMU is one of the top schools in the world for CS. - Cheap rent - If you want to buy a house, some really beautiful neighborhoods - SEI - lots of cyber security talent - Great food and activities, it's not hard to find plen…

Won't cheap rent go away as soon as any substantial number of programmers move in?

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#87

Post by jjawssd »

getemback wrote: post #76
graphitezepp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a remaining conception of Pittsburgh as a dirty industrial wasteland. Today one good look at the city from a high vantage point on a sunny day kills this conception instantly.

Good luck finding a sunny day because Pittsburgh enjoys the fewest hours of annual sunlight of any major city, and continues to have air quality as bad as any other US city, being in the top ten worst according to the Lung Association.

What causes the poor air quality? There are no obvious pollution sources other than cars.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#88

Post by rytill »

getemback wrote: post #76
graphitezepp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a remaining conception of Pittsburgh as a dirty industrial wasteland. Today one good look at the city from a high vantage point on a sunny day kills this conception instantly.

Good luck finding a sunny day because Pittsburgh enjoys the fewest hours of annual sunlight of any major city, and continues to have air quality as bad as any other US city, being in the top ten worst according to the Lung Association.

I don't feel like there's any major lack of sunlight and I've lived in Pittsburgh for years. Source?

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#89

Post by closeparen »

Avshalom wrote: post #84
closeparen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is great for the people living off that income, and not great for investors unless it's also valuable. VCs would need to take fewer, smaller risks if they're expecting smaller rewards per success story.

I feel like it's a pretty recent development that investors don't expect their investments to turn a profit.

The investment needs to turn a profit for the investor by appreciating in value, which is different from turning a profit in general.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#90

Post by Hydraulix989 »

iak8god wrote: post #72
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. I wrote to the mayor about this, and we could definitely use more help raising awareness to the city about this very pressing issue (@billpeduto on Twitter if you're also affected)... I've never had an SFO PIT flight without layovers. Also, we ask everyone here to please continue to refrain from using the pejorative "rust-belt" to describe our beloved hometown and emerging tech center. It is a very u…

> we ask everyone here to please continue to refrain from using the pejorative "rust-belt" Who is "we"? I spent the first few decades of my life in a great lakes rust belt city and this is the first time I've heard of anyone considering it a pejorative.

People actually from Pittsburgh do (I'm a fourth generation native, my great grandfather farmed tomatoes for H.J. Heinz -- look on a ketchup bottle):

"Shame. It’s pretty thick in these parts, and it’s linked to the region’s nickname, 'The Rust Belt.' After all, rust connotes disuse, or of being left behind." [1]

Hope that helps you see our point of view a bit more.

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richey-piiparinen/rust-belt-de...

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