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Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

nytimes.com

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Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#41

Post by dasil003 »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #29
theYipster wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long found a third drawback, which may be linked to the access to capital issue, is Pittsburgh's geographical isolation compared to the Bay Area and other tech hot spots. There's no major international air hub (anymore) and flights even to nearby cities such as NY, DC, and Philly are relatively pricey with limited schedules. There's no meaningful international service either anymore. This is in comparison to SFO…

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…

I'm doing that this week and I had to choose a 6:30am flight to get a layover less than 6 hours and a price less than $1000.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#42

Post by theYipster »

mcgrath_sh wrote: post #35
theYipster wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long found a third drawback, which may be linked to the access to capital issue, is Pittsburgh's geographical isolation compared to the Bay Area and other tech hot spots. There's no major international air hub (anymore) and flights even to nearby cities such as NY, DC, and Philly are relatively pricey with limited schedules. There's no meaningful international service either anymore. This is in comparison to SFO…

With the increase in speed limit on the turnpike, DC has become just under 4 hours for me. From my house in the city to the Silver Spring metro stop is 3h 55m on the GPS. Toronto is a 6 hour drive, Charlotte or Chicago are also only a 7 hour drive. I know many people prefer to fly, but between getting to the airport, getting there in enough time (1.5 hours or so), probable delays, actually flying, getting out of the…

The PA turnpike was built with a design speed of 100 mph and when I went to CMU, my record between Westchester County north of NYC and campus was 6 hours, 50 minutes (driving at times close to that design speed.) Three of the four speeding tickets I've gotten in life have also been on that road...

Even with a faster turnpike, Pittsburgh is well outside the Northeast Corridor megalopolis which does have an isolating effect on capital, and even with a tech makeover, it's still going to be an isolating city without similar makeovers in eastern Ohio and upstate NY.

I'm of that era of CMU grad the article talks about that spent four years there and left. It's a great town and I enjoy going back, but the prime reason I didn't stick around was isolation.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#44

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

whopa wrote: post #30
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an SF transplant, my only thoughts after seeing California drivers struggling with the artificial snow and hills at Tahoe were "these people have never been to Pittsburgh." Also, eastern Pennsylvania has the Appalachian mountains, and last time I checked, they were "real."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Davis_(Pennsylvania) - 3,213 ft - highest point in PA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejon_Pass - 4,160 ft Tejon Pass is on I-5 in northern LA County, and it is a huge trucking route. The grade is very steep between the Central Valley and the top of the pass, and is fairly challenging for trucks. There is no equivalent to those conditions in PA. Also, if your impression of Tahoe is…

looks like someone has never been to Pennsylvania.

Tejon Pass' major difficulty is the grade, and that's about it. PA may not have a highway that matches that grade, but many come close, and there are far more tight curves, typically far worse road conditions, and bad weather season is far more common than in N LA.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#45

Post by [deleted] »

whopa wrote: post #30
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an SF transplant, my only thoughts after seeing California drivers struggling with the artificial snow and hills at Tahoe were "these people have never been to Pittsburgh." Also, eastern Pennsylvania has the Appalachian mountains, and last time I checked, they were "real."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Davis_(Pennsylvania) - 3,213 ft - highest point in PA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejon_Pass - 4,160 ft Tejon Pass is on I-5 in northern LA County, and it is a huge trucking route. The grade is very steep between the Central Valley and the top of the pass, and is fairly challenging for trucks. There is no equivalent to those conditions in PA. Also, if your impression of Tahoe is…

[deleted]

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#46

Post by sjg007 »

ta201707 wrote: post #36

Last year I was going through a long and grueling job search after taking time off for family reasons. I was based in the midwest after living around the country over the past decade for my recent three jobs. It was the first time I felt totally untethered and able to look at any US locations for a new job. I work in scientific computing and machine learning, so there were various employment hubs to consider. Knowing…

Well if it's the best they can do it's they can do. Did you have multiple offers to leverage? Also how big was your network in the area? Sometimes you have to start something as well in some places to get what you want. Anyway thanks for sharing. Nice to hear that Minneapolis is a techie place.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#47

Post by [deleted] »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #26
whopa wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they aren't biased by the immaculate freeways and roads in California -- Pittsburgh has a much wider variety of challenging driving situations, weather, and conditions than California so it is a great test bed for developing autonomous vehicles Careful, don't compare Pittsburgh to an entire state. Pennsylvania doesn't have any real mountains, whereas California does. Google tests their self driving vehicles in the…

As an SF transplant, my only thoughts after seeing California drivers struggling with the artificial snow and hills at Tahoe were "these people have never been to Pittsburgh." Also, eastern Pennsylvania has the Appalachian mountains, and last time I checked, they were "real."

[deleted]

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#48

Post by bane »

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 plenty of things to do, some innovative areas that are turning around dead warehouse and industrial areas

- Some parts of the city are really beautiful and nice places to be, lots of great parks and so on

But there's some realities that I don't think limit what can come from the city, but rather shape what kinds of businesses should set up shop there.

- Geographic isolation

- Parts of the city can be pretty rough still, rougher than what you might find elsewhere

- hard to bring in quality talent if they aren't being sourced from the schools

- Non-tech talent comes from completely different industries

So I think that if you can shape a business that targets a large domestic market and solves real problems, even non-sexy B2B ones, you can probably grow a thriving business there. You probably won't end up hitting it big on social media, but many B2B problems are billion dollar businesses.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#49

Post by mcgrath_sh »

rrdharan wrote: post #40
mcgrath_sh wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the increase in speed limit on the turnpike, DC has become just under 4 hours for me. From my house in the city to the Silver Spring metro stop is 3h 55m on the GPS. Toronto is a 6 hour drive, Charlotte or Chicago are also only a 7 hour drive. I know many people prefer to fly, but between getting to the airport, getting there in enough time (1.5 hours or so), probable delays, actually flying, getting out of the…

Agree if you are just concerned about travel time but there's also the opportunity to get work done, sleep, or watch a movie on a plane. I generally avoid driving these days just because I find myself increasingly dreading the level of concentration and focus required to drive safely for more than two or three hours at a stretch.

That is completely fair. The equation also drastically changes when you are looking at traveling alone and traveling with more than one person. Even with just my husband and I, the cost in both time and money to fly to Philly, NYC, DC, and Ohio is simply not worth it. Instead, we plunk down the money for a new audiobook and split the driving.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#50

Post by javra »

Wow, this article really doesn't even at least mention some of the problems this new boom bring. Maybe ask long time residents of neighborhoods like East Liberty, Bloomfield, or Lawrenceville how happy they are that they got driven out by rising rents due to rich techies? The "revitalization" of Pittsburgh might benefit some, most of them relatively new to the city, but gentrification will hurt lots of its populace who will then be forced to live in the sprawl ghettos around the city where crime is already a big problem.
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