I lived in Pittsburgh for about one and a half years. Not long. But I think it was enough to get the gist of the place.
I couldn't stand it.
Before moving there, and since leaving, I've heard lots of people say exactly the opposite. They mostly say how surprised they were when they first arrived -- it was nothing like the dark, smokey, depressing place they envisioned. And that's true -- Pittsburgh looks pleasant enough. Picturesque, even, especially in the fall. So I mostly just assumed that our differences of opinion where purely subjective. To each his own.
But after looking at some data, I think I was wrong. I think something else is going on. But before that, let's review the data:
Air and water quality
This is one of those things that impresses newcomers. This New York Times article sums it up well -- Pittsburgh "has undergone a striking renaissance from a down-and-out smokestack to a gleaming cultural oasis." That's right, the smoke is gone and the skies are clear!
Except, well, no. In fact, according to the American Lung Association, Pittsburgh has more short-term particle pollution than any other city in the country, and more year-round particle pollution than any city other than LA (link).
On top of that, the rivers are still quite contaminated from the city's manufacturing heyday (link and link).
There is at least some good news on this front -- Pennsylvania did recently ban smoking in some indoor areas. However, the ban is comparatively incomplete (link). Also note that it took an act by the state to cut down on public smoking -- the county tried for years to pass such a ban with no success.
Weather
On top of that, the sun doesn't get a chance to shine much anyway -- Pittsburgh is usually cloudy (link). Also, like most of the northeast, it is unpleasant outside a majority of the time. Muggy summers combined with frigid winters leave only a few months a year when it is genuinely nice to be outdoors.
Of course one can bear it -- I certainly did my share of jogs through snow and ice in December, and through thick, sweltering heat in July (though the summer was nothing like the Georgia summers of my youth). But it made exercise more of a chore than something to enjoy. Still the worst for me, and this is certainly quite subjective, was the lack of vegetation in the winter months. There were no leaves on the trees for six months, and the surrounding forests are mostly deciduous. So, for half the year nature is a dull gray. The runs I did in March on Laurel Ridge though the drab forest would have been too depressing to bear if it weren't for a few crazy wild turkeys who have a tendency to startle easy, get disoriented, and run into things.
Transport
Most people I talk to say that the bus system seems to work well. That the city has only a meager light rail system should not be held against it -- most American cities don't. But the roads are crumbling. Literally (link). I remember driving over potholes in the bridges so deep you could see down to the river below. Overall, though, it could be worse.
Education
The biggest problem with public education in Pittsburgh is that nobody is going (link). Schools are closing left and right because there aren't enough kids to fill them up. I can't say for sure that this is a bad thing, but it seems awfully depressing to me.
Food
It is certainly possible to find good food in Pittsburgh. But it takes effort. More specifically, there are plenty of great pizza places, but only a handful of good Asian and Mexican restaurants.
I think this derives from Pittsburgh's overall lack of demographic diversity. According to a report by CMU's Heinz School, Pittsburgh is "one of America's least diverse regions in terms of foreign population" (link). This actually impacts the city in many other ways. In this sense, Pittsburgh reminds me of Atlanta 20 years ago when the city was almost completely black/white and it seemed like every issue was about race. Atlanta has since seen an infusion of Asian and Hispanic populations. Actually, I think this is perhaps the biggest problem with Pittsburgh -- dichotomized groups often lead to dark places.
Economy
Of course the bottom fell out of the manufacturing component of Pittsburgh's economy a long time ago. But even the city's efforts to encourage other growth industries aren't really working (Richard Florida has written extensively about this). On top of that, the 2000 census showed that 20% of the population lives below the poverty line (link). It also doesn't help that Pittsburgh has one of the highest tax rates in the country (link).
Crime
This another one of those things that I've heard newcomers cite as being a positive of Pittsburgh -- low crime rates! Except again this is completely wrong. The data show that crime rates are higher than the national average across almost all types of crime (link).
Conclusion
In short: Pittsburgh lacks diversity, it is one of the most heavily polluted cities in the country, its coffers are empty and it is shedding crucial public services left and right, its crime rate is much higher than the national average, and it is gloomy. I think this is enough evidence to say objectively that on average Pittsburgh is not a good place to live.
So what's going on? Why are there so many people who think that Pittsburgh is so great? I mean, its not just people I know -- The New York Times is in on it too. Besides the recent article I cited above, the Times wrote a similarly glowing review way back in 1985, using very similar language, in fact (pointed out in this article in Reason).
I think a few things are happening. One is the expectation effect (link), which shows that people will tend to find ways for a situation to fit with their expectations of that situation. This seems like a counter-argument at first, but Pittsburgh has been getting "Best Place to Live" and "Most Livable City" awards for many years now, and I think that's actually what people expect to find when they get there. The second is that people may think that because industry has left town, and there are no smokestacks in the city per se, the pollution's not really there. Finally, people who decide to move to Pittsburgh and spend years of their life there will tend to rationalize their decision post hoc (as Daniel Gilbert's pop psychology book "Stumbling on Happiness" points out, all of us do this all the time).
Still, it is telling that, for all the accolades it receives, Pittsburgh is losing population in droves. As the Reason article points out, "since 2000 Pittsburgh has lost more people -- almost 60,000 -- than any other metropolis in the country except for poor New Orleans."
Addendum
Of course, there are still many reasons to like the place, and it works for many people. But it does need help and I think it does the city a disservice to say otherwise.
If the city does rebound, I think it will be because of CMU students. I've never witnessed people with more drive than those at CMU, so I think if enough of them start to care about the city they could make a lot of progress (though, of course, there's just nothing to be done about the gloom).
Update
Popsci.com has listed Pittsburgh as one of "The World's Dirtiest Cities" (link). Ouch.
