when I was in college, a few of the guys on campus were from Pitt. They proclaimed to be members of the Crips gang. Anyways, on mischief night, I basically got the crap beat out of me by three guys, during a home/dorm invasion. I knew it was those guys, but because they were wearing masks, nothing was done about it. they eventually got kicked out for dealing.

I heard Pitt has quite a bit of gang activity....which is non-existent in Philly

The pictures from the link in the OP are impressive. Some of them are downright beautiful. I'll totally admit to not ever thinking about Pittsburgh one way or another - it always seemed like a point of non-interest to me (the way every place in the state that isn't Philly is...sorry).

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You know, the homeless make desperate, passionate lovers. But they will rob you blind.

Yep, those were crip wannabes, who were supposedly worse than the real crips, because they were trying to live the legend instead of the reality.

Anyway, I wonder if all that's still going on?

I think there were 98 murders in Allegheny County, 57 in the city of Pittsburgh. You'll see hillbilly crimes in towns like Allentown, McKees Rocks and McKeesport, depressed areas just outside the city struggling to hold on to their working class status, but overall Pittsburgh is an extremely safe place to live.

95 murders sounds like paradise to us, but people in Pittsburgh are freaking out. Thats a high number for over there, and gang violence has picked up according to city officials. But the gangs usually seem more preoccupied with shooting each other rather than scoping out the nice parts of the city for victims. By my estimation, there's a number of reasons for this.

I think one thing that helps Pittsburgh in that respect is Allegheny County has the 2nd oldest population in the nation outside Palm Beach County. W/ youth comes violence, rebellion, and disrespect for the law, but Pittsburgh is an old man's city so the values are drastically different than what you see here.

Another difference is the lack of gentrification, even though Pittsburgh's black neighborhoods are rarely dangerous and have gorgeous grand architecture. It seems like everyone over the age of 30 moves to the suburbs (even though only one train goes to the suburbs, and its about 6 miles outside the city), which obviously makes them much less likely to be victimized than if they tried to gentrify a neighborhood instead. And couples w/ children, forget about it. They are moving to the suburbs. As for Downtown, it's a ghost town after rush hour.

Another major reason for Pittburgh's lack of violent crime is the layout and topography of the city. Affluent neighborhoods in Philly are easily accessible by foot and car by thugs looking for victims. This is why SW Rittenhouse Square and Filter Square is experiencing all the recent muggings. Pittsburgh's geographical features act as a natural barrier, and you need a car to get from one city neighborhood to another. They'll either be a river or ravine acting like a moat and dividing the yuppies/students from the bad neighborhoods. Or maybe there's a long bridge to navigate or a decent sized slice of road lacking homes or businesses thats the only way of connecting the two neighborhoods.

Pittsburgh is a live-and-let-live kind of town. People are nice and mind their own business. Pretentiousness is rewarded with mockery, and people are more genuine. It has a small town feel to it. This is anecdotal evidence, so take it for whats its worth, but off the top of my head, none of my acquaintences in the 25 years of living in or near Pittsburgh has been the victim of a violent crime outside of your normal fist fight after a few too many cold ones. If there's a Pittsburgh version of PhillyBlog, the crime threads you'll see will consist of teenagers egging houses on Halloween Eve.

Yeah it does, but conflicts are usually limited to their own neighborhoods, and they aren't so quick to shoot. Philadelphia County has 3 times the population of Allegheny County, but 4-5 times the number of murders. And gang violence doesn't spill over to nice neighborhoods, so its rare that anyone with any clout really cares. A 15 year old honor roll student was recently caught in crossfire though, and the people are pretty upset. Pretty sad story.

People who think Philly is a segregated city have no idea. They should take a gander at Pittsburgh.

It was originally "hunky"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunky_Culture

funny you mention though, cuz I discovered the term not to long ago.

my mom said she used it to describe parties and weddings - a "hunky wedding" meaning a wedding that was very wild, rambunctious and ethnic.
this despite the fact that she's from a slovak family that lived in tiny steel town.

I've spent a lot of time in and around Pitt and it's nothing like Philly.

A few differences I notice:

1. You can drive 20 min outside of downtown Pitt and be in the middle of effin' nowhere.

2. The desolate industrial towns. I know we have our share of Marcus Hooks and Camdens, but they're tenfold in the Pitt metro area. If it weren't for the affluent suburbs, you'd think the whole area was in the depression era.

3. Ugly, dirty people.

That said, I love Pittsburgh.

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My restlessness is my nemesis.

Good observation.

I think the topography has also gone a long way in limiting suburban sprawl in Pittsburgh.

Granted, most new development is on the fringes, but there's not much growth to begin with.
As someone mentioned before, it's not a growing region. All they're doing is redistributing people.
In addition, the topography limits you to rural densities in some places because you can't get enough contiguous flat land.

Just a fact that I found interesting:
When I was in grad school I did an employment analysis of Allegheney Co. from 1970 to 2000.
To sum it up, about 80% of the manufacturing base was lost and completely replaced with service jobs.

Steel Mills -----> Wal-Mart


as for the pop thing, a lot of the distinction is also in how you say "pauwp"

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My restlessness is my nemesis.

1. 20 minutes in any direction from Downtown, and you're still in the city of Pittsburgh, so I don't know how thats the middle of nowhere. You haven't even hit the suburbs yet. I know you were speaking in hyperbole, but you probably have to go 40 minutes to be in the middle of nowhere. I'd say 40 min outside of Pittsburgh is slightly more rural than 40 minutes North and West of Philadelphia.
2. There's nothing to the extent of Camden near Pittsburgh. You see places like Duquesne and North Braddock, but they don't have the crime of Camden, b/c they really don't even have people anymore.
3. The people aren't any uglier or fatter than they are here. But if you're good looking and mature enough, you'll land a beautiful woman no matter where you live, so whats the difference. At least thats my observation from living in different cities.

Its a white Baltimore...or is Baltimore a black Pittsburgh.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SFC28 Isn't it ironic that Mark B. Cohen, the guy who soaked the taxpayers for $22K on book store spending sprees, is a champion of libraries?

This message is hidden because jrouleau426 is on your ignore list.

LOL Pittsburgh and Baltimore are polar opposites in every way imaginable. Seriously. I can't think of a major similarity. High crime vs. Low crime. Tons of ghettos vs. barely any ghettos. One city tries to act like its not blue collar, while the other is very proud of its working class reputation.

I remember driving to Baltimore from Pittsburgh and thinking we must be close to downtown since we were in the ghetto. But turns out we had like a half hour to go. Baltimore reminds me more of Detroit than anything. Pittsburgh is different than everywhere I've ever been. I'd say Cincinnati, Columbus, and to an extent Louisville remind me more of Pittsburgh than anywhere else.