BikePortland.org wrote a post within their Real Estate Beat that comes right out with it– “Pittsburgh is (in many ways) the city that Portland wants to become.”
Michael Anderson, news editor for BikePortland, delves into the different aspects of our city that make it such a desirable model for other forward-thinking communities. He writes:
“When I headed to Pittsburgh last week to join the Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place conference for my other gig, I was telling people that “the Paris of Appalachia” (as its mayor likes to call it) is the city that my hometown, Toledo, Ohio, wishes it could be.
Three days later, I started telling people it was the city that Portland wishes it could be, too.
Pittsburgh obviously isn’t as bikeable as Portland, though it’s coming along. But almost everything else about the city measures up.”
Andersen goes on to map out Pittsburgh’s (in comparison to Portland’s) more “attractive” qualities:
“It’s young: the median Pittsburgher is 33 years old, compared to 37 for Portland and 37 nationally.
It’s educated: 19 percent of Pittsburghers have a graduate degree, compared to 18 percent of Portlanders and 11 percent of Americans.
It’s attractive: 9 percent of Pittsburghers moved to their county in the last year, compared to 10 percent of Portlanders.
It’s fairly diverse: 67 percent white, 25 percent Black, 5 percent Asian, 3 percent Latino, 3 percent multiracial compared to Portland’s 79 percent white, 6 percent Black, 7 percent Asian, 9 percent Latino, 4 percent multiracial.
It’s affordable: as of 2012, median rent including utilities was $755 a month to Portland’s $905.
Like Portland, it’s doing fine to well economically: metro-area unemployment is 5.8 percent, compared to Portland’s 6.3 percent and the country’s 6.5 percent.
And maybe most of all, it’s alive…”
Check out the full article here.
