The most beautiful city in America

Hyperbole? No way!

http://pittsburghskyline.com/content/category/photo-series/

Questions/comments welcome. Having thusly opened myself up for all kinds of barbs and jabs, I will add this: Asshattery will be dealt with in the most severe E-thug manner. 😱

Having never been there, I can't say. The skyline shots from the other side of the river were really cool as was the fireworks shot.

Atomm wrote:
Having never been there, I can't say. The skyline shots from the other side of the river were really cool as was the fireworks shot.

(BUZZZZ!) I'm sorry, that answer is incorrect. The correct answer is, of course, "Wow." "Wow." Thank you for playing. 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CYugazRcdM...ted&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=875X3la1W1E...ted&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=758Aaq5R3uY


My apologies for the first minute - and for the French 🙂 Skip ahead when you can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfWpSmVrTW0&NR=1

A short clip showing more of the actual Incline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9KDpsiLQcA...ted&search=

And because I thought you guys would dig these:

3 Rivers Stadium goes Boom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoHGiY3RMD4...ted&search=

Buckethead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP3eRL-PlKI...ted&search=

Even the ghetto looks nice when you take a picture of it from far away...

[I have only driven through PA, but I can say that it is nice...]

Never been to Pittsburgh, enjoyed the photos, but it really seemed they picked 6 or 7 places and took alot of shot of them. Certainly any city has it nice and not so nice points.

Bubbaspanky wrote:
Never been to Pittsburgh, enjoyed the photos, but it really seemed they picked 6 or 7 places and took alot of shot of them. Certainly any city has it nice and not so nice points.

You are right Bubba, every city does. I have seen very beautiful pictures of San Fransisco and Seattle (My step brother lives there, I have never been) etc.. Then you talk to people that live there and they say it is nice but also have its dark side 🙂

I think the view when you exit the Fort Pitt Tunnel in Pittsburgh is really awesome though.

Pittsburgh is unique in several ways though. Since the city is very hilly it also makes for some beautiful views from various locations. It also surprises you as you drive around because sometimes you do not see much then all of a sudden WOW look at that!

Because of the hills we have more city steps that any other city. As discussed before because of the 3 converging rivers, we also have the most bridges in the world.

The rivers are very cool. Not as nice as a lake or bay but it is till cool to have 3 converging rivers like that, it is a unique landmark the way the point is laid out.

BTW a small factoid; the Fountain at the point shown in some of those pictures gets is water from an underground river underneath the river you see. Kind of cool 😉

One of the best reasons to live here is the cost of living here is fantastic. You can live much better here for the same money you would live half as nice in other places. Housing is VERY reasonable here.

We also are about 5 to 6 hours, (2 to 3 on average) from almost anything you would want to do. The Atlantic ocean, mountains for ski-ing or hiking, rock climbing, rivers for kayaking etc...

It is cool.

Yeah I could live with this area having more affordable housing

Paladin wrote:
You are right Bubba, every city does. I have seen very beautiful pictures of San Fransisco and Seattle (My step brother lives there, I have never been) etc.. Then you talk to people that live there and they say it is nice but also have its dark side 🙂

I lived in Seattle for two years. Its absolutely a beautiful place to live. The dark side is the California liberal tree huggers that moved there from the 70-90's pretty much ruined the logging industry there. Its probably the cleanest city in the country, but its got one nasty ass getto on the upper west side. City planners (demo machine) decided to give anyone that's homeless a monthly dole to stay there and ease the panhandling downtown. I'd return there tomorrow if not for the politics of the area as it is now.

Fifty pics of the same skyline taken from Mount Washington doesn't much impress me. The only thing I think Pgh has going for it is its really SMALL, thus has been easier to maintain. This entire town plus north and southsides would be swallowed up in just one NYC neighborhood.

Alot more neighborhood pics would have been more impressive imho. Although I spotted one townhouse in Manchestor that I helped restore back in the 90's 🙂

I'd say Pgh is a good city to live in just because its small. Since the population keeps dropping every year for decades now, its sure not crowded, and the prices for housing and rents are probably the lowest anywhere in the country.

Not trying to be an ass, but I wanted to see how Pittsburgh stacked up against Oklahoma and Texas because I have always heard they are some of the cheapest housing markets in the country.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/hpci_data/index.html

According to CNN Money, a $200,000 house will cost:

Pittsburgh - $243,100.00
Plano, Tx - $183,750.00 (This is the market I am in now)
Oklahoma City - $185,000.00

I think for the region, Pittsburgh may be very affordable, but when you start comparing it against the national average, it skews slightly higher. Considering the area I moved from in Virginia would be about 400k-450k for a 200k house, it's still a bargain.

As for rent, I wouldn't know. Rent is a strange monster that doesn't always go hand in hand with the housing market.

Atomm wrote:
Not trying to be an ass, but I wanted to see how Pittsburgh stacked up against Oklahoma and Texas because I have always heard they are some of the cheapest housing markets in the country.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/hpci_data/index.html

According to CNN Money, a $200,000 house will cost:

Pittsburgh - $243,100.00
Plano, Tx - $183,750.00 (This is the market I am in now)
Oklahoma City - $185,000.00

I think for the region, Pittsburgh may be very affordable, but when you start comparing it against the national average, it skews slightly higher. Considering the area I moved from in Virginia would be about 400k-450k for a 200k house, it's still a bargain.

As for rent, I wouldn't know. Rent is a strange monster that doesn't always go hand in hand with the housing market.

Not being an ass back 🙂
That is a seriously skewed numbers system. There are so many differences in real estate as far as neighbor hoods, house types etc... One prime example is where I live. The township I live in is right next to another one but that one is a LOT more expensive tax wise. It is only a difference of a few miles and you would never know the difference just driving through it, it all looks the same.

So how do you really compare that??
If they also went with the more overpriced neighborhoods like Mt Lebanon or even worse Upper Saint Clair, it will also throw that off big time. Those houses are expensive!

You can get a VERY nice house for under $200K easily. My step brother just paid 3 times for his that he JUST purchased in Seattle over what I paid.

Just saying. I still think this city is one of the best values as far as real estate prices.

Also I am sure there are lots of areas cheaper but would you want to live there 🙂
We do not get tornado's (well some further out), earthquakes, hurricanes or major floods.

Of course I say floods as it just rained extremely hard here and the county is in a state of emergency 🙂

A lot of peoples homes in lower sections got flooded out and a lot of roads got flooded. It took me 1 hour and 15 min to get home from a restaurant that normally takes me 10 min. I took today off of work as the roads and traffic was a total mess..

This does not happen often though.

Atomm, where we lived in VA, rent was around 1300-1500 per month for a 3 bdrm townhouse.

Paladin wrote:

Just saying. I still think this city is one of the best values as far as real estate prices.

Paladin, I think that reflects an overall average in the market around a city. The suburbs here can get pretty expensive. Townhouses in Cranberry are going for that.

My neighborhood on the otherhand ranges from 60-150 k. There are many variables. I'm sure the other cities are also taking the same info to account. I live here because its cheap. The most I've paid for a house so far was 27k, but they were very distressed and I had the skills to renovate them.

Of course its all a lifestyle choice. I live with 'city' people, but I have no mortgage payments. The downside is the city re-appraised my 12 rm house to 180k!

The only thing I know for sure is once I don't HAVE to live here, I'll move south to a blue state 🙂

ephil wrote:
Atomm, where we lived in VA, rent was around 1300-1500 per month for a 3 bdrm townhouse.

That is a lot more than I pay for my house including the escrow for taxes and insurance.

lexx wrote:
Paladin, I think that reflects an overall average in the market around a city. The suburbs here can get pretty expensive. Townhouses in Cranberry are going for that.

All I meant is unless the people compiling these lists know the exact areas for each entry, that list is BS.

You can take sort of an average but if you compare a really expensive area in one city to a sort of expensive area of another city that may be considered really expensive area, it throws all the stats way off.


I simply do not trust these types of lists that have way too many variables, thats all.

I think the point is that this is a region wide average for each city. On average OKC is cheaper than Pittsburgh. Of course there will be exceptions. Of course there will be negihborhoods that are higher on average...

Bubbaspanky wrote:
I think the point is that this is a region wide average for each city. On average OKC is cheaper than Pittsburgh. Of course there will be exceptions. Of course there will be negihborhoods that are higher on average...

Having lived in several other cities, I've never found Pgh to be all that great a place to live. I left Seattle to come here to finish college and never left because of work opportunities. I wanted to return to the west coast, but the wife wanted to stay close to her family. When we retire, I know we are outta here. Pittsburgh is ok I guess, but its never been home.

LMAO Pwnt!!!

The best thing about Texas is that we don't have a state tax like most of the rest of country. I have a friend that moved to York, PA and says that it makes a really big difference in his check. I would like to think that most of us use the money we save on that to buy beer and guns. LOL 🔫

lexx wrote:
Having lived in several other cities, I've never found Pgh to be all that great a place to live. I left Seattle to come here to finish college and never left because of work opportunities. I wanted to return to the west coast, but the wife wanted to stay close to her family. When we retire, I know we are outta here. Pittsburgh is ok I guess, but its never been home.

sindy wrote:
LMAO Pwnt!!!

The best thing about Texas is that we don't have a state tax like most of the rest of country. I have a friend that moved to York, PA and says that it makes a really big difference in his check. I would like to think that most of us use the money we save on that to buy beer and guns. LOL 🔫

<Homer voice>
Mmmmm. . .beer and guns. . .
</Homer voice>

Tennessee doesn't have a State income tax, but has a 9% sales tax. Texas has to get it's money somewhere. What does it do, besides rifle the pockets of all the death row inmates? 😉

And now, a blatant attempt to cater to Sindy's cat fixation:


Seriously, get the fuck back here more often.

Now, how many ppl have been that charming to you this week? 😉

<sing-song>
I'll make you a new siiiiig if you want. . .
</sing-song>

Bubba is right Paladin. When you start singling out this neighborhood vs this neighborhood, you are messing with the numbers.

I think its a fair evaluation. Real Estate is one of those things that is tracked a million ways from Sunday. It's tracked by the county for tax purposes. It's tracked by Real Estate Agents for the purpose of establishing baselines. It's tracked by the Federal Government as an index of the economy.

It's very nonobjective if you ask me.

Lexx, the most you've paid for a home is 27K? Man, that is awesome! Do you ever flip houses? My wife watches those shows on TV all the time.

Oh and as for Texas Tax system, it's ok, but they still manage to get money from you.

The sales tax is 8.25%. But, sales tax is now a write off on your federal income, so it has some benefits. The property taxes are very high. However, I love the Texas system for a few reasons.

1. Because sales tax is a main tax revenue stream, it means anyone who is not a US citizen is contributing, where as Income Tax allows them to slide by. Texas has a large percentage of Non-US citizens.

2. Property taxes are very rigidly structured so you know where your money is going. (Well as best you can.....) And it has the added benefit of taxing everyone, even if they are not in this country legally.

I have lived in 3 states. Oklahoma, Virginia and now Texas. In Oklahoma and Virginia, I paid State Income Tax, plus Sales Tax, plus Property Tax. In both cases, my overall yearly tax bill was higher because they were hitting me from every angle.

I actually have a net gain in Texas, even with the higher sales tax and property taxes.

I will throw out there that part of my job here for a few years was to take the public records of every home sold and locate them and compile them. So I cdould pinpoint a neighborhood or a town or a county and tell you the average.

As for taxes, basically you are going to pay the money that is needed by the state to run. How they get it from you is somewhat irrelevant. In NH we are people are very proud to proclaim there are no taxes but real estate. But there are a ton of "fees" and the real estate taxes are utterly insane to the point where I once called my mortgage company in Tx and she thought I must have a typo on my taxes, she figured the decimal point was in the wrong place. Thats right she thought I was paying 10 times too high... in reality, my real estate taxes are that much higher than most states. You will pay one way or another.

Also bear in mind typically when looking at real estate taxes you can't compare towns to one another. If they haven't reappraised in one town in 10 years and reappraised last year in the other they are taxing a higher rate on a lower appraised home. so while the true amount of taxes can vary sometimes a straight comparison is misleading.

take the same house in my town (who reappraised last year) and it's 350k
look at that house in Sarges town (who hasn't reappraised it's value since 02) it's valued at 280k

Sarges town may charge $18/$1000 of value thus tax is 5040
My town may charge $14.50/$1000 of value thus tax is 5040
So if you look at a table of tax rates my town looks lower, but in reality they are the same. Also note if you have your house re-appraised for a loan...etc that typically isn't used by your town to tax you.

At least that is how it is in the state I have lived in, might be different down there but I suspect it's similar

DocJon wrote:

<Homer voice>
Mmmmm. . .beer and guns. . .
</Homer voice>

Tennessee doesn't have a State income tax, but has a 9% sales tax. Texas has to get it's money somewhere. What does it do, besides rifle the pockets of all the death row inmates? 😉

And now, a blatant attempt to cater to Sindy's cat fixation:


Seriously, get the fuck back here more often.

Now, how many ppl have been that charming to you this week? 😉

<sing-song>
I'll make you a new siiiiig if you want. . .
</sing-song>

OOOOoooooOOOOOO a new siiiiiiiiig! *gasp* *bats eyelashes* really? for me?????

And nonsense... kittens can save any thread. Behold:

Ahhh save notihing... I will take your kitties and throw them against the wall

... and then love them back to health

Bubbaspanky wrote:
... and then love them back to health

That sounds cute, until you remember what he does to porcupines. . .

sindy wrote:
OOOOoooooOOOOOO a new siiiiiiiiig! *gasp* *bats eyelashes* really? for me?????

😉

Something else to keep in mind. Texas currently has a budget surplus. I believe I heard it was 6 Billion. Sindy, correct me if you've heard otherwise.

So, rather than spend it all, they have cut some of the property taxes to help offset it.

As for the Sig, what the Hell does I Can mean? This is the second forum I've seen that on.....

Atomm wrote:
Something else to keep in mind. Texas currently has a budget surplus. I believe I heard it was 6 Billion. Sindy, correct me if you've heard otherwise.

So, rather than spend it all, they have cut some of the property taxes to help offset it.

As for the Sig, what the Hell does I Can mean? This is the second forum I've seen that on.....

They're cats. They have poor sentence structure. "Can I have a cheeseburger?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat

http://lolcats.com/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

DocJon wrote:
They're cats. They have poor sentence structure. "Can I have a cheeseburger?"

LMAO! 🤣 🤣

And right... I don't think I would trust Bubba with my kitties...

sindy wrote:
LMAO! 🤣 🤣

And right... I don't think I would trust Bubba with my kitties...

I have a reply to this, but I am not sure this board can handle such inapproprioteness!

The other one was just something I whipped up quick for fun.

This is still too big, but I didn't have the heart to cut the cat's tail off 😉

I watched the "Pinky and the Brain" cartoon intro to see what font & color they used, but they must use literally EVERY FONT KNOWN TO MAN in that intro. They had to have worked hard to avoid using the same one twice. Finally, I followed the upper and lower-case style they used for the title, which seems obvious, but there's a lot of fonts and words going on in that intro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPFSNu_QNs

And, as always, I stole only the best images. 🙂

ETA - I just found out the LOLcats aren't a new thing. Click on "View as slideshow" at this link(work-safe):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apelad/sets/7...6941365/?page=3

😉

Ok, I fixed the height. I was feeling lazy yesterday. 🙂

Dear Lord that is sooo cute! Nice work on the tail!! I'm so excited that u catered to my feline fixation!!! And Pinky and the Brain are one of my all time favorite cartoons!!

💗 💗 💗

thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thanthankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankythanthankythankyou thankyou thankyou!

sindy wrote:
Dear Lord that is sooo cute! Nice work on the tail!! I'm so excited that u catered to my feline fixation!!! And Pinky and the Brain are one of my all time favorite cartoons!!

💗 💗 💗

thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thanthankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankythanthankythankyou thankyou thankyou!

I was hoping you'd at least know who "Pinky and the Brain" were. I found the cat at the computer pic first, and had to find something to work with it. - it needed a little something extra. Glad you like, now you have to hang around the forums and post more so you can look at it. 🙂