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The city where every house has the ugliest siding I’ve ever seen yet people keep using the same siding. I grew up there so I can make it fun of it. When I go back I notice how much of the city just had awful curb appeal compared to the rest of America. Maybe it just sticks out more being a hill town.
The big culture war angle here is your insistent that the poors be allowed a space in the good communities and I get the sense you think that will fix the poors. I’ve come to the belief it’s better to be separate and a lot of American cities have suffered because they could not do that. Leading to rational middle and upper middle class leaving for the suburbs and less crime and more control over schooling. If we just kept the poors from the city America would have higher productivity growth.
There are many reasons why Pittsburgh has had a rebound. One reason is not getting a huge Great Migration. The other reason is the topography leading to isolated communities which meant many areas could feel perfectly safe. As someone whose lived in Chicago for a long time we frequently would look at the news and see 10 shots fired a few blocks away at 4 am. Why would anyone want to live like that unless you were forced to. Sure you probably won’t catch a stray bullet (but you might as we literally have a case like a dead UC student on the EL catching a bullet). Life really is a lot better when you do not interact with the forces of ghettoization.
Also worth mentioning that a big reason Pittsburgh had appeal is all of the money Carnegie left to build up cultural institutions.
The sports teams are interesting. The big thing is they have won more than a city like Pittsburgh should win. The city not being in a big other cultural world like the coast means a rabid fan base. The diaspora means Pittsburgh fans are everywhere.
At the end of the day AC means that Pittsburgh will never be as significant as it once was. The existing infrastructure and cultural heritage will keep a lot of people there.
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