How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
As a native Clevelander, I love the idea of the a rust-belt city becoming the next big startup hub. Unfortunately, I can&#x27;t help but disagree with several points in this article:<p>Low cost of living: Sure, it&#x27;s low compared to SF, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. Just look at how quickly housing prices have been rising the past few years. Maybe this isn&#x27;t something to worry about - maybe it&#x27;s just a sign that Pittsburgh is a place people already want to move to.<p>Bicycle&#x2F;pedestrian friendly: This is a great point, but it seems unrealistic given Pittsburgh&#x27;s geography - it&#x27;s surrounded by mountains and can experience some pretty harsh winters. Those factors make it difficult to be friendly towards cyclists. The public transportation could be much better, but faces the difficulty of, again, the geography.<p>Culture: Now I don&#x27;t mean any offense to anyone from Pittsburgh, but their culture (in my experience) has been anything but &quot;tolerant&quot;. I visit Pittsburgh at least once every other month, and most people I meet there, unfortunately, are pretty racist. Now, it&#x27;s perfectly possible that the people I have met there are a minority, but I&#x27;m just speaking about what I&#x27;ve observed.<p>There are also several great points that I agree with: the food scene in Pittsburgh is great (and growing!) (check out Butcher and The Rye if you have a chance) , great universities all near downtown (CMU, Pitt), several notable tech companies there as a foundation (Google, Uber, etc), and every time I visit there I am optimistic about the city, though I question whether or not it can become the next big Startup Hub.<p>Also, don&#x27;t forget that there are other rust-belt cities that are experience a regrowth: Detroit and Cleveland. Pittsburgh is ahead in that race, but each city is unique, and who knows what the actual next Startup Hub will be.