Americans: Had This City Surprised You?

I'm a native to Dallas, and I recently was given an opportunity for a huge raise...if I moved to Pittsburgh.



At first I thought "no way" because the media always portrayed it as a scummy dump...



...WOW....COMPLETELY WRONG....first off, the downtown is gorgeous...i went to a 5-star restaurant on this huge mountain called Mt.Washington overlooking the confluence of the 3-rivers and a BEAUTIFUL downtown, with party paddleboats on the rivers, probably 25 golden bridges, a 100 foot waterfall right at the point of the city, etc. Then I checked out some neighborhoods...sure, there were a few bad ones like all major cities, but most of them, like Sewickely, Squirrell Hill, Fox Chapel, etc, were GREAT...and Pittsburgh's only 40 minutes from the Uniontown Mountains with great whitewater rafting, hiking etc.



Im taking the job...was anyone else shocked by the gap between Pittsburgh's lowly reputation, and the reality of how much the city has changed recently? It's a damn nice city!Americans: Had This City Surprised You?
I had heard the same and have only been to the airport many times when travelling to PA. I recently saw it on one of Rachel Rays travel shows and it definately showed the city to be very nice with many things to do and lots of good food. I guess lots of areas get bad reputations even though unknowningly they can be not bad places to live. It sounds like they have put great care into changing the city and that can matter most. I'm from San Diego where we put alot of care into our city and now I live in NY and although visiting here is fun once you live here you realize how little they do to change and rebuild the city and how much repair it needs. I bet Pittsburg looks a million times better than NYC and it's burroughs.Americans: Had This City Surprised You?
ive heard its crappy and what not. but recently my cousin went there and she loved it. shes thinking of going to college there. i was suprised to hear how nice the city was =]