ABSTRACT
Thirty years ago, Pittsburgh received the Most Livable City ranking from Rand McNally’s Places Rated Almanac, 2nd edition. Many were surprised when, in its first edition in 1981, Pittsburgh ranked fourth, but first? The guffaws didn’t stop, reaching late night heights with coverage by Johnny Carson. After the initial reaction, the ranking did serve as a vehicle for others to take notice of the changes that had taken place in Pittsburgh. It also enhanced local views, occurring after the shuttering of many steel mills and manufacturing plants in the early 1980s, with unemployment topping double digits and tens of thousands relocating elsewhere. One could say that by 1985, the Steel City and the Smoky City were part of Pittsburgh’s past, and livability came to mean more than steel jobs. Pittsburgh also picked up the Most Livable honor again in 2007 and scored Most Livable by the The Economist’s ranking in 2014.
The meaning of livability in post-industrial cities and regions covers different contexts over time, and this is analyzed in this chapter, with the Most Livable awards forming the basis of understanding livable Pittsburgh in 2015 and changes over 30 years. One constant in those 30 years has been affordability, brought on in a region that grew little over the period and neither boomed in the late 1990s and mid-2000s nor busted in the Great Recession, a story that resonated globally. Environmental improvements and policies—and the shuttering of mills—have improved conditions in the region, and many were rooted in Pittsburgh’s critical role in enacting air and smoke controls in the mid-20th century. The recent turnaround in population loss in the city and positive net migration for the region underscore the emergence of livable Pittsburgh today. Nonetheless, livability varies by social group and race. This chapter also uses data from the 2011 Quality of Life Survey conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, where survey results point to a protracted problem in Pittsburgh, with African-American Pittsburghers reporting significantly lower levels of satisfaction on many indicators of livability than white residents. The chapter concludes on local and international applications of livability from what Pittsburgh achieved and needs to improve.
