I've been in Pittsburgh since 92 (BS, MS from CMU, now working on PhD there), and the city has its good points - it's clean, safe, and the real estate is dirt cheap. Pittsburgh is one of the few places where you don't have to live like a pauper on a grad student stipend. And the cool tech jobs are there. However, I think lots of young people leave for very good reasons - not much nightlife to speak of, a fairly reactionary social conscience, the roads suck, the drivers suck even worse, and trying to get high-bandwidth lines in the city is an expensive proposition. Further, many young non-geeks leave town after getting their business degrees, leaving only a bunch of aging former steel workers and the remaining geeks to hang out with. And don't get me started on the accent, the 80s hair, and the general fatness and unattractiveness of the local population.
Add the depressingly long winter and you've got a hard time keeping your young, talented geeks.
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I've been in Pittsburgh since 92 (BS, MS from CMU, now working on PhD there), and the city has its good points - it's clean, safe, and the real estate is dirt cheap. Pittsburgh is one of the few places where you don't have to live like a pauper on a grad student stipend. And the cool tech jobs are there. However, I think lots of young people leave for very good reasons - not much nightlife to speak of, a fairly reactionary social conscience, the roads suck, the drivers suck even worse, and trying to get high-bandwidth lines in the city is an expensive proposition. Further, many young non-geeks leave town after getting their business degrees, leaving only a bunch of aging former steel workers and the remaining geeks to hang out with. And don't get me started on the accent, the 80s hair, and the general fatness and unattractiveness of the local population.
Add the depressingly long winter and you've got a hard time keeping your young, talented geeks.