Pittsburgh To Display City’s Progress, Potential At Major Bike Conference Downtown

Pittsburgh is already America’s most livable city, and a conference here this week might help it become even more so.

The city is hosting the Pro Walk/​Pro Bike/​Pro Place conference today through Thursday, welcoming more than 1,000 planners, architects, public health professionals, real estate professionals, educators and advocates from around the globe.

The conference could benefit Pittsburgh and the visitors.

“To have them learn from us and have us learn from them and all of their years of experience changing their cities into walkable, bikeable places is really really important for Pittsburghers but also for the people visiting Pittsburgh,” said Scott Bricker, executive director of Bike Pittsburgh.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/2014/09/08/Pittsburgh-will-display-progress-potential-at-major-bike-conference/stories/201409080015#ixzz3CkHIYKhK

10 Reasons Why Pittsburgh Owned 2013

From a giant rubber duck to cutting-edge restaurants to a yarn-bombed bridge, our city had the world buzzing this year.

By anyone’s standards, 2012 was a landmark year for Pittsburgh, capped off by “The Dark Knight Rises” hitting theaters and unveiling the ’Burgh as the fabled Gotham, not to mention National Geographic imploring the world’s travelers to train new eyes on our formerly smoky city.

Little did we know, that was just the beginning. As we get ready to tuck this year away, let’s take a look back at how Pittsburgh owned 2013.

Brace yourself, Portland.

See the list here:  http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Best-of-the-Burgh-Blogs/Pitt-Girl/December-2013/10-Reasons-Why-Pittsburgh-Owned-2013/

Study: Pittsburgh’s Social Mobility Among Best In U.S.

Locator map of the Greater Pittsburgh metro area in the western part of the of . Red denotes the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, and yellow denotes the New Castle Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle CSA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The rags-to-riches, Great Gatsby-esque storyline may be more reality than fiction in the Pittsburgh area, a national study suggests.

Pittsburgh is in the top tier of cities for social mobility, according to a report released this week.  The survey, which incorporated earnings filings from millions of Americans to assess people’s likelihood of moving between income classes, found that Pittsburghers born to parents who make just $30,000 per year typically move further up the income ladder than similar people in any of America’s 50 largest commuter areas except Salt Lake City.

And on a more regional level, Pittsburgh stands out among communities in the Rust Belt for its propensity toward social mobility.

“Pittsburgh does look more like an outlier from the perspective of the general economic situation, from the types of economic shocks that have been hitting that region in the past 20 years,” said Nathaniel Hendren, a Harvard economist and one of the report’s four authors, who hail from Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, and are affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/study-pittsburghs-social-mobility-among-best-in-us-696470/#ixzz2Zt4OJRJU

A Guide To Pittsburgh’s 10 Guinness World Records

Editor’s note:  Just for fun on this gloomy Saturday 🙂

An argument started it all.  The year was 1951 and Hugh Beaver, then-director of Guinness Breweries, was fighting with a friend in an Irish pub over what species was the fastest bird in Europe.  He realized how many pub-brawls must have been started over unknown facts — and the Guinness Book of World Records was born.

Today there are more than 50,000 records, all thoroughly documented and searchable on GuinnessWorldRecords.com.  Earlier this month at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the Anthrocon convention tried to add a record for largest parade of humans in fursuit costumes.

This feat is far from the first Pittsburgh has seen on its turf.  Set your sports teams, sandwiches and golden bridges aside.  Here’s a new set of claims to fame Pittsburghers can be proud of:

1. Highest insured hair

Steelers safety and Head & Shoulders shampoo spokesman Troy Polamalu‘s legendary locks made history in 2010 when Proctor & Gamble insured them for $1 million.

Read more:  http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/a-guide-to-pittsburghs-10-guinness-world-records-695261/#ixzz2YwMpFsOv