Pittsburgh Charm


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NullspacePittsburghers know that the times are out of joint. Somehow they're expecting the prosperity to blow up in their faces.
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Labels: allegheny County, assessment, base year, judge wettick, real estate, wettick
The U.S. Census Bureau says Hazleton has a population of 22,000. But a demographics expert hired by the city testified that Hazleton has perhaps 33,000 residents, 10 percent of whom could be illegal immigrants. (italics added)So, lets deconstruct this a bit. In the last few years, Hazleton now claims it's population ballooned from 22 thousand to 33 thousand, an increase of 50% or 11 thousand. They also claim that 10% or 3,300 of them could be undocumented immigrants. Here is some video from the plaintiff's lawyer on the veracity of the testimony that generated those numbers. I thought they were claiming that all of this increase in population came from new immigrants. Now it's a fraction of that growth is supposedly coming from immigrants.
and if any of that inspires you... you can sign up for classes at the PGC. Something even I have done and have several one-of-a-kind abstract orbs to prove it.
Harrah’s Entertainment is not the “applicant” for this license nor does it have an ownership interest in Station Square gaming. Therefore, the success of Harrah’s Entertainment as a contractor are not a factor to be considered under Section 1325(c)(6). (footnote 9 page 68, or p. 72 of the PDF)
Pittsburgh, which is much smaller geographically than Philadelphia, must be more careful about forfeiting potential revenue than its eastern brother.The problem is, we have much much much less potential revenue to worry about forgoing. Those who just read my oped online and not in print may not have seen some building permits data I had them include with the piece as a graphic. Here is the single most important fact affecting the future of the city: building permits for residential construction in the city are at all time lows... all time! as in ever! and that includes the new construction coming online downtown. Even if you do not net that out, or if you look specifically at single family homes, you will see that there is minimal private residential investment going on within the city and not much more being planned. It really is rather scary in that there is not enough construction activity to come close to offset even natural depreciation that is taking place within the oldest housing stock in the nation. My friends who believe in the efficacy of the land tax make strong note of how residential construction has pretty much died off completely since Pittsburgh killed off the two tier tax just a few years ago. That has to be a bigger issue than just the land tax, but it is a telling trend.
Labels: announcement, duquesne gardens, hockey, penguins, pittsburgh
"There are plenty of opportunities here in Pittsburgh for young people. And a company doesn't like to have to pay to relocate a new hire, so it's always a plus to find homegrown employees."That is the single most important perspective to understand labor force migration in Pittsburgh. Lots of local college graduates means that local companies find plenty of job-seeking graduates to fill their recruiting needs and they like that. Its means lower cost for them, both in search and relocation costs, and likely gets you workers who are less likely to move away over the long run. Lots of local employers have gotten out of the habit, not that they were ever in that habit, of recruiting for workers nationally the way their competitiors in lots of other regions need to. What that means however is that we don't attract as many people moving into the region as would be typical elsewhere. That is an issue unto itself but it means the whole issue about "keeping our young people" is not exactly the problem that absolutley everyone thinks it is. Some may recall that this is a theme of mine going back a few years, especially to my thoughts on the infamous Border Guard Bob.