Survey: Pittsburgh top city of future
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Lately it seems Pittsburgh is the city every other city wants to be.

The latest list to put Pittsburgh at the top is fDi Magazine's North American Cities of the Future survey, which has Pittsburgh as the top city with a population between 250,000 and 750,000. Halifax, Nova Scotia, came in second in the category.

Sure, Pittsburgh is no New York City. That's because the largest cities, ranked as "major" cities with populations of more than 750,000, had their own category.

This most recent ranking is important because it goes out to an international audience, said Dewitt Peart, the president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance. FDi Magazine is a division of the London-based Financial Times.

"The people who read and subscribe [to fDi Magazine] are those who are making site selections," Mr. Peart said. "Those readers want to know what places are hot, if you will."

The magazine asked locally based organizations to fill out a survey about their cities. Mr. Peart said the regional alliance, which filled out the information for Pittsburgh, spent somewhere between 20 and 30 work hours answering survey questions such as "Please name any key initiatives you are implementing to attract more investment" and "Please list the any [sic] major infrastructure and urban planning projects."

The survey also asks the average price for a three-bedroom house, average salaries for unskilled workers and the cost of electricity.

Mr. Peart said the magazine independently verifies information submitted.

Making the grade through the many independent measures of the region's successes tends to improve the image of the city in the world, like a constant marketing message.

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development has tracked other notable rankings:

• Most Livable City (ranked first 2010 by Forbes.com)

• Best Cities for Recent College Graduates (ranked second 2010 by The Huffington Post)

• Most Charity-Conscious Cities in America (ranked first 2010 by Charity Navigator)

• Most Affordable City to Date (ranked first 2009 by Match.com)

• Best Arts Destination (ranked third 2009 by American Style)

• Most Literate Cities (ranked fourth 2009 by Central Connecticut State University)

Then there are those rankings that the Allegheny Conference tracks, but does not exactly crow about.

For instance, ePodunk.com ranked Pittsburgh first as the most misspelled city in America. That 2001 ranking put Pittsburgh above Tucson (No. 2), Cincinnati (3) and, yes, the City of Brotherly Love (if your brother can't spell) Philadelphia (12).

And in 2010 the city was named 17th on the list for Riskiest Cities for Cybercrime by Sperling's Best Places.