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Pittsburgh tops list of 'downtowns making a comeback'

Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh tops list of 'downtowns making a comeback'

Pittsburgh has made another Internet list.

The Steel City tops the most recent list of “Top 10 Cities Where Downtown Is Making a Comeback” from the folks at Realtor.com who say, “Our top picks are not yet the ones that never sleep, but thanks to having turned around, they are now what the Urban Land Institute calls ‘18-hour markets’ - a mix of shops, restaurants, and entertainment that generate excitement deep into the evening.”

Why Pittsburgh?

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“In the downtown ‘Golden Triangle,’ there are rooftop bars, hipsterfied eateries, and craft breweries. The renovated Market Square Place is buzzing day and night, and there’s even an influx of experimental public art,” the review notes — a stark change, they say, from 40 years ago, when “turn-of-the-century theaters were left to deteriorate, and the businesses left were mostly strip joints, massage parlors, and low-end bars.”

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But then... “The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a nonprofit art organization, renovated the theaters, bringing in a slew of concerts and touring Broadway shows. In the last decade, Pittsburgh has also constructed new performing arts centers, commissioned public art projects, and developed new urban parks. A total of $7.8 billion in tourism revenue flowed into the Pittsburgh region in 2014.”

What’s the ranking based on?

In a nutshell: growth in population and home values in the last five years.

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Who’d we beat?

In order of the Realtor.com rankings: Indianapolis, IN (2); Oakland, CA (3); Detroit, MI (4); Columbus, Ohio (5); Austin, TX (6); Los Angeles, CA (7); Dallas, TX (8); Chicago, IL (9) and Providence, RI (10).

First Published: March 27, 2017, 2:36 p.m.

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 (Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette)
Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette
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