[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11897-11898]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           LIVABLE PITTSBURGH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. Madam Speaker, it is a true pleasure for me to stand 
here tonight to talk about my favorite city, the city of Pittsburgh, 
which was once again named by Rand McNally as America's ``most 
livable'' city.
  Now, Rand McNally has been designating cities as livable for 26 
years, and Pittsburgh is the first city to ever repeat. We also won it 
in 1985. They do it every 4 years. And I can't tell you how happy I am 
to have this designation because this shows for the rest of the country 
and the rest of the world what we already know in Southwestern 
Pennsylvania, that Pittsburgh is a great place to live and work. And 
Rand McNally has done this through formula. And 379 cities are rated on 
nine categories: housing, transportation, jobs, education, climate, 
crime, health care, recreation and ambiance, which covers its being a 
great place to live and work and things to do.
  Pittsburgh was in the top 30 percent in the housing category. It is 
93 percent of the national average in the cost of living with regard to 
housing. In transportation, Pittsburgh's commute

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is 25 minutes to work one way. And I challenge the rest of my 
colleagues in some other areas of the country to match that. I know 
that it is frustrating during rush hour to find your way into work, and 
in Pittsburgh generally on most days you can get in relatively quickly.
  The average house in Pittsburgh is 49 percent below the national 
average in cost at $112,000. So that is why we rank so high in housing. 
In jobs, Pittsburgh is in the top quarter there. For 100 years, it 
still is one of the Nation's top corporate centers as home to Fortune 
500 companies: Alcoa, Heinz, Mellon, PNS, PPG, U.S. Steel, and WESCO 
International. We have more than 90 multi-billion dollar, global 
corporations that call the city of Pittsburgh home.
  We have more than 2,000 acres of ready-to-go sites near our airport. 
We have the Nation's second busiest inland port with our three rivers 
and the waterways. And importantly, for the environmentally conscious, 
Pittsburgh has the most certified ``green'' buildings in the entire 
country.
  In education, we are home to 34 colleges and universities, including 
Carnegie Mellon University, which always is ranked as one of the best 
in the entire Nation. We have four distinct seasons with 7 months that 
see sunshine 50 percent of the time. And I will admit that our winters 
can be tough, and that was probably not our strong suit, but we still 
were number one overall.
  Pittsburgh in crime has the lowest crime rate of any of the top 25 
cities in the entire country, and this is a consistent rating that 
Pittsburgh has finished strongly.
  In health care, we are an international leader in medical research 
and innovation. We have a world class health care system. We are ranked 
14th overall in the country and our children's hospital is ranked 11th 
in the entire country.
  In recreation, we have five cities. We have three rivers that provide 
38 miles of shoreline for recreational purposes such as fishing. And we 
have PNC Park for our baseball team, which has been rated consistently 
as the top baseball park in the country. We have a new Penguins arena 
scheduled to be built and a great young hockey team. And we have a 
football team that has now won five Super Bowls. So we have a lot of 
sports and recreation to do.
  And in the performing arts, we have more performing arts concentrated 
in one area than any city in the country outside of New York City. It 
has been voted the second best cityscape in America, the view from the 
top of Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh. We have whitewater rafting and 
downhill skiing within 90 minutes. And we have a bike passage that goes 
all the way from the city of Pittsburgh to right here in Washington, 
D.C.
  So, again, the fact that we were number one in Rand McNally for the 
second time did not surprise me, and it did not surprise the rest of 
the people in western Pennsylvania. But it might have come as a 
surprise to some other people around the country.
  And I stand here tonight to tell my colleagues and anyone else that 
may be viewing tonight that Pittsburgh is a fantastic place to live and 
work, especially for young people. And we are doing a much better job 
now attracting and retaining a younger workforce, and we have shown 
through a variety of ways that we have young and dynamic leadership.

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