www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Pittsburgh or Philly?

Pittsburgh would be my choice, even though I was born in Chester, PA just outside of Philly. I have more experience with Pittsburgh and having been a 99% lifelong resident of the land of LaLa (Los Angeles) I had come to like Pittsburgh that I almost moved there a few years ago. I could have sold my house in the San Fernando Vally and bought a mini mansion in Pittsburgh. I had been travelling to Pittsburgh a half dozen times a year and got to liking the city. Much smaller than Philly (or Lost Angles).
Fr. Valerian's Ukrainian Catholic church is just down the hill from the BCC seminary and across the Ohio river from McKees Rocks which boasts a RC, BCC, UOC, OCA church all within less than 1/8 of a mile apart. I walked to all of them on a Sunday morning!
As to Philly, the last time I was there was when I visited the house I was born in (which no longer stands but is now a parking lot for the protestant church that was on the same street). I found myself feeling that it resembled Lost Angles waaayy too much for my likes.
Pittsburgh PROS:
LOTS of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic parishes to choose from!
Pierogies Plus (a fast food pierogi chain) as well as every parish makes pirohi for sale at their food festivals.
Cleaner air than Philly (yes it's true since the steel mills left)
It's a smaller town. Population is only around 850,thou -1M rather than 50M like Philly.
Pittsburgh CONS:
Higher taxes-among the higher property taxes in the nation
rough roads
Hills everywhere! Flat roads? what's that?
Same for both:
Snow in winter and humid in the summer!
Philly PROS
It's a big city and there's something open 24 hours a day for every thing!
Philly CONS
It's a BIG city-lots of traffic etc.

JMTC

Steve
P.S. of course there's more to it than just my small opinion

Blahoslovy!

What's the name of your Church? If you don't feel comfortable giving the name here could you PM me?

Your Unworthy Son,

Dr. Eric

"Plus we have a wonderful Pittsburgh Folk Festival in May."

Indeed Father,

For those not in the know, unlike the Philadelphia Folk Festival which celebrates American music, the Pittsburgh Folk Festival is a celebration of the ethnic heritage and diversity of the Pittsburgh region. It is a virtual "pirohi heaven".

http://www.pghfolkfest.org/

Philadelphia, while not having one big festival, has several smaller parades and festivals for each major ethnic groups. Th Polish, German, and Greek parades/festivals in particular are well worth attending.

You should probably go wherever the best opportunity is. That more than anything else should guide your decision.

As a seven year relocated resident of the Philadelphia area, I can say there are good and bad points to the region. I rarely go in to the city; crime is very bad in large portions of it and the schools are terrible. The surrounding areas vary. It is a large area, with five counties in Pennsylvania, two in New Jersey and one in Delaware really comprising metro Philadelphia.

Overall the Northeast and large portions of the Midwest are over taxed and over regulated, and have because of this continued to lose people and jobs. That's something to consider if you want to look at the bigger picture.

Actually in Philadelphia County, the school district is ran by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, not by the local government.
Also Doc, you'd be really close to Mt. Macrina so you'd easily be able to attend the Uniontown Pilgrimage.
Also, you have several monasteries near the burgh. Please forgive me if I leave a monastery out, but Holy Transfiguration in Ellwood City isn't too far away. It is a women's monastery and lots of people visit there.
Philly and Pittsburgh both have great fishing opportunities though.
Believe it or not, the three rivers in downtown pittsburgh are actually good places to fish (they have professional bass fishing tournaments there).

Great fishing in Pittsburgh? I guess if you like Allegheny Whitefish and Monongahela Carp! While the three rivers are cleaner, I wouldn't eat the fish caught in them!

Ung

OP is right. The Holy Trinity Monastary in Butler is one of those wonderful places. Spend some time there and you know God is around. One of my brothers was a monk there in the 1960's and decided not to take his final vows. But the people were wonderful and some of them (Father Anselm and a few others) are still around.

You asked about Liturgies earlier. Father Anselm drives down from Butler to Wall, Pennsylvanina. Tha's basically in Monroeville, which is easy to find. He does a great Liturgy that I understand, is mostly Church Slavonic. A great experience. I still want to get my sorry butt out there soon.

Tim

I don't know... after that football game on Sunday, I might just have to change my mind about moving to Pittsburgh!

Ung, fishing to catch and release is totally different than fishing to eat them. I'd rather just go up stream an hour or so and do some walleye fishing.

And, regardless, if you move to Philly or Pittsburgh, both cities are die-hard about their sports teams. I don't know if Philly still has it, but they used to have a district magistrate courtroom in the football stadium. They'd arrest people at the stadium and the district magistrate (judge) would deal with them on the spot.
I know locally they now use a web-cam. If you get busted in the middle of the night, the police take you in and instead of having the magistrate come into his office he just does the hearing over the web-cam.

OK, I have an interview confirmed in Pittsburgh and as soon as the $$$ question is settled there will be an interview in Philly.

Now, from what I have seen, a housing rental in Philly is about $2,500.00 whereas the same type of house would be about $700.00 or so in Pittsburgh. (We're trying to live frugally in the first year.)

Another monkey wrench is thrown in as now there is a new possibility in Nashville, TN.

YEEEE HAWWWW!

Man - you are going to have fun weighing up all the pros and cons

The best of luck with all this

This just got easier.

Philly is out.

That leaves me with St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Nashville, possibly Indy and no paycheck.