It also allows warrantless, near-real time tracking of street visible vehicles in the city by the police, but it has been a while since I read about it and I forget if Pittsburgh utilizes this.

The scanners can come by almost on the dot in oakland, based on their routes. IIRC, this also means your home is surveilled almost every 2 hours during enforcement hours. The photos can be requested by the police, or randos

It probably causes a regulatory capture that favors larger developers who cut their teeth on suburban projects, and then bring their strip mall design process to the city. Sucks man.

Hells yeah, more places to ride without getting murdered by cars.

The speed bumps slow traffic and make the city more livable. They are a ban-aid on decades of car centric design baked into the fabric of the city.

Link for those who are not ants. Good find aha

I assume you're talking about college students, which make up 30K+ people in the city. Even when they move out, they'll be replaced by more people who's interests are similar, so I wouldn't discount all of their opinions. That said, even light rail is dumb expensive in the US and I think people get way too optimistic with imaginary transit maps. The busway would be easy routing for light rail, but it isn't where more transit is needed. Building a busway in the south hills would not be cheaper than maintaining the rail and rolling stock

I have attached parking downtown, but most building managers will probably tell you what garage their residents prefer to use. Also consider that if you work downtown you might not actually need a car. Think of it like I did in college: you don't need a car, you probably just need a friend with a car.

Downtown without a car: You'll be reliant on Target and the strip district for groceries. Target is expensive (what isn't these days), probably 20-40% more than Aldi. You could take the bus on the busway to friendship/east liberty Aldi/Target/Trader Joe's/Whole Foods/Giant Eagle if you need things you can't get downtown.

Pros of downtown: Downtown gives almost unmatched public transit access to the rest of the city (many routs start in downtown). Most downtown destinations are walkable (cultural district, sports, the strip, market square, the point etc). If you work downtown, walking a block or two is convenient and sustainable vs driving a BMW from Cranberry. Downtown has bike lanes if that is your thing.

Cons: Dead after 9pm or so. Downtown caters to white collar workers who commute in to work. Coffee shops can close at 2pm. Restaurants can close at 9pm. Some businesses are not open on the weekends at all. Living in an urbanized area is noisy at night, there aren't the same protections for noise levels as in the neighborhoods (construction at 2am!).

Other thoughts: If your job is downtown, hat doesn't mean you have to live downtown, there are many neighborhoods with their own neighborhood centers that provide walkable groceries/shops etc. You can commute downtown via public transit fairly easily. You still might not need a car in places like East Liberty, Friendship and Shadyside.

The gig economy shoppers at aldi (esp south side) don't mess around. Sometimes I feel bad for them when they're pushing 2+ carts of stuff and are frustrated with someone picking a bread or something.