Starting a business

CNN/Money has a new list. Generally I do not love these sorts of lists, having lived in Seattle at a time when almost daily some aspect of life there ended up on a list of something. Best pot? Seattle. Highest housing increase, same. Inability to act on major initiatives? Easy, Seattle.

So, CNN does a survey at this time in history where the world economy seems to continue to teeter on an edge that is both elusive and undefined. The survey, best places to start a business, has all sorts of obvious flaws, but what it does do is name Pittsburgh number 2.

I said this many months ago that Pittsburgh reminds me an awful lot what Seattle was like when I first moved there. At that time, my partner and I were able to buy a house for 45 thousand dollars. There were jobs and decent parks and a lot of homes that needed work, but you could afford.

So imagine my surprise when I moved to Pittsburgh and found that you could find a house for a decent price, there seemed to be a lot of work in the region and there is a lot of spaces available for starting a new business. Like any older city there are obvious problems in Pittsburgh, but there is also that intoxicating sense that this is a city on the rebound.