I don't live in Pittsburgh, but completely disagree with your sentiments. I went to CMU '02, then lived in Shadyside for a few years, miss the place dearly and own a few properties there (they have appreciated significantly over the past 5 years... Pittsburgh has been an amazing real estate market during that time). Part of the reason it has appreciated is that it's doing exceptionally well during this downturn. Unemployment is 7.4%, almost 2 points lower than the nations average. San Francisco's is 10%.
Smart young successful people actually do live there, more so than it's comparison cities... It also has some of the most educated folks in that bunch-
http://www.pitt.edu/~cbriem/SelectedTables2.htm
You'll see it's in very good company among the top educated cities. Personally, a lot of my friends stayed in Pittsburgh and/or moved back after a few years. I personally was itching to leave many years ago, have lived in many places along the way and now miss the place dearly/will at some point move back.
There are a number of startups in Pittsburgh now, but not as many as there were during the .com bubble... there are many more than any other cities of its size, primarily because there is great talent coming out of CMU and Pitt. Your argument suggests that there is no reason for anyone to not locate to SV (which is totally fine, but I think many would disagree)
Re: food, you must be joking... Murray Ave right by CMU has more fantastic ethnic restaurants than anywhere I can think of (http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/23/2226/Pittsburgh/Squirrel-Hill...), and Nine on Nine, Eleven, Paris 66, Salt of the Earth, and Bona Terra would be worthy of Michelin stars in another city, yet they are reasonably priced in Pittsburgh.
Re: weather you're spot-on... there are less sunny days in Pittsburgh than nearly anywhere... but it seems to work out OK for Seattle.
If this fund is indeed run by a bunch of bureaucrats it might end up being crap, as you suggest. Project Olympus at CMU has done some good stuff though, so I have hope.
http://www.olympus.cs.cmu.edu/probes/
Yes, it has people with degrees, but no, it does not have many rich people. It has a few, and if they buy not-too-expensive houses and seem Pittsburghite-friendly, they are venerated. It did well in the recession because its economy is based on education and healthcare; this does not make it particularly good for startups.
Yes, it compares well to other cities of its size startup-wise, but we're comparing it to SV, which is not of its size, so nevermind.
Yes, there do exist nice restaurants, but we're comparing it to the Bay Area, and the mean, median, and top 10% quality of Bay Area restaurants is ridiculously high, so nevermind.
Pittsburgh's weather is worse than Seattle's. Yes, it is #2 to Seattle's #1 on the country's least-sunny list, but in Seattle, it just rains a lot, and whether or not it's raining, the air is palatable. In Pittsburgh, it's either freezing your nose off or making your eyes water with humidity.
The thing about being morally opposed to rich people is an instance of an observation I've heard from multiple people other than myself: Pittsburgh's message seems to be, stay here and be one of us, and don't think you can be any better than us, because we don't think that's possible, and in fact find the idea offensive.
Comparing a town with ~300,000 people to a metropolitan area to a major city like SF/Bay Area isn't exactly a fair fight. Obviously SV is going to be better at almost everything. Compared to almost any city its size, Pittsburgh is awesome as far as cost of living, culture, education, and food go.
And your sentiments about the culture here are a bit off. It's definitely much more blue-collar than SV, which may be why you get that impression. But it's a far cry from being anti-ambitious.
The whole point is that you can't compare a town with 300k people with a blue-collar culture to the Bay Area. It's not even close to as good for startups. Why is this controversial?
Smart young successful people actually do live there, more so than it's comparison cities... It also has some of the most educated folks in that bunch- http://www.pitt.edu/~cbriem/SelectedTables2.htm You'll see it's in very good company among the top educated cities. Personally, a lot of my friends stayed in Pittsburgh and/or moved back after a few years. I personally was itching to leave many years ago, have lived in many places along the way and now miss the place dearly/will at some point move back.
There are a number of startups in Pittsburgh now, but not as many as there were during the .com bubble... there are many more than any other cities of its size, primarily because there is great talent coming out of CMU and Pitt. Your argument suggests that there is no reason for anyone to not locate to SV (which is totally fine, but I think many would disagree)
Here are some of the recent startups: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-hot-software-or-recent-sta...
and some others: http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-startups-out-of-Pitt...
Re: food, you must be joking... Murray Ave right by CMU has more fantastic ethnic restaurants than anywhere I can think of (http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/23/2226/Pittsburgh/Squirrel-Hill...), and Nine on Nine, Eleven, Paris 66, Salt of the Earth, and Bona Terra would be worthy of Michelin stars in another city, yet they are reasonably priced in Pittsburgh.
Re: weather you're spot-on... there are less sunny days in Pittsburgh than nearly anywhere... but it seems to work out OK for Seattle.
If this fund is indeed run by a bunch of bureaucrats it might end up being crap, as you suggest. Project Olympus at CMU has done some good stuff though, so I have hope. http://www.olympus.cs.cmu.edu/probes/