CENSUS ANALYSIS Data indicate Pittsburgh is keeping, but not attracting, young professionals

Pittsburgh lost fewer than Columbus, Seattle or D.C., but they attracted more.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- New census data suggests Pittsburgh's population problem may not be in retaining young professionals. Rather, it's getting more couples like Diego Sharon and Christine Eaton to move into the city.
Sharon and Eaton traded San Francisco's high cost of living for a more affordable Pittsburgh in July and the couple is now planning to buy a house in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood, which is undergoing revitalization.
The region's 25- to 34-year-olds moved out at a relatively low rate during the 1990s, compared to other metropolitan areas, according to a recent analysis of census statistics by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Southwestern Pennsylvania lost an estimated 19 percent of its young population between 1995 and 2000, but Columbus, Seattle and Raleigh all lost bigger shares. Atlanta lost 25 percent. And Washington, D.C., lost half.
Can't attract them
But all those cities were able to attract more young people into their coffeehouses and health clubs. During the 1990s, Pittsburgh saw a relatively paltry 14 percent boost in the young adult population, which wasn't enough to keep up with the outflow rate.
The newspaper reported that between 1995 and 2000, for example, more than 10,000 health-care workers left greater Pittsburgh, compared with 6,000 health-care workers who moved here.
Local leaders should be looking to attract more young people instead of retaining the ones that are here, said Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," a best seller on how cities can attract young professionals.
"What Pittsburgh really needs to do is get its eyes away from retaining its young people, or from trying to get back the ones who have already left, and it has to become the kind of place people around the country want to come to," Florida said.
An example
Sharon, 32, a high school teacher, decided he was tired of working nights and weekends to support his family in suburban San Francisco. His wife wanted to stay home to raise their children.
The couple started looking at Albuquerque, N.M., Portland and Madison, Wis., but settled on Pittsburgh when they came for a family reunion.
"We're full-on spokespeople for Pittsburgh now," Sharon said.
Christopher Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, says the unemployment rate and dot-com bust may have helped Pittsburgh. Since 2000, the number of incoming workers has caught up with the number of workers moving out.
"I think we're at a crossroads of what Pittsburgh was and what it will be, but clearly things are not as negative as people think," Briem said.