01 · the cities
Cleveland
Cleveland is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the West Side Market's 100+ years of pierogies and bratwurst, and Lake Erie sunsets that put the coastal hype to shame. The Cuyahoga River caught fire so many times it inspired the Clean Water Act. The Cleveland Orchestra is consistently ranked among the world's best. Summers on the lake are gorgeous, and the food scene is having a real moment.
full dispatch→Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh has more bridges than Venice (446, and locals will tell you the exact number), three rivers crashing together downtown, and a sandwich tradition where the fries go inside. The mills are long gone but the neighborhoods they built (Polish Hill, Bloomfield, the Strip) still feed you like a great aunt. Carnegie Mellon and UPMC turned the old industrial bones into a robotics and medical research scene. The skyline reveal coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnel is the cheapest awe in America.
full dispatch→02 · the money
Median rent
Median rent
$1,419/mo
$1,473/mo
$54/mo more than Cleveland (4%)
Median home price
Median home price
$252k
$223k
$29k less than Cleveland
State income tax
State income tax
4.0%
3.1%
Gross left after rent
Gross left after rent
$6,582/mo
$6,605/mo
Gross left after rent reflects state income tax but not federal, based on $100k salary. Enter your salary to find your ideal city.
03 · the weather
Pleasant days/yr
Pleasant days/yr
159 days
161 days
Extreme heat days
Extreme heat days
0 days
0 days
days above 95°F per year
Extreme cold days
Extreme cold days
27 days
28 days
days below 20°F per year
Cleveland and Pittsburgh have remarkably similar weather profiles overall.
04 · the life
OutdoorScore
OutdoorScore
63 / 100
69 / 100
6.0 pts ahead of Cleveland
Nonstop flights
Nonstop flights
56 routes
37 routes
19 fewer direct routes than Cleveland
Metro size
Metro size
2.2M metro
2.4M metro
Cleveland has 1.1x more events per month than Pittsburgh.
the verdict
2
Cleveland
categories won
4
Pittsburgh
categories won
Pittsburgh leads on money and wins overall.
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