Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Ranking the rankings edition

Why write about a new list when you can write about five? Because I can, I’m going to rank the latest rankings by my own purely subjective criteria, best to worst. Pittsburgh ranks #13 in this roundup of Best Cities to Live In Without a Car , a recurring theme around here. This notes that 10% of us commute on foot, which is quite impressive. The ranking seems right, but for some reason the list keeps bringing up how many co-working spaces we have (who cares?). Oh, the ranking creator is something called coworkingcafe.com. Nevertheless! When it comes to the Happiest States in America , Pennsylvania is #25 in this Wallethub ranking. That sounds about right, actually, seeing as how we’re actually about 2-3 states clumsily chunked together by some forgotten Founding Father. An unhealthy amount of my happiness is dependent upon the fortunes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but Phillies fans have a bit more reason for optimism, so it’s probably a wash. It has been amusing to witness the businesses, politicians, advertisers, and everyday trend-jumpers glomming onto Our Glorious AI Future, then furiously backpedaling when they discover how much actual humans hate all of it. So, when tech job-search site Lemon.io ranks Pittsburgh #3 in the country of the Top Cities for Tech Careers (via email; no link provided), maybe it’s time to deemphasize that selling point a little. Like maybe place it below our mini-golf courses, record stores, funiculars, and availability of fine cheeses (just to list some things I truly care about). Oh, look, another list of The Best (and Worst) Places to Live in 2026. This one is by something called Clever. On the plus side, I like the willingness to go negative. For minuses, well, Chicago is their worst city and Nashville is their best. Um, nope, Chicago is wonderful, and Nashville just lost what I assume is the best thing about it (Dolly Parton). Pittsburgh shows up here as the 18 th -Rudest city — which isn’t eve