Ok...I think I understand why Western Pennsylvania is losing population.

I moved back to my hometown (about an hour from Pittsburgh) last year when I started working remotely. I hadn't lived in the region since 2012 and thought fuck it, I've got nowhere I need to be, so I might as well spend some time with my family.

They built this giant landfill outside of town when I was a kid and it never stunk when I was growing up, but now at least once a week, the whole town smells like methane (or whatever is emitted from it). I don't know if it's from something the dump does or the direction of the wind or what, but it's awful. The one advantage of living in this shithole town is that it's a rural area so I can enjoy that aspect of it, but not when the stench is unbearable.

It's not just that though. The biggest part is probably the people. Nearly everyone you meet is extremely religious and on about Trump (still) or conservative politics. I can respect other people's views if I don't have to hear about them constantly, but that has never been the case. When I was a kid, I recall the same idiots going on about how Bill Clinton was going to declare martial law and have the UN come confiscate their guns. Now the same people are old and are the "community leaders."

And that's not even mentioning what the opioid crisis has done to the area. There didn't use to be so many abandoned houses. Somebody tried to buy heroin off of me recently when I was walking to the one store in town (Dollar General). People around where I live constantly get their cars broken into or things stolen from their property. I am pretty sure that the people I live next door to (who I went to high school with) are in the business of bartering stolen scrap metal for drugs.

I could rent a big ass house for and a storefront or an office building in town where I roleplay as some kind of businessman while I work from home and it would still probably cost less than a 1 bedroom apartment in the metro area where my job is at, but I'm pretty set on moving because I hate this place. I've lived in Pittsburgh itself for maybe 4 years of my life and it's nice enough but I'd rather just get farther away and be more disconnected from where I grew up.

/r/pittsburgh Thread