Pittsburgh: One of the last remaining Soviet Cities

From the Reason Magazine's article Pittsburgh: Livable or Leavable?: The shortcomings in city-ranking indexes

"Pittsburgh is in a death spiral. It’s bankrupt. Its school district spends $16,000 a year per kid. Its parking tax is the highest on Earth: 50 percent. City police and firefighters irresponsibly pad their numbers, salaries, and pensions—and openly trade their mayoral votes for sweetheart contracts. Meanwhile, local school and property taxes are among the highest in the country. So are public bus and taxi fares. And, oh yeah, highways are congested, in bad shape, and under-built."
- Bill Steigerwald

Taxes are killing my hometown. Sad, but true. Right before our eyes, the taxgrabbers - the politicians, bureaucrats, and unions - have been robbing what little life Pittsburgh has left. These kleptocrats have turned what was once the epitome of the American free market into what sounds like a Soviet-styled urban wasteland. It's a sad end to a fine city.