Michael Machosky

Pittsburgh

City Design editor and Staff Writer at NEXTpittsburgh

Featured in: Favicon

nextpittsburgh.com Favicon

timesofisrael.com Favicon

triblive.com Favicon

pghcitypaper.com Favicon

poconorecord.com Favicon

publicsource.org Favicon

realclearenergy.org Favicon

kidsburgh.org

Articles

Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Chaotic Era edition

3 weeks ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

In the science fiction classic The Three-Body Problem, the Trisolaran civilization tries to figure out ways to survive when a Stable Era of predictable natural laws turns into a Chaotic Era, pulled gravitationally by three different suns, bringing extremes of heat and cold that periodically wipe out all progress and most life on the planet. We are now entering a Chaotic Era. Starting trade wars with the whole world (then losing badly).
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: More shops = better neighborhoods edition

4 weeks ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

In general, it’s wise to be skeptical of anyone bearing easy fixes to complex problems facing big cities, like Pittsburgh. And yet, there are a few low-hanging fruits that instantly make cities better, and aren’t that controversial.
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Growth spurt edition

1 month ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

The city of Pittsburgh added nearly 3,000 people in 2024. The city of Pittsburgh had “the greatest population increase by total number of people among all municipalities in Pennsylvania, according to an analysis of the data from the Pennsylvania State Data Center.” This is pretty remarkable. Aside from a few tiny blips here and there, Pittsburgh (the city and region) has been losing population for more than 50 years, as the steel industry’s postwar boom faded. Why are people moving here?
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Inside baseball edition

1 month ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

One of the big changes in baseball in the past few decades has been the addition of new advanced metrics to measure performance. There’s a certain Pittsburgh Pirate who looks terrible out there, and by all the traditional measurements — batting average, home runs, runs batted in — he is not good. (I won’t say who, but it could be anyone except Oneil Cruz or Paul Skenes, right?) However, if you’re looking at the latest suite of newer, more granular statistics — BABIP, barrel rate, xwOBA, etc.
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Shrinkage edition

1 month ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

Contrary to national trends, Pittsburgh apartments are shrinking. According to rental site RentCafe.com, “While apartment sizes are growing in many cities, Pittsburgh is moving in the other direction. The average size of newly built apartments has dropped by 116 square feet — which is roughly the space you'd need for a home office.” “That’s not a minor shift — it marks the 10th largest decrease in the country.
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Mayday edition

1 month ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

Once you quote a survey, you get sent all the surveys. The big one is Livability.com’s “Best places to live in the U.S. in 2025,” which didn’t rank them in descending order this year — recognizing, perhaps, that not everybody wants or needs the same thing from a city. Pittsburgh made this list, as usual. Most of the other “cities” are college towns or glorified suburbs like Flower Mound and Sugar Land (Texas), so, uh go us.
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Spring cleaning edition

2 months ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

It was just Easter, and I just drank a can of Penn Brewery & Oakmont Bakery’s Packzi-flavored Pittsburgh Cream Ale, which might surpass all flavors of Turner’s Iced Tea to become the Most Pittsburgh Drink Ever Invented. That doesn’t mean it’s good. But, like Striking Distanceor Sudden Death, sometimes the pure Pittsburgh content (like fighting a terrorist dressed as Iceburgh) is reward enough. I’d drink it again. What does that have to do with housing in Pittsburgh?
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: NIMBY vs. YIMBY edition

2 months ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

So, what’s the hot new partisan divide to fight about? It’s NIMBY vs. YIMBY! That’s “Not In My Back Yard” versus “Yes, In My Back Yard,” for those of you with actual lives/hobbies/interests. Do I have to take a stance on this? Yes (because I can’t think of anything better to write about at this second).
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Good vs. bad nostalgia edition

2 months ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

The other day, a pop song from my childhood leapt into my brain as it spilled out of a passing car, and suddenly time reversed for a few seconds. It wasn’t even a song I really liked as a kid; it was simply part of the soundscape of daily life, like the symphony of crickets serenading a suburban dusk.
Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: The glory days are now edition

2 months ago | pghcitypaper.com | Michael Machosky

Here’s a weird thought — what if the Golden Age of living in Pittsburgh is right now? And what if it’s almost over? Long-time Pittsburghers are almost universally married to the idea that things were better in the past. But when, exactly? In the ‘40s, this was one of the most important cities in the world, crushing fascism beneath an avalanche of Pittsburgh steel. But the sky was so black with soot that streetlights Downtown stayed on all day, and the rivers were open sewers for industrial waste.