Pittsburgh scores poorly on list of ‘best run’ cities

Usually a media darling when it comes to national city ratings, Pittsburgh sat in the bottom third in a report on America’s “best run” cities published this week by a consumer finance information website.

WalletHub on Tuesday came out with a ranking of the bestmanaged cities in the U.S., and gave its top ranking to Boise, Idaho, among 150 of the largest U.S. cities. Pittsburgh finished well back at 103rd, but still far ahead of Philadelphia, which came in 134th place. Washington, D.C., was 150th.

Timothy McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto, dismissed the WalletHub findings as clickbait with “questionable methodology.”

“Despite what some random website says, Pittsburgh’s renewal is well-documented, with the city being judged yet again as one of the best in America by several more publications this year,” he said in an email. The report, he continued, “knocks Pittsburgh over its budget, as if getting your financial house in order is something to be criticized.”

WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzales said through a spokeswoman Tuesday that a six-person research team spent about a month gathering data and compiling the “best run” cities report. Its methodology, she said, “was defined in conjunction with academic professors,” and the analysis looked at financial stability, education, health, safety, economy and infrastructure/pollution.

They divided the “overall city services” score — based from the results of those six categories — by the total budget per capita in each city, then constructed a “score-per-dollar-spent index” used to rank the cities.

Pittsburgh’s best category was education, ranking 15 out of 150.

“The city offers a good education system with a top high school graduation rate at 90 percent, 13th best overall,” Ms. Gonzales said. WalletHub cites education information database, GreatSchools, among its sources.

But the city’s financial stability rating affirmed what City Controller Michael Lamb has noted: The city’s long-term outstanding debt per capita is “quite high” at $12,291, ranking 140th, Ms. Gonzales said.

In response to the reproach from the mayor’s office, she emphasized that the site’s “methodology is well researched and we use mostly government sources. WalletHub is dedicated to helping consumers get their financial houses in order . ... ”

Mr. Lamb said any report taking the city’s financial situation into account will see “we aren’t in good shape.”

“We continue to have over a billion dollars in long-term debt when you consider pension and other obligations ... and the amount of liability matched up against our assets,” he said. “When you look at the long-term [financial] situation for Pittsburgh, we’ve got a lot of challenges.”

The report is the latest in a WalletHub series ranking American cities and states. Notably, despite the Penguins’ Stanley Cup win, Pittsburgh didn’t even top 2016’s “best cities for hockey fans.”