CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
60 of 100
BACK NEXT
60. Pittsburgh
Population: 320,335
Pros: Top-ranked research universities, affordable homes
Cons: Sub-par public schools, urban ills like crime

Over the past decade, Pittsburgh has swapped its smoke-belching steel mills for greener ventures like biotech, electro-optics, and light industrial enterprises. Help for business development is plentiful. Investment organization Innovation Works, entrepreneurial infrastructure support group Idea Foundry, and the small business development center at the University of Pittsburgh are among the resources available to entrepreneurs. Pittsburgh offers startups an array of municipal loans, tax credits, and even a few actual outright grants, such as those administered by the "Kick Start Partnerships" program.

Opportunities exist in the data storage and financial industries, as well as in servicing the major universities in the city, like Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh's medical campus, a healthcare and cancer research institution. Urban amenities like first-rate museums and a lively music and arts scene are abundant - and if you like golf, championship fairways are just a fifteen minute drive from downtown. -Lisa Palmer

Interactive map: Pittsburgh
Homes for sale Find homes for sale in Pittsburgh


NEXT: 61. Northport, N.Y.

Last updated July 02 2008: 11:16 AM ET
More Galleries
Detroit: The Innovators The Motor City needs new industries. These 7 entrepreneurs are bringing tech, medical research and design jobs to the Detroit metro area. More
Freebies for the jobless From free dry cleaning to a no-cost vacation, these 5 businesses have come up with creative ways to help out unemployed residents in their communities. More
Ghost among the machines Detroit's derelict Packard Plant is the country's largest abandoned industrial site. One last small company still calls the complex home. More

Special Offer
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.