The rents are too damn high — or at least they’re getting there in parts of Pittsburgh. A study by rent.com compared the average price of vacant one-bedroom apartments from May 2018 to May 2019 to find the highest percentage increase.

The top five neighborhoods, ranked in ascending order, are: Banksville, Squirrel Hill South, Allegheny Center, North Shore, and the North Side, which saw a 9.79 percent increase in rental prices in the last year. A one-bedroom apartment on the North Side of Pittsburgh may cost you $1,406 a month, while the city average for a one-bedroom is around $1,280, KDKA-TV reports.

Meanwhile, finance magazine Kiplinger rates Pittsburgh as one of the best places in the country to retire, citing overall living costs for retirees slightly above average, but housing and healthcare costs below the national average. Obviously, housing costs are changing and, based on the rent.com study, very quickly.

In other news…

A Syrian refugee has been arrested in Pittsburgh in what authorities are calling a thwarted terror plot. The suspect, 21-year-old Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, is alleged to have shared with an undercover FBI agent plans to bomb a North Side church. Mayor Bill Peduto responded to the arrest Wednesday by saying Pittsburgh would continue to welcome refugees and immigrants. Peduto also pointed to acts of domestic terrorism, like the murder of 11 Jewish congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill last year, as the greater threat. (Associated Press / KDKA-TV)

If you think you love Pittsburgh’s grime, you haven’t met Anthony Trollope. Trollope was a popular British writer who came to Pittsburgh during the Civil War and wrote beautifully about the experience of watching “darkness of night close in upon the floating soot which hovered over the housetops of the city. I cannot say that I saw the sun set, for there was no sun.” Air pollution never sounded so good. (Pittsburgh Magazine)

The 586-space garage at Ninth Street and Penn Avenue Downtown is soon to be no more. The 60-year-old garage will be demolished in a matter of weeks, soon to be replaced by a larger garage. Let’s hope anyone still wandering around looking for their car Seinfeld-style finds it soon. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The season of outdoor music has arrived. And there is no shortage of options in the City of Pittsburgh.

From Stage AE to city parks, WYEP’s Summer Music Festival to Thrival, music — a good portion of it free — will be ringing out loud for the next few months.

And we’ve got the full guide on where to go and what to see — starting today. Whether you’re into hip hop, classic rock, acoustic, jazz, or anything in between, there’s a show for you this summer.

We’ll see you out there.

🍎 June 26: Celebrate The Incline’s Who’s Next: Education class, 19 up-and-comers preparing Pittsburgh for the future, at a happy hour in their honor (Downtown)

Surely you remember last year’s controversial firing of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette cartoonist Rob Rogers. Well, Rogers may not be drawing for the PG these days, but he’s certainly still drawing. And in a column for the Pittsburgh Current, Rogers explains why that work — and editorial cartoons in general — might be more important than ever before.

Enjoy the first weekend of summer, and see you Monday.