Staying Relevant

On a recent Saturday morning I lounged in bed as the sun came up through the windows.  A rare treat even for a weekend morning.  The lounging part, not the sunshine.  I hit the clock radio button and listened to a few minutes of NPR’s “Weekend Edition – Saturday” program.  But in those 30 or so minutes, I heard three separate pieces where “Pittsburgh” was mentioned.  We can question the relevance of radio news in general, and NPR in particular, within this ever evolving information age but aside from that I have to observe that this is another example of Pittsburgh getting back to “relevant”.

Two years ago I had a discussion over coffee at Taza d’Oro [a true gem - keep pedaling folks] with a prominent local magazine publisher. We were concerned that Pittsburgh had lost “relevancy” in the evolving American economic and social landscape.  I remember while growing up that Pittsburgh would judge itself against New York and Chicago and San Francisco.  But then a few years back Pittsburgh was absent from being noted anywhere in the then breathless pieces on the boom towns of Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix.  Worse, it wasn’t even garnering negative notice like Cleveland, Detroit or Newark.  Pittsburgh risked irrelevance.

But recently Pittsburgh has pulled itself back into the national, if not quite international, conversation.  Years of commitment and hard work from a broad range of citizens helped make this happen and hopefully this will continue to expand.  But my unscientific listen to NPR provided a continuing sign of hope.

By the way, the three pieces started with a discussion of Detroit’s bankruptcy woes where the head of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce noted that “great American cities like New York, Pittsburgh have gone through some form of receivership” and now “those cities are vibrant urban centers.”  Next up was Howard Bryant of ESPN talking second half of season baseball and “the story I like best is the Pittsburgh Pirates”.  And immediately following was WESA’s Larkin Page-Jacobs piece on the “outing” of Robert Galbraith as JK Rowling by Duquesne University “in Pittsburgh” Professor Patrick Juola resulting from his computer modeling techniques.

None of this is curing cancer or stopping world hunger, but it all adds to a perception that in Pittsburgh stuff is happening, brains are being used, and Pittsburgh placing with the best urban centers.