A quick rant
regarding recent comments in the media on Pittsburgh that's related to coverage of the
Pirates. Allow me use Michael Keaton's blog for ESPN.com as the foremost
example, although what I’m complaining about permeates the media when referring
to Pittsburgh in any context.
Keaton is a
great fan of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh’s sports franchises so I criticize with
affection as I would to a family member.
But he almost never fails to make reference to Pittsburgh's "blue
collar" attitudes, in this particular case those attitudes being a key to
the Pirates’ success. C’mon people! How many times? Years?
Decades? does Pittsburgh have to
labor under that old saw? I mean really,
it's the fallback explanation used by every second rate reporter in sports,
business, or arts reporting.
And Mr.
Keaton: blue collar work ethic, huh? Like NYC doesn't have a blue collar side?
Houston? Dallas? London? Shanghai? I won’t get wonky on this one: a rant is
supposed to make liberal use of grand assumptions and platitudes. But look at
the most recent statistics that tell us Pittsburgh is less blue collar that
most of its cohort cities in the US.
Great cities
run on a diverse mix and that refers to job and economic mixes as well. And do
only blue collar types work hard? I worked on Wall Street and I'll put up my 12
hour days, 8 days a week as a "slave of New York" next to any time
card punching dude. Success is hard work anywhere, period. Stop the back-handed
compliments from people who do not or no longer live in Pittsburgh.
Finally, if
you’re using the term “blue collar” as a proxy of a close knit, well
functioning community, then why don’t you just use that description? Pittsburgh’s always been a great city, when
it was dominated by heavy industry and even now when it’s largely a knowledge
based economy. Communicating the facts
in an interesting way is difficult. It
would be great if more folks who love Pittsburgh did it.
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