Of Place and Time

In the Sunday April 6^th edition of the “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette”, Donald Miller penned an excellent piece pointing out the clouds on the horizon of Pittsburgh’s relative economic revival, pointing specifically to slowing job creation and continues population losses.  I was traveling in southern California when I read the piece from sunny and dry Orange County, California.  Having just flown in that morning to John Wayne Airport I had a 30,000ft perspective [sorry, pun intended] on Mr. Miller’s focus on manufacturing jobs as key to growth in western Pennsylvania employment numbers.

As our jet came over the San Gabriel Mountains and descended into the coastal plain that is Orange County [the “OC”] you can’t help but be struck by first, the willingness of California’s Transportation officials to throw up highways everywhere. And then second, the incredible number of one and two story flat roofed structures that cover the landscape for most of the flight path into the airport; literally miles and miles of warehouse and manufacturing facilities.  These are companies that provide everything from minimum wage jobs for unskilled, newly immigrated residents to well paying jobs in high tech related industries.

And these are precisely the types of jobs Mr. Miller is dreaming of for the Pittsburgh region.

Here’s a thought on Pittsburgh’s ouster from the modern manufacturing jobs contest: geography plays a large role in this.  Pittsburgh is certainly at the bottom of the list when it comes to adding any new manufacturing jobs so we can point to any one of a dozen [or 49 or 99, whatever size the list] other cities as alternative examples.  But to name the big job gainers in this most recent tepid national growth cycle, let’s note Houston, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, and southern California as the shining stars.  They all share the gift and curse of having flat, easily developable land that can be quickly cleared and has little physical attractiveness that causes the locals to throw up preservation arguments.  Plus, as a part of that landscape, major highways can be built with equal ease.  Because of Pittsburgh’s geography, it will never be able to compete in that arena. 

Get used to it and get over it.  Modern manufacturing as implemented by the military industrial complex requires oodles of cheap, available land and government subsidized transportation, meaning, highway networks.  All of those resources are in scarce supply in Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh region.

So what’s the answer?  One approach involves smaller companies that produce high value-added products.  Electronics and high tech instrument manufacturing would be two examples.  Something like All-Clad cookware, is another.  More of that please.  And here I’ll pull an example from another travel experience that speaks more to what Pittsburgh should emulate.  I’ve noted more than a couple times while on trains in Switzerland and Germany, the number of small towns and villages that have some sparkling clean industrial building integrated right into the town.  Often these facilities will have large multinational corporate names attached but just as often they are specialty manufacturers, maybe family owned, that provide the economic basis for a prosperous community.  I can see those tucked into the hills and valleys that form western PA’s landscape.

Donald Miller’s piece also notes the need for State involvement to promote manufacturing job gains.  His assertion, one that I agree with, touches on an existential debate over the role and impact of government as it reflects the public’s collective will.  I will save that discussion for a subsequent post.

Under Utilized Resources

New Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto recently noted that the Hill District was a prime focus for development under his administration.  Excellent!  The Hill District and north Oakland as well as Homewood are very large neighborhoods that are more than under-utilized resources, they are diamonds in the rough.

The Hill especially has broad tracts of developable land and sits right in the center of the higher education centers of Oakland [Pitt, CMU, Carlow], The Bluff [Duquesne], and downtown [Point Park].  The spinoff opportunities from these schools alone are limitless and could provide meaningful, achievable jobs for neighborhood residents.  Combine that with the historical sense of community at the heart of the Hill District and there exists a real “place” in the metaphysical sense, all of which defines a true community.

Homewood is similarly well situated geographically if also with a few more issues to overcome than the Hill.  Crime seems notably more present in Homewood than the Hill of late.  But that could be a factor of a larger population density or a younger demographic.  Whatever the causes, the solution must come from a focus on the neighborhood and a committed determination to change that situation for the better.  Homewood backs up against the economically resurgent East Liberty and some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the City.  There is real potential for development to occur that is inclusive of Homewood’s current residents.  Economic prosperity percolates up.  I hope Mayor Peduto’s team turns on the stove for this brew in both neighborhoods.