Why Not Pittsburgh, Google?

This may be my laziest posting and certainly my shortest.  But I just saw a piece in a West Coast business journal that the City of San Jose is actively lobbying Google to be the next city with Google Fiber service.

So why not Pittsburgh?  It’s not like we don’t have any “Googlers” in town.  And hopefully were getting more all the time.  So what gives?  Already on the list are Austin, Kansas City, Provo, and upcoming Nashville, Charlotte and San Antonio.

Why not Pittsburgh?  Is anyone in Pittsburgh’s City government asking Google?  I mean, you can at least ask, right?

Regarding Immigration, Get Back to the Forefront Pittsburgh

Immigration has become topic Number One in the world, or at least in the first world’s media eye, with immigration reforms continuing to be a political hot potato in the US and mass migration from the Middle East and Africa perhaps leading to epoch changes to Europe’s demographics in ways seen only occasionally in world history.

Population migrations have occurred throughout history from the time Asian peoples crossed the Bering Strait into North America to the waves of southern and eastern Europeans who doubled America’s population within a couple generations and literally changed the perceived face of America in the Industrial Age.  So the 21^st century’s migrations should not surprise us.  It’s not a question of if we will allow these mass population movements; it’s a question of how established natives handle their new neighbors.

During the Industrial Age, Pittsburgh played a front and center role by being a prime destination for those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, as well as wanting to make a decent living for themselves in a new world.  That seems to be what today’s immigrants are seeking as they stream north from Latin America to US Sunbelt cities, and from the Middle East and Africa to northern Europe.  I want to see Pittsburgh reestablish itself at the forefront of places that more than just welcome; that actively seek, immigrants from troubled places.

These days, “everyone” in the region including Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, every major higher-ed institution, every business-led association, and countless not-for-profit organizations chant the somewhat exaggerated mantra that “Pittsburgh is not diverse enough”, whatever that really means.  But if by one definition it means the region needs to attract more foreign-born residents then …let’s do it.  Usually the opportunity for a better life and a higher living standard are what attracts in-migrants be they from any geographic source.  Strikingly Western Pennsylvania has failed at that effort since World War II ended.  So maybe a different approach is what’s called for.

Assuming that different approach is needed, my challenge question is “Who is going to step up to the plate and work with legal authorities, the US federal government mainly but also international NGOs, to make it known that Pittsburgh wants you to move here?”  It’s really as simple as that.  If lack of diversity is a bad thing, all the high paying and high profile “directors” in diversity positions writing op-ed pieces deprecating our region will solve nothing.  One more local government commission or study on the subject will result in …one more report.  And because there is a defined and legal gatekeeper to immigrants from outside the US borders [the US federal government], there’s a defined procedure whereby any one of these diversity proponents with a law degree or human resource training should be able to develop a program to put Pittsburgh, again, at the forefront of immigrant destinations.

Stick to the Game Plan

Let’s face it.  The reason anyone starts a blog site is a bit of ego, some hubris, and lots of need to get things off their chest.  Guilty as charged.

So with that as an introduction I need to say that I believe there are so many good things happening in Pittsburgh now, and the City finally, FINALLY, has taken on a more optimistic spirit, with local cheerleaders aplenty, that besides an occasional special shout out to something of particularly exciting import, I am left with pointing out areas I perceive as lacking.  If you, the reader, can stand for that on a periodic schedule, thank you and read on.

A September 4, 2015 article in the “Post-Gazette” headlined “Tech industry driving office growth in Oakland and beyond”.  Duh uh.  The “tech industry” is about the only thing, other than healthcare, driving office growth anywhere, in this country at least.  Forty years ago or so the various economic development groups in Pittsburgh all realized the best path to revitalization was using Pittsburgh’s higher education community to build up a “technology” sector.  While that decision was prescient in hindsight to most of us and merely “on trend” to the really smart folks who lived economic development, something interesting happened on the way to building a technology based economy: “technology” became the economy.

Technology is THE engine of the 21^st century economy.  Heck, it’s the engine of our lives.  I realize that sounds like a platitude these days, akin to lending insight into the obvious, but it’s the reality that needs a full hearted embrace by the larger community.  “Dem mills ain’t comin back”.  Sorry but take a look at any employment report for Pittsburgh or the US in the last 20 years and it will tell you there’s a continual decline in our manufacturing sector overall.  Within that sector however it’s the “high tech” manufacturing that shows at least some income growth.  And that’s the story of all sectors.  Technological advances drive steelmaking, auto manufacture, healthcare, finance, retail, communications, and on and on.  If you can name it, it is an industry that is growing because of technology advances.

So let’s dispense with any lingering reverse snobbery in this region that still believes men and women who work in offices and research labs are somehow not as “authentic” as guys who 50 years ago sweated at much physical risk in a steel mill.  Technology IS today’s industry.  And everyone else is in a sector meant to serve the larger purpose of technology.  But I’ll leave that line of thought for a future screed.

Come back to the 5 and Dime …

What downtown Pittsburgh really needs is a good 5 and dime, a variety store like another G.C. Murphy or H.L. Green.  In 2015 those stores are called Target or Big Lots or even TJ Maxx to some extent. And dare I mention WalMart?  Those types of stores fill the daily needs of the broadest swath of incomes and tastes, commuters and residents.  But instead, many years ago, Pittsburgh got a solution for which there was no problem.  It’s taken some time but the proof of that contention has appeared.

Macy’s announcement to close its downtown store points out more than just the evolution of the local, or even national retail environment.  The fact that the closing was not met with howls of anguish from Pittsburgh politicians and pages of copy in local newspapers analyzing the, surely negative, ramifications speaks volumes about Pittsburgh’s newfound self confidence.  The closing’s shock was mitigated in the same announcement with plans that the former Kaufmann’s building will become an upscale mixed use development which in turn supports recent assertions of Pittsburgh’s attractiveness as an investment locale.

But here I call attention to the case for remembering recent history – and hopefully not repeating it.  Ever again.  It wasn’t so long ago in the administration of Mayor Tom Murphy that the City taxpayers were committed to provide subsidies to May Department Stores so they could desecrate the architectural gem that was the former Mellon Bank building across from Kaufmann’s in order to insert a Lord & Taylor department store.  At the time I believed those types of subsidies were folly and time has proven me correct, not that it’s a reason to take satisfaction.  The important point is that the high gloss veneer provided by upscale retail is not a basis for economic development.  I am not opposed to government subsidies when they help increase employment or social wellbeing in an area.  But taxpayers deserve a real return on government investment.  For economic development projects, this means recruiting businesses that provide jobs with wages that are higher relative to the local norm and will also return tax revenues to the subsidizing government entity.  Consumer retail outlets have historically shown they are not economic growth engines.

Instead of pouring public monies into retail and real estate schemes, the City’s past Administrations would have been more productive to partner with our universities and hospitals to help expand infrastructure needed for their growth initiatives which in turn would have added high income jobs.

During the Richard Caliguiri administration I recall there was an effort to recruit a Macy’s department store to Pittsburgh in a downtown mall development, City Center, proposed for the Grant Street corridor.  I remember at the time comments made about how Pittsburgh would enter the big leagues if we had a Macy’s. Guess what? The Universe always gives you what you ask for, just not usually in the way you expect.  We got our Macy’s and in fact Pittsburgh is getting back to the economic big leagues – but the two are unrelated.  Retail follows income; retail does not create income.  Income creation is the key to economic and social development.  And Pittsburgh still sits woefully low on per capita income rankings for major metros.

Pardon a little dig.  After Mayor Murphy’s pyrrhic success at recruiting Lord & Taylor to downtown [as well as his failure to bring Nordstrom to downtown’s Fifth Avenue Place – he did love a good department store project], did His Honor move on to other development projects within Pittsburgh?  Why no; he moved to that income producing freight train that is Washington, D.C. and the Urban Land Institute, while leaving behind what became an architecturally damaged structure in the very heart of our downtown.  Experience is the best teacher and we usually learn more from failures than successes.  I hope those City officials involved in these retail fiascos remember their lessons when expounding on solutions for America’s urban areas from well located think tank pedestals such as the ULI.  

And what downtown Pittsburgh needs is a good 5 and dime. With a shout out to Robert Altman.

It Pays to Advertise, even a little

No, this is not a discussion about Pittsburgh’s seemingly genetic inability to promote itself.  I’ll make that topic a rant for the future.  As Steve Case, the founder of AOL said at a recent economic development conference in Pittsburgh, the city “has a humility, a reluctance to beat its chest and talk about all the great things” happening here.  But these are times when such an approach is more vice than virtue.

What I’d like to see is Pittsburgh advertise itself as a destination for the job seekers from across the globe, but specifically today, those that will be coming from Greece.

Look, the economic mess in Greece is not going to be resolved with a quick solution.  Already there are reports of a “brain drain” as Greeks with the education, skills and financial wherewithal migrate to countries from northern Europe to Canada to Australia.  I have to believe because of history and family connections, a certain number will come to the States.

The “Washington Post” recently reported that Greece’s population has a higher percentage of college graduates than the US.  Those degree holders would find Pittsburgh a natural landing spot.  With a historically large Greek community already in place and with jobs available in the fields of medicine and engineering, Pittsburgh is attractive to degreed immigrants from any country on earth looking for a better life.  Isn’t that obvious?

So let’s advertise it.

Why All The Fuss?

There’s a bit of a kerfuffle regarding Uber hiring away 40 plus Carnegie Mellon staffers from CMU’s National Robotics Center for Uber’s new, and welcomed, driverless car engineering office in Pittsburgh.  Is there a problem here?  I don’t get it.  What’s not to like?  Isn’t “the new economy” all about disruptions such as this.  That’s a declaration, not a question.

A dynamic economy at any geographic level is constantly changing.  This is precisely what Pittsburgh lacked for two or more generations: a chance for individuals to reinvent themselves, let alone the city and region.  It’s why the now talked about “Diaspora” of the young and the talented happened when they moved to the East Coast, the Research Triangle, Texas and Florida, and about every other point beyond.  All they [we] were trying to do was find a place to best use talents.

And that’s the chance Uber is giving to those CMU engineers.  I’ve read the comments coming from CMU upper level managers and they are surprisingly [to me] chary with their enthusiasm for this turn of events.  I would think they should be thrilled that their staff has opportunities to move into what must be higher paying jobs in the private sector.  But it seems not; which is all too typical of an industrial era management style reminiscent of indentured worker conditions.  In contrast let’s particularly note that Robotics Institute’s managers are very enthusiastic about this enterprise.

Of course CMU’s high level managers, as management types anywhere would be, are concerned that they now have to replace these engineers.  That’s management’s job – hiring and staffing.  In the nationwide robotics market, these folks are in demand.  So maybe Pittsburgh’s notoriously lower wage scale needs to finally, FINALLY, start rising.  It’s the only way the region will compete to keep the aforementioned young and talented in the area.  And forget the BS about “well we can pay less in Pittsburgh because the cost of living is lower”.  The cost of living is lower because income levels are depressed.  Those incomes provide only so much anyone can pay for a mortgage, as one example, thereby keeping Pittsburgh housing values, and overall cost of living, depressingly low.  But trust me, as a former young person I can tell you, after you graduate from college, the last thing on your mind are single family housing prices.  A $3 flat white or a $7 craft beer is the same price on University Avenue in Palo Alto as it is on Penn Avenue in East Liberty.

So let’s celebrate a too-rare big name, national headlines win for Pittsburgh.  The future is creeping into the local job market, disrupting the all too comfortable lives of organization managers in the region.  Finally.

Couldn’t Have Said It Better

OK, maybe I’m being lazy.  But maybe I am simply deferring to a better intellect.  Charles Rosenblum’s cover piece in the online edition of the “Pittsburgh City Paper” deserves to be read by all.  Thank you Mr. Rosenblum.  I concur and only wish I had written about this sooner myself.

Go Here: http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/why-cant-pittsburghs-building-boom-produce-better-buildings/Content?oid=1824154