Rising Standards

No need to list the now constant stream of media mentions on Pittsburgh’s rebirth, re-growth, renaissance, and re-emergence as a “place to be”.  These things take time and to come to this point it has taken two generations, over 40 years really, since the initial collapse of steelmaking as the region’s economic cornerstone.  While I believe rising economic development is not inevitable, the momentum is certainly there in Pittsburgh’s favor.

I believe Pittsburgh is further fortunate in that it does not get ahead of itself when it comes to civic self image.  Success does not distract Pittsburghers from their life paths.  This isn’t LA or Dallas or Miami, thank goodness.  Driving through the city and surrounds you won’t find a lot of faux-French chateaus being constructed in the hills.

But as with general economic growth in the US over the last 20 years, and similar to what we’re seeing worldwide, the benefits of growth are spread unevenly.  Perhaps more unevenly than any time in the last 100 years, since the Gilded Age.  So it’s appropriate to be thinking about how to mitigate the natural and normal inequalities of growth, as much because we want a solid economic base as because it’s simply better for all the area’s residents.

A rising tide does indeed float all ships.  But let’s make sure the tidal flow touches all and provides them the opportunity to rise.  Everyone who is a thought leader, an opinion maker, a mover and shaker so to speak, has got to be talking about development in all parts of Pittsburgh and the surrounding region.  No community, whether geographically or demographically defined, should be left behind or even allowed simply to lag.

OK, this is one of my blog pieces where I can offer no “solutions” or even opinions of such.  As mainly a free market capitalist, I believe the situation will eventually right itself.  However let’s not sit around and hope for the best.  If any city in the US is an example of what involved citizens can do, Pittsburgh with its generally recognized public-private partnership that produced the City’s first renaissance is the argument for some direct involvement.

Progress most likely will happen on the margins, both geographically and socially.  The worst blighted neighborhoods in Homewood or the Hill District, parts of the Mon Valley or outlying counties, for example, will probably not see incomes increase immediately.  But I believe measurable economic progress can penetrate those communities, among others, in reasonable amounts of time; measured in months and years, not decades.

As I mentioned above, Pittsburgh thought-leaders, in the media, academia, government, and business must acknowledge and give voice to this issue of raising the economic bar for the entire city and region.  Only by seeking solutions to this issue, one that Pittsburgh is certainly not alone among cities in facing, can progress me made.  Acknowledge, think and then act.  I have no other prescription at this time.

This Has Got to Stop

Along with the news today that HJ Heinz is laying off 350 staff members at Pittsburgh headquarters is a less noted item about the purchase by Facebook of a local high tech startup, Mobile Technologies.  Mobile Technologies developed a product called Jibbigo that is a translation service application which can be used on your smartphone.  I don’t need to go into details of why this could be a very important piece of technology for any large social media platform, like Facebook.

 

My problem is the statement by Mobile Technologies founders who spun out of Carnegie Mellon: “once the deal has closed, many of us will be joining the company at their headquarters in Menlo Park, California.”  You can rest assured that given the size of Mobile Technologies, all of their current staff will transfer to Menlo Park.  So why can’t Facebook, like Google, establish a Pittsburgh engineering office?  This “brain drain” of sorts, which has happened time and again over a generation in Pittsburgh, has got to stop.

 

I fully comprehend that high tech must be fluid and respond to opportunities as they present themselves.  That ability lays the groundwork, the very ecosystem, for future success and innovations.  But especially for those enterprises coming out of CMU there has been too much of a history of innovative companies grown on their campus only to be removed to more “glamorous” locations as soon as the dollars beckon.  This has got to stop.

 

I don’t have an answer for this and in all reality there is no “answer” for the cycle of job creation and flow.  It’s a sign of a healthy environment when an area like Pittsburgh repeatedly produces innovative ideas and enterprises.  And it’s only natural that the best and the brightest, be they people or ideas or companies, migrate to where they’re most appreciated: that is, where the capital to foster growth is located.  However, I would like to see more leadership from “the top”, by which I mean the top of the particular organization in Pittsburgh where these creative enterprises are formed.  In this particular case, as in so many recent others, that top is the leadership at Carnegie Mellon University.  What is CMU doing to foster Pittsburgh’s future growth besides taking in tuition payments and spitting out high value employees for Boston, Seattle and the Silicon Valley?

 

Look for me to follow up this piece with something addressed to CMU’s incoming President.

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.

California. Dreaming.

Metaphysicians teach us that we don’t have to know the means to achieving our dreams; we merely have to dream them.  We have to have the wish and desire.

With that in mind I am writing a dream piece having just returned from a wonderful weekend in California’s Bay Area, specifically mid-Peninsula, staying with friends in Menlo Park and attending Commencement ceremonies at Stanford University.

Given the rudimentary nature of my blogging it may surprise many that I work in high tech: computer software to be exact.  And I have for over 20 years.  I have thus spent a lot of time in the Bay Area and know it well, physically, socially and psychically.  And for me, two places on earth recharge my “batteries”: New York and the Silicon Valley.

From the first time I visited Silicon Valley I have said to myself “Pittsburgh needs more of this.”  I don’t tilt at windmills and I’ve always felt that Pittsburgh has the elements needed to recreate that unique atmosphere found in the Bay Area.  It’s just waiting for a catalyst.  [Negative free ions coming in from the Pacific Ocean notwithstanding.]

I believe most of my blog postings are attempts to specify what those catalysts might be.  But as in all of life, there’s a special magic to how things grow and develop.  We humans “study” things, whether in the physical or social sciences, to determine the how and why.  That’s hard.  I want to go easy here and just dream the un-definable.  So here are some thoughts in no particular order.

SRI, the Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park looks a lot like the Reizenstein School area that’s being developed into Bakery Square Two.  This seems to be a prime location for attracting big name, established high tech companies and at the same time incubating local firms that will hopefully become the marquee, big name corporations that will solidify Pittsburgh’s technology future.  Make that redevelopment happen as soon as possible.  Ideas are looking for terra firma to grow in Pittsburgh.

Panther Hollow is an uncut jewel.  I want to see it “developed” end-to-end.  But not overdeveloped.  By that I mean I want the majority of the green hillsides retained.  I would like to see transparent, translucent and transcendent architecture grown into those verdant hillsides.  That’s not hyperbole; look up Panther Hollow toward Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning the next time you head west on the Parkway out of Squirrel Hill [if you dare do that at 60mph coming around the bend] and see what a great set piece that view is.  I would like to see the world’s most notable architects as well as the most innovative up-and-comers put in site-sensitive structures that use modern materials that add significant structures in a way that doesn’t overpower the natural setting.  I want Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron, and also a pre-graduate class from CMU’s architecture department to design signature pieces.

Pittsburgh’s Hill District, while showing signs of attention, if not quite revitalization, is another un-polished gem.  Location, location, location is the old real estate expression [as well as useful in single bars] that pertains to the Hill.  But there is a very important historical aspect to the Hill that should be reborn not only because history, and Black history in particular, is important, but because this could be a tourist and development draw.  I myself am a jazz fan; a true fanatic actually.  Pittsburgh’s Hill District gave birth to so many jazz legends I am reluctant to list even a couple as I will be missing so many: Stanley Turrentine, Errol Garner, George Benson, Billy Strayhorn and Billy Eckstein.  The list goes on.  There needs to be residential and commercial development to support any kind of artistic life but perhaps a small museum space or cultural center where jazz can be performed?  I believe the residential redevelopment [it was for decades already a very vibrant community] is inevitable.  So someone [Duquesne University, Carlow University, Pitt – all who share a border with some part of the Hill] anticipate the rebirth and get in there, deeply.

A high or mid rise condominium tower near Pitt’s campus with a spectacular view of the Cathedral of Learning.  Expats like me want a place to come back to especially as we consider our “retirement years”.  [Whatever that expression really means.]  I’m looking for something refined and restrained, elegant, with glass and steel. And notable.  See above and pick an architect.  I think it would be a hit project for the first developer that takes this risk in Oakland.

That’s it for now.  Those are my most pressing ideas at this point.  I may be repeating some of these but …I feel these are worth harping on.

Re-creation in Recreation

The American College of Sports Medicine recently ranked 50 cities for being the most or least fit cities across the nation.  Pittsburgh came in at a respectable number 16, sandwiched in between Raleigh, NC and Philly, and not too far from trendier cities like Denver and Austin.  These lists of rankings, especially when featured on CNN or USAToday are definitely showing their age.  Those of us that took some statistics courses know that with the right criteria, Lagos can be viewed as London.  But this particular ranking got me to thinking about recreation, lifestyles, and the attractiveness of a city for desirable [read: higher income] demographics.

I posit Pittsburgh has all the recreational opportunities, and then some more, of larger or simply better reputed “cool and hip” cities.  Think the ones on every such list: Boulder/Denver, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Diego, and San Francisco Bay Area to name the obvious.  OK, the ocean-side beachfront we will never have.  Deal with it.  But even a large venue for sailing is just a couple hours north on Lake Erie.  And how many really swim off the frigid, shark infested Pacific beaches of northern California?


My point here is not to list Pittsburgh’s recreational opportunities.  That WOULD be tiresome and those that participate already know of them. Well OK.  A few of the outdoor oriented or “extreme” sports include street and BMX biking, mountain hiking and camping, white water sports, flat water sports as in rowing or kayaking, and triathlon.  Then there’s always the great equalizer of participant sports, running, of which Pittsburgh is developing a good core culture and an even better reputation.

 

So what I would like to see is more local political and development leaders play up the participant sports availability.  I note that outdoor recreation is mentioned in most thorough presentations of Pittsburgh’s quality of life.  But it’s never really highlighted.  My contention here is that participant sports attract a higher income and educational level demographic.  Those people form the basis for economic growth.  ESPN and “Sports Illustrated” magazine tout Pittsburgh’s reputation as a “sports town” but that comes with too many pictures [both mental and actual] of clearly overweight fans with their butts firmly placed in seats cheering on the local heroes.  Fun stuff as far as it goes but not always an attraction for 20-something creative types looking to migrate into, or simply stay [after CMU or Pitt degrees are attained] an exciting lifestyle.  More emphasis on serious participant sports and recreation, please.

That’s the Attitude!

Here’s something that’s definitely in the category of not solving world hunger or curing cancer.  But it represents a very hopeful development in the social, and by extension, economic life of Pittsburgh.  And I’m not talking about the Penguins in the playoffs.

A Sunday, May 5, 2013 article in the “Post-Gazette” by food writer and critic Melissa McCart highlighted the influx of new, young, enthusiastic chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh.  There’s nothing here that needs to be overly explored.  It’s simply that the article, “Chef Appeal: Pittsburgh's growing restaurant scene attracts staff from bigger cities” was positive from start to finish.  There was never an “and but” in there.  I note that Pittsburghers too often look on the “but” side of things.

I was especially impressed with the comments of these young restauranteurs.  Within the piece there was a dialogue where often Ms. McCart would challenge their positive statements by noting that while this or that is getting better in the Burgh, it’s still a far cry from the more acknowledged food centers.  And in every single instance the reply back from these chefs was “Not so.”  It’s just as good, and in many ways better here.  Wow.

These people represent the kind of energy and attitude that Pittsburgh has been seeking to develop for decades.  This is the spirit that has jumped more than a few generations to hearken back to Carnegie, Mellon and Frick.  It may be simply food and dining out, but those aspects of a city’s life are important social adhesives.  Heck, the Italians and French have built an entire tourist industry on such.  Awesome news Pittsburgh.  Keep the momentum going.

And here’s a postscript: while editing this piece I discovered in the May 7, 2013 edition of the “New York Times” Style section an article titled “Replanting the Rust Belt” featuring the crop of new, sustainable chefs making great food in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Especially interesting is that they all agree: to be great cities, great food is needed.  For sure!

It's the Employment Thing

It’s been widely reported that metro Pittsburgh generated a paltry 2,000 jobs in the latest Quarter and its unemployment rate shot up a full percentage point from the mid-sixes to the mid-sevens.  Even with the caveat that unemployment rates for specific metro areas are less exact than national numbers [is the phrase “even less exact” a better characterization?] this is still a disturbing trend.

Is Pittsburgh back to status of first-into-recession/last-out?  Well, maybe, sort of.

Things are not as good anywhere as reported and, I personally believe, getting worse over in the entire US economy. But what explains Pittsburgh’s next to last ranking among large metro areas when it comes to job creation?

Is it the tax climate? What about Minneapolis or Boston - they're worse than Pittsburgh. Is it the weather climate? Oh c'mon, can't use that excuse given growth in other cities with far worse weather. And besides, one man’s “bad weather” is another’s “outdoor recreation opportunity”. Is it an "inside the center/outside the center" thing? By that I mean Allegheny and much of Washington and Butler counties have people that could be from anywhere else in the country, New York to L.A. But travel to the more outlying counties and we too often find, as but one example, lower educational levels.  Having traveled throughout that territory I can personally attest that the attitude of locals is too often less than welcoming to outside interests. You’ve got to want economic development before outsiders will look at you.  But I digress.

Is it reporting problems? How can Pittsburgh be SO far behind after being at the forefront recently? I mean PNC is growing, Dick's Sporting Goods is growing, I see new hotels and stores everywhere, just look at South Hills Village and Ross Park. But the retail hiring took a huge hit in the numbers I saw. So what is it?  I don’t have answers but the questions need asked.

If Pittsburgh and the central counties need to bear the burden of metro economic development then that’s just the way it is.  Here’s one thought.  In previous posts I’ve fingered CMU, as important as they are to Pittsburgh, for what I see as mediocre commitment to local economic development. From what I can tell, Cohon’s administration has not done enough to bring development into Pittsburgh. Currently, CMU exports most of its talent to the Silicon Valley. I pray the new President Suresh, from MIT with its enviable development record in Boston, will be different. Have you been to Cambridge recently? It's already living 2050 in terms of what is being researched there, especially around MIT. Oakland needs that. Redo Panther Hollow as a Silicon Hollow I say!