There was an interesting juxtaposition in Pittsburgh economic development news last week, courtesy of the @pittsburghpg @rczullo:
Lagging: “Brookings high-tech list a holy Toledo moment.” According to a recent Brookings Institution report, Pittsburgh is lagging other metro regions in its concentration of so-called “advanced industry” jobs. (Here is a link to the full report.) It’s possible to parse the data so that Pittsburgh doesn’t look quite so bad, but really, the headline tells the version of the story that has legs.
Leading: “‘Code for America’ fellows aim to make Pittsburgh more transparent.” The city of Pittsburgh has used Code for America money to bring a small team of hackers to town to make public procurement more transparent. I can only imagine the folks and interests that will be disrupted by this. The PG reported: “Contracts and campaign contributions often are the fuel that powers political machines, but Mr. Peduto said he wants the three Code for America fellows who will spend a year in Pittsburgh to help open up city purchasing to small businesses and others who have been historically shut out of the process and strip away ‘that whole machine.'” Good for Mayor Peduto.