The Futures of Post-Industrial Economic Development
Part 1 of a new, occasional series: How does the psychology of a city change, as part of shifts in its economy and culture?Read More »The Futures of Post-Industrial Economic Development
Part 1 of a new, occasional series: How does the psychology of a city change, as part of shifts in its economy and culture?Read More »The Futures of Post-Industrial Economic Development
What?
In recent days, I’ve come across not one but two online features that celebrate contemporary Pittsburgh for its economic and cultural sexiness. Largely because of the regional tech economy, the millennials and GenXers who dominate it, and the insistence of Pittsburgh’s Old Guard that what you see today was always the plan for economic recovery after the collapse of steel in the early 1980s, Pittsburgh is back, baby! If this were Southern California and if there were waves on the three rivers, I could imagine Jeff Spicoli saying, “Hey bud! Let’s party!”
Carrie Furnace and the Oakmont Country Club. George Westinghouse and the Pittsburgh Opera. These things go in pairs – Pittsburgh’s industrial history and its contemporary arts and cultural resources. Having written about Pittsburgh for close to 15 years, I’ve learned about a lot of those pairings. What’s good for the bank account often turns out to be good for the spirit.
Read More »What I Didn’t Know About Pittsburgh, #1Contemporary Pittsburgh is still mostly missing a writer who distills its emerging, collective voice, meaning a forward-looking imagineer to complement the marvelous visual nostalgia of Rick Sebak. The expressive identity of the city and region are probably the things that I’ve wrestled with the most since moving here and writing about the place myself, on and off, for close to 15 years. And when I come back to the topic from time to time — what defines Pittsburgh, in various ways, and what anchors its evolution? — this is the theme that pulls me in. How does Pittsburgh talk about itself to itself, and how does Pittsburgh talk about itself to others?
Read More »#Pittsblog: Imagining PittsburghFree download: “Contrasts in Innovation: Pittsburgh Then and Now,” http://ssrn.com/abstract=1858741
That’s a full and complete account of innovation and other things in Pittsburgh today, or the good, the bad, and the ugly about Pittsburgh’s continuing journey on the road to recovery post-steel collapse, economically speaking and otherwise. Anyone coming to Pittsburgh or coming to Pittsburgh’s story via a line arguing that Pittsburgh’s innovation is in high gear and that Pittsburgh is a model region for tech, tech policy, and urban reinvention should read further. Good things are happening in Pittsburgh, but there is more going on — more innovation than innovation in tech, and things that aren’t so innovative and that aren’t so good — than are captured in the headlines.
Read More »#WHFrontiers: Pittsburgh’s Innovation Story in Full