Pittsburgh

The @pittsburghpg sometimes provides just the right amount of head-scratching source material. From one side of the newsroom, today’s paper… Read More »#Pittsburgh Contrasts

Pittsburgh is again recognized as hip and trendy for a certain demographic: People looking for hip and trendy on the cheap.… Read More »Pittsburgh as New Brooklyn

There was an interesting juxtaposition in Pittsburgh economic development news last week, courtesy of the @pittsburghpg @rczullo: Lagging: “Brookings high-tech… Read More »Pittsburgh: Lagging and Leading

Kevin Sousa, Pittsburgh chef and entrepreneur extraordinaire, has a plan to rescue the Pittsburgh region’s signature communal failure, Braddock, Pennsylvania, by opening a high-end restaurant there. It will be an unusual restaurant, “Superior Motors,” with some local sourcing and some local hiring, but a high-end restaurant nonetheless.  The other day, EATER magazine published an interesting overview of Sousa’s prospects — can culinary tourism bring hipster credibility and economic success to Braddock? — and EATER included some quotations from me, expressing skepticism. I have my doubts about Kevin Sousa and Braddock.

But Kevin Sousa is right about something else and something bigger. Even if I believe that Superior Motors and all that won’t bring Braddock back, I’m cheering for Kevin Sousa and people like him.

Here’s why.

Pittsburgh is a small city after all. For nearly a decade, I’ve been watching the “reinvention” of my post-industrial home… Read More »Does Pittsburgh Need Some VC Love?