Onward and Upward in Pittsburgh?

Published March 2, 2009 at 2:34 p.m.
I've been traveling even more than usual recently, but touring the country gives me more opportunities than usual to collect nuggets of insight about Pittsburgh from distant colleagues. And the news, on the whole, is pretty good. Five years ago, among my colleagues in intellectual property and technology law Pittsburgh had more or less no reputation. Now, the word is good. Pittsburgh has a booming biotechnology economy. Pittsburgh has recovered and rebuilt itself. Pittsburgh is a happening place.

That's what I hear, anyway.

Coming home yesterday, I would be forgiven for thinking that it's all true.

According to China Millman, Pittsburgh is finally getting some recognition as a foodie town (even though we don't necessarily know it ourselves). (Remember my informal motto: China Millman is Everywhere!)

According to Harold Miller, even rising unemployment shows off Pittsburgh in a good light.

According to the Mayor, the major construction projects now underway Downtown and on the North Shore suggest that another Pittsburgh Renaissance is upon us. Real estate developers are guardedly optimistic about the Downtown condo market.

The future's so bright, we have to wear shades!

But there are clouds.

I'm speaking later this month at a symposium on "digital entrepreneurship" at WVU in Morgantown, and my theme will be building infrastructure -- technology infrastructure, economic infrastructure, services infrastructure, legal infrastructure...Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania have a long ways to go on all of those fronts.

And there is the matter of $800 million or so in pension liabilities.

This is a real challenge for Patrick Dowd as he challenges Luke Ravenstahl in the upcoming mayoral primary...The angels aren't singing in Pittsburgh, but things here don't seem so bad compared to a lot of places, and in a lot of ways, things feel relatively good..."Things" captures those vague feelings you can get when you read about new restaurants and the fact that the Penguins may make the playoffs after all and deserve that new arena that's employing a lot of construction workers..."Things" aren't really so rosy, but Dowd can't be Mr. Doom-and-Gloom and hope to pull off an Obama-esque upset.


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