In January 1983, unemployment in metropolitan Pittsburgh reached 17.1 percent as deep recession and structural change rocked the region. Steel strikes raged, and famous mills went cold. In time, an unwelcome realization settled in: Pittsburgh would never be the city it had been. As the Bruce Springsteen lyrics went, “Foreman says these jobs are going boys, and they ain’t coming back — to your hometown.”
The economic cataclysm sent untold thousand of young people from Pittsburgh to seek work elsewhere. It created the Pittsburgh diaspora and left a demographic hole that made Pittsburgh one of the nation’s oldest regions. It also set in motion years of soul-searching, major reports commissioned on Pittsburgh’s future, and, ultimately, a resolve in quarters across the city to remake a new Pittsburgh.
Part of that effort has included benchmarking the region’s progress compared with other cities. And this week, the most prominent of those projects — the Regional Indicators at Pittsburghtoday.org — has released a major report on the region entitled “Pittsburgh Today & Tomorrow.”
In the 44-page investigation, readers can assess how Pittsburgh compares with 14 other benchmark regions in 10 categories: Arts, Demographics, Economy, Education, Environment, Government, Health, Housing, Public Safety and Transportation.
Some of the information is surprising. Some will invoke regional pride. And other aspects likely will sound an alarm. The entire report can be viewed at pittsburghtoday.org, and is also published in the spring issue of Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine.
The Regional Indicators considers Greater Pittsburgh to be a 22-county region, including eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia. And as part of the Pittsburgh Today & Tomorrow report, we enlisted the help of leaders across this region, asking them to describe a problem the region needs to solve or an opportunity it needs to seize in order to build a strong future.
I don’t believe it’s a stretch to say that a new era is at hand for the region. If you’ll allow me, I would argue that 1980 marked the end of the 30-year, post-World War II expansion period in Pittsburgh and the beginning of another 30-year phase. These last 30 years have been an era of seeking a viable future and then swimming through open sea to reach its shores.
From necessity, we began to think and cooperate as a region, along the lines of Ben Franklin’s famous quote: “If we don’t all hang together, then surely, we shall all hang separately.”
Finally, in the last several years, a new city state of Pittsburgh has emerged. It has a diversified economy built on brain power. And this new regional economy has stood as a rock of stability as “the Great Recession” has battered the nation. We’re still strong in manufacturing, but we’re a leader in energy, finance, healthcare and education as well. We’re home to the Steelers and a vibrant arts scene; we’ve hosted the G-20 summit and World Environment Day, and our quality of life continues to win acclaim in national and international rankings.
We have by no means perfected the region, but after 30 years, we are poised to consider our regional future, not with a measure of fear, but from a position of strength. The history of Pittsburgh is a story of human accomplishment, beginning the day George Washington envisioned coal in the hills and a fort at the Point. Now, as we face the beginning of a new phase in the story of Pittsburgh, what should our goals be for the next 30 years? What kind of new leadership will we need in order to achieve them?
We hope that the Regional Indicators, through its annual report on the region and future in-depth journalism projects, is able to provide valuable information in continuing efforts to improve Greater Pittsburgh.
Douglas Heuck is director of The Regional Indicators at Pittsburghtoday.org and publisher of Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine. Send feedback here.
Editor’s note: The Regional Indicators at Pittsburghtoday.org was created by the late John G. Craig, Jr., longtime editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to spark a more informed civic dialog. By providing timely and accurate information about regional life, it hopes to stimulate a discussion of where we are and where we hope to go. Comparing our region to other areas of the country lets us see how we measure up, and what our strengths and weaknesses are. It also gives us a way to measure progress as we move forward as a region.
The program is funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, the Hillman Foundation, the McCune Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
The Regional Indicators at Pittsburghtoday.org is overseen by an Advisory Committee chaired by Paul O’Neill, former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and retired CEO of Alcoa, Inc. The program’s fiduciary home and partner is the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.
Photos and graphics courtesy of Pittsburgh Today.