Opinion Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

In 2005, I left my job as business editor at the Post-Gazette to start this magazine. After 20 years at the Pittsburgh Press and PG, I could see the newspaper industry’s future. It was time for a change. I considered moving to another city — a growing city — and visited several. I thought of …

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Opinion Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Pittsburgh Tomorrow

by Douglas Heuck

With Pittsburgh Tomorrow turning two years old, a citizen might ask: What is it and what is it doing? I publish this magazine, and I also started Pittsburgh Tomorrow, working with a great team to improve this region’s future. Pittsburgh Tomorrow is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) non-profit funded by Pittsburgh citizens — wealthy people and working …

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Education Opinion

AI and the Academy

by PQ Staff

Editor’s note: We asked our region’s college presidents to answer one of the following questions: How is AI affecting your educational approach, and what unusual challenges and opportunities does it present? How much and in what ways are restrictions on international students affecting your institution, and what are you doing to adapt to these changes? …

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Opinion Pittsburgh Tomorrow

A Turning Point

by Douglas Heuck

It’s rare to be able to witness first-hand the alchemy of change that launches a city onto a new trajectory. Yet in Pittsburgh that change — a series of man-made lightning strikes — is underway. Since May 20, not even three months from this writing, events have turned in favor of those working to create a …

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Opinion

True Courage

by Elizabeth Wiethorn

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”” –Eleanor Roosevelt I have lived through my own private horror. I have looked fear …

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Opinion

An Opportunity for Each of Us

by Douglas Heuck

It’s been 23 years since the saga of the discarded toilet. I lived in Squirrel Hill then, and each day as I drove Downtown to work at the Post-Gazette, I followed the same path as thousands of other motorists, coming through Oakland, exiting the Boulevard of the Allies down and to the right via a …

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Opinion

More Than Meets the Eye

by Samuel Hazo

It’s frequently assumed that looking and seeing have the same meaning. In fact, the difference between them is crucial. To look means essentially to perceive in three dimensions and to confirm and name what confronts our vision. Its ultimate benefit is to permit us to identify by name the world around us. It focuses on …

My PTSD (“Post Traumatic Suit Disorder”)

by Mark Schwartz

Reading Clayton Touter’s recent story in Pittsburgh Quarterly — “Buying A Suit. A Primer” — took me back to being traumatized by Brooks Brothers at 13 in the mid-sixties… Per his quote of Michael Bastian of Brooks Brothers which invented the “off the rack” suit: “If you don’t know your proper size, the first thing …

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Opinion

Seeking a Safe, Welcoming and Thriving Region

by Paul O'Neill Jr. & Geoff Webster

It was a snowy day in Pittsburgh in 2024 when a City truck slid into a guardrail. No one was hurt, but it caused risk and damaged the vehicle. Asking “why” yielded a typical answer, “duh, it was icy.” But Mayor Ed Gainey had promised to be serious about a safe, welcoming and thriving city. Part of …

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Opinion

Blocking Pittsburgh Growth: A Tyranny of the Minority

by Douglas Heuck

I didn’t grow up in a union household, but I’m steeped in union lore and stories. They’re part of America’s fabric and spirit. In the movies, there’s Norma Rae where Sally Field plays a courageous union textile worker. Matewan portrays the dramatic 1920 coal miners’ battle in West Virginia. And one of the best movies …

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Opinion

My Modest, Idiosyncratic Love of City Living

by Pete Geissler

AN ENTREPRENEUR FINDS HIS NICHEI was lunching with my accountant while examining my assets when he suggested that I buy an office instead of renting. I was living and working at the time in a Downtown high-rise apartment and, as he said, “enriching the landlord, not you.” Soon after, I accidentally noticed an ad for …

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American Spirit Opinion

Nashville, Pennsylvania

by Sandee Gertz

After an 11-year exile to Nashville, Tennessee, I finally woke up smelling Pittsburgh. I woke from dreams of flying through the Conemaugh Gap, inhaling the untouched scent of the Laurel and Cresson mountains surrounding my hometown of Johnstown, and continued across Route 22 to the musky smells of the Monongahela and into the mist of bridges …

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Opinion

Fiddling as Pittsburgh Burns

by Douglas Heuck

Today’s newsletter was going to be a round-up of all the noteworthy Pittsburgh citizens who passed away last year. Instead, it’s about trying to forestall a much more historic and devastating obituary – the death of US Steel in Pittsburgh. For the past six months, Pittsburgh’s “leaders” – civic, corporate, and governmental — have …

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Opinion

Dissatisfied but Grateful

by Samuel Hazo

To satisfy and to gratify are often used interchangeably, but they have totally different meanings. To satisfy, or to be satisfied, refers to a variety of human needs that periodically demand to be met and satiated in order to be eased. The need for food, water, sleep, space, companionship, alleviation of pain, or protection from …

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Opinion

Pittsburgh Tomorrow: The Voyage of a Year

by Douglas Heuck

At 3 a.m. Sunday, October 20, I bolted out of bed with a thought. Weeks earlier, I’d tried unsuccessfully to attend a Kamala Harris rally to spread the word about the Pittsburgh Tomorrow project. On this Sunday, Elon Musk was coming for a rally — and if I could get in, I wanted to be …

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Opinion

Letter from Philadelphia

by Mark Schwartz

Having moved across the state from Pittsburgh in 1986, I now wonder what prompts me to read each edition of the Pittsburgh Quarterly from cover to cover. Sure, I subscribe to other magazines. The New Yorker is often hit or miss. My location notwithstanding, I can’t relate to “The Main Line Times.” Reading “Philadelphia Magazine’ …

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Culture Opinion

Lessons from Last Place

by Douglas Heuck

Sailing is a big part of the culture in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where I’ve spent 63 straight summers. And some might say that from an early age, I earned the dubious distinction of being a kind of “Jonah” of sailboat races. I’ve never seen myself as that ill-fated shipmate of yore, but the case could …

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Opinion Regional News

Noteworthy Summer 2024

by PQ Staff

Stop the StrikeFor the past 18 months, Pittsburgh has endured the divisive antipathy of a newspaper strike between the Post-Gazette and five unions. While it’s understandable that workers would like to see better wages and benefits, it’s also clear that the newspaper industry has been in a steep, often terminal, decline for decades. The only …

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Opinion

Pittsburgh Tomorrow: The Power of Belief

by Douglas Heuck

One weeknight in early April, i returned home after a tiring day packed with meetings. I don’t usually drink during the week, but as I sat down with the day’s mail, I eyed a bottle of Malbec on the kitchen counter. I sighed and thought “Nope, too much work tonight.” I grabbed the mail, noticing …

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Opinion

Noteworthy

by PQ Staff

Different Views of Christopher ColumbusOn Oct. 12, in Madrid, Spain, an enormous and colorful parade of national pride snaked its way through the streets of the Spanish capital. The “National Day of Spain” is the country’s biggest civic holiday, celebrating Spanish history and achievements and reconfirming Spaniards’ commitment to the nation’s future. The date commemorates …

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Opinion Pittsburgh Immigration

Pittsburgh Tomorrow

by Douglas Heuck

When I came to Pittsburgh in 1985, it was a great city — the late David McCullough called it “the essential American city.” But it was a great city in shock. The massive industrial economy had collapsed and 150,000 to 200,000 mainly young people were leaving for greener pastures. I expected to stay for my …

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Opinion

Stronger than Hate? We Need to Prove it Now

by Douglas Heuck

Five years ago, Pittsburgh was shocked by the horrifying acts of a hate-filled gunman who murdered 11 people and injured many others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill. On October 7, just 20 days before the five-year anniversary of that mass killing in Pittsburgh, the world was shocked when Hamas terrorists savagely …

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