Opinion Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

History Opinion

Look at Your Fish: David McCullough’s History Matters

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

Historian and biographer David McCullough, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said that his strength as a writer was his love of storytelling. Over his brilliant career, he wrote about remarkable events — the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal — and remarkable people …

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A Pittsburgh Legacy

Pittsburgh is known for many things, but some of its most significant legacies are largely unknown or underplayed. Among the most famous are as the steel capital of the U.S., with the city’s contribution to the allied victory in World War II best described by Winston Churchill as the war that was won by steel. …

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Opinion Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VII

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VI Alex Dick, Co-Founder, Dick Building Company Divisiveness dominates national politics while capital and talent …

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Don’t Save the Old PG, Create a Modern New One

by Bill Steigerwald

The new owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are now said to be in the process of figuring out which 50 of the 100 or so current journalists of the old PG to hire and how to run and finance a deliberately nonprofitable newspaper in the Digital Age. The last-minute rescue of the PG by the Venetoulis …

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Mayor O’Connor, Let’s Travel to Japan and Show Our Appreciation

by Dennis Unkovic

Mark Twain’s famous quote, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” can easily apply to our region today. Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania are in the midst of a renewed period of self-evaluation. While there are some who perceive our future with pessimism, I tend to believe the opposite. Our region is now uniquely positioned …

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No News is Bad News

by Douglas Heuck

Within a day of the Jan. 7 news that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will close on May 3, I began receiving emails suggesting I create a group to save the paper or start a replacement. Why? Because I worked at The Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette for 20 years as an investigative reporter and business editor, and …

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20 Years of Pittsburgh Quarterly

by Douglas Heuck

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

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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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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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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More Than Meets the Eye

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 …

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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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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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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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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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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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Dissatisfied but Grateful

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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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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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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