Regional Indicators Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

2012 Winter

How we live

This column is the first public glimpse of a project that will yield a great deal of information and understanding of who we are as residents of this region, what we do and how we view our region. This major new survey was conducted by Pittsburgh Today and our colleagues at Pitt’s University Center for …

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Region

A Tale of Two Pittsburghs

by Douglas Heuck

Those of us who live in Greater Pittsburgh understandably feel we know a great deal about this region. We certainly know about our neighborhoods, our friends, our families and our jobs. We know about our hobbies, our favorite sports teams and the Pittsburgh weather. In short, we know about our lives here. What we know …

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Region

Opportunity Knocks

by Douglas Heuck

In Pittsburgh’s industrial heyday, the region dove into recession as the mighty engines of manufacturing throttled way back. And when a recession ended, Pittsburgh roared back, as rising demand jump-started factories. In the past 20 years though, the region has followed a different pattern. Without as much manufacturing and with more healthcare and education jobs, …

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Region

E Pluribus Region?

by Douglas Heuck

It is often said that “a new era is at hand.” On an individual level, new eras can present themselves whenever a person chooses to see and act in the world in a different way. For a nation, new eras are harder to come by, though with every federal election, such is promised. But what …

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Region

A New Chapter

by Douglas Heuck

After 26 years at the helm of the Post-Gazette, John G. Craig Jr. founded the Regional Indicators project and its Web site, pittsburghtoday.org. And since this magazine began five years ago, every issue has contained one of his reports on the state of the region. His goal was to provide what he called “The city-state …

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Region

Have We Turned the Corner?

by John G. Craig, Jr.

The recession of 2007-2009: I am sticking my neck way out… but I bet that when we look back 10 years from now, the last two years will be seen as the tipping point for the Pittsburgh region, a time when we finally got four decades of negative history behind us. The national recession, which …

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Region

Underlying Problems/Solutions

by John G. Craig, Jr.

The impact of population decline was very much in the news at the end of last year, a reminder that, for all the accolades at the recent G-20 Summit about Pittsburgh having moved beyond its industrial past, painful choices still face the region, particularly its local governments and major service institutions. I have in mind …

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Region

Risking Women’s Health

by John G. Craig, Jr.

If I told you that breast cancer kills Pittsburgh women at a higher rate than women in other cities, and that Pittsburgh women die of heart attacks at a higher rate than women in other cities, what would you say? And what if I compounded the negativity by telling you that African American women are …

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Region

You’ve come a long way, city

by John G. Craig, Jr.

The 2009 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranks Pittsburgh 52nd in the world. This annual report aims at an international business audience and compares 215 cities based on 39 criteria. Among the most important are: Political/economic stability, safety, education, hygiene, recreation and transportation. Each city is indexed against New York (100). The top five cities …

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Region

Life After (And With) Steel

by John G. Craig, Jr.

With recession upon us and its attendant unease, taking stock is an unavoidable activity for people like me in the information business. The exercise is made more intense because the past 30 years in Pittsburgh have been times of high drama that attracted international attention and visitors coming to see for themselves. They ask about …

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Region

Safety in Numbers?

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Pittsburgh is a safe city. Pittsburgh is a safe region. This has long been the case, and the latest data on crime indicate that the shoe still fits. These four statements need to be tempered, however. This is because with public safety what matters is not regional or municipal crime rates as much as whatis …

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Region

Lacking Nonconformity

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Perhaps we can blame Richard Florida, the former Carnegie Mellon professor, who popularized the notion that, yes, there is a creative class of people and a direct relationship between their representation in a region’s population and the social and economic prospects of that community. As Florida still tells it, everyone loves to be in the …

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Region

Conformity or Confirmation?

by John G. Craig, Jr.

I recently received correspondence from a man who posed several excellent questions about the Regional Indicator project and the city-state of Pittsburgh. “I understand the importance of facts and fact-based decision making,” David Palmieri wrote. “However, I view facts like I do data as the basis for information. What information and intelligence can we glean …

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Region

The City’s Fortune Depends on It

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Among subjects of continuing public attention, none resonates like the size and efficiencies of local government. For some months now, a citizens group under the leadership of Mark Nordenberg, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, has been investigating the potential merger of city and county government, either in total or in part. I cannot recall …

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Region

Getting It Right

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Time flies even when you are not always having fun. That’s the lesson I take away from 18 months publishing indicators on pittsburghtoday.org and writing about them in this space. My ambivalence is a product of pride that we have developed a regional information system that can serve us well if we expand and sustain …

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Region

Job Health Not So Simple

by John G. Craig, Jr.

If you read the daily newspaper, listen to news radio or watch the local TV news, you’ll get a report in the first week of every month on the latest Pittsburgh unemployment rate. It is a news tradition of decades. The data come from the state Dept. of Labor and Industry one month after the …

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Region

We’re Art Lovers to the HIlt

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Last fall, PittsburghToday commissioned the first-ever survey of arts involvement in the 22-county Pittsburgh region. Done by the University of Pittsburgh, the survey asked several questions including: What arts events do you attend? What arts activities do you engage in personally? What arts activities have your ever had instruction in? The results are interesting in …

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Region

Let’s Solve the Region’s Fiscal Strain

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Very much in the news these days are the related subjects of unfunded pension liabilities and escalating costs of employee benefit packages because of rising health care costs. They are delivering a one-two punch to local governments and school districts throughout the nation, with the situation being particularly acute here in the old industrial heartland. …

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Region

The Truth Can Be A Good Thing

by John G. Craig, Jr.

Let us take a few moments to ponder the corrosive nature of pessimism and its companion, bending over backward in the face of bad news to put the best face on things. Both are civic diseases of significance in our corner of the world. This is not merely anecdotal testimony from someone involved in public life …

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Region

Gambling a Boon to Travel Industry

by John G. Craig, Jr.

The public discussion about the pending arrival of casino gambling in the region has been largely preoccupied with one tangential, if related, subject. Is there enough money to be made from a slot machine operation within the corporate limits of Pittsburgh to fund the construction of a new civic auditorium to replace Mellon Arena? This …

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Region

Conventional Wisdom of City is Not So Wise

by John G. Craig, Jr.

They were by reputation and position an informed group of citizens. All were guests at a November coming-out party of a new consortium promoting “Pittsburgh Regional Indicators.” The question put to them was a simple one: Commuters in which of these cities face the most traffic congestion going to and from work? St. Louis. Indianapolis. …

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