Noteworthy Winter 2025

(Editor’s note: this story was originally published Dec. 3) 

Stick Up for U.S. Steel
One thing the U.S. presidential aspirants had in common this year is they all came out against the U.S. Steel/Nippon Steel deal. U.S. Steel chose the Japanese steelmaker because Nippon is willing to pay a much higher price than the other bidder, Cleveland-based Cleveland Cliffs. Japan is a close U.S. ally that relies on us militarily. So, the “security” argument is specious at best. No, the anti-Nippon sentiment has been political pandering playing on xenophobia.

Maybe we should expect that from national candidates up for election. But where are the business, government and civic leaders whose job is to fight for Pittsburgh? And why have they been so timid and silent about the Nippon Steel deal? Without the Nippon sale, we’ll lose the 1,000 Pittsburgh headquarters jobs and perhaps thousands more as U.S. Steel “pivots away” from its blast furnaces. Think that won’t matter to our economy?

Governor Josh Shapiro said he’ll follow the lead of the United Steelworkers (USW). In his first year at the helm, USW President David McCall has come out against the deal. We wondered why, given that if the deal doesn’t go through, there will be huge job losses and untold distress for thousands of Pittsburgh union workers. McCall lays it out in a Fortune Magazine article, and it comes down to the fact that McCall, a member of Local 979 in Cleveland, doesn’t like U.S. Steel. He wants Cleveland Cliffs to be the winning suitor. Cliffs would move the headquarters to Cleveland in a heartbeat.

We may not persuade the Cleveland-based union boss, whose allegiance isn’t to Pittsburgh. But why aren’t local leaders and business associations standing up for Pittsburgh and backing the deal, which is by far the best outcome for this region? Now that the election’s over, it’s time for our leaders to come out of hiding and stand up for what’s best for Pittsburgh. Let’s get off the old road of decline and embrace a new path to success. 

Downtown Determination 
“Pittsburgh is finally on offense. We’re not on defense anymore.” Highmark CEO David Holmberg spoke those welcome words at the October unveiling of a nearly $600 million plan to revitalize Downtown Pittsburgh. It’s a much-needed surfeit of great news for a downtown that has witnessed cascading vacancies, foreclosures and crime over the past three years.

Governor Josh Shapiro announced the plan, which includes $62.6 million in state funds, some $40 million from local businesses, foundations and Pittsburgh’s three major sports teams, and $22.1 million from the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The plan is for that investment to attract nearly $400 million more as numerous buildings are redeveloped for residential use. 

The plan also includes improvements to Market Square, Point State Park (and its fountain), the Eighth Street block of the Cultural District, and money to deal with homelessness, crime and mental illness. 

It was rightly hailed by Governor Shapiro as a great day in the city’s history. “What is happening here is unprecedented. Not just the dollars that are being invested but the way everyone has come together and everyone believes in this mission.”

It is the combination of belief in this region’s future and the commitment to action and making it happen that are going to make Pittsburgh the best place to live in America.

Police Disaster
You can’t make up the details of the brief (16 months) and disastrous term of Larry Scirotto as Pittsburgh Police Chief. He negotiated a deal with Mayor Ed Gainey that defies belief. As the city was awash in crime, desperately short of officers (many of whom were forced to work overtime to make up for the shortages), Scirotto got a sweetheart deal in which he worked four-day weeks and got nine weeks’ paid vacation. That wasn’t good enough for him, so he declared he was going to moonlight as referee of men’s basketball in the Big 10 Conference, which stretches all the way from Maryland to Oregon. What an incredible lack of commitment! After the impossible situation became public, the chief “retired” to a pension in which he gets half of his $185,000 salary. Overseeing the police is one of the mayor’s most important jobs. Like so many other things — the list is too long — he has done it poorly. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be more clear that a critical missing piece in the City of Pittsburgh’s future is leadership.

Eradicate Hate
At a time when hatred and violence is resurgent in the U.S. and around the globe, Pittsburgh took center stage in October with the world’s most comprehensive anti-hate conference. The summit marking its fourth year was formed as a response to the largest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history — the 2018 murder of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. This year, experts from around the globe converged on Pittsburgh and took part in panels on a variety of topics, including: reducing the risk of political hate-fueled violence; treating violence like a disease; students defusing hate on campus; parent and child perspectives on reducing the risk of violence; and violence in video games. 

Out With a Whimper 
When Rudolph Giuliani was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he indicted the heads of New York’s five mafia crime families. But he didn’t stop there. His prosecution of organized crime continued. In the late 1980s, he took over the Teamsters International union under racketeering laws. The upshot of that bold move was that four international vice presidents were banned from the union with more than a million members all over North America. One of those four was Theordore Cozza, head of Teamsters Local 211 — the union for the drivers at the old Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette. He was booted for his association with organized crime. 

Local 211 has another significant legacy. In 1991, the union struck The Pittsburgh Press, then Pittsburgh’s biggest newspaper and one that had won two Pulitzer Prizes in the preceding five years, including the Gold Medal for Public Service. 

When Teamsters 211 struck, the paper hired replacement drivers to deliver the paper. The union, however, surrounded the building so that trucks couldn’t get out and, after a standoff, then-Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff told the police to back off — effectively killing the city’s biggest and most powerful newspaper. 

The incident sent a resounding anti-business message about Pittsburgh. Shortly after, the smaller Post-Gazette bought the Press and closed it. 

Teamsters 211 once had more than 700 members. It played a role in the life of Pittsburgh that some called colorful and others called corrosive. Now it’s gone. In April, the last 23 members of that once powerful union accepted a sum of severance money from the Post-Gazette — which the union had been striking for 18 months. And the last members of Teamsters 211 agreed to disband, dissolve and quietly slip into oblivion.