The new "Places Rated Almanac" has once again ranked Pittsburgh as "The Most Livable City in America". This is the seventh edition of the "Places Rated Almanac" (formerly published by Rand McNally) and Pittsburgh is the only city to finish in the Top 20 every time.
This is my favorite ranking because it is a well-established, completely independent and unbiased list that basically flies in the face of everything you negative Yinzer and Anti-Yinzer morons believe. There really is no way for you to dispute it, other than to say any ranking is arbitrary, which it is. The funny thing with you idiots is--and this destroys your credibility-- that any time a NEGATIVE ranking comes out for Pittsburgh, you claim it is the gospel truth. But when rankings like this come out, you dismiss them. Make up your mind. You can't have it both ways.
Here is the most interesting part to me. Not only does Pittsburgh rank #1 over every city in America. None of the cities that we are SUPPOSEDLY similar to--Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Buffalo, Baltimore-- even sniff the Top 10 in this ranking. Nor Chicago, New York, or any of these Sun Belt cities. Do you know why? Because they don't provide a quality of life that is even remotely close to Pittsburgh's.
As someone who has traveled and lived around the country extensively--32 out of the 50 states as of this posting-- I have always said that Pittsburgh is a combination of three cities: Seattle, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. Coincidentally, Seattle finished #3 in the ranking and Philadelphia #5. The similarities to Seattle are the hills/natural beauty, arts scene and weather. The similarities to Philadelphia are the corporate presence, the toughness/gritty/blue collar background, the history, the ethnicity and the passion for sports. And the similarities to Cincinnati are the racial demographic, the Midwestern feel (even though Pittsburgh is in the East) and the rivers.
Anyway, it's time for Yinzers and Anti-Yinzers to decide if rankings are valid. Any rankings. That means if you dismiss this ranking, you have to also dismiss the negative rankings too. Make up your mind.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Magazine Names Pittsburgh "City of the Future"
Foreign Direct Investment Magazine, an off-shoot of the Financial Times in London, released its latest "Cities of the Future" ranking for North America. In the 2 million-plus "major city" category, Pittsburgh finished third behind Chicago and Toronto, but ahead of Atlanta, Baltimore, Montreal, Mexico City, Boston and Miami.
Any kind of ranking is arbitrary and subjective, but it's nice that Pittsburgh's improvement is being recognized internationally and is expected to continue into the future.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07114/780399-28.stm
Any kind of ranking is arbitrary and subjective, but it's nice that Pittsburgh's improvement is being recognized internationally and is expected to continue into the future.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07114/780399-28.stm
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Ka-Ching! Big Profits for Pittsburgh's Corporate Giants
In the past week, PNC, Mellon, Wesco and PPG have all posted substantial profits- to the tune of almost $1 billion combined. Say what you want about the rich getting richer and about heartless corporate monoliths. But the fact is when local companies are doing well, it does nothing but benefit all of us in the form of more and better jobs, and a more stable local economy, not to mention increased support for local non-profits and foundations.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Pittsburgh Housing Market Continues to Buck National Trend of Declining Sales
Home sales in Western Pennsylvania increased in the first quarter of 2007 over the first quarter of 2006, bucking a national trend of declining sales in formerly hot housing markets.
This is just more evidence of the trend pointed out in three separate reports by Fortune Magazine, CNN and Money Magazine, that the Pittsburgh housing market continues to be one of the safest real estate investments in the U.S. Many out of town buyers are investing in Pittsburgh real estate.
It just makes good financial sense to invest in Pittsburgh real estate. When you can buy four homes in Pittsburgh for the price of one in California, and there is virtually no risk of a price decline, what's the downside?
This is just more evidence of the trend pointed out in three separate reports by Fortune Magazine, CNN and Money Magazine, that the Pittsburgh housing market continues to be one of the safest real estate investments in the U.S. Many out of town buyers are investing in Pittsburgh real estate.
It just makes good financial sense to invest in Pittsburgh real estate. When you can buy four homes in Pittsburgh for the price of one in California, and there is virtually no risk of a price decline, what's the downside?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Pittsburgh and Cleveland Join Forces to Create "Bioscience Belt"
This is great to hear. Regional collaboration, whether it's in the form of counties in southwestern Pennsylvania working together or if it's working with the next closest major metro area, is a positive win-win for everyone involved.
Population Loss to Subside- Then What Will You Find to Bitch About?
I apologize that this news is a couple days old, but I didn't start this blog until today, and I had to get in some comments on this because it's my biggest pet peeve.
I will actually give the two major local dailies a little credit for reporting on this (but not much because anyone with a little bit of motivation and investigative skills could have been reporting on this for years like I have...but I digress).
Anyway, both the P-G and the Trib have articles about predictions by Pitt economic and demographic researcher Christopher Briem (he has a great blog) that the ongoing population loss in the region has almost run its course and that we are poised for slight population growth in the relatively near future.
You mean it's no going to go on forever?!? Well, you would never know that from the incessant coverage the issue gets. And as the title of this post asks, "What negative item will the local media and the Yinzers find to obsess about now?"
I have written for several years in various local publications that the common perceptions about the region's population loss are incorrect. And that's because of misguided focus and lazy reporting by local media.
The thing that local media focus on the most is the loss of young people. But that has almost nothing whatsoever to do with our population loss. As Mr. Briem pointed out as far back as 2002 in a Post-Gazette article, Pittsburgh retains young adults at a batter rate than Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit and even Miami, to name a few. A year later in 2003, a Pittsburgh Trib article pointed out that the city retains its young professionals at a higher rate than Columbus, Seattle, Raleigh, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. So why don't the Pittsburgh media report on the REAL reasons for the population loss? Answer: Because they want to feed on Pittsburghers' low self image of the city by accentuating the negative.
So what are the real reasons for the population loss? Two things: more deaths than births, and not enough international in-migration. More deaths than births is a result of a higher than average senior population, which has actually been declining rapidly due to the fact that they are dying off. Essentially, here is what is happening right now: old white people are dying, the black population is steady, the local Asian community is seeing growth (about 4,000 people in the last six years) and the local Hispanic community is seeing growth (about 1,000 people added in the last six years). But despite the gains in international in-migration, there is not enough to offset the "natural" population decline. The states of California and New York actually have extremely high out-migration rates but they have population gains because of a high number of immigrants coming in from other countries.
Anyway, as is the point of this whole blog, I'm trying to uncover the positive nuggets of information that local media (both print and broadcast) leave unsaid, and correct misguided assumptions and misperceptions among Yinzers, media and politicians.
I will actually give the two major local dailies a little credit for reporting on this (but not much because anyone with a little bit of motivation and investigative skills could have been reporting on this for years like I have...but I digress).
Anyway, both the P-G and the Trib have articles about predictions by Pitt economic and demographic researcher Christopher Briem (he has a great blog) that the ongoing population loss in the region has almost run its course and that we are poised for slight population growth in the relatively near future.
You mean it's no going to go on forever?!? Well, you would never know that from the incessant coverage the issue gets. And as the title of this post asks, "What negative item will the local media and the Yinzers find to obsess about now?"
I have written for several years in various local publications that the common perceptions about the region's population loss are incorrect. And that's because of misguided focus and lazy reporting by local media.
The thing that local media focus on the most is the loss of young people. But that has almost nothing whatsoever to do with our population loss. As Mr. Briem pointed out as far back as 2002 in a Post-Gazette article, Pittsburgh retains young adults at a batter rate than Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit and even Miami, to name a few. A year later in 2003, a Pittsburgh Trib article pointed out that the city retains its young professionals at a higher rate than Columbus, Seattle, Raleigh, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. So why don't the Pittsburgh media report on the REAL reasons for the population loss? Answer: Because they want to feed on Pittsburghers' low self image of the city by accentuating the negative.
So what are the real reasons for the population loss? Two things: more deaths than births, and not enough international in-migration. More deaths than births is a result of a higher than average senior population, which has actually been declining rapidly due to the fact that they are dying off. Essentially, here is what is happening right now: old white people are dying, the black population is steady, the local Asian community is seeing growth (about 4,000 people in the last six years) and the local Hispanic community is seeing growth (about 1,000 people added in the last six years). But despite the gains in international in-migration, there is not enough to offset the "natural" population decline. The states of California and New York actually have extremely high out-migration rates but they have population gains because of a high number of immigrants coming in from other countries.
Anyway, as is the point of this whole blog, I'm trying to uncover the positive nuggets of information that local media (both print and broadcast) leave unsaid, and correct misguided assumptions and misperceptions among Yinzers, media and politicians.
Pittsburgh's Fortune 500 Companies are Movin' on Up!
Welcome to the first post of Good News Pittsburgh!
The new 2007 Fortune 500 list was released on Sunday (read the end of the post to see why I waited two days to write about it). And it is generally good news for Pittsburgh area companies.
As noted in the Pittsburgh Trib article above, Pittsburgh's corporate status improved from having six Fortune 500 companies headquartered here to having seven, albeit temporarily. The increase from six to seven came from Allegheny Technologies which rose from #536 to #455. However, the list also includes Mellon, which recently announced a merger with Bank of New York that will move the company's official headquarters to NYC. That means that next year, after the deal goes through, we will be back down to six again.
But the good news--which is never reported by the mainstream Pittsburgh media-- is that we will be back up to eight in approximately two years courtesy of the meteoric rise of American Eagle Outfitters (now up to #683) and Dick's Sporting Goods (now up to #633). In total, we have 12 Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in Western Pennsylvania, not to mention Alcoa and Mellon, which only on paper are headquartered in New York.
Add to that the North American headquarters for Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and FedEx Ground and we're doing just fine, thank you. And, oh, did I mention that we have two more companies headquartered here, Giant Eagle and Highmark, that would both be ranked in the Fortune 500 (around #350) if they were public instead of private? I'm not even going to go into the other local companies that don't even make it into these conversations: 84 Lumber, GNC, Mylan Labs, DQE, etc.
The point is- we're doing OK. Really. It's not all gloom and doom. But you wouldn't know that from the facts that are conveniently omitted by the major newspapers in the area. And that brings me to the reason why I waited until Tuesday to comment on this, even though the list actually came out Sunday. I did it to illustrate my point about how incompetent theses local media entities are. Two days after the fact, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Business Times still have absolutely NO MENTION of the new Fortune 500 rankings in print or online. And the Trib FINALLY has something this morning.
Predictably, the P-G and the Business Times will both copy off of the Trib now that they've seen the article and are aware of it. Way to be on top of it, guys! And that's how it works in the Pittsburgh media: lazy reporting. Just wait for the press release to come out and then print it word for word. God forbid someone actually do some research for an article or write something original. Or commit the biggest faux pas possible--gasp!--do a story on something positive in the region!
Believe it or not, there ARE positive things going on here, and people DO want to hear about them. That's why I created this blog. This is what you'll get- positive stories that go unreported or under-reported in the pathetic local media.
Until next time! Hey, that was pretty good for a first post, huh?
The new 2007 Fortune 500 list was released on Sunday (read the end of the post to see why I waited two days to write about it). And it is generally good news for Pittsburgh area companies.
As noted in the Pittsburgh Trib article above, Pittsburgh's corporate status improved from having six Fortune 500 companies headquartered here to having seven, albeit temporarily. The increase from six to seven came from Allegheny Technologies which rose from #536 to #455. However, the list also includes Mellon, which recently announced a merger with Bank of New York that will move the company's official headquarters to NYC. That means that next year, after the deal goes through, we will be back down to six again.
But the good news--which is never reported by the mainstream Pittsburgh media-- is that we will be back up to eight in approximately two years courtesy of the meteoric rise of American Eagle Outfitters (now up to #683) and Dick's Sporting Goods (now up to #633). In total, we have 12 Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in Western Pennsylvania, not to mention Alcoa and Mellon, which only on paper are headquartered in New York.
Add to that the North American headquarters for Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and FedEx Ground and we're doing just fine, thank you. And, oh, did I mention that we have two more companies headquartered here, Giant Eagle and Highmark, that would both be ranked in the Fortune 500 (around #350) if they were public instead of private? I'm not even going to go into the other local companies that don't even make it into these conversations: 84 Lumber, GNC, Mylan Labs, DQE, etc.
The point is- we're doing OK. Really. It's not all gloom and doom. But you wouldn't know that from the facts that are conveniently omitted by the major newspapers in the area. And that brings me to the reason why I waited until Tuesday to comment on this, even though the list actually came out Sunday. I did it to illustrate my point about how incompetent theses local media entities are. Two days after the fact, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Business Times still have absolutely NO MENTION of the new Fortune 500 rankings in print or online. And the Trib FINALLY has something this morning.
Predictably, the P-G and the Business Times will both copy off of the Trib now that they've seen the article and are aware of it. Way to be on top of it, guys! And that's how it works in the Pittsburgh media: lazy reporting. Just wait for the press release to come out and then print it word for word. God forbid someone actually do some research for an article or write something original. Or commit the biggest faux pas possible--gasp!--do a story on something positive in the region!
Believe it or not, there ARE positive things going on here, and people DO want to hear about them. That's why I created this blog. This is what you'll get- positive stories that go unreported or under-reported in the pathetic local media.
Until next time! Hey, that was pretty good for a first post, huh?
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