Pittsburgh area adds two Fortune 500 companies in 2009!

Congratulations Pittsburgh!

The new 2009 Fortune 500 list was released to today and two Western Pennsylvania headquartered companies joined the Fortune 500 while another joined the Fortune 1000. The Pittsburgh area now boasts 8 Fortune 500 headquarters and 13 Fortune 1000 headquarters up from 6 and 12 respectively in 2008.

The newcomers are Mylan Pharmaceuticals at 462 (736 last year), Consol Energy at 497 (577 last year), and Atlas America at 864 (not ranked last year). Mainstays US Steel (up 41 spots to to 105), PPG (up 56 spots to 161), PNC (down 14 spots to 278), Heinz (up 26 spots to 267), Wesco (up two spots to 406) and Allegheny Technologies (down seven spots to 448) all retained their Fortune 500 status as well.

Here is the complete list of Fortune 1000 headquarters in Pennsylvania.

Here is a list of the Pittsburgh area ones:

1. US Steel, Pittsburgh, 105
2. PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, 161
3. Heinz, Pittsburgh, 267
4. PNC, Pittsburgh, 278
5. Wesco, Pittsburgh, 406
6. Allegheny Technologies, Pittsburgh, 448
7. Mylan, Canonsburg, 462
8. Consol Energy, Canonsburg, 497
9. Dick's Sporting Goods, Pittsburgh, 562
10. Allegheny Energy, Greensburg, 630
11. American Eagle, Pittsburgh, 690
12. Kennametal, Latrobe, 732
13. Atlas America, Moon Township, 864

No wonder we're weathering the economy better than most regions. In addition to these 13 "official" Fortune 1000, we have several more that basically are at the same level. We have BNY Mellon and Alcoa, both of which are "on paper" HQ'd in NYC, but really are still HQ'd here. Plus we have Giant Eagle and Highmark, both of which would be a Fortune 500s if they were public and EDMC which would be a Fortune 1000 if it was public.

Exciting stuff. Pass this on!

Pittsburgh Zoo named Top 5 in the U.S. for kids

Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium was just named by Parents Magazine the #4 zoo in the country for kids. Here is a link to the P-G article and the actual write-up by Parents Magazine.


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09101/962131-53.stm

http://www.parents.com/family-life/travel/vacation-planning/kid-friendly-zoos/?page=4

USA Today: Pittsburgh in Top 10 Best Skylines in the world

The USA Today Travel section recently named Mt. Washington one of the top 10 places in the WORLD to see a skyline.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2009-02-26-best-skylines_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Pittsburgh weathers recession well

As has been pointed out many times, Pittsburgh is in very good shape compared to the rest of the country.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_612126.html

Pittsburgh home prices buck national downturn again

Old news at this point. You can see several other posts on this blog talking about the same subject. But I always like to reinforce the points.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_613270.html

CNN: Can Pittsburgh save Detroit?

Perhaps you saw this piece of positive press about Pittsburgh from Anderson Cooper on CNN.com. Essentially, it says what I have been saying for a long time- Detroit is in the same situation now that Pittsburgh was in 20-30 years ago. And Pittsburgh recovered. This article basically suggests that Detroit should model is recovery on Pittsburgh's. I agree.

Most interesting are the comments both pro and con. While we would all agree that Pittsburgh is not perfect, the point is that we are on the right track and lots of positive tings are happening.

Here is the link:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/can-pittsburgh-save-detroit/

Good News Pittsburgh on Twitter!

Johnny Positive and Good News Pittsburgh can now be followed on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/newspittsburgh