In the News

Lessons from Pittsburgh's recession recovery can help Indian city

Quartz Thursday, May 16, 2013

Quartz writes about Pittsburgh's economic transformation and its potential to help surprisingly relevant Bangalore, India.

Although Pittsburgh today is not perfect, its philanthropic tradition has helped it build a high-tech post-steel economy around educational and scientific institutions founded (often with private wealth) during the industrial heyday. This history of private spending for public ends offers an example that wealthy citizens of other cities should heed. Bangalore is one such city. It is at the forefront of leading industries, most famously business-process outsourcing. As in industrial-era Pittsburgh, Bangalore’s boom has spawned vast fortunes while leaving daunting shortcomings in health and education. The time is ripe for Bangalore’s wealthiest to redouble their philanthropic efforts while the city’s economy remains robust.

Original source: Quartz

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Picking Pittsburgh: Farm to table, Rust Belt style

The New York Times Thursday, May 16, 2013

The New York Times writes about growing Rust Belt culinary endeavors that are increasingly local and sustainable.

“See that?” said Cavan Patterson, gesturing to a vast abandoned truck depot across from his foraging and food supply business on Butler Street, Wild Purveyors. “Japanese knotweed would grow like crazy there,” he said. “It seems to love vacant lots.”

Wild Purveyors’s knotweed (it tastes like asparagus but grassier), along with the first morels of the season, were on menus at Pittsburgh’s most ambitious restaurants that night.

Original source: The New York Times

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Why Pittsburgh is an EdTech hive

Education Week Thursday, May 09, 2013

Citing a host of organizations and resources, Education Week digs into Pittsburgh as a hub for education technology activity.

Hive Pittsburgh is just one of many innovative learning initiatives happening in Pittsburgh. Tweens and teens have access to maker learning in MakeShop, STEAM learning at Assemble, on-line literacy games at community libraries, multimedia training at the LABS at the Carnegie Libraries, a Robotics Academy at Carnegie Mellon University, and even music remixing at Hip Hop on LOCK.

Original source: Education Week

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Pittsburgh's Conflict Kitchen inspired by latest American foes

HyperVocal Thursday, May 02, 2013

Trying to be "provocative in the best use of that term," Pittsburgh's Conflict Kitchen serves ethnic food from countries that are in some type of conflict with the U.S, reports HyperVocal.

Rubin says the restaurant will remain Persian through at least the Iranian election in June. Coming this fall, though, after Rubin and co-director Dawn Weleski do some research in South Korea over the summer, the take-out joint will likely switch over to North Korean and South Korean cuisine, “a triangulation of conflict,” he says. They are also doing more research on the Israel/Palestine conflict for a future version of the restaurant.

Original source: HyperVocal

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Has entrepreneurship turned the corner in Pittsburgh?

ID8 Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Project Olympus offices near Carnegie Mellon University are the starting point for ID8's look at Pittsburgh's entrepreneurial renaissance.

So where does Pittsburgh stand? Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the region’s leading economic development organization, said a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem has five elements: research, programs to commercialize research findings, ample investment capital, a deep and talented workforce and, lastly, a climate that encourages startups.

He gives the city top marks for research and tech transfer, good grades for workforce and climate, but only a passing score for venture capital.

Original source: ID8 Nation

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The entrepreneur as athlete: Pittsburgh Riverhounds midfielder and chief executive Jason Kutney

The New York Times Thursday, April 18, 2013

The New York Times soccer blog features Jason Kutney, the chief executive and midfielder for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds United Soccer Leagues Pro Division team, who often worries about fan safety and beer supplies before focusing on opposing defenders.

Kutney’s playing credentials carry greater substance. The Freehold Borough, N.J., native became teammates with Evans at the Charleston Battery in 2004 after playing college soccer for Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He trained with Bob Bradley’s MetroStars late in 2005 before a coaching change and a takeover by the Red Bull organization shut his window to Major League Soccer. Kutney joined the Riverhounds instead and became involved in the club’s management when his other employer, Pittsburgh’s Greentree SportsPlex facility, purchased the franchise and installed him as chief executive.

Original source: The New York Times

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Please don't call Pittsburgh post-industrial

The Atlantic Cities Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Atlantic Cities digs into a tag often associated with Pittsburgh and other Rust Belt cities -- post-industrial -- and why the term has its problems.

The term poses at least two problems, though: Industry still exists in many of these places, and the very notion of defining them by their relationship to the past can hamstring us from planning more thoughtfully for their future.

“You’ve got the ‘post-war,’ you’ve got ‘post-modern,’ you’ve got ‘post-9/11,’” says Paul Kapp, an associate professor in the school of architecture at the University of Illinois and an editor of the book SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City. He was speaking Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Planning Association (hosted in what's often considered the post-industrial city of Chicago). "You get to a point," Kapp says, "where you’ve got to say, 'When does post-something end and you do something new?’ I think with ‘post-industrial,’ we’re at that opportunity now. I think it’s now time to come up with a new term."

Original source: The Atlantic Cities

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Battery power: Pittsburgh's Acquion Energy takes investment from Bill Gates as part of $35M round

Silicon Republic Thursday, April 11, 2013

Using seawater, manganese oxide, and a healthy investment from Bill Gates, Aquion Energy of Pittsburgh is poised to take the battery market by storm, reports Silicon Republic.

Aquion is planning to start shipping production units from its manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania at the end of this year.

Aquion is not the first battery start-up that Gates has invested in. He has also invested in Ambri and LightSail Energy. In a 2010 article, Gates called for a "battery miracle" to solve the problem of storing intermittent sources of energy, such as solar and wind.

Original source: Silicon Republic
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Pittsburgh pride: Plenty to do for LGBT travelers

Pride Source Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pride Source details the many changes in Pittsburgh in recent years and highlights points of interest for LGBT travelers.

The gay community is well-integrated within the mainstream population. The city has numerous theaters with artsy and gay-themed films and a high appreciation of alternative culture - consider that two of its top attractions are the Mattress Factory contemporary art museum and the Andy Warhol Museum. Also, the city hosts the well-attended Pittsburgh International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival over 10 days in October, and the fast-growing Pride Theater Festival over two weekends in June.

Original source: Pride Source

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Pittsburgh one of 15 emerging downtowns in U.S.

Forbes Thursday, April 04, 2013

List-prone Pittsburgh makes Forbes' latest list on U.S. emerging downtowns.

The northeastern industrial hub's downtown, which by the late 1980s had succumbed to an exodus of businesses and people, has slowly begun to turnaround. Class A office space as of the third quarter of 2012 was 94.5% leased, compared to 85% a decade earlier. PNC Financial opened a $170 million-plus office tower in 2009, with a $400 million second tower under construction now. The area's population was about 8,000, according to the U.S. Census, up 21% from 2000. Since 2009, 219 new housing units have come to market, with another 346 under construction, according to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. To put this in perspective, the number of residential developments has more than doubled in the past 30 years, the majority of new projects erected in the past seven.

Original source: Forbes

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How the Andy Warhol Museum shook the dust off Pittsburgh

Good Thursday, March 28, 2013

Good writes about the Andy Warhol Museum and its impact on Pittsburgh, bringing 120,000 a visitors there annually.

Back within the cool environment of our renovated 1911 warehouse, the walls are alive with activity and our visitors have ample opportunities to make their own work. Visitors to The Warhol can create their own screen test on our 6th floor, just like Andy did. They can also explore Warhol’s art-making processes and learn how to silkscreen in The Factory, modeled after his New York studio the Silver Factory.

Original source: Good

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TripAdvisor: PNC Park top ballpark in America

TripAdvisor Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Pirates have a long way to go, but Pittsburgh's PNC Park was named America's top ballpark by TripAdvisor. Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies, was No. 6 on the list.

1. PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Perched along the Allegheny River, this renowned ballpark features spectacular sights of the Steel City skyline and the beautiful Clemente Bridge. A unique two-level ballpark that opened in 2001, PNC provides an intimate setting and spectacular views and sightlines from anywhere in the stadium. A TripAdvisor traveler commented, "The views of the city from the ballpark are beautiful; great food and beer selections."

Original source: TripAdvisor

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Taking a deep dive into Pittsburgh's sewers

The Atlantic Cities Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Atlantic Citie writes about a University of Pittsburgh Ph.D. candidate who co-authored research published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology that aims to determine how much sewers leak.

They studied water samples from Pittsburgh’s Nine Mile Run, one of two urban streams that still exist within the city limits (before we used such streams to dump our refuse, then piped them up and built over them, most cities were covered in small streams: "If you look at any maps with all the buildings and political boundaries taken off," Divers says, "you can see where the streams should be").

The researchers were particularly looking for a kind of nitrogen that can come from sewer systems, industrial sources, lawn fertilizer or any fossil fuels burned into the atmosphere eventually creating deposits on the landscape (fascinating side note: scientists can estimate runoff from lawn fertilizers by looking at the housing stock and financial stability of neighborhoods).

Original source: Atlantic Cities

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Ivy League picks Pittsburgh as Rust Belt's valedictorian

Politic Thursday, March 14, 2013

Politic, the Yale Undergraduate Journal of Politics, tackles Rust Belt revivalism and picks Pittsburgh as its favorite son.

The city’s revival has been part organic and part good long-term planning. With regards to the latter, Clifford Levine, an attorney who specializes in governmental law and chairs the Public Affairs Group of Cohen & Grigsby, gives credit to public-private partnerships. “There is a long tradition of political and corporate collaboration, going back to 1945 when David Lawrence was elected mayor,” he told The Politic. At the time, Pittsburgh was considered one of the most polluted cities in America. A Catholic Democrat, Lawrence forged the now famous bipartisan alliance with Richard Mellon, a member of the WASP establishment and staunch Republican chairman of one of the largest banks in the country. Despite their political and religious differences, the partnership drove a postwar urban renewal.

Original source: Politic

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Pittsburgh's perfect mix of university and industry pushes energy independence leadership

Energy Biz Thursday, March 07, 2013

Energy Biz digs into Pittsburgh's leadership role in driving the country's push for energy independence.

Today the region boasts a diverse population of energy-related companies with national headquarters and major operations located here, including ABB, ANSYS, CONSOL Energy, Dominion, Eaton, FirstEnergy, General Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Range Resources, Siemens, Westinghouse and many others. The region is also home to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Lab (NETL), which has provided the nation with important breakthroughs in energy technologies and research for over 100 years and is currently expanding its capabilities through a regional university alliance. Supporting this tremendous corporate growth is the presence of world-class universities and research facilities at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and other regional institutions.

Original source: Energy Biz

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