But, I cannot agree with the rest of his statements. He cites facts: 1) Pittsburgh’s population has been shrinking for 40 years. 2) The surrounding counties are, in general, poor (yet — I guess he fails to see that Cranberry Township which is in Butler County is the fastest growing area in the state and exceeds growth in all areas of West Virginia, Ohio, and yes, Western New York.) Westmoreland, and Greene Counties have pockets of extreme innovation, and growth has actually not been that bad in portions of Washington, Beaver, or parts of Slippery Rock and Lawrence.)

I especially disagree with HIS nonsense citing Pittsburgh’s only greatness in steel and the “great” airport — and now THAT is gone. His evident gloom is probably from his nonsuccess in job hunting, in my opinion.

Pittsburgh’s greatest failures is that it attempts to maintain a top-down regional management approach right out of the 1940′s. Perhaps David Lawrence’s and Andrew Mellon’s impacts on this region still haunt its chances at progress … I don’t know.

What I do know, is that the Pittsburgh region always thrived because of its rich natural resources of water, mineral wealth, lumber wealth, energy systems, and power. The Virginia Colony, the Penn Colony, the Maryland Colony, and the French all recognized that as early as the 1680′s.

Today, Pittsburgh still has more experts living here (many semi-retired) in material science, than anywhere else on the planet. Pittsburgh has more experts living here (many semi-retired) in nuclear energy and nuclear power than anywhere else on the planet. (Nuclear energy is the only energy source outside of carbon-heavy fossil fuels that can lead us to a greener and sustainabel future in the near term of the 21st Century).

As for the natural resources, Pittsburgh is the eighth largest region of oil production in the U.S., one of the largest regions for clean Martensic coal production, a leader in biofuels, in wind power, and the absolutely largest finds of Marcellus shale natural gas, it has ample clean water and streams, and is connected to both the St. Lawrence Seaway through the port of Erie to the North Atlantic Ocean, and to the Ohio-Mississippi Basin and access to the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal. It is also near the source waters of the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay Basin. All of these resources are currently being tapped — and have been tapped now for the last 10 years. The Pittsburgh region should grow handsomely as a result of the people and the resources, if the political ideologues of the region begin to again recognize the value of these.

When you add those, to the education, healthcare, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology and robotics advances that are being promoted for the sake of the G20 audiences — and add the strength of the regional banking and finance networks — this region strategically should blossom as the nation pulls out of the recession — I predict by between 2014 and 2018. At that time, I predict this will again be a boom region.

I will say for sure, Pittsburgh has some of the nicest people I have ever met in any
part of the country.