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Pittsburgh can transform its 'hell with the lid off' image into 'the greenest spot on Earth'

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

By Hisham Youssef

Strength is a funny thing. It can work for you or against you. I find that many times my strength in one situation is my weakness in another. My ability to work on different projects at the same time becomes a liability when I overload myself. Strength and weakness.

	Hisham Youssef of Smicksburg, Indiana County, is a sculptor, furniture maker and union member who is on the board of the Little Mahoning Watershed Association.

Pittsburgh's true strength was its people. Hardworking, creative, resilient, tough, radical people built this city, and the result was the "Steel Capital of the World." Pittsburgh helped to change the world.

Just look at something so everyday and radical as the Hot Metal Bridge. Taking blazing hot steel in special rail cars across a river. People are proud of that history and justifiably so. But along with that strength, there was weakness.

Pittsburgh is known far and wide as the dirtiest city on Earth. We were "hell with the lid off," and that image still clings to us today. And that is the trouble with images: They are hard to shake. This image of filth has become a weakness. But I think that we can turn this weakness into a strength. Instead of fighting it, use it.

What we do is announce to the world that Pittsburgh, the filthiest place on Earth, the butt of so many jokes, is now going to become the cleanest city on Earth!

Think about it, no other city can do this. We own the image. It will be the ultimate, "from worst to first."

I think this idea is simple, is flexible in many different directions and can be applied to both large and small scales.

And it can be done relatively cheaply, because most of the heavy lifting has already been done. Here are three examples of how to start:

TIFs (tax increment financing) -- If we are going to give tax breaks to companies that want to come here, give them to environmental companies -- companies that make industrial filters, companies that are developing alternative energies, companies that reuse or recycle materials for their products. The list goes on and on: companies that need a break, companies that produce a product. Because there is plenty of employment in this growth industry!

Start an environmental army -- Made up of students, college, high school, elementary pupils, who are motivated and hardworking. High attendance at school is mandatory.

They can identify dumps all over the city and then clean them up.

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Don't pay them, but give them lots of perks. How about high-school or college credit? How about civics credit, business credits, art, environmental studies credits? How about clothes, groceries? Incentives from participating companies as payback for their tax breaks?

What can be made from the collected material? It can be reused or recycled into a product that can then be sold to help defray costs.

The point is, make it something that kids will want to get into, something that has status and they can be proud of.

And this is key, because it is important to get children and young adults involved. They are the energy that will keep the idea moving.

Incentives for "building green" -- This would include new construction and incentives for reusing existing structures.

We can start this project small and then build. The first thing to do is get everybody talking about it. Citizen participation is crucial to success. Because the hardest thing to change is people's minds. We all have to commit to this for it to work.

But, just like our forebears put their shoulders to the wheel of steel, so we need to do with this idea. This has to become "What we do." "We did steel, now we do this, and this is how it is done." And just the act of trying to pull this off will attract people to come here. It is a crazy idea, but no more so than the Hot Metal Bridge.

No other city can pull this off, because we have a monopoly, we patented the image, and it is ours. So we can do with it what we want.

And we can do this. It is still a city of strong communities. Let's use that strength. I mean, look at what we did with steel. It is our legacy; let's use it to step into the future!