 
|
||||||||||||||
              
|
Introduction: The Economy Edition May 2, 1999 By Douglas Heuck, Post-Gazette Benchmarks Editor Welcome to PG Benchmarks and the edition that looks at greater Pittsburgh’s economy in the context of 14 similar regions.
Given that this is the fourth year of revisiting these economic numbers, we are also able to chart the region’s progress over time. Several trends and characteristics are clear regarding greater Pittsburgh, which for statistical purposes includes Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties. It is a region that continues to see relatively slow job growth and small population loss. The good news is in productivity, a key to what is referred to as the new economy in which human capital and bright ideas play more prominent roles than natural resources and geography. Good companies will emerge where those good people and ideas are, and Pittsburgh continues to do well here, rating fourth and poised to move into third place next year if current trends hold. As a whole, greater Pittsburgh continues to be slow to take advantage of exporting opportunities. And those opportunities could make a critical difference to the regional economy and quality of life, by increasing prosperity through importing foreign wealth. In this measure, Pittsburgh ranks 11th.
Reporter Dan Fitzpatrick looks at both productivity and exports in separate stories. Fitzpatrick, who covers commercial real estate for the newspaper, also examines what promises to be a construction boom in the metro area in the years to come. On the facing page, associate editor Paul R. Flora brings his economic expertise to bear in his consideration of job growth estimates and paradoxes in Pittsburgh’s economy. Perhaps the highlight of today’s section is the Roundtable Discussion on pages 4-5
in which a panel of black Pittsburghers discuss their views on and remedies for
reinvigorating the economy of the black community. Their insights are at once sobering and
encouraging. Throughout the year we look at Pittsburgh from several angles: innovation, the economy, government services, education and quality of life. And on these topics, we gather and publish more than 60 benchmark measures. In nearly all of these measures, the local goal is clear: Be No. 1. For instance, we clearly want to have the highest productivity, exports per capita. We want the lowest black infant mortality, crime per capita and traffic congestion. We want the best universities, road quality and arts funding. For a few of the benchmark measures included in this edition - overall job growth, migration and population growth - ranking the regions, however, is a murkier proposition. And because of that, the regions are listed alphabetically in these three. For these categories, the numbers are informative, but they would be more useful in the context of a regional goal. Take population growth: If you look at the 15 regions ranked by population growth over the past five years, Pittsburgh would come in a resounding last, with an annual average loss of 0.5 percent of its population - or 58,054 people since 1993. The clear winner would be Phoenix, with a booming 4 percent average annual growth. That area has added 486,181 people in the same period. But who would contend that being No. 1 in population growth is a desirable goal? Some lo cal businesses would. More and more people each year means ever increasing accounts, sales and profits. You don’t have to be excellent to make money in a boom town. However, explosive growth comes with a great cost in terms of quality of life.
Congestion, crime, infrastructure strain and a general diminution of the social fabric are
inevitable results of population booms. It is not surprising that Phoenix, for example,
annually rates as one of the most crime-ridden of the regions. And in our end of the year calculation of the overall desirability of the regions - based on the 14 most important measures - Phoenix is 13th out of 15. No-population-growth Pittsburgh, by comparison, ranks seventh overall. But if you don’t want to be the fastest growing region in population, what do you want? What would be the goal? For some groups, such as Zero Population Growth, the goal is clear enough. Many in Pittsburgh make the argument that they don’t know how much population and job growth they want, but they do know that the infrastructure was built for a larger population. Some increase would be desirable in order to beef up the tax base and increase the number of patrons of, for instance, the cultural attractions and the Pirates so that the region could maintain its attractive regional assets. And some growth would make the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County easier to govern by improving their economic picture and, as a consequence, their bond ratings. How much growth? The question is there to be discussed and answered. We started this
project in order to provide reliable information that could serve as a baseline for such
public discourse. In this issue of PG Benchmarks: Productive workforce, factories a Pittsburgh asset Exploring the paradoxes of metro Pittsburgh's economy The Roundtable: Black business in Pittsburgh Region struggles to increase exports Pittsburgh Region is ready to enter bona fide boom cycle
|
|||||||||||||
