Is the Pittsburgh region better off today than it was four years ago? While some individuals may be better off, and we may be better off collectively in some areas, the general answer is, No.

Many wonderful changes in the region over the past four years have improved people's quality of life, but the overriding issue today is the city of Pittsburgh's fiscal collapse. The specter of financial insolvency looms over all, even for those who don't live in the city. Its true impacts won't be felt all at once and will linger over a long time.

When the steel industry collapsed and the region suffered through the loss of over 150,000 jobs in a short period of time, some here advocated developing policies that recognized the region was on a path of slow growth or decline. The idea was to guide the development of what was becoming a place of smaller scale. It didn't mean decreasing quality of life, but improving it in the face of a structurally changed regional economy.

The growth machine -- local elected officials and most nonprofit, economic development agencies -- strongly rejected such advice, eschewing the notion of "managing decline." If you're in the business of promoting growth, managing decline is defeat.

Instead, they continued with policies promoting growth, and issued long-term debt to pay for them. In the city, new expenses exceeded new revenues each year. The idea was that the new economic developments would generate enough revenue in the future to more than cover the difference. Call it what you may, but our public officials turned their backs on decades of evidence of decline, willed growth from high above and rolled the dice.

And what happened? The city's nearly insolvent. Its debt payments consumed more than 20 percent of the operating budget this year. It's beholden to a state legislature that's been a partner in these growing problems.

So what's their solution? More gambling. Public officials gambled with our future and lost. Now they're betting our bets can pay off their debts.

Wait, those are our debts.

Anything else? Let's see. The Pirates went 69-93 in 2000 and 72-89 this year. Oh, don't get me started.