If you see a businessman walking down Liberty Avenue late at night juggling milk, eggs and Frosted Flakes with his briefcase, say hello to Michael Edwards, the new executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Michael Edwards, the new executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, has decided to live, at least temporarily, in a loft apartment that is about a 90-second walk from where he works. Click photo for larger image.

Edwards, 45, has decided to live, at least temporarily, where he works -- or very near where he works. Edwards has a roughly 90-second commute by foot from a loft apartment at 947 Liberty to the partnership's street-level office on the same avenue.

That means he can ignore the morning traffic report on the radio and hit the snooze button on his alarm clock while the rest of Pittsburgh's 9-to-5 denizens are making their way Downtown by car, bus or T.

It also means he can try out one of the partnership's main initiatives -- persuading more developers to construct or renovate residential housing Downtown, a strategy it hopes will eventually improve business conditions overall.

"As a test, I decided it would be a good idea since housing is a big issue, one of the big opportunities for Downtown,'' Edwards yesterday told the partnership's first quarterly meeting since his arrival from Spokane, Wash., a month ago.

His early verdict on the experiment?

"Living on Liberty Avenue, learning what it is like to live Downtown, both good and bad, has really been very eye opening,'' he said, keeping more specific observations to himself.

Edwards was for seven years the president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, where he managed an 80-block business improvement district with programs addressing inner-city topics of cleanliness, safety, entertainment, transportation and parking.

But he got his start in urban management here in Pittsburgh, where his wife, Mary, was raised. He studied public administration at the University of Pittsburgh and got his first job in the field at the Twin Rivers Council of Governments in McKeesport, when the Mon Valley was struggling with steel industry plant closures.

In the years between the Mon Valley and Spokane were stops in Buffalo, N.Y., his hometown, as director of the Lower West Side Development Corp., and later executive director of Buffalo Place, a 24-block business improvement district. He also oversaw a 40-acre industrial park in Lackawanna, N.Y., and was a principal of The Saratoga Associates, a regional consulting firm.

By the time Edwards left Spokane for Pittsburgh, he was getting credit there for helping to transform that city's core with retail development and upscale loft-like housing.

He was lauded for keeping the sidewalks clean and safe, and for sponsoring street events that attracted families and shoppers to Spokane's downtown.

His job in Pittsburgh has some of the same goals. He said he wants to remind the region that the Downtown continues to be an important part of the overall economy.

"Without a healthy core, you can't really have a healthy economic region,'' he said after the meeting ended. "We think Downtown has an important role to play. It has in the past, it will continue. But it may require us to think about Downtown a little differently.

"Downtown may not just be the Golden Triangle, it is the North Shore, the South Side. It's also the neighborhoods. Imagine if Downtown was surrounded by healthy high quality neighborhoods where people could all walk to work. It would take the pressure off Downtown parking and transit."

One month isn't long enough to get a handle on Downtown Pittsburgh's challenges and opportunities. So Edwards said he would begin work on a new Downtown master plan to replace one done in 1997.

He also must prepare for the five-year renewal next year of the Business Improvement District, a geographic area within the Golden Triangle in which properties are assessed to pay for the partnership's services, such as litter pickup, street-level entertainment and Downtown promotions. City council approval is required.

He defended the partnership's recently publicized work in discouraging panhandling Downtown and encouraging people to donate instead to programs that provide food, shelter and services.

"We are doing the best we can to separate chronic panhandling from homelessness,'' Edwards said. "We will be very sensitive to that issue."

He said the partnership would continue to advocate for a decrease in the city's parking tax, which City Council raised by 50 percent in 2004 to generate revenues. The partnership, which blames the tax for struggling business and rising office vacancy rates, is trying to involve Gov. Ed Rendell in the issue.

It also wants to promote Downtown living and help facilitate the related and often-delayed and much debated renewal of the downtrodden Fifth and Forbes shopping corridor. For information on the Downtown residential opportunities, visit www.PGHLiving.com.

Also on the agenda is a marketing campaign to retain and recruit businesses into the Downtown. Full office buildings, Edwards said, mean more people on the street and more customers in retail and restaurant establishments.

In addition, the second phase is under way on the makeover of Strawberry Way, a busy alleyway connecting the theaters, galleries and apartments of the Penn-Liberty Cultural district with the shops, restaurants and offices on Smithfield and Grant streets.

The first phase included new signs and artful lighting and the temporary closure of the alleyway to vehicular traffic -- a move that could be made permanent if the test is successful.

By summer's end, passers by should be able to hear an ever-changing musical composition as they walk along Strawberry Way. The necessary computer, amplifiers and speakers will be powered by a solar panel.

Beginning next Thursday, a farmer's market will appear weekly in Market Square as part of the partnership's summer concert series, "Thursdays With a Twist."