Many people in Pittsburgh feel they've been left out of its designation as "the most livable city" -- especially minorities and women. This constitutes a worrisome counterpoint to the many bright aspects I discussed in last month's column ("Good News About Pittsburgh," Jan. 2).

Perhaps the best yardsticks appear in a survey published last June by the Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh. It showed that the median income of Pittsburgh whites exceeds that of African Americans, Asians and Hispanics by more than $10,000. Poverty rates of blacks are 2 1/2 times that of whites. Fewer than one-third of black families are two-parent households, as against one-half of Hispanic families and two-thirds of white families.

A higher percentage of white youngsters than African American show proficiency in reading and math in testing at the 5th-, 8th- and 11th-grade levels. (However, the grades of black girls are up substantially in the past two years.)

The center report showed that blacks continue to experience unfair treatment in daily life, including at work, by the police and in restaurants, bars and theaters.

As for women, a much higher percentage, both white and black, have college degrees than men. This comes in spite of the fact that gone is the day when any white male high school graduate can walk across the street from school into a well-paying mill job. In that sense, the legacy of a union- and male-dominated era continues to shadow the local economy.

Similar studies at Pitt show that salary scales here for women, white or black, remain lower than for men. As one academic phrased it, "You talk about the value of education for women and minorities, but it doesn't show up at the pay window."

An economic advantage for the Pittsburgh region is the low cost of labor. But the flip side is that this is a major reason why our brightest and best move elsewhere for better salaries.

As a congenital optimist myself, I dislike leaving the matter there. What's to be done?

First, it must be said that many agencies -- governmental (including the public schools and redevelopment agencies) and nonprofit (from the Urban League to those working in housing, job training, child development, etc.), plus churches, foundations and neighborhood associations -- are working hard to address the problems revealed in these studies.

But the complexity of what we are facing was brought home to me at a meeting of a Pitt Institute of Politics committee seeking the best theme for a forum on developing our region's work force. Should the emphasis be on jobs? One committee member noted that now is a crucial time for minorities and women to obtain a larger share, what with the upcoming mammoth construction projects -- the tunnel under the Allegheny River, the North Shore casino and the new Penguins arena.

That brought up the question of preparation. So, should the emphasis be on education, especially in an era requiring computer skills and when the backhoe has made grunt labor no longer marketable? How many people are available for more sophisticated jobs?

Note: Some unions, in a reversal from the past, now seek to recruit minorities for their training programs. Yet when business and organized labor are more open to diversity, how many minorities are taking advantage of the opportunity?

Unfortunately, too, when job-seekers, black or white, respond to advertisements, far too many fall by the wayside because of drugs. One comment: "A lot just walk right back out the door when they find they'll have to take a drug test." Others aren't prepared with the advanced math and reading skills essential in an increasingly technological society. Or, when they get jobs, they falter because of a weak work ethic.

A committee member wondered if we are so wedded to the idea of going to college that we have neglected to counsel youngsters into entering Career and Technology Centers (the up-to-date name for what used to be called -- and derided -- as "vo-tech" schools).

Inevitably, the discussion moved around to home life, whether a single-parent situation or where both parents are working long hours. Jobs and income levels re-entered the picture. Then there was housing, including the double whammy of low-cost opportunities lost to gentrification and the federal slowdown of Section 8 vouchers.

Violence also afflicts many neighborhoods, fueled by drugs and the availability of guns, destroying young lives in a cycle of hopelessness engendering more hopelessness.

After the session, my breath was taken away by one committee member who suggested that the answer just might be to legalize drugs. That would remove the highly profitable "underground economy" in drugs, just as the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 eliminated Roaring Twenties violence and the era's corruption-creating contraband enterprises. I'll have to think about that one.

Jobs, education, housing, discrimination, violence -- they become a ball of yarn where it's difficult to find the loose thread to unravel the tangle. The temptation is to say, "All of the above." But is that a non-starter?

It's not just the Institute of Politics that needs to find openers if Pittsburgh is to be the most livable city for everyone -- and not just those who are presently advantaged.