Right Here: Behind the scenes in City Council, Dan Gilman helps to steer Pittsburgh's progress
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Dan Gilman: "Local government needs to stop fighting to restore 1979 Pittsburgh. People in their 20s weren't alive in 1979. It's not the world we knew."
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Twenty-somethings who live in Pittsburgh at one point had to face the truth: There's a pretty solid possibility a life in this city won't happen.
It doesn't matter how much you love the city and its neighborhoods, the low housing costs, the Steelers, the arts scene. If you can't find a job, you can't stay.
"I was one of those college graduates planning to leave," admits Daniel Gilman, chief of staff for City Councilman William Peduto.
Fortunately for him, the pieces fell into place, and he began working for Mr. Peduto more than four years ago, after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University. He spent his formative years in Pittsburgh, moving here as a teenager and attending Shady Side Academy.
Mr. Gilman, 26, recognizes that the city is having trouble retaining its youth, and it all boils down to a lack of jobs.
Mr. Gilman (like nearly everyone else I've interviewed for this column) thinks that public transportation has to be improved to keep the young people in town after they graduate from one of the city's many colleges and universities.
Imagine if Pitt students could get from Oakland to the North Side in eight minutes via light rail -- perhaps more students would venture out of Oakland. "You would change this region," he said.
And that's one of the things Mr. Gilman and Mr. Peduto are trying to do.
Mr. Peduto announced last week a plan to study the feasibility of running a commuter line from Hazelwood through Oakland and Lawrenceville.
Mr. Gilman, who said he's been working on the East End commuter rail proposal for three years, calls it "the single most important idea I've heard discussed in my five years in government."
Not only would it get students out of Oakland to easily explore other parts of the city, he said, it will revitalize other East End neighborhoods by linking them to the booming university and medical communities.
He also cites the lack of immigration to Pittsburgh as a major issue. To be competitive in a global market, he says, we have to attract outsiders to Pittsburgh.
"You have to create a community that people want to stay in," he said.
Not only that, but local government has to be smarter about how it invests its dollars, he said.
Mr. Gilman doesn't think stores and hotels are proper investments, and that money would be better spent toward tax incentives for small businesses, technology centers and public transit.
"Local government needs to stop fighting to restore 1979 Pittsburgh" and prepare for the future, he said. "People in their 20s weren't alive in 1979. It's not the world we knew."
Twenty-something Pittsburghers lucky enough to set roots in the city should be active in making the 'Burgh a 20s-friendly city.
Unlike larger cities, Pittsburgh is just small enough that you can make a difference and effect change at a young age.
"You can't do that in Chicago or New York at 22," Mr. Gilman said. In Pittsburgh, though, "you can be an active member of the community at a young age.
"Change is slow. People need to stay committed and push for that change. [Young people] can't just stand and complain. They have to be willing to work," he said.
"I want to see Pittsburgh change into the city I know it has the potential to become."
First Published January 2, 2009 12:00 am
