The wife and I celebrated a major anniversary milestone in our marriage not with a trip to the islands but with two days of getting in touch with our urban inner selves, spending a couple days on a getaway to beautiful, downtown Pittsburgh. Some people would instantly mock at the romance of the Steel City, but we both absolutely loved it. For history aficionados like us, Pittsburgh has strong formal and informal celebrations of its past. What’s apparently murkier is its vision of the future. Some random observations:

  • What a walkable city! There is so much to see in a very small area. From our hotel in the Strip District we were able to hit restaurants, see the skyscrapers, have some Starbucks, view the amazing architecture, and even see a show.
  • I can’t speak for today, but there has been some amazing wealth generated in Pittsburgh, and it shows in its buildings. From the mansions of the Fricks and the Heinz’s, to the investments at Pitt (Cathedral of Learning, Heinz Chapel), to the gifts of Andrew Carnegie, to the more modern buildings erected by Mellon Bank and US Steel, the vision and attention to detail is remarkable. I became very thankful for the foresight of even those robber barons that at least left an architectural and cultural legacy for us to enjoy.
  • The riverside downtown is dominated by the Lawrence Convention Center, with its 1.5 million square feet of exhibition and meeting space. In the past I’ve read in the Post-Gazette about the income shortfalls and subsidies the CC needs to operate. It’s frustrating that five years after this major investment, it is not in a cash positive scenario. I hope that its situation is not prescriptive for the Bayfront Convention Center.
  • Food is a big deal in Pittsburgh; I guess it is anywhere, but I don’t remember too many distinctive Nashville dishes when I lived there. In Pittsburgh, the region is defined by the Primanti Brothers sandwich, the turkey Devonshire at the Union Grill, or the amazing meals at only one of two Lidia’s Italian restaurants outside of the NY metro.
  • My wife and I spent many hours at the Heinz History Center, which is six floors of exhibits on Western PA history (didn’t see much about NORTHwestern PA). The center is 12 years old and really well done. You get the sense of how important Pittsburgh has been to the rest of the nation, with it’s industry fueling the nations growth. That is until the early 1980’s, with the collapse of the steel industry. There’s a sense that the city and region must find a new way of revitalization and prominence.
  • Which leads me to the feeling I have that Erie and Pittsburgh are linked in that kind of defeatist, “best times are behind us” attitude. Certainly it has got to hurt to lose 90% of the industry jobs that defined your city for nearly a century. But we need to embrace the new opportunities in knowledge industries and services that depend on the skills our kids are coming out of the exceptional universities that this region is also known for.

What can we glean from the past of this great city and region that can be a guide for its future?