At long last, there are signs that our region is beginning to recover from the long recession. Thanks to over two decades of economic diversification, the Pittsburgh Region lost fewer jobs than most major regions last year, and the early signs of recovery are very positive: in April, we had the largest monthly job growth of any major region in the country.
However, we can’t take a strong recovery for granted. The fact that other regions suffered so much more than we did means they’ll be competing aggressively to attract new jobs. Despite the many accolades our region has received, we have a number of significant competitive weaknesses compared to other communities, such as high state business taxes, crumbling infrastructure, and a proliferation of municipalities and civic agencies.
Indeed, fragmentation and lack of coordination among governments and civic agencies is one of the major impediments to solving our other problems. We have over 1,000 different governmental entities in the region – more units of government per person than any region in the country. We have at least a dozen separate organizations focused on technology businesses, nine tourist promotion agencies, five workforce investment boards, and dozens of other agencies working on infrastructure issues. All too often, instead of working together to compete with other regions, we’ve fought among ourselves over who will get the biggest slice of a stagnant economic pie.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Pittsburgh's Future: Competing With Others, Rather Than Ourselves
Author: Harold D. Miller, President of Future Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in analysis, strategy, and communication. [He's] also Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management.
