To Have &
To Hold
Pittsburgh
Strives to Attract and Retain Young People.
By
Joyce DeFrancesco
Look around
Pittsburgh. Chances are you'll see more gray hair than pink, purple
or orange. We're not getting any younger - and that spells trouble
for Pittsburgh's future, not to mention its hopes to become a high-tech
mecca.
"We'll
die if we don't [attract young people]," says Dr. Richard Florida,
H. John Heinz III professor of regional economic development at
Carnegie Mellon University. "They're our future." Florida
has made a study, and a reputation, of what makes bright young workers
tick, and has specific recommendations on how to hold on to them.
Given that Allegheny County, among the nation's most populated counties,
has the second largest elderly population in the United States,
Pittsburgh has been paying serious attention to Florida and to the
need to hold on to its young people.
The problem
has been a long time in the making, and so are its solutions. Young
people hitting working age have been leaving Pittsburgh in droves
since the mid-1960s (see "Boomerangs," May). Census data
show, for example, 198,000 people between the ages of 15 and 19
in the Pittsburgh statistical area (Allegheny, Beaver, Washington
and Westmoreland) in 1980. By 1990, as that group aged 10 years,
there were only 155,000 people ages 25-29 - or 22 percent fewer.
The loss of about 170,000 manufacturing jobs, mostly in the '80s,
has usually been cited as the culprit, but it doesn't explain the
constant 30-plus-year drain of young people.
What attracts
young people to a region? According to data from focus groups conducted
in 1999 by downtown-based Campos Market Research Inc.: a lifestyle
that is youth-friendly and supportive of diversity; large numbers
of visibly active young people; easy access to a variety of outdoor
activities; a vibrant music and performance scene; a range of nightlife
experience, including nonalcoholic choices; and a clean environment
and a commitment to preserving it.
Recent statistical
data show some good news. The Center for Social and Urban Research
at the University of Pittsburgh estimates that Pittsburgh isn't
losing young people anymore. But weĠre not racking up a net gain
- not quite, anyway.
A survey conducted
by Carnegie Mellon University shows that 20 percent of its graduates
in the past five years elected to remain in the Pittsburgh area
to work or attend graduate school. On average, only about 5 percent
of the graduates each year are originally from the Pittsburgh area,
meaning that Pittsburgh is winning over some out-of-towners. It's
a small number, but it shows that fresh blood is being transfused
into the region.
Pittsburgh looks
to be doing some things right, but there's plenty of room for improvement,
as we shall see.
Melting Pot
Throughout Florida's
research on attracting and retaining young people, one thing comes
through loud and clear - young people demand diversity. "They
want to see people who look different or are different races or
ethnicity, of different genders," says Florida. "They
want to see people who look weird. People with spiked hair, earrings
and tattoos. And they want to see that a place is open to the gay
community."
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That
doesn't mean that all young people are Asian, gay, or pierced and
tattooed. Some might be, but what's important is that when these people
are present, you know a region is open and accepting. And being known
as an open place is vital to a community's high-tech success.
In fact, the
presence of a vibrant gay community is the leading predictor of
high-technology success in a metropolitan area, says Florida. The
five metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of gay residents
are all among the nation's top-15 technology areas. That includes
San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Austin, Atlanta and San Diego.
According to
Florida's research, gays not only predict the concentration of high-tech
industry; their presence is also a predictor of its growth as well.
Gays are often a signal of a diverse environment that allows and
fosters the creativity and innovation necessary in the high-tech
industry. A place that is a comfortable home to gays is likely to
be open to all types of people.
While Pittsburgh
may not be ready to be called a "gay Mecca," it's definitely
not as bad as you may think. The city has had a gay-rights ordinance
on the books since 1990 that prevents discrimination based on sexual
orientation. The University of Pittsburgh announced in May of this
year that, after a seven-year legal battle, it would conduct a study
on the feasibility of providing same-sex domestic-partner benefits
to its employees. CMU and Chatham College already do so, as do dozens
of other companies (editor's note: including this one). Pittsburgh
is home to a popular annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and a
thriving gay publication, Out magazine, among other institutions
of its gay community.
Gays are not
the only population that young people want to see in a region. "Bohemians"
- Florida's term for people in the creative and performing arts
- and immigrants are also indicators of a region's openness. Writers,
designers, painters, sculptors, directors, dancers and photographers
are a vital part of a youthful, hip city. Their presence signals
that the region supports and showcases creativity and artistic expression.
On the plus
side, artists are increasingly making Pittsburgh their home, with
national estimates considering it among the largest communities
in the United States. The efforts of various grassroots groups,
like the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, encouraging artists to live
and work in the Penn Avenue corridor has spilled out with new art
galleries and opportunities throughout the East End. Two major art-supply
stores serve growing communities in the East End and South Side.
The national and international envelope-pushing reputations of the
Warhol Museum and Mattress Factory emphasize that the business of
art is booming in Pittsburgh. An economic-impact study commissioned
by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in 1997 shows area arts organizations,
their employees and audiences had a direct and indirect economic
impact of $368 million on Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
On the minus
side, Pittsburgh, which was once a hot spot for immigration, doesn't
even have a spot on the top 21 "Melting Pot Metros" list
put together by the Milken Institute, an economic think tank. Research
by both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University
place Pittsburgh at or near the bottom of rankings among large metropolitan
regions in the areas of annual immigration and the percentage of
the workforce that is foreign-born. Cities like Columbus, Ohio,
Atlanta, Min-neapolis and Kansas City have had twice the influx
of immigrants that Pittsburgh has had in the past 10 years.
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