Another week, another bogus “livability” ranking for Pittsburgh.
The latest exercise in “Pay no attention to the facts behind the curtain” comes from an outfit billing itself as “Livability.com,” the same folks who deliver the equally misleading “Top 100 Places to Live” list.
As KDKA-TV reports:
“The website ranks Pittsburgh No. 4 on the list of ‘Top 25 Best Places to Live in the Northeast.’ Clifton, N.J., takes the top spot, followed by Warwick, R.I., Cranston, R.I.”
Livability.com cites Pittsburgh’s “world-class museums, pro sports teams to cheer for and a strong economy leading the way in robotics, AI, cybersecurity and more… .”
“(I)t’s no wonder why nearly 300,000 people know that Pittsburgh, Pa., is a great place to call home,” Livability writes.
Uhm, “strong economy”? What “strong economy”? The Pittsburgh economy has been quite anemic for a very long time. In fact, it’s embarrassingly weak.
Job “growth”? Consider it an oxymoron. And if it’s among the “best places to live in the Northeast,” why is there such a paucity of people moving to Pittsburgh?
Such “livability” rankings might make for splashy headlines and story teases. And, most certainly, chamber of commerce types and tourism promotion agencies seize on them as proof positive that the inflated salaries of many of their cheerleading “leaders” somehow are justified.
But all the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah-ing in the world can’t wallpaper over the real story of Pittsburgh’s continuing flailing and foundering economy.
And as we’ve noted many times before – too many times before — waving and shaking pom poms too often, and purposely, serve as a smokescreen to obfuscate our “leaders’” utter failure to employ sound, bona-fide growth- and job-promoting public policies.
For shame.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
