Speakers at last week’s Pittsburgh Biotechnology Summit blamed the failure to adequately “brand” the region’s emerging biotech industry for the lack of investment in the sector.
As the Post-Gazette reported it, quoting various officials:
“We have to brag more,” said one.
“As stupid as it sounds, I think we need a brand so that anytime an entrepreneur hears ‘Pittsburgh,’ they don’t say ‘what’s that?’” said another.
Added another player in the biotech sector:
“Pittsburgh needs to emerge as a national brand in life sciences. We need to build that brand so that others can join us and enjoy the risks and rewards.”
But has anyone connected with any of this stopped to ponder that a major hurdle in attracting private venture capital dollars to the cause might just be Pittsburgh’s root problems?
Consider the city’s horrendously failing public schools that, by the way, continue to become increasingly violent.
A city schools scholarship program that rewards mediocrity. It will be closing up shop in 2028, unable to attract sustained funding.
Then there’s the union-bloated cost structure for public services, fully aided and abetted by political leaders and the city’s voters.
What about ridiculous regulations, everything from banning supposedly “single-use” plastic bags to “affordable housing” rules that can only result in less housing at, on net, higher prices?
Lest we forget, the continuing lawlessness in the Golden Triangle business district that has only reinforced the kind of flight that began before, but was further exacerbated by, the COVID-19 pandemic.
And that’s just the tip of the rotting roots.
But instead of acknowledging the rot, and imploring accountability from those watering it, biotech officials propose a “branding” campaign, a slick public relations pitch, to reverse what one study concluded was “Pittsburgh’s scientific and technical strengths” not being “fully translated into broad based economic activity.”
Smearing that new shade of lipstick on the proverbial same old pig won’t get the job done, ladies and gentlemen.
Pittsburgh’s rotten roots must be pulled. And that includes the purveyors of such civic rot.
Treating the symptoms of such a cancer without treating the cancer itself can serve no useful purpose and most assuredly will kill the host.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
