Dateline Pittsburgh, March 31, 2030: Pittsburgh Public Schools yet again tabled consideration of a bricks-and-mortar right-sizing and realignment of its school buildings, citing a need to better embrace “stakeholders” on the plan. Points of order that there now remain only 22 families with 49 students in all PPS schools were waved off as cruel and insensitive.
Ahem.
Pittsburgh will be sending a delegation to Green Bay next month to observe how the Wisconsinites handle this year’s NFL draft. We understand the group will attend seminars on what to do if you’re shot at by common criminals Downtown, how to always look down when walking, so as to avoid human detritus, so to speak, and what is the proper amount to give when shaken down by aggressive panhandlers.
Ahem.
That said, local officials continue to tout the multiple millions of dollars in economic benefits the NFL Draft will bring to Pittsburgh. But they do so by continually citing the dubious “results” of other cities’ experiences.
Here’s a challenge: When the 2026 draft packs up and leaves town, let’s have the local ballyhooed estimated economic benefits audited, independently.
You know, receipts, please, and all that.
The same Mike Tedesco who panned the Allegheny Institute for having the temerity to use economics scholarship to question the economically dubious “Esplanade” project just west of the West End Bridge, left his “visioning” job in Johnstown under a cloud back in 2022.
In his Tribune-Review rebuttal to an op-ed on the Esplanade project – and do note it was not a refutation by any measure — Tedesco called it “its own self-contained bucket of money.” Seventy-five percent of the tax money derived from it, if given final approval by all taxing authorities, would be diverted from city, school district and county coffers for decades.
Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Allegheny Institute, characterized Tedesco’s retorts with a very precise and self-contained economic term – “lame.”
Tedesco was the CEO of an outfit called “Johnstown’s Vison Together 2025.” But he resigned “after months of scrutiny,” WTAJ-TV reported. He fell out of favor for wanting to import 100 Afghanistan refugees, part of his attempt, in his words, “to transition Johnstown into a 21st-century city.” In not so many words, Tedesco intimated critics of his efforts were racist.
Oh, by the way, one of Tedesco’s leading critics was a Democrat state representative.
Tedesco now is the director of community and economic development for Crafton. We’ve yet to hear if he seeks to import 100 Afghanis to Crafton.
Ahem.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
