Pittsburgh Schools Still Not Making the Grade
While waxing ecstatic last month about the Pittsburgh school district’s improving achievement scores in the 2008-2009 school year, the Superintendent studiously avoided a thorough discussion
While waxing ecstatic last month about the Pittsburgh school district’s improving achievement scores in the 2008-2009 school year, the Superintendent studiously avoided a thorough discussion
Pittsburgh’s City Council is holding debates over proposed prevailing wage legislation. The legislation requires that any tenant of a subsidized development “would have to pay

While Pittsburgh has some similarities with the problems in Detroit (albeit nowhere near the same magnitude) and there is cause for concern about Pittsburgh’s financial wellbeing, there is little chance that on its present course the City will face bankruptcy. That is not to say that it can be allowed to return to the spendthrift, reckless behavior that had the City headed toward financial collapse and brought it to the point of being placed under two state financial overseeing groups-the ICA board and the Act 47 financial coordinator team-a decade ago.
Shortly after the conclusion of the September G-20 Summit, the head of VisitPittsburgh claimed the event’s economic benefits to the City and region reached $35
In a previous Policy Brief (Volume 9, Number 51) we raised the question of whether Pittsburgh’s legacy costs could force the City to seek relief
Pittsburgh’s mayor is constantly citing reports from various magazines and newspapers about how wonderfully well Pittsburgh shows up in highly dubious livability ratings but somehow

In 2011, the debt per capita in Pittsburgh was $1,901, based on the Census count of 306,000 and $581.8 million in general obligation debt of the City. A decade earlier the average resident carried a much heavier debt load of $2,651. Both the debt and the City’s population were higher in 2001 but debt has fallen faster than population in the intervening years resulting in the per capita debt drop.
City of Pittsburgh, know thyself. So goes the Socratic admonition. Here’s some information to help in the self-knowledge.
The Brookings Institute has just released a report showing Pittsburgh as having the 18th economically strongest metropolitan area. They say Pittsburgh is doing so well
AMTRAK has informed Pennsylvania that the Pittsburgh to Harrisburg service-known as the Pennsylvanian-would likely be suspended unless the state comes up with the $5.7 million needed to cover the subsidy now being covered by money from the Federal government.