To some extent I agree with your position that

"I totally agree with you 100% but my whole point is that this area won't change or take risks even if it involves its own survival and prosperity. Anything is possible in this world but it takes change and reshuffling the deck when necessary. Pittsburgh has always refused to do this and is now paying the price and probably always will. The same close-minded people are still here and no new blood is coming in to bring about change. Good luck. "

As the "open kimono" history of biotech venture funding in Metro Pittsburgh shows, there are virtually no "venture capital" sources locally. But, at least in the biotech and robotics areas - the alumni association associated (but not alumni association funded) "Alumni Venture Funds" have had some successes.

The high tech start ups that the "Alumni Venture Funds" have funded stay in the area - at least through the first two stages of venture funding. (They are too new and too small to have gone beyond Stage 2 venture funding)

That does not mean that a larger competitor might not gobble up these local companies. Look at local CMU spin out FreeMarkets that was just acquired by another Tri-State expatriate caompany, Ariba (small world - Ariba's corporate HQ is in the Moffet Office Park in Sunnyvale CA, about a "football field" away from CMU's "Silicon Valley-Moffet" campus; and about 2 miles from a Mountain View CA bistro that serves Iron City Beer, and Arsenal Kolbassi and is decorated with Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, Panthers, Dukes, Tartans, Nittany Lions, and WV Mountaineers memorabilia).

But getting back to the main point - if a company can get local funding for Stage 1 and Stage 2, there is enough of a Tri-State expat "network" that they may be able to get "out of town" money without relocating "out of town."

We expat's have a special place in our hearts for the Tri-State, and many of us left with some degree of sadness. Looking at Pittsburgh (including the whole Tri-State) now is like watching a great aunt or great uncle die, (and even the so-called retail growth in the suburbs is like seeing that great aunt's or great uncle's very slight improvement after several weeks of pallative chemotherapy)

There is nothing wrong with Pittsburgh's technical, professional, scientific, and programming communities - world class. The problem is in the William H. Whyte "Organization Man" (don't rock the boat, keep your head and eyes in the boat, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down) risk aversive ("agoraphobic" ) mindset in the business, financial, political, and legal communities.

"It could happen if the financial and business and legal and banking communities would leran to gamble on new ideas and take risks."

I totally agree with you 100% but my whole point is that this area won't change or take risks even if it involves its own survival and prosperity. Anything is possible in this world but it takes change and reshuffling the deck when necessary. Pittsburgh has always refused to do this and is now paying the price and probably always will. The same close-minded people are still here and no new blood is coming in to bring about change. Good luck.

The "back office" operations are going to India.

As to your comment that

As far as small business being the answer, sure it is possible but not probable and that is what I meant in my previous posting. This could only be the answer if done right. I would think small businesses would have to start opening up on every street corner and they would all have to really take off and stay open and expand. '

- I first came out to Northern California for a quick round of training in the USN during Viet Nam. When you got south of Palo Alto and Moffet Field (Sunnyvale) - you were in produce orchard country. San Jose was a farm town. North of Sunnyvale (Moffet Field) was Lockheed, Varian, Hewlett=Packard, and Stanford. No Intel, no Apple, no Cisco, no Siebel, no Oracle.

On the other side of the Bay there was nothing below San Leandro except for a Ford factory at the foot of San Francisco Bay.

The San Francisco "Summer of Love" was happening and the hippies had discovered the Haight.

Now? Wow! And it was all small companies - most died - but some prospered and grew.

What you are seeing in Pittsburgh (I mean the whole Tri-State) - once you get beyond the $1/hour above minimum wage jobs that move from the City to the suburbs - are some under funded "spin outs" of faculty, newbie PhD, and grad student "high tech" (life science included) businesses.

Not many yet - but - if the financial and business and legal and banking communities take a look - it is there.

And I had a prof at Carnegie Tech who used to model the growth of these businesses at:

dx/dt = kx (i.e., growth rate is proportional to the number)

and when you integrate over time you get exponential growth. -- X = original number times e risen to the kt power.

Explosive (if f the financial and business and legal and banking communities don't drop the ball - like they started doing with Skybus, and the departure of Westinghouse, and the sale of Gulf to Chevron, and misjudging the effect of imports and new technology on the automotive market for steel and aluminum, and missing the symbiosis of coal chemicals and steel, ...)

It could happen if the financial and business and legal and banking communities would leran to gamble on new ideas and take risks.

GO TARTANS!!!!!

As far as small business being the answer, sure it is possible but not probable and that is what I meant in my previous posting. This could only be the answer if done right. I would think small businesses would have to start opening up on every street corner and they would all have to really take off and stay open and expand. As I said before I don't think this is possible in Pittsburgh because of all the close-minded elderly living in the area while many of the young people continue to leave. The young are the ones who would have to support and work at these businesses for them to work and reinvent the city. Pittsburgh is just not a good place to start a small business due to the negative financial climate and non-supportive elderly residents. The ones with money don't want to spend it and help out the communities.

Pittsburgh has spent the past upteen years sinking and getting further behind the rest of the world with no signs of hope. It's just not worth waiting around for an encore.

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pghsucks00 02-10-2004, 12:24 PM To nutella26: The reason why all the unhappy locals don't get out of town is because they can't afford to move or may not have the confidence to leave the family nest. As bad as this area is it's still a shelter for those born and raised here. I made the mistake of relocating here, lost alot of income, and have since smartened up and moved on to a positive and vibrant area. I would recommend it to all young people in this time warp town that will never change. Just do it and you'll be much happier.

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If you are a respected faculty person at CMU, Pitt, or Duquesne - why leave? The atmosphere is challenging, your academic colleagues are challenging, there are numerous neighborhoods and suburbs with a "college town" flavor, certainly the arts community in Pittsburgh is outstanding. (And the Carnegie rivals Stanford's Cantor or SFMOMA - and Heinz Hall is cheaper then the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts).

Living costs certainly are a bargain compared to other communities with equally outstanding colleges and universities.

The private schools and the better suburban schools rival the public schools and private schools in other communities with equally outstanding colleges and universities.

I have friends who "came back" from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Chapel Hill, and UCSD to take faculty positions locally.

When I saw the bottom falling out of the nuclear power industry - after Three Mile Island - I got "in line behind all of my Circle W colleagues" at Pitt and CMU.

A great college town.

GO TARTANS!!!!!

quote:

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pghsucks00 02-10-2004, 12:24 PM The one and only thing that will even start to revitalize this black hole of an area would be huge companies relocating their headquarters to Pittsburgh or Western PA and hiring many thousands of the local folk. These have to be good-paying jobs and not minimum wage retail like what is already here. Small or highly specialized employers such as biotechnical will not do it. They need to offer general employment and training for many of the uneducated that are in this area. I for one can never see any of this happening due to the negative stigma, closed mindset, and depressed financial climate in the area.But if anybody feels differently and wants to wait around for it to happen and work at Walmart in the meantime then good luck.

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Your first statement is almost fantasy -- won't happen. Pittsburgh had it - and lost it-- again and again --

"The one and only thing that will even start to revitalize this black hole of an area would be huge companies relocating their headquarters to Pittsburgh or Western PA and hiring many thousands of the local folk."

When steel comes back and USAir becomes an international airline.

BTW - I still have my copy of "Making, Shaping, and Treating of Steel" - along with my copy of Mehl's "Metallurgical Lab Practice."

I have to disagree with your second statement--

"Small or highly specialized employers such as biotechnical will not do it."

If "enough" small, highly specialized employers could be home grown or attracted the area would be the new boom town.

Hewlett Packard started in the family garage behind the family house in Palo Alto, Dell started in a vacant room at a college fraternity house, Mead Data (Lexis/Nexis) started in an office at Univ of Pittsburgh, Dragon Systems started in an apartment off of Walnut Street in Shadyside, PayPal started in an abandoned bank in McKeesport, Cadence Systems started in a student apartment in Oakland, and on and on.

These are exactly the multiplier businesses that Pittsburgh needs.

Third point - I am in 110% agreement - we have both been saying this, as has CMU's Heinz Professor Richard Florida.

"I for one can never see any of this happening due to the negative stigma, closed mindset, and depressed financial climate in the area."

We must both be reading CMU Professor Richard L. Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class", pages 304-314 (especially pages 306-309). Wow, great minds .....

GO TARTANS!!!!!

To nutella26: The reason why all the unhappy locals don't get out of town is because they can't afford to move or may not have the confidence to leave the family nest. As bad as this area is it's still a shelter for those born and raised here. I made the mistake of relocating here, lost alot of income, and have since smartened up and moved on to a positive and vibrant area. I would recommend it to all young people in this time warp town that will never change. Just do it and you'll be much happier.

Please before the next Presidential election, take a trip to Stanwix Street at noon and view for yourself where Pittsburgh and the rest of the country is.

Oh yes, I am one of those unemployed people that lost their job 2 years ago in Pittsburgh, who as some local TV news stations and newspapers like to keep refering to as "No Longer Looking For Work!" Shame on you for not giving a fair report on the "State of the Union". Jobs and the prople who have them are the only thing that will save Pittsburgh.

1rd

Buffboff