November 15, 2023 • 17 mins
In Allegheny County, we’re surrounded by natural beauty, real innovation, and good people. There’s a lot to be proud of… just take a look at our list of 100+ reasons – and counting! We want to know why YOU are proud to live in Allegheny County.
https://alleghenycountyproud.com/
https://alleghenycountyproud.com/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
And welcome inn. This is theCEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm your
host, Johnny Hartwell, let's sayhello to Alleghany County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
Good morning, how are you sir. Good to be with you. Art.
We're going to be talking about theAlleghany County Proud Initiative. Tell us
everything we need to know. Well, the Alleghany County Produde Initiative is really
about bragging about all the great thingsthat we have here in this region.
(00:26):
You know, we have a lotof wonderful, wonderful attributes and you know,
great people that do great things,have done great things and continue to
do great things. But we're notalways good about bragging about ourselves. We're
not always good about shining the lighton some of the things that we do.
We're hard working people that get outand invent things, whether it's you
know, from the steel industry tothe energy industry to robotics and you know,
(00:48):
life sciences, all the things thatwe're doing. We need to start
telling our story a little bit betterto the world and so that people when
they come here don't say, oh, I never knew about that until they
come through the tunnel to speak well, we're a modest breed, we really
are. We may take granted foreverything that Pittsburgh has to offer. So
what's the initiative. Is there areason you wanted to Why do you want
(01:11):
to attract people here in Pittsburgh.Well, first of all, we need
to grow again. You know,we had five and a half decades or
whatever of people leaving Pittsburgh and wesee that during Steeler games on the road
when half the fans who live inthese other cities still have an affection and
wave their yellow tiles showing their supportfor Pittsburgh. But we want to keep
(01:32):
our young people here, but wealso want to grow more young people to
help this place grow. We've overforty thousand jobs right now that are unfilled
in this region, everything from energyto construction, to manufacturing, the hospitality,
to arts and culture, and wedo so many good things here.
We want to continue to grow andwe want to show off the great things
we have, the arts and culturethat the green space, the parks,
(01:55):
the trails, the museums, somany things that we do well. The
food, you can't find better foodanywhere in the country at a food festival
or a community festival with the ethnicfood that we have, from the Italians
to the Irish, to the Polish, to the Lithuanians, Eastern European,
Russian Orthodox, you know halushki andPeroghi's and even the Great Primanes which was
(02:16):
born here with the you know,French fries on your sandwich. It's just
we're an innovative place and there's alot to be proud of, and we
want to get that word out.And we have this website Alleghanycountyproud dot com
in which you can go on andfind one hundred or more things that Pittsburgh
can be proud of, from ourinclines to Kennywood Park, to the Andy
(02:37):
Warhol Museum, et cetera, etcetera. You and I both are very
proud of our city. I thinkit has a lot to offer. Now,
the number one thing is that isgoing to attract somebody to Pittsburgh is
jobs. And you said forty thousandjob openings. So why aren't people aware
of that fact? Well, Ithink we're so used to growing up people
(02:59):
not having jobs and leaving. That'sagain, those other cities that have had
Pittsburgh's there for a couple of decadesare people who left for opportunities. The
irony is, you know, onehundred years ago, people came here for
the opportunities in our steel mills,in our coal mines, and in manufacturing,
whether they came from Europe or whetherthey came the great migration of African
Americans coming from the South. Andthen during the eighties and nineties, that
(03:20):
obviously went away when the steel millsand the factories closed and people started going
away from Pittsburgh. Well, nowwe're in a different place again. We're
in a place where there are jobs, are opportunities, there are companies coming
here growing here for a couple ofdifferent reasons. Number one, affordability.
This is a much much less expensiveplace to do business and own a home
than Boston or San Francisco or NewYork or places like that. And the
(03:42):
jobs that we have, whether it'sat the Googles or the energy companies or
the upmcs and ahns, are highpaying, good family sustaining jobs. So
and for those pay you get andfor the neighborhoods you get to live,
and you get to live in anaffordable house, one of the most affordable
cities in America right now. Butyou also have these great quality of life
issues, great sports teams, greattrails in green space, and parks and
(04:05):
museums and shows and theaters, andyou know, lots of things that enhance
the life of a family growing uphere. Good education. Over two dozen
good colleges and universities from pitt andCMU on Donte, you know all the
other schools that are out in theoutlying areas, the Saint Vincent's and the
Geneva Colleges and the Seaton Hills inthe Westminsters, Washington and Jefferson, et
(04:27):
cetera. This is just a great, great place with a lot of opportunities
and a lot of options. Youknow, if you don't want to be
in robotics, that's fine. Maybeyou're an artist. Maybe you want to
make movies. We make a lotof movies here right now, TV shows
and documentaries. Our film industry isone of the best. I mean,
it might not be Hollywood, butit's not far behind right now when it
comes to opportunities if that's what youwant to do. If you're a director,
(04:50):
if you're a writer, if you'rea camera person, if you're someone
who builds stages, movies again justone of the industries that's going very well.
If you ca about the climate,we have more of the energy and
sustainability parts of doing things like solarand wind and dealing with climate change.
If that's an interest of yours,we have a growing and burgeoning industry along
(05:12):
those lines. If you want tohelp people heal, what we do around
cancer research, what we do aroundwomen's health research is one of the best
places in the country. So whateveryour talents are, we want those talents
here. We want to help continueto make this place better. Well.
As a headwind to play Devil's Advocateis the reputation at Pittsburgh is a steel
(05:32):
town, a smoky city, andthat's just not the case. And it
hasn't been that case for a longlong time. No, and it really
hasn't. But what happens is reputationsbecome ingrained in people's minds, particularly in
other parts of the country that haven'tbeen here, and we're trying to change
that. The new airport that we'rebuilding is going to reinvent, reinvigorate what's
(05:55):
going on in Pittsburgh. It's goingto show our industrial heritage of steel and
coal and coke and all those things. But it's also going to show off
robotics and medical technologies. And thefact that you know that the starsal transplants
were done here, invented right here. The anti rejection medication to allow people
to get a new liver, geta new kidney, get an lung transplant,
(06:16):
that happened right here in our city. You know, the first broadcast
radio station with mister Rogers and WQED, the first radio station you know,
I know it isn't this one,but a different one. Yeah, But
the things that have happened here,the first Ferris wheel, the Big Mac,
I mean, all the things thatwe've invented. People don't realize how
big of a city that when itcomes to innovation, Pittsburgh is, you
(06:38):
know, punching way above our weight, absolutely way above our weight. That's
exactly right. We continue to GeorgeWestinghouse and it just goes on and on
and on. Yeah, we couldtalk about Westinghouse for hours, about just
his inventions in the rail industry,the electric industry, that the broadcasting industry,
nuclear industry, et cetera, etcetera. That's just one aspect.
And of course you go to Carnegieand fricking what they were doing again,
(07:00):
the things that were built in thiscountry has a Pittsburgh component almost everywhere.
And the other thing about Pittsburgh isthere are Pittsburgh's everywhere who are very proud
of where they came from. Maybethey moved in the seventies or eighties to
another city, but their remembrance ofwhat's happened here has been tremendous. Some
of the greatest actors coming out ofCarnegie Mellon that you see on Broadway and
(07:24):
in the movies got their start here. And it's again, there's so much
about what we have done. TheWarhole Museum, as we mentioned, one
of the most visited museums in theworld because Andy Warhol, one of the
most famous artists. You know,South Oakland kid, grew up at Carnegie
Tech at the time, which obviouslybecame Carnegie Mellon. But part of our
(07:45):
heritage and what we've done and whatwe continue to do is something we build
on. But we want to continueto build on and give people the information
and knowledge about the neighborhood they livedin and who might have been there before
them, and some great inventor orindustrialists or scientists or artists could have could
have been you know, their nextdoor neighbor. And one of our strengths
is our diversity. We've always broughtimmigrants in the town, yes, and
(08:09):
so talk a little bit about that. Well, yeah, you think about
you know, one of the thingsabout Pittsburgh can be proudest one of the
national the Courier, The Pittsburgh Courierwas one of the most influential African American
newspapers in the country. In fact, when Jackie Robinson broke into the major
leagues, it was the Courier whowas providing the pressure to the Commissioner of
(08:31):
Baseball back in the forties to makethat happen. We had two Major League
Negro League teams in Pittsburgh, theHomestead Grades in the Pittsburgh Crawfords, one
of the only cities in America otherthan maybe New York or Chicago that had
that because we had such a strong, strong population and quite frankly, two
of the best teams with the SaschelPages and the Josh Gibsons and those kind
(08:52):
of players that were basically the BabeRuths and the and the you know,
Walter Johnson of their day. Sothis is something that has been part of
our history, part of our heritageand again something we should be very very
proud of. All Right, Sowhat ultimately, what do you want to
see happen? Well, just peopleto be aware and for people outside to
(09:15):
say and look at Pittsburgh. Andwhen you're thinking about what city you're going
to move to or what city you'regoing to start your business or start your
innovation in U you certainly the SanFrancisco's and the Seattles and the New York's
and the Boston's come to mind.You don't often think about Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh
should be on that list because we'vedone everything here. I like to say
(09:35):
we're the largest big city in America, but it's a big city that has
the ability to do big things ona world stage. But it's also a
small enough town in which we allknow each other. We all are neighbors
with each other. We're one degreeof separation of somebody who's you know,
going from from the CEO to thefactory worker floor worker that we know.
(09:56):
And I think that's what makes Pittsburghso so special. And it's you think
about someone like an Art Rooney,who was you know, as big as
it comes, but he was justlike an every man back back in the
day that he was just as comfortablein a VFW smoking a cigar and having
a beer the quicknessential Pittsburgh as hewas in the Duqune club talking about high
finance. Yeah, just a coupleof months ago, I went on vacation,
(10:20):
met an individual who was a bigSteeler fan in Mexico, and I
said, Hey, if you evercome to Pittsburgh, I'll buy the Steeler
tickets. He goes that we're on, took them to a game, got
to shuttle them through you know theyou know, the Strip District and shady
side, and showed him everything thatPittsburgh has to offer. And he talked
about He goes, what movies werefilmed here? And I named a few.
(10:43):
He goes, oh, I've seenthose. And then he brought his
daughter, and his daughter is bilingual, and I said, and she said,
I would love to move to Pittsburgh. I said, being somebody who
can speak English and Spanish, youcould write your ticket. You could really
really make a huge impact here intowns. So there's a lot of opportunities
for people to really not only thrivebut excel here in Pittsburgh. There really
(11:07):
are. And when you think aboutagain that population, the Hispanic Latin American
population has really exploded over the lastcouple of years. And when they have
some of the big community festivals I'vegone to them over the last couple of
years. They started out maybe fifteenyears ago, pretty small. Now they've
just get hundreds and thousands of peoplethat show up because of the heritage that
has come here. We've course beenknown a century ago for more of a
(11:28):
European centric you know the Polish,the Italians, the Germans, the Irish
who came here. But now youhave a very very big people coming from
Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, etc. That are a big part of what
Pittsburgh is becoming. And you seethe same thing from the Asian American population,
people from India, people from China, people from Korea, Philippines,
(11:50):
etc. That are discovering Pittsburgh,coming here for opportunities. Maybe things in
their homeland weren't so great for whateverreason, political or economic, but they're
coming to pitts Burgh and they're creatingthe vibrancy that's always been about, that
welcoming, that innovative and diverse thatthat Pittsburgh has become and we want to
continue to capitalize on that and makePittsburgh, Uh, make Pitts people know
(12:15):
Pittsburgh is a welcoming place. Wewant your talents, we want you to
move here. We want you tostart your your your your business or your
family here. And uh that's whatPittsburgh has always become. Let me because
I don't have any statistic to backback this up, but I think Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh girls are one of the bestworkers when it comes to you know,
employees. Is that true? Ithink it is. You know it
(12:37):
sartainly has been for a certain generation. There's a new generation coming in and
they're discovering Pittsburgh for the first time. And many of them were were just
here at late up night. Andyou know, as the holidays come about,
we'll see people coming together and youknow how how people celebrate things like
Christmas and New Year's and and andthose things are Uh that's what makes it
(12:58):
special. You learn different traditions,whether it's the Seven Fishes or you know,
whatever people have for for their tradition, and it makes it exciting.
And you know, we just litup the bridges for the first time,
our three Sister Bridges the Warhole,the Clemeny and the Carson Bridge, which
are lit up for the holiday season, and next year for Fourth of July
they'll be red, white and blue, and next year for Halloween they'll be
(13:20):
orange and black, and you know, et cetera, et cetera. So
but these are some of the thingswe want to We want to continue to
show off and let people feel likea real sense of wanting to be here.
Well, we're a proud individual ora proud comp uh population, but
we're modest and you want us tobrage us. But we're also very competitive.
So what cities are we competing against? Well, we're sartainly competing against
(13:43):
some of the bigger cities to SanFrancisco's and the and the and the LA's
and the and the New York's.But we're also competing against the Nashville's,
the Baltimore's, the Cleveland's, uh, the Cincinnatis, the Milwaukee's, the
memphisis, and the Austin. Soyou know, young people particular now have
choices. If you've got you know, certain skill set, uh, you
(14:05):
have choices or where you can live, where you can be. We want
to compete with other with other cities, and we know we can compete.
We know we can not only competethem, but beat them at many of
these things. Just like our footballteam and other other sports teams are competitive,
we want to be competitive. Andwhen it comes to industry, when
it comes to business, when itcomes to innovation, when it comes to
science, when it comes to wewant our food to be the rate of
(14:28):
the best food in the place,or the best place for young people to
live, or best people place forentrepreneurs to start their business. And we
want that to also be the casefor everybody, for for people of color,
for for LGBT community, et cetera. So that this is a place
where you can feel comfortable, youcan you want to be and you want
to raise your family here. Whatabout the infrastructure of Pittsburgh are we able
(14:50):
to you know, can we canwe sustain? I think yeah, I
think we can. And you know, think about years ago when when Pittsburgh
was six hundred thousand people and nowit's about three hundred thousand people. Well,
the houses didn't move away, thestreets didn't move away, but some
of the people moved away. Samewith Allegany County. We had about one
point six million people years ago,and we're about one point twenty five now,
(15:11):
so there is the ability. Andyou do see new areas that are
growing that hadn't grown before. AndI think at place is like Finley Township
or or North Fayette or Westier.We sertainly know about neighborhood city neighborhoods the
south Side, Lawrenceville, places likethat, but as you get out into
further Pine Township, Richland Township,these were places that years ago had very
(15:33):
very few people. And you seedevelopments happening out there, good school districts
that are happening out there, theroad system that is being built and maintained,
and all those kind of things.And we've got that's something We've got
to continue to invest in. Bettertransit system. You know, the airport
being rebuilt is going to connect usto other parts of the world in a
better way. So we're investing inthose things and we want to continue to
(15:54):
do that. All right, Onelast question, what does you want Pittsburgh's
to do. Brag about your city, to communicate to somebody else that maybe
you went to college with, ormaybe you have a family member that's in
another part of the country. Letthem know the great things that we have
here in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is awonderful, wonderful place. It's something we
(16:15):
all should be proud of. Andagain, it doesn't have to be a
neighborhood like Bloomfield. It could beButler, it could be Uniontown. It
could be Upper Saint Clair, itcould be Mount Leven, it could be
m keey Sport. It could bethe neighborhoods and communities that have a sense
of place and a sense of belongingand a sense of welcomeness that we want
people to be at. And bythe way, we got you know,
lengthen season more fish fries than anyplace in the world, so you can
(16:37):
find a fish fry on any Fridayduring Lent and have some of the best
best food you'd ever want to have. All right, mentioned your newsletter.
The newsletter is Alleghanycountyproud dot com,so you could go on there get those
hundred reasons or more of why Pittsburghis so special and Alleghany County so special.
Alleghany County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and theAllegheny County Proud dot Com initiative,
(17:00):
thank you so much, Thank you, Johnny, and happy holidays to everybody.
This has been the CEO you shouldknow podcast, showcasing businesses that are
driving a regional economy, part ofiHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve.
I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank you somuch for listening.
And welcome inn. This is theCEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm your
host, Johnny Hartwell, let's sayhello to Alleghany County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
Good morning, how are you sir. Good to be with you. Art.
We're going to be talking about theAlleghany County Proud Initiative. Tell us
everything we need to know. Well, the Alleghany County Produde Initiative is really
about bragging about all the great thingsthat we have here in this region.
(00:26):
You know, we have a lotof wonderful, wonderful attributes and you know,
great people that do great things,have done great things and continue to
do great things. But we're notalways good about bragging about ourselves. We're
not always good about shining the lighton some of the things that we do.
We're hard working people that get outand invent things, whether it's you
know, from the steel industry tothe energy industry to robotics and you know,
(00:48):
life sciences, all the things thatwe're doing. We need to start
telling our story a little bit betterto the world and so that people when
they come here don't say, oh, I never knew about that until they
come through the tunnel to speak well, we're a modest breed, we really
are. We may take granted foreverything that Pittsburgh has to offer. So
what's the initiative. Is there areason you wanted to Why do you want
(01:11):
to attract people here in Pittsburgh.Well, first of all, we need
to grow again. You know,we had five and a half decades or
whatever of people leaving Pittsburgh and wesee that during Steeler games on the road
when half the fans who live inthese other cities still have an affection and
wave their yellow tiles showing their supportfor Pittsburgh. But we want to keep
(01:32):
our young people here, but wealso want to grow more young people to
help this place grow. We've overforty thousand jobs right now that are unfilled
in this region, everything from energyto construction, to manufacturing, the hospitality,
to arts and culture, and wedo so many good things here.
We want to continue to grow andwe want to show off the great things
we have, the arts and culturethat the green space, the parks,
(01:55):
the trails, the museums, somany things that we do well. The
food, you can't find better foodanywhere in the country at a food festival
or a community festival with the ethnicfood that we have, from the Italians
to the Irish, to the Polish, to the Lithuanians, Eastern European,
Russian Orthodox, you know halushki andPeroghi's and even the Great Primanes which was
(02:16):
born here with the you know,French fries on your sandwich. It's just
we're an innovative place and there's alot to be proud of, and we
want to get that word out.And we have this website Alleghanycountyproud dot com
in which you can go on andfind one hundred or more things that Pittsburgh
can be proud of, from ourinclines to Kennywood Park, to the Andy
(02:37):
Warhol Museum, et cetera, etcetera. You and I both are very
proud of our city. I thinkit has a lot to offer. Now,
the number one thing is that isgoing to attract somebody to Pittsburgh is
jobs. And you said forty thousandjob openings. So why aren't people aware
of that fact? Well, Ithink we're so used to growing up people
(02:59):
not having jobs and leaving. That'sagain, those other cities that have had
Pittsburgh's there for a couple of decadesare people who left for opportunities. The
irony is, you know, onehundred years ago, people came here for
the opportunities in our steel mills,in our coal mines, and in manufacturing,
whether they came from Europe or whetherthey came the great migration of African
Americans coming from the South. Andthen during the eighties and nineties, that
(03:20):
obviously went away when the steel millsand the factories closed and people started going
away from Pittsburgh. Well, nowwe're in a different place again. We're
in a place where there are jobs, are opportunities, there are companies coming
here growing here for a couple ofdifferent reasons. Number one, affordability.
This is a much much less expensiveplace to do business and own a home
than Boston or San Francisco or NewYork or places like that. And the
(03:42):
jobs that we have, whether it'sat the Googles or the energy companies or
the upmcs and ahns, are highpaying, good family sustaining jobs. So
and for those pay you get andfor the neighborhoods you get to live,
and you get to live in anaffordable house, one of the most affordable
cities in America right now. Butyou also have these great quality of life
issues, great sports teams, greattrails in green space, and parks and
(04:05):
museums and shows and theaters, andyou know, lots of things that enhance
the life of a family growing uphere. Good education. Over two dozen
good colleges and universities from pitt andCMU on Donte, you know all the
other schools that are out in theoutlying areas, the Saint Vincent's and the
Geneva Colleges and the Seaton Hills inthe Westminsters, Washington and Jefferson, et
(04:27):
cetera. This is just a great, great place with a lot of opportunities
and a lot of options. Youknow, if you don't want to be
in robotics, that's fine. Maybeyou're an artist. Maybe you want to
make movies. We make a lotof movies here right now, TV shows
and documentaries. Our film industry isone of the best. I mean,
it might not be Hollywood, butit's not far behind right now when it
comes to opportunities if that's what youwant to do. If you're a director,
(04:50):
if you're a writer, if you'rea camera person, if you're someone
who builds stages, movies again justone of the industries that's going very well.
If you ca about the climate,we have more of the energy and
sustainability parts of doing things like solarand wind and dealing with climate change.
If that's an interest of yours,we have a growing and burgeoning industry along
(05:12):
those lines. If you want tohelp people heal, what we do around
cancer research, what we do aroundwomen's health research is one of the best
places in the country. So whateveryour talents are, we want those talents
here. We want to help continueto make this place better. Well.
As a headwind to play Devil's Advocateis the reputation at Pittsburgh is a steel
(05:32):
town, a smoky city, andthat's just not the case. And it
hasn't been that case for a longlong time. No, and it really
hasn't. But what happens is reputationsbecome ingrained in people's minds, particularly in
other parts of the country that haven'tbeen here, and we're trying to change
that. The new airport that we'rebuilding is going to reinvent, reinvigorate what's
(05:55):
going on in Pittsburgh. It's goingto show our industrial heritage of steel and
coal and coke and all those things. But it's also going to show off
robotics and medical technologies. And thefact that you know that the starsal transplants
were done here, invented right here. The anti rejection medication to allow people
to get a new liver, geta new kidney, get an lung transplant,
(06:16):
that happened right here in our city. You know, the first broadcast
radio station with mister Rogers and WQED, the first radio station you know,
I know it isn't this one,but a different one. Yeah, But
the things that have happened here,the first Ferris wheel, the Big Mac,
I mean, all the things thatwe've invented. People don't realize how
big of a city that when itcomes to innovation, Pittsburgh is, you
(06:38):
know, punching way above our weight, absolutely way above our weight. That's
exactly right. We continue to GeorgeWestinghouse and it just goes on and on
and on. Yeah, we couldtalk about Westinghouse for hours, about just
his inventions in the rail industry,the electric industry, that the broadcasting industry,
nuclear industry, et cetera, etcetera. That's just one aspect.
And of course you go to Carnegieand fricking what they were doing again,
(07:00):
the things that were built in thiscountry has a Pittsburgh component almost everywhere.
And the other thing about Pittsburgh isthere are Pittsburgh's everywhere who are very proud
of where they came from. Maybethey moved in the seventies or eighties to
another city, but their remembrance ofwhat's happened here has been tremendous. Some
of the greatest actors coming out ofCarnegie Mellon that you see on Broadway and
(07:24):
in the movies got their start here. And it's again, there's so much
about what we have done. TheWarhole Museum, as we mentioned, one
of the most visited museums in theworld because Andy Warhol, one of the
most famous artists. You know,South Oakland kid, grew up at Carnegie
Tech at the time, which obviouslybecame Carnegie Mellon. But part of our
(07:45):
heritage and what we've done and whatwe continue to do is something we build
on. But we want to continueto build on and give people the information
and knowledge about the neighborhood they livedin and who might have been there before
them, and some great inventor orindustrialists or scientists or artists could have could
have been you know, their nextdoor neighbor. And one of our strengths
is our diversity. We've always broughtimmigrants in the town, yes, and
(08:09):
so talk a little bit about that. Well, yeah, you think about
you know, one of the thingsabout Pittsburgh can be proudest one of the
national the Courier, The Pittsburgh Courierwas one of the most influential African American
newspapers in the country. In fact, when Jackie Robinson broke into the major
leagues, it was the Courier whowas providing the pressure to the Commissioner of
(08:31):
Baseball back in the forties to makethat happen. We had two Major League
Negro League teams in Pittsburgh, theHomestead Grades in the Pittsburgh Crawfords, one
of the only cities in America otherthan maybe New York or Chicago that had
that because we had such a strong, strong population and quite frankly, two
of the best teams with the SaschelPages and the Josh Gibsons and those kind
(08:52):
of players that were basically the BabeRuths and the and the you know,
Walter Johnson of their day. Sothis is something that has been part of
our history, part of our heritageand again something we should be very very
proud of. All Right, Sowhat ultimately, what do you want to
see happen? Well, just peopleto be aware and for people outside to
(09:15):
say and look at Pittsburgh. Andwhen you're thinking about what city you're going
to move to or what city you'regoing to start your business or start your
innovation in U you certainly the SanFrancisco's and the Seattles and the New York's
and the Boston's come to mind.You don't often think about Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh
should be on that list because we'vedone everything here. I like to say
(09:35):
we're the largest big city in America, but it's a big city that has
the ability to do big things ona world stage. But it's also a
small enough town in which we allknow each other. We all are neighbors
with each other. We're one degreeof separation of somebody who's you know,
going from from the CEO to thefactory worker floor worker that we know.
(09:56):
And I think that's what makes Pittsburghso so special. And it's you think
about someone like an Art Rooney,who was you know, as big as
it comes, but he was justlike an every man back back in the
day that he was just as comfortablein a VFW smoking a cigar and having
a beer the quicknessential Pittsburgh as hewas in the Duqune club talking about high
finance. Yeah, just a coupleof months ago, I went on vacation,
(10:20):
met an individual who was a bigSteeler fan in Mexico, and I
said, Hey, if you evercome to Pittsburgh, I'll buy the Steeler
tickets. He goes that we're on, took them to a game, got
to shuttle them through you know theyou know, the Strip District and shady
side, and showed him everything thatPittsburgh has to offer. And he talked
about He goes, what movies werefilmed here? And I named a few.
(10:43):
He goes, oh, I've seenthose. And then he brought his
daughter, and his daughter is bilingual, and I said, and she said,
I would love to move to Pittsburgh. I said, being somebody who
can speak English and Spanish, youcould write your ticket. You could really
really make a huge impact here intowns. So there's a lot of opportunities
for people to really not only thrivebut excel here in Pittsburgh. There really
(11:07):
are. And when you think aboutagain that population, the Hispanic Latin American
population has really exploded over the lastcouple of years. And when they have
some of the big community festivals I'vegone to them over the last couple of
years. They started out maybe fifteenyears ago, pretty small. Now they've
just get hundreds and thousands of peoplethat show up because of the heritage that
has come here. We've course beenknown a century ago for more of a
(11:28):
European centric you know the Polish,the Italians, the Germans, the Irish
who came here. But now youhave a very very big people coming from
Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, etc. That are a big part of what
Pittsburgh is becoming. And you seethe same thing from the Asian American population,
people from India, people from China, people from Korea, Philippines,
(11:50):
etc. That are discovering Pittsburgh,coming here for opportunities. Maybe things in
their homeland weren't so great for whateverreason, political or economic, but they're
coming to pitts Burgh and they're creatingthe vibrancy that's always been about, that
welcoming, that innovative and diverse thatthat Pittsburgh has become and we want to
continue to capitalize on that and makePittsburgh, Uh, make Pitts people know
(12:15):
Pittsburgh is a welcoming place. Wewant your talents, we want you to
move here. We want you tostart your your your your business or your
family here. And uh that's whatPittsburgh has always become. Let me because
I don't have any statistic to backback this up, but I think Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh girls are one of the bestworkers when it comes to you know,
employees. Is that true? Ithink it is. You know it
(12:37):
sartainly has been for a certain generation. There's a new generation coming in and
they're discovering Pittsburgh for the first time. And many of them were were just
here at late up night. Andyou know, as the holidays come about,
we'll see people coming together and youknow how how people celebrate things like
Christmas and New Year's and and andthose things are Uh that's what makes it
(12:58):
special. You learn different traditions,whether it's the Seven Fishes or you know,
whatever people have for for their tradition, and it makes it exciting.
And you know, we just litup the bridges for the first time,
our three Sister Bridges the Warhole,the Clemeny and the Carson Bridge, which
are lit up for the holiday season, and next year for Fourth of July
they'll be red, white and blue, and next year for Halloween they'll be
(13:20):
orange and black, and you know, et cetera, et cetera. So
but these are some of the thingswe want to We want to continue to
show off and let people feel likea real sense of wanting to be here.
Well, we're a proud individual ora proud comp uh population, but
we're modest and you want us tobrage us. But we're also very competitive.
So what cities are we competing against? Well, we're sartainly competing against
(13:43):
some of the bigger cities to SanFrancisco's and the and the and the LA's
and the and the New York's.But we're also competing against the Nashville's,
the Baltimore's, the Cleveland's, uh, the Cincinnatis, the Milwaukee's, the
memphisis, and the Austin. Soyou know, young people particular now have
choices. If you've got you know, certain skill set, uh, you
(14:05):
have choices or where you can live, where you can be. We want
to compete with other with other cities, and we know we can compete.
We know we can not only competethem, but beat them at many of
these things. Just like our footballteam and other other sports teams are competitive,
we want to be competitive. Andwhen it comes to industry, when
it comes to business, when itcomes to innovation, when it comes to
science, when it comes to wewant our food to be the rate of
(14:28):
the best food in the place,or the best place for young people to
live, or best people place forentrepreneurs to start their business. And we
want that to also be the casefor everybody, for for people of color,
for for LGBT community, et cetera. So that this is a place
where you can feel comfortable, youcan you want to be and you want
to raise your family here. Whatabout the infrastructure of Pittsburgh are we able
(14:50):
to you know, can we canwe sustain? I think yeah, I
think we can. And you know, think about years ago when when Pittsburgh
was six hundred thousand people and nowit's about three hundred thousand people. Well,
the houses didn't move away, thestreets didn't move away, but some
of the people moved away. Samewith Allegany County. We had about one
point six million people years ago,and we're about one point twenty five now,
(15:11):
so there is the ability. Andyou do see new areas that are
growing that hadn't grown before. AndI think at place is like Finley Township
or or North Fayette or Westier.We sertainly know about neighborhood city neighborhoods the
south Side, Lawrenceville, places likethat, but as you get out into
further Pine Township, Richland Township,these were places that years ago had very
(15:33):
very few people. And you seedevelopments happening out there, good school districts
that are happening out there, theroad system that is being built and maintained,
and all those kind of things.And we've got that's something We've got
to continue to invest in. Bettertransit system. You know, the airport
being rebuilt is going to connect usto other parts of the world in a
better way. So we're investing inthose things and we want to continue to
(15:54):
do that. All right, Onelast question, what does you want Pittsburgh's
to do. Brag about your city, to communicate to somebody else that maybe
you went to college with, ormaybe you have a family member that's in
another part of the country. Letthem know the great things that we have
here in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is awonderful, wonderful place. It's something we
(16:15):
all should be proud of. Andagain, it doesn't have to be a
neighborhood like Bloomfield. It could beButler, it could be Uniontown. It
could be Upper Saint Clair, itcould be Mount Leven, it could be
m keey Sport. It could bethe neighborhoods and communities that have a sense
of place and a sense of belongingand a sense of welcomeness that we want
people to be at. And bythe way, we got you know,
lengthen season more fish fries than anyplace in the world, so you can
(16:37):
find a fish fry on any Fridayduring Lent and have some of the best
best food you'd ever want to have. All right, mentioned your newsletter.
The newsletter is Alleghanycountyproud dot com,so you could go on there get those
hundred reasons or more of why Pittsburghis so special and Alleghany County so special.
Alleghany County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and theAllegheny County Proud dot Com initiative,
(17:00):
thank you so much, Thank you, Johnny, and happy holidays to everybody.
This has been the CEO you shouldknow podcast, showcasing businesses that are
driving a regional economy, part ofiHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve.
I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank you somuch for listening.
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