Pittsburgh is on a Public Relations Bonanza. The New York Times published an extremely positive piece about Pittsburgh (that I commented on previously. Now USA today has published two articles about Pittsburgh in the past week alone. Whoever the city hired to do PR for this summer and the ongoing Pittsburgh 250 celebration is certainly earning their money.
On a business trip back to Manchester, New Hampshire this past week, I couldn’t get away from Pittsburgh. Now, it’s true that part of this was the result of the ridiculous air traffic delays in Philly, but the rest of it was the ongoing drumbeat of national press coverage about Pittsburgh.
The first article was on real estate and the generally sanguine state of the industry in Pittsburgh. The article opens with the now-standard quote about our fair city, including the phrase “formerly a troubled steel city” and “recently named the best metropolitan city.” Having read these articles about Pittsburgh for most of the past year, I’ve come to believe that there must be a law requiring feature writers of national publications to use these phrases in their writing. They’d probably have their press passes pulled if they refused.
The article is positive throughout, though, and leaves an impression that is close to truth in my very limited experience: that Pittsburgh is an affordable place to live with a lot going for it.
The second article comes on the front page of the lifestyle section complete with an above-the-fold color picture of kayakers paddling by downtown. It, too, contains the same stale, steel tropes (headline: “Pittsburgh Forges Ahead”; excuse me while I retch a tiny little bit in my mouth). And it also manages to work the “most livable city” tidbit into the lead. It would be funny if it didn’t represent something truly depressing about the state of journalism and writing.
One of the things that strikes me so far is that Pittsburgh protests too much (hat tip and apology to the bard). This city is fantastic and it is only a misunderstanding of how public relations works that causes it to continue saying that it’s fantastic. When your product or brand has traits or messages in the marketplace (or people’s brainspace) that you don’t like, it is almost always deeply ineffective to counter those traits directly. Some people might believe you but most people are left with the suspicion that there’s something true about the original reputation, which is what is motivating you to talk about it so much.
The only real way to change the traits associated with a product is to give people new traits to think about that crowd out the old ones. In effect, what you need to do is change the conversation. Here are some, perhaps naive, recommendations from a brand new comer to your awesome burgh:
- Pittsburgh isn’t a steel town and no one who moves themselves, their families or their companies here does it for the (mostly dead) steel industry. So just stop talking about it. Seriously.
- There are jobs in Pittsburgh. The employment market here is not significantly worse than any comparable city that I can think of. There are tons of medical-industry jobs, some interesting high tech stuff, a little bit of web, some fascinating podcasting companies. And that is just the stuff I’ve caught wind of in two weeks.
- Pittsburgh is one of the best towns I’ve ever seen for raising a family, but it seems to accomplish that without the enforcing the escapism of the suburbs. It also seems to be able to be great for kids without being unfun for adults. This is a seriously hard row to hoe and Pittsburgh does it with panache. A Robot block party?!?! Unbelievably fantastic.
- Pittsburgh has culture and diversity. So far in my first few weeks in Squirrel Hill/Point Breeze I’ve met native speakers of Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hindi and Arabic, and those are just some of the ones I recognize. This part of the city, at least, is seriously integrated in some interesting ways. No city is perfect in this respect, but so far Pittsburgh doesn’t suck at all. As a Spanish speaker, I’m particularly excited about the Latin American Cultural Union (who haven’t written me back yet about their sábado infantil picnic—anyone have a contact there?).
I’m sure there are *tons* of things wrong with Pittsburgh and I’ll be cranky and bitter soon. Just not quite yet. On the other hand, I’m not particularly interested in Pittsburgh boosterism. I have a lot less invested that most of you (yinz?). But I will say that I refuse to engage in this “Pittsburgh is a revitalized steel town that is less crappy than you thought” messaging. It’s counter-productive. On second thought, although the city’s PR folks deserve an A+ for reach, they may only get a C for crafting and controlling the message.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jason Whitmen // Jul 19, 2008 at 13:59
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
2 Mark Denovich // Aug 2, 2008 at 9:25
I’d disagree a bit on the steel (and related) industry: US Steel is putting a billion dollars into the Clarion coke works with the option to sink another billion into it. Coal is huge again, and Westinghouse is going to be very busy with the resurgence of nuke power.
But otherwise I share your enthusiasm about Pittsburgh. After 2 years living/working abroad and lots of travel, I’ve really come to appreciate what the ‘Burgh has to offer. Big enough to have what you want, small enough to escape, good mix of urban and rural activities to pursue, comparatively cheap cost of living, and it’s not the south or mid-west. I won’t be disappointed to return.
3 Amos the Poker Cat // Aug 3, 2008 at 15:55
Ya, there are jobs here, they just pay less than the rest of the country.
Seriously, check out Harold Miller’s blog. He also has frequent editorials in the PG. He has a pretty hard nose balanced view. Most of the other Pittsburgh bloggers tend to be over the top Homers.
Ya, we are less crappy than you (outsiders, i.e. non Yinzers) thought, but we are no where near as good as we keep telling ourselves.
4 Andrew // Aug 7, 2008 at 9:13
Your love of the “burgh” is due to the rush of being in a new place. Have no fear this too will pass. I was born and raised here, but left after college. After 20 years living in Boston, Dallas, and San Francisco, I returned home. At first, like you, I loved being back. But then over time I remembered all the reasons I left in the first place, and now I am on my way back to Boston. Pittsburgh is an isolated island that is stuck in the past. Living off the past nostalgia of the “steel age.” There is a real brain drain in this city. Of my peers in High School, the best left town and never came back and the worst of the lot remained. One issue that really bites is the notion that Pittsburgh’s cost of living is so low that Pittsburgh employers will generally pay far less than employers in other cities. But, the only thing that is actually cheaper in Pittsburgh is housing. But this is the trap, you have a lower salary and buy a cheaper house relative to say someone in Boston. Thirty years later you have a cheaper house that no one wants to buy because people are leaving Pittsburgh, but in Boston you own a house that has a much higher value and you can actually sell it because people are moving to Boston. Finally, Pittsburgh is an island. The only topic of conversation in this place is Pittsburgh. Most of the Yinzers rarely, if ever, leave Western PA. They think the world of this city because they do not know any thing else and they keep telling themselves how wonderful Pittsburgh is that they have entered into some kind of group hypnosis or group delusion. And when an outsider like Sienna Miller speaks the truth about this place, the Mayor has to go her and demand an apology. If Sienna Miller said that San Francisco, New York, or Boston sucked it would have been merely ignored. I hope you enjoy your stay, and that your love of the city remains. But for me, I’m not looking back when I leave this time.
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