How Vital is Our City?
Tracy Certo
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
You could say I am doing my part in making Pittsburgh a more successful, competitive city. As I write this, I am 33,000 feet over the Alps, on an international trip. The flight is 10 hours, long enough to read this new 68-page CEOs for Cities publication called CityVitals which benchmarks cities in four categories—talent, innovation, connections and distinction—that, taken together, measure its success.
A successful city is a well-connected city, says the report’s author, Joe Cortwright, and one measure of that is foreign travel. How many Pittsburghers have visited a foreign country in the past few years? Not enough apparently. With only 11.4% of the population reporting foreign travel in the past few years, this was our lowest scoring category—so here I am, flying high, doing my part.
How else am I helping? A basic measure of connections to the community and a good measure of political awareness is participating in the democratic process, says the report. I do vote, (often and loudly) and in this important category we rank an impressive #14. In the 2004 presidential selection, 63.1% of the Pittsburgh voting population cast their votes. Minneapolis/St. Paul was #1 in this category with 76.9% while Los Angeles, tsk, bottomed out with a paltry 43.8%.
Like 49% of Pittsburghers, I volunteer, another indication of connectedness, where we rank #31. This is a tight one, though, with 25 cities ahead of us, all somewhere in the 50th percentile. So we look good here.
And we look impressive in the number of international students, a measure of global connections of a city. We’re #13 with 22.9%. Austin’s #1 with a whopping 54.2% while Jacksonville lags with 2.8%. Quite a range.
Wireless Internet access is an obvious indicator of connections but unfortunately this ranking was taken before our free Wi-Fi downtown or we’d be much higher than our current #34 on the list. Next time.
While it’s interesting to see how we compare in various and specific categories, you might be asking what’s the point, exactly? In a nutshell, City Vitals was prepared for urban leaders to understand how their city performs against all others in the Top 50. “It’s a benchmark against your peers,” said Cortright at a Miami conference in late September where he presented his research and noted that they avoided overall city ranking. It’s not saying which city is best. Rather, “it identifies strengths, weaknesses and position to assess core vitality.” And it makes for interesting reading, on a plane or off. (For a full report of CItyVitals, email mallen@ceosforcities.org and write CityVitals in the subject line.)
People Who Need People
If you stretch the definition, think I could be considered part of the Creative Professionals? This one is a benchmark of talent, where we could use a bit of a boost, since 6.4% of the Pittsburgh metro population falls into this highly desirable category. We rank 34 out of 50 metros.
And although I share the belief that we are all in our own way creative, the “Super Creatives” are “the mathematicians, scientist, artists, engineers, architects and designers who have wide discretion in their jobs to use accumulated knowledge to develop, design, and deliver new products and services,” writes the report’s author, Joe Cortright. (Ahem, we do this every week at Pop City.)
Think Big
The ability to create new ideas is what drives prosperity, says the author, and one way to measure that is through the number of patents. Although I’m in a creative industry, I have yet to patent anything but I wish I had, specifically that contraption that prevents a person from reclining her seat like this zonked-out passenger in front of me. Hellooo! Pittsburgh ranks midway in this innovation category, #23 on the list with 6.6 patents issued per 1000 population.
With Intel, Google, Apple, Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, UPMC and scores of other innovative businesses, Pittsburgh is poised to do better in this one in the future. Count on it.
Meanwhile, San Francisco reigns strong at #1—in this category and many others—with 33.7 patents per 1000 population and Oklahoma trailed the list at 1.8.
Did I mention I’m self-employed? Small business is a key indicator of innovation because in a community like Pittsburgh it is relatively easy to start one’s own business (okay, even if it is a no-brainer like writing and editing). We rank #21 on that list with 16.6% of small firms (numbering fewer than 20 employees) per 1000 population. West Palm Beach is #1 with 22.2%.
Be Unique
“The greatest asset that a city or a city neighborhood can have is something that’s different from every other place,” says Jane Jacobs, who is quoted in the book. “Local differences in taste can give rise to new ideas and product,” Cortright explains. How so? One example cited is Nike, which started selling imported running shoes to the many people in Eugene Oregon who took up running back in the 1960s when no one else was. That’s capitalizing on your own economic opportunities.
One sly way to measure a community’s distinction is by movie and restaurant variety and how they vary from the norm of mainstream movies and fast food chains. We rank 29 and 33 respectively in different movies and proportion of ethnic restaurants over fast food.
Now I watch my share of non blockbuster movies, and actually enjoy those with sub-titles. (Have you seen “The Sea Inside?” I highly recommend.) But not the in-flight movie that is on now—where Jack Black is speaking Greek except when he’s speaking Spanish in the movie Nacho Libre which has English subtitles. I don’t think this is what they’re referring to.
The Luckiest People
Talent. Innovation. Connections. Distinction. While they all add to up to a thriving and successful city—see last week’s Pop City piece on What Makes a City Smart?—some benchmarks are more important than others.
Which is why I say, with a sigh, if only I were in the 25-34 age bracket.
Because if there’s one indication of a vital city it’s the number of smart people or Young & Restless as they’re referred to here, 25-34 year olds with a four-year college degree. “Young, well-educated workers are the most mobile people in our nation, i.e. most likely to move across state lines. Their mobility makes them an important indicator of trends in workforce education and availability,” argues Cortright. Their presence in cities today bodes well for their presence in the future.
Unless a city can attract this crew, it will merely watch as other metros rocket past. Raleigh is #1 here with 7.9% of the population followed by Austin, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta (6.3%). Pittsburgh ranks 28th with 4.1%. Could be better, yes, but could be much worse: Las Vegas, that fast-growing behemoth, ranks last with only 2.5%.
Obviously, a well-educated population is critical to a city’s success. We’re #27 with 28.4% of us with four-year degrees. (Interestingly, Pittsburgh was just selected as the location for the filming of the new movie, Smart People. Coincidence?) In case you’re wondering, Raleigh/Durham snagged the number one spot here with 41%. But, alas, no movie.
In what area did Pittsburgh fare best? Economic Integration. We’re #7 in this indicator of economically homogenous neighborhoods. We do okay on transit use as well, with 12.5% of non-poor households using transit at least once a week which puts in 15th place.
So how vital is our core? Overall, according to this research, we’re doing okay, falling in the middle range in most categories with our share of higher-ranking ones. The only area where we rank in the bottom 10 is international travel. Some of us are working on this and you can, too, by booking an overseas trip. May I suggest Switzerland? Those cloud-shrouded peaks are astounding. You could really help by watching a foreign film on the flight and, instead of a souvenir, why not bring home a 27-year old engineer or creative type who plans on staying permanently?
Pittsburgh will thank you.
Tracy Certo is editor of Pop City.
Photos:City Vitals book
Volunteers from Mt. Lebanon High School packing medical supplies for Afghanistan at Global Links
Srividya, a CMU student, is originally from India
Google employees Jeremy Kubica, Carl Evankovich, Tim Pan, Vasu Puttagunta, Bryan Mills
Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Harris Theatre
Taco Loco in South Side, Antonio Bravo, Sarah Cullens, Edgar Alvarez (owner), Fermin Acosta
Port Authority buses in Downtown
All photographs copyright © Renee Rosensteel
except City Vitals book, Harris Theatre, Buses © Jonathan Greene