Reply #5: Response to some points

[Coastie for Truth]

1. It is bad budgeting - and atrocious fiscal policy - to pay retirees from taxes collected after they retire (rather then to set aside money while they are active employees). In my new home town the police and fire have a % of the salary put into CALPERS every year. This is what the Universities, many school systems, Carnegie Library, etc. do through TIAA-CREF.

However, in defense of Lawrence, the City and Commonwealth had a good future and were on a growth curve. I was at Tech then, and Pittsburgh was a growth area.

2. I am not an expert on First Responder management -- I had Coast Guard time, and I am an OES Volunteer (we man the parallel communications system at high rise fires, and 4 alarm fires), and a Red Cross Volunteer (emergency services for families displaced by fires, floods, earthquakes, etc.). So I do work with the Police and Fire. But I do not get involved in budgeting, HR policies, etc. AND I HAVE A SAINT FLORIAN MEDAL IN MY CAR - ASK THE FIRE FIGHTERS - PITTSBURGH'S BRAVEST - ABOUT SAINT FLORIAN

3. When the School Board closed our neighborhood school - we decided to move. And "Three Mile Island" was the signal to leave. It was not taxes -- it was taking away our neighborhood school (and I am an Ivan Itkin - Jimmie Cunningham - Father Charles Owens Rice leftie liberal Democrat --- but not with my kid's school - does that make me a hypocrite - or a good dad).

The massive decline in the Tri-State area was a function of

1. The end of steel -- and that was a function of the market for automotive steel, which fell by 60%. And that was Detroit's failure to predict the Japanese invasion and meet the threat (I have had Toyotas for 15 years).

2. The end of synthetic hydrocarbon fuels - we let Bruceton Lab move to Morgantown, steel died (and took the metallurgical coke business down; synthetic fuels can be a byproduct of metallurgical coke).

3. The abortion of the transit vehicle manufacturing business. As a Westinghouse Engineer - I knew that Pittsburgh's first skybus line was a "revenue service" test track -- and if SkyBus was a success, the systems would be manufactured in Pittsburgh. Note: DC's Metro and San Francisco's BART are successes. And both systems are still adding new lines.

4. The lack of venture capital to keep the computer software industry here. The computer software industry was nurtured at Tech by Alan Perlis -- and when the "start ups" couldn't get funding locally they went to Boston and Palo Alto---


a. Cadence - the basic work was done at Tech
b. Lexis/Nexis/Mead Data - founded by my wife's professor at Pitt
c. Adobe - founded by Chuck Geschke from Tech
d. PayPal - started by some survivors of the old Equibank
e. Dragon Systems - (voice recognition) - founded by some Allderdice and Peabody grads at Tech
and there are hundreds more.



I know a lot of those folks - it wasn't high taxes that drove them away (talk about high taxes to somebody starting a business in California or Massachusetts) - it was a very conservative venture capital, banking and legal community that wouldn't invest in anything other then "iron and steel" - and Pete Flaherty who would not do the missionary work to keep those businesses here. Lawrence and Caliguiri and even Sophie fought that battle -- but not Pete.

And Pete's "get tough on the colleges and universities and hospitals because they're just taking property off of the tax rolls for college soirees" was so much bull crap to please the guys at Chiodo's.

As to Duquesne, Pitt, UPMC, CMU, and Carlow - Pete never extended any help for their own expansion plans. Old time steel workers can criticize the universities for "too much tax exempt property" but, as John Kerry adviser and CMU Professor Richard L. Florida wrote -- they are the only engines of economic growth left in Pittsburgh.

Good Richard Florida reads are--

1. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life by Richard Florida,

2. Cities and the Creative Class by Richard Florida

3. The Flight of the Creative Class: Why America is Losing the Competition for Talent. . . and What We Can Do to Win Prosperity Back by Richard Florida

Pittsburgh's best days are behind it now - and Pete is not blameless.