Sunday, April 04, 2004

Community Development around Pittsburgh

Since I periodically post links to community development organizations around Pittsburgh, here are links to the venerable Allegheny Conference On Community Development, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and the 3 Rivers:One Future initiative.

Pittsburgh's business leaders should put half again as much time into starting new businesses as they put into "planning" for the future via these and similar organizations. At a minimum, for-profit companies, not-for-profit organizations, and governments should coordinate all Pittsburgh-region economic and community development efforts under a *single* umbrella, instead of trying to pass off the newest "initiative" as anything more than marketing. (As long as we're at it, how about a moratorium on new development "initiatives"?) And that *one* organization should avoid anything that remotely resembles "planning." Pittsburgh can't plan its future. Pittsburgh needs to attract money and energetic people, and hope that their future happens here.

Take a look at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network to see how local business, government, and not-for-profit leaders can work together to build a web of support networks--not a *plan*--for regional development.

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