In the WSJ

Thanks to Karen for pointing me to my own quote in today's Wall Street Journal Online. I'm not that modest after all.

As is often the case, I spent a long time on the phone with the writer, going through a fairly arcane area of the law, and the quote is one of these "the law professor says 'it's an open' question" placeholders. That's not the fault of the writer, who was being thorough and who got the gist of the story right. It's just a curious feature of formulaic daily journalism.

The substantive moral of the story: If you blog, you may be responsible for the Comments that your readers leave.

Get on the bus

Because the residents of Summerset don't want the Port Authority bus to venture beyond the gates of the manor, there are bad puns and nasty attitudes waiting to be visited upon them. For example: They're shocked (shocked!) to discover that they are actually living in the City of Pittsburgh. And: There was a time when America wanted to keep the poor and the black off the bus -- now it seems that only the poor and the black ought to ride it.

But I shouldn't indulge that impulse.

Instead, I say: Custard for all of Summerset! If the bus comes through after all, then there's plenty of room for you in Mt. Lebanon. Though truth be told, the bus comes through here, too, and some us even, like, ride it.

Slow Food

Christian sends in this link to Slow Food Pittsburgh, part of the "slow food" movement:

Slow Food is an international educational organization dedicated to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; to the stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; and to leading a slower and more harmonious life. Slow Food Pittsburgh has close to 200 members and is growing.

He also reports a sighting of an Utne Reader article reporting that Pittsburgh has vastly more community gardens than any other city in the country. True? Does anyone have a link to the article?

Rising Tech Stars

More links to the nominees in the Pittsburgh Technology Council's "Best of . . ." competition:

Rising Star

• AllTek Staffing and Resource Group Inc., Penn Hills (contract professionals)
• Basix Restaurant Services LLC, South Side (restaurant supply chain)
• BeatBox Technologies, Downtown (formerly Clickcadence; clickstream data collection)
• HarvestGold, Harrison City (sales tools)
• Ideal Integrations Inc., West Mifflin (network integration)
• Medmark Inc., Carnegie (pharmaceuticals delivery)
• Plextronics, Harmarville (organic electronics)
• RedPath Integrated Pathology Inc., North Side (tissue analysis)
• Tier1 Inc., Downtown (consulting)
• WOW Corp. LLC, Carnegie (contract IT)

One Ring to Rule Them All

The P-G reports today that the newest plan to channel government and foundation funding for local startups through one guy may be a non-starter.

That's the best local economic development news I've read all week, except, maybe, for the report (in the same story!) about a possible privately-funded (but Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership-supported) open WiFi network for Downtown.

These are both small steps in the right direction: Creating an open infrastructure -- whether it's technology or markets -- and letting firms and individuals build businesses and community organizations on top of it.

Tops in High Tech -- Still More Links!

Another group of links to nominees for the technology council's best of local tech awards:

Life Sciences

• ALungTechnologies Inc., South Side (artificial lungs)
• BodyMedia Inc., Downtown (wearable monitoring)
• DynaVox Systems LLC, South Side (speech systems for the disabled)
• McKesson Automation Inc., Cranberry (supply chain software for health care)
• Medrad Inc., Indianola (medical imaging)
• Net Health Systems, Strip District (I found lots of info about the company, but no site. I must have missed something. Help!)
• NeuroKinetics Inc., O'Hara (diagnostics)
• Renal Solutions Inc., Marshall (dialysis)
• Reproductive Health Specialists Inc., Penn Hills (website?)
• Respironics, Murrysville (treatment of respiratory disorders)

"That's my Barney!"

I had my own Music Man moment last night, watching my son the freshman and the rest of the Mt. Lebanon Marching Blue Devil Band step off on its pregame show before the gladiators in pads and helmets took the field. A girl who I coached in youth soccer as a fourth grader (and who was the best player in town back then) -- now a junior, a soloist, and an amazing player. Short kids are tall kids. Awkward kids are confident kids. Man, this goes fast.

Oh, and . . .

Mt. Lebanon 23, Baldwin 13. The game wasn't as close as the score. But both sides played hard, and everyone shook hands afterward. Major kudos to the members of the Baldwin Highlander Marching Band, who wear very cool silver helmets, and sound pretty good, too.

Single in Pittsburgh

I like the tone of today's column on singletons in Pittsburgh, picking up where the recent Forbes survey on best cities for singles left off ("we're number 29"!):

It's time to look at Pittsburgh for what it truly is: a dynamic, education and health-care-heavy, sort-of-old-school, highly (though often quietly) moneyed, highly taxed but beautiful and comfy place to live.

Tops in Tech -- Correction

In the Comments, Amos is right to point out that the PTC's list of best-of-tech for 2005 is the list of nominees; there will be one winner per category. My characterization jumped the gun.

While we're on the topic, though: I'm a little puzzled by the need to have a "best of" competition. I rather like the idea that a bunch of companies -- and pretty diverse companies, in terms of size, age, growth rate, and product/service/technology focus -- are included. Companies are allowed to self-nominate, but that's not a problem; I think that local firms don't do enough to promote themselves locally. That's the real reason that I'm running the series of posts with links to all of them: in my tiny way, I'm trying to bring them a little visibility.

Tops in High Tech -- More Links

More links to the Technology Council's local best-of-tech 2005:

Information Technology
• Aethon, Robinson (automated indoor info transport)
• Ansys, Canonsburg (engineering simulations)
• CombineNet Inc., Strip District (supply management tools)
• Databanque, Pine (marketing data management)
• Laurel Networks Inc., a subsidiary of ECI Telecom Ltd., Robinson (routing)
• LogicLibrary Inc., South Side (software integration)
• Motionplan Inc., McCandless (IT consulting)
• Tele-Tracking Technologies, Downtown (healthcare IT)
• Vivisimo, Squirrel Hill (search)
• Vocollect Inc., Wilkins (voice-directed IT)

A Taserin' Town?

Read reports of Taser use by Pittsburgh police here (PG); here (PG); here (PG); here (Trib); and here (Pittsburgh Independent Media Center).

The Independent Media Center has posted two videos of police conduct at the protest in Oakland. I've watched the videos, and unless they have been shot or edited to exclude incriminating material (and that seems extremely unlikely to me), then the police department's claim that officers needed to use Tasers and dogs to secure public safety seems . . . a stretch.

With anti-war sentiment (and gasoline prices) on the rise, there is suspicion in some quarters that we will see more protests in the days to come. I hope that police in departments all over the region, not just in Pittsburgh, are trained to deal with them in a sensible manner.

Tops in High Tech -- Links

From this post about the winners of the Pittsburgh Technology Council's "best of tech" competition, I'm adding links, one category at a time:

In the Advanced Manufacturing category:

• Bakery Barn Inc., Pleasant Hills (sports nutrition)
• Berner International Corp., New Castle (air doors)
• Brashear LP, O'Hara (optical systems)
• Clark Metal Products Co., Blairsville (sheet metal)
• DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown (electronics subsidiary of defense contractor; website is corporate HQ)
• Industrial Scientific Corp., Oakdale (gas monitoring)
• Little Earth Productions Inc., McKeesport (art from recycled materials)
• Nova Chemicals, Moon (commodity plastics)
• U.S. Liner Co., Ambridge (composite liners for tractor trailers) (I couldn't find a website)
• United States Steel Corp., Downtown (the future of steel)

Another Tech Development Consortium

Pittsburgh needs "a regional strategy for growing a vibrant tech community" like a fish needs a bicycle.

You want a vibrant tech community? Find technology developers. Give them money. Watch most of them fail. Let them start over. Repeat. Over and over. The P-G column says: "The dream is to have everyone thinking and working in tech on the same page, 'playing in the sandbox nicely,' as one source said, and a well-funded organization driving it all."

That's classic, old-style Pittsburgh thinking. One ring to rule them all. I, for one, would like to see some folks kicking up some sand, not playing nicely.

USAir/America West Livery

The merged airline is supposed to reveal its new livery tomorrow. Will the planes really look like this? Look at the squiggles on the rear of the fuselage. Scary stuff. (Photo from a thread at Airliners.net.)

What Would Joe Paterno Do?

Did everyone see that two Commonwealth Court judges came up with what sounds like a "Joe Paterno" exception to Pennsylvania's public records law?

I don't really care what Joe makes, and I can't imagine that his public standing will change if we find out that he's paid some huge amount of money. (Odds are, he's not, and from what I understand, he's given back more than his share.) But Joe doesn't seem to care if we know. What is Penn State hiding?

The full text of the opinions is online in pdf format.

Catching Up on Local Politics

The Pittsburgh Open Government Initiative failed to get on the ballot, but its backers (adopting their best A.S. accent) say: We'll be back. Open Government is no cure-all. If Pittsburghers had known how badly the city was being managed, would they have risen up en masse and retaken the strings of government?

But maybe it's a step in the right direction. How can you tell the players without a scorecard? Until there's better communication from the powers-that-be, Civic Cards, based on the South Side, is here to help.

Great Race is Coming

This year's Great Race will be held on Sunday, Sept. 25. To register or volunteer, check out www.rungreatrace.com.

This year's event features 5k and 10k races, with wheelchair divisions for both.

Tired of Pgh Lawyers Yet?

The Trib did run its story on unhappy lawyers in Pittsburgh, last Wednesday.

Best in Business Expansion

Thanks to Steve for the heads-up about Pittsburgh's place in Expansion Management magazine's "Mayor's Challenge" survey for best metropolitan areas for business expansion and relocation.

Pittsburgh finished 17th (update, as Steve reminds us in the Comments) overall (Harrisburg finished 10th!), but 4th in metropolitan areas of 2mm people or larger.

Do we really have than many people here? Has our metro area (SMSA or something else) increased in size?

Tops in High Tech

The Pittsburgh Technology Council has published its annual list of the "Top 50" technology firms in the area. According to the P-G, here is this year's group of honorees:

Advanced Manufacturing
• Bakery Barn Inc., Pleasant Hills
• Berner International Corp., New Castle
• Brashear LP, O'Hara
• Clark Metal Products Co., Blairsville
• DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown
• Industrial Scientific Corp., Oakdale
• Little Earth Productions Inc., McKeesport
• Nova Chemicals, Moon
• U.S. Liner Co., Ambridge
• United States Steel Corp., Downtown

Information Technology
• Aethon, Robinson
• Ansys, Canonsburg
• CombinetNet Inc., Strip District
• Databanque, Pine
• Laurel Networks Inc., a subsidiary of ECI Telecom Ltd., Robinson
• LogicLibrary Inc., South Side
• Motionplan Inc., McCandless
• Tele-Tracking Technologies, Downtown
• Vivisimo, Squirrel Hill
• Vocollect Inc., Wilkins

Life Sciences
• ALungTechnologies Inc., South Side
• BodyMedia Inc., Downtown
• DynaVox Systems LLC, South Side
• McKesson Automation Inc., Cranberry
• Medrad Inc., Indianola
• Net Health Systems, Strip District
• NeuroKinetics Inc., O'Hara
• Renal Solutions Inc., Marshall
• Reproductive Health Specialists Inc., Penn Hills
• Respironics, Murrysville

Rising Star
• AllTek Staffing and Resource Group Inc., Penn Hills
• Basix Restaurant Services LLC, South Side
• BeatBox Technologies, Downtown
• HarvestGold, Harrison City
• Ideal Integrations Inc., West Mifflin
• Medmark Inc., Carnegie
• Plextronics, Harmarville
• RedPath Integrated Pathology Inc., North Side
• Tier1 Inc., Downtown
• WOW Corp. LLC, Carnegie

Service Provider
• Carol Harris Staffing Inc., Delmont
• Ditto Document Solutions, Downtown
• EDMC, Downtown
• GSP Consulting, South Side
• Guru.com, Oakland
• Oxford Solutions Inc., Bridgeville
• Pyramid Consulting Group Inc., McCandless
• RJ Lee Group Inc., Monroeville
• R.L. Nelson & Associates, Export
• Vigilant Minds Inc., Bloomfield

CEO of the Year
• Greg Coticchia, LogicLibrary
• Richard J. Lee, R.J. Lee Group
• John Miclot, Respironics
• Joe Swenson, DynaVox Systems
• Raul Valdes-Perez, Vivisimo

That's a lot to digest in one post. In future posts, I'll try to put up some links and comments.

Recursive Blogging

Like any good blogger, I agonize for minutes over the wording of my posts. I strive for depth, texture, and insight. Perhaps I rarely succeed -- but what gets noticed by the MSM? An off-hand, slightly wrongly remembered but very clever sign created by someone else.

Welcome to Challenge Impossible

Welcome to the blogosphere to Matt and Jake at Challenge Impossible. I met them at Blogfest III last week and encouraged them to get their blog out the door. They're software developers and Free Markets vets, now signed on to another local tech startup. Hopefully, they'll blog about the highs and lows of the local startup scene and feature (more than a few of) their friends with firms that deserve better exposure.

One thought that I bounced off the two of them live; maybe they (or others) have other views: It's been my sense for a long time that the Pittsburgh high tech scene is characterized by a lot of ground-level talent and more than enough capital. (Maybe not enough risk attached to that capital, but enough capital, at least to start.) What we lack is a management class of decent size, people who've managed divisions, departments, or -- better -- companies, who are geographically and professionally mobile and eager for the challenge of getting something off the ground. When the VC wants to bring someone in to run XYZ, XYZ having outgrown its founders' vision and management skill, there's a class of go-to people already here.

More on Unhappy Lawyers

The Post-Gazette summarizes yesterday's report on unhappy lawyers. (The writer, Teresa Lindeman, is not the one I talked to yesterday.)

Sign of the Times

Spotted outside Metro Heating on Banksville Road:

Hines Ward should run for the state legislature and give himself a raise.

Christo on the Allegheny

Thanks to PennDOT, we get a wrapped bridge at a bargain price. (Photo from the Post-Gazette)

Unhappy Lawyers in Pittsburgh

I spoke with a reporter today who is following up the local angle of a story that will hit tomorrow: A national survey of law firm associates in more than 50 cities puts Pittsburgh at the bottom -- for the fourth year in a row -- in rankings of "dissatisfied" lawyers. The question is: Given that lawyers everywhere are pretty dissatisfied with their careers, why are Pittsburgh lawyers -- and law firm associates in particular, more than 130 of whom apparently responded to the survey -- *more* unhappy than their peers?

The answer: I don't know. I have no evidence. I have a theory (what are academics good for if they can't make up theories?), and since I don't know how much of my theory will make it into the paper, here it is:

As an economic culture, and speaking in general terms, Pittsburgh is not big on risk-taking. Not at the institutional level, not at the individual level. Doesn't think regularly about doing things differently; doesn't encourage risk; doesn't look for risk; doesn't reward taking risks.

Now put yourself in the shoes of a typical junior associate at a law firm: Nicely compensated, but working long, stressful hours, facing uncertain career prospects (partnership being the pie that gets awarded to the winner of the pie-eating contest), and likely pretty emotionally distant from most of the clients in the office. Are there options? Choices? Prospects for doing something more interesting? Challenging? Emotionally rewarding? Even in Pittsburgh, I think that the answer is yes. I know that people here can get out of law firms, especially large law firms, if they want to. I know people in Pittsburgh who've done it and lived to tell the tale.

But do lawyers here *perceive* that they have options, the way that lawyers in (Palo Alto) (Seattle) (New York) (Austin) may perceive that they do? Here's the theory: No. They *think* that this is all that there is: under the thumb of some law firm partner, with little hope of advancement or prospect of finding something better to do elsewhere. If you're working in a high stress, low reward job under conditions that you perceive as involuntary, then you're going to express dissatisfaction -- even if you have more choices than you think you do, and even if few non-lawyers will have much sympathy for you.

Logo Day

Pitt football is about to get under way . . . what do we think about the logo switch?

New:

Older:

Oldest:

Mt. Lebanon Blogging

The Mt. Lebanon material on Pittsblog has a curious effect on the readership. Partly for that reason, partly because there's stuff that goes on in my town that just isn't worth space on this blog, and partly because it's just an experiment in community-information-distribution, I'm going to be posting most future Mt. Lebanon material to a new blog: BlogLebo. I wanted to call it LeboBlog, but blogger gave away that domain to a French-speaking person named Bob, who isn't really using it.

My plan is to make BlogLebo a group blog (thoughtful Lebo-based bloggers wanted; let me know if you're interested), with an emphasis on the politics and economics of this community. Right now, it's just a shell of a thing, with no real content and not much of a design. But hopefully, and gradually, that will change.

Meanwhile, yesterday I spotted a Mt. Lebanon police office buying a pizza to go at Mineo's. The windows at Caruso's are covered with sheets listing signatures of local residents demanding a public investigation of the recent Tasering of its owner.

Faculty Bias

Four Pitt faculty members have waded into the debate over alleged liberal bias among university faculty. This article (registration required), titled "Hide the Republicans, the Christians, and the Women: A Response to “Politics and Professional Advancement Among College Faculty,” challenges an earlier study that claims that university faculty who are political conservatives are systematically disadvantaged when it comes to professional advancement.

This gives me an excuse to link to Michael Berube's reaction to the PA House investigation of alleged faculty bias.

Show Hines the Money

I went away for a week, and nothing happened: Hines Ward is still holding out.

There are a fair number of Pittsburghers and Steeler fans (the latter being a superset of the former) and even Steelers themselves who are simply anxious to get this over with. But sometimes, a little confrontation is good for the soul. I'm with Hines all the way. In practical terms, pro football contracts are year-to-year arrangements. Hines has played his way to the top, and he's being paid way below market. He's due. Smash mouth football works on the field, but not at the negotiating table. Give Hines a deal.

Is he being greedy? Stubborn? No more so than the Rooney family. If the Steelers negotiate with Hines today, they can sign him to a long-term deal. He wouldn't dare hold out again -- he has too much class for that. If the worst happens and Hines sits for a full year, he may be willing to stay in Pittsburgh, but don't count on it. Would you play for a team that treated you this way? Even if he were, would the Steelers be willing to pay full market value? Put principle aside. Where's Monty Hall?

State Won't Let SableGate Die

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania says: If the Mt. Lebanon School District is going to spend public funds on terminating a school superintendent, it should explain why.

UPDATE (8/8 9:45 p.m.): The full Auditor General's report is available online. The most interesting reading is the Mt. Lebanon School District's responses to the AG's findings. The District notes that the confidentiality provision in the Separation Agreement with the former Superintendent was not only insisted upon by her -- not by the District -- but that the District asked the former Superintendent to waive that term so that the District could fully explain its actions in response to the state audit. And she refused again. The District goes on to note that while the former Superintendent insisted on a recitation in the Separation Agreement to the effect that she fully performed her duties, in truth "[t]he separation was necessary to maintain the District’s high level of performance which was beginning to, and would have continued to, suffer as a result of the significant differences between the Board and the superintendent." Interesting, even compelling, if true. What's the evidence?