The News Yesterday

The second installment of Rand's op-eds about Pittsburgh ran here yesterday. Not much there. The P-G reported that the Gov has made part of the city a Keystone Innovation Zone, with a $250,000 grant. More window dressing (what is anyone going to do with $250,000?). (Here is the KIZ homepage.) The Allegheny Conference is a KIZ member and claims to have seen the light:

Michael Langley, chief executive of the Allegheny Conference, the influential, business-backed policy group, acknowledged that his group's focus has been more on bringing companies to the region and encouraging ones already here to expand, rather than growing the tech sector.

No more, he pledged. There needs to be a balance between fostering new industries and luring older ones.

"All this fabric of innovation and entrepreneurship needs to be melded more effectively together. And we're dedicated -- I'm dedicated -- to moving aggressively in that direction," Langley said. "But if all we do is small business development and growth, then we're doing a disservice to this region as well."

Not much there, either.

The best writing on Pittsburgh in yesterday's paper was via a letter to the editor from Jim DeAngelis.