2010 Pittsblog Predictions Revisited: Part 3

Onward and, well, onward.  Today's installment of the crystal ball revisited:

3. Business: The number of tech spinoffs from Pitt, CMU, and UPMC will increase. Pittsburgh will emerge as an East Coast hub for Google, which will hire more staff and occupy more space in East Liberty/ Larimer than it currently forecasts. At least one long-time “name” Pittsburgh company will go out of business in 2010. Pittsburgh’s unemployment rate will trail the national unemployment rate for an additional 12 months.

This one isn't so tough to parse.

Did the number of tech spinoffs from Pitt, CMU, and UPMC increase?  I don't know about UPMC, but the numbers from Pitt and CMU come close to bearing me out.  CMU reports for FY 2010, which isn't calendar 2010:  10 companies in 2010 vs. 11 in 2009.  I couldn't quickly put my hands on numbers for Pitt, but its annual report for FY 2010 says "Start-up business activity picked up substantially in fiscal year 2010."  I'll give myself one mark out of two here.  My hope was that the trend line would be positive, and it appears to be, despite a challenging economy.

How about Google?  I wrote:  "Pittsburgh will emerge as an East Coast hub for Google, which will hire more staff and occupy more space in East Liberty/ Larimer than it currently forecasts."  I was right on with that one. 

Did at least one long-time “name” Pittsburgh company will go out of business in 2010?  I think that I whiffed on this one (readers can correct me here), but there were some signs of the changing times.  After UPMC appeared at the top of the US Steel building in 2008, the Mellon logo disappeared from the top of Mellon Center in 2010, replaced by BNY Mellon signs.  Mellon Arena closed; the last event was a spirited James Taylor/Carole King concert.  Local preservationists struggled hard but (so far) unsuccessfully to confirm that the building will not be torn down.

Finally, did Pittsburgh’s unemployment rate trail the national unemployment rate for an additional 12 months?  Yes!  Chris Briem has been tracking the details. 

Adding this up, I think that I did pretty well.  Let's call it two-and-a-half marks out of a possible four.

Tomorrow:  Education.