New to the Blogosphere

Welcome to the blogosphere to a new blog from the Allegheny Conference on Community Development (ACCD), titled "Imagine Pittsburgh Online."  Six years have passed since I caused a very minor stir with this post about the ACCD's future (later reprinted, in modified form, in the Post-Gazette), and more or less five years have passed since the ACCD responded to that post and others by sending someone to ask me to write positive things at Pittsblog about the ACCD and its good works.  Finally, the Conference has decided to take its own advice, and mine (I said:  If the ACCD doesn't like what I write, then it should write its own news), and now offers its own echo chamber for all things positive about Pittsburgh -- and only things positive about Pittsburgh.  In a region that doesn't lack for upbeat news about business, Pop City Media has been covering that beat for some time.  It isn't clear whether the so-called "IPO" blog has any value to add. 

For a new-ish blog that conveys a much better sense of the good local news on the small company / entrepreneurship front, take a look at Babs Carryer's New Venturist.  Babs includes a lot of upbeat stuff and perhaps not enough about just how difficult it is to start and grow a business in Pittsburgh, but she does avoid the self-congratulatory, celebratory tone that is the curse of all things that come out of the Conference and its affiliates.  Babs is writing the stories of successful entrepreneurs.  Those often make for inspirational reading.  Once in a while, at the very least, I'd like to read a story about a new venture in Pittsburgh that crashed and burned.   Like, say, this one.