Size Matters

The City of Toledo may have pulled ahead of the City of Pittsburgh in the 2007 Census Bureau estimate, as the P-G reported this morning, but can anyone doubt that Pittsburgh's historical, cultural, and economic footprint is more significant than that of the Glass Capital of the World, aka "Frog Town." (The city's unofficial website reports: "The city sits along the banks of the Maumee River, just north of what was once the Great Black Swamp, giving way to its other nickname, 'Frog Town.'"

Someone needs to put his foot down. (Dramatic pause follows; you know what's coming.) That foot is me.

If, as the paper reports, population numbers influence federal funds for certain local programs, then by all means the City should get aggressive about ensuring that Pittsburgh's numbers are as large as possible. (Remember the phrase "lies, damned lies, and statistics," attributed to Disraeli and Twain. Now is a time for statistics.) This is also as good an argument for bringing back Border Guard Bob as I've seen in a long time.

But should the City push the panic button because we're beaten (for the moment) by the city that lies just north of what was once the Great Black Swamp?

Toledo is home to exactly one professional sports team of any note, the minor league Mud Hens. Mud Hens? Frog Town? Great Black Swamp? Toledoans either have enormous courage or an irremediable self-image problem.

Pittsburgh is the source of five Super Bowl champions (soon to be six; I'll get on that bandwagon), Lemieux, Clemente, Wagner, the 20th century steel industry and the 19th century iron industry and is today the focal point of the Pittsburgh Diaspora -- as celebrated again in Bill Toland's column this morning.

Rather than focus on total population numbers -- which is game that Pittsburgh is not likely to win any time soon, even if it negotiates with the Census Bureau -- let Pittsburgh focus on numbers of jobs, on job creation, on numbers of people employed, on the quality of schools and other public services, and on pollution, crime, and poverty levels.

I'm sure that folks in Toledo are proud of their city, and no doubt rightly so. I also know folks formerly based in Toledo, who moved to Pittsburgh recently and are happy they did so. If size matters, Pittsburgh is a bigger place. A bigger pond, as it were, if you happen to be a frog.