New-image busters

Welcome to the new Pittsburgh!

Gone is the era of heavy industry, robber barons and blue-collar blues. Today's message is that we are an enlightened city of knowledge industries, technorati and sustainable green. Want proof? Just look at our remade global image -- G-20 host, home to next year's World Environment Day.

And now, determined not to allow complacency to set in, the powers that be have identified a whole new area in which to strive for worldwide leadership. Their aspiration? Pittsburgh -- the city where universities are subject to selective zoning! Pittsburgh -- the first city to tax college students for getting an education!

These kinds of mixed messages are going to make it awfully hard to convince the world that our smokestack image truly is a thing of the past.

Welcome back to the new old Pittsburgh.

 

SCOTT B. LEFF
Squirrel Hill