The Blog of Burgher Jon

Image from the P-G

I was feeling a little homesick this weekend and I thought I’d share as part of my Saturday Musings.  My favorite time of year in Pittsburgh has always been early June, but my appreciation has only grown deeper since I relocated south for a bit (Charlotte, NC).

In Pittsburgh right now, the arts festival is going on.  There are beautiful views of our city displayed by the creative people capable of such things.  There are talented musicians playing free concerts.  There are surprising new twists, like the Andrew Carnegie snorkeling sculpture the Post-Gazette is running this morning (see above).  I literally almost bought a plane ticket when I saw that thing, it’s hilarious.  Let’s be honest though, the artsy fartsy stuff is great, but Arts Fest is about the food.  Right now, there is some kid eating a greasy gyro, a scary lobster burger, an overpriced lemonade and a delicious kabob of chocolate covered strawberries that should have been mine.  Think the quantity of food sounds a little ridiculous?  You’re absolutely right, it’s not nearly enough food for an Arts Fest Meal, that’s my mid-afternoon snack (it’s 4:00 as I write this).

In Pittsburgh right now, the Pirates are in the middle of a homestand.  This post isn’t about whether we’re good, bad, awful, atrocious, terrible, repugnant or disgraceful.  This post is about two evenings and two afternoons (thank you make-up game against Chicago) of sitting in the most beautiful ballpark in all of baseball, watching America’s past-time.  It’s about sitting with Pittsburghers as we take in one of our favorite past-times, fireworks.  I don’t mean the little shows that other teams call fireworks; I mean a live band (Collective Soul), a barge full of fireworks, a set of fireworks for the Clemente bridge and fireworks off the frickin’ skyscrapers.  It’s baseball in June in a city that does baseball in June in it’s own way.  A quick sidenote, could Carnegie conceivably be hit by a homerun?  Judging by that picture, I think we need to give Garret Jones a little extra batting practice, and maybe a metal bat.

In Pittsburgh right now, you can walk outside without dying.  I know one of Pittsburgh’s past times is whining about the heat and humidity, but starting the day I get back, I will never whine again.  I ran a half marathon this morning in North Carolina and they had to start it at 6am, because by the time we finished it was over 80.  I’m slow, but I’m not slow enough for it to already be 80 when the race started at 6am.  What’s the temperature right now in charlotte? 90 with humidity that makes it feel like 95.  On June 5th.  76 in Pittsburgh with humidity that makes it feel like 76.  At 95, Charlotte could put on an arts fest with free gyros and an Andrew Carnegie hologram that sings and dances and I still wouldn’t leave my air conditioned house.

I don’t want to sound too bitter, there are some great things about Charlotte.  I live on a golf course that has snow on it maybe twice a year.  I love my job down here and no one was giving me opportunities to do anything like this in Pittsburgh.  I’ve also met some great people down here whom I’ll miss when the time comes to head back up to the Burgh.  All I’m saying is, it’s the best week in Pittsburgh.  So stop reading this post, get off your ass and go enjoy it.  While you’re at it, have a Gyro, a PNC park beer and an overpriced lemonade for me.

At the turn of the last century in NYC, there was an alignment of business and political interests that got things done that seems lacking in today’s political environment. We have a taste of that in NYC with our current Mayor Mike Bloomberg who has brought a business mind to job of governing NYC.

Fred Wilson had a great post a little while back that I copied the above quote from.  Wilson, uses the construction of the NYC subway as an example of a time gone by when great men of business got things done in the public sector too.  It’s a time that allowed things like Gateway Center, Urban Renewal, the Civic Arena, and the first Pittsburgh Airport, and it was a time that I miss.

The problem with the separation of politics and business is that the best people aren’t in politics, they’re in business.  This is due to the simple problem of incentives.  They Mayor is effectively the CEO of 6,000 odd city employees and makes roughly $95,000.  Do you know anyone in business who makes $95,000 to manage a group of 6,000 people?  I’d venture a guess that there is no one in private industry that manages 6,000 people and consistently makes less then $500,000, many make much more.  If you were a best and a brightest, which position would you aspire to?  This is why we don’t end up with the best sane, rational people in charge of city (and really any) government.

There is a benefit to this compensation problem though, the captains of industry in most cities can/will benefit directly from the city improving.  Consequently, many are/would be willing to dedicate much of their valuable time at prices far less than it is worth.  Unfortunately, we live in a society where this is no longer feasible.  In my opinion both the public and the private sectors have moved dangerously away from a system that could help both of them.  The public sector has put up barriers in an effort to avoid upsetting a public that has an enormous (and only partially rational) fear of government being “in bed with business”.  The private sector hasn’t exactly been  knocking down the door to help the city either.

I’m not saying we need to start awarding no-bid contracts or elect a mayor like Bloomberg mayor.  I think we, as Pittsburghers, need to think twice before we allow our blood to curdle over the mingling of business and government.  I think we, as industrialists, need to look at ways we can improve the city beyond paying our taxes and voting.

Image via Wikipedia

Cleveland.com published an article last December that could best be paraphrased, “The State of Sauerkraut”.  In between facts about the declining use of Sauerkraut and the introduction of a sauerkraut martini was this nugget of great writing:

To some, sauerkraut is the Liberace of vegetables, a tangy flavor that sparkles way more than it should. To others, it’s the Tom Hanks of condiments, nutritionally reliable and sure to give an injection of pizazz to the heaviest surroundings.

Anyway, on to the purpose of Sauerkraut Sundays… As I go through the week, I use Twitter to send out little updates and links.  I realize that I do this quite a bit and that not all of you use Twitter, so with that in mind I’d like to take Sunday to do sort of a week in review.  I’ve selected the most useful of my tweets from the last week and placed them in to the categories that I use in this blog.

Me

• Yesterday I crossed 1000 Tweets and didn’t mark the occasion. I’m not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed.
• Celebrating a great Pittsburgh sports night is harder in Charlotte… but not impossible.
• I love Monday Mornings, something about fresh coffee and an impossible task makes me feel alive.

National Politics

• I just watched the P-G’s Tea Party story. It’s multi-racial like an episode of Friends http://www.bit.ly/930OKx
• People want to know why I hate Fox News, THIS is why I hate Fox News: http://huff.to/ca0iXS

Personal Technology

• Going to Windows 7 Today! Sianara Vista.
• Apple can’t be the portal that Yahoo wanted to be if they force hardware down our throats. http://bit.ly/bca3bG
• Dropbox App on the Droid could change the way I do business with clients when traveling. http://tcrn.ch/aJiHQv

Pittsburgh

• Mike of Bread Line Blog on how Sid became the face of a football town:http://bit.ly/bI0yoP
• After two weeks of following @RealWizKhalifa, I’ve learned he’s a good rapper, but a common pothead. Hoped for more from the Burgher.
• Southside residential development to have region’s first “net-zero energy” home. 5 blocks from my house! http://bit.ly/cV5Ffd
• Pittsburgh is the 22nd largest metro area with the 45th busiest airport? Why is that? http://bit.ly/aHkYkM

Sports

• 2 Penn State Players in trouble. Football players are ruining my baseball season. http://bit.ly/cmcwIh #Steelers #WeAre
• One of the things I love about baseball is the rules that are almost never used; stealing first, balk, etc…
• Big Ben Quote of the Day: “it’s a very serious matter, one we take serious.” http://bit.ly/cGJauA

Startups

• A startup is like a family, and there’s always a crazy uncle.
• Want proof that having a plan to monetize is important? GroupOn’s valuation is 20% higher then Twitter. http://tcrn.ch/95gmJX

Technology News

• NYT: Twitter Hints About What Developers Should Build — BurgherJon: Until we (Twitter) decide to build it.
• Great Analysis on what Twitter’s new ads will mean to the ecosystem. Kinda optimistic though. http://bit.ly/95vwhU

Unsolicited Advice

• Great men rarely say they are.
• Suggestion to improve basketball: Each game should be a best of 5 of games to 15, like volleyball.
• Favorites have more at stake. Underdogs have more to win. When you can, be a dog.
• Creating a great IT Architecture is at least 50% about making sure everyone uses the same vocabulary.
• If you think fulfillment is two kids and a dogs, you’re not very creative.
• Conversation <> Television

Other (Mostly Humorous Comments from the Week)

• If a butterfly flaps its wing in Japan or a Volcano goes off in Iceland does my flight go to the UK on Monday?
• Gatorade: Processed on equipment that also processes natural ingredients.
• Did he actually go to a barber and say, “Business on the sides and party down the airstrip?” via @JanePitt http://bit.ly/9AnXho
• If I were king for a day: the budget defecit would be illegal and there’d be a salary cap in baseball.
• Obama’s been talking a lot about nukes lately, I hope he doesn’t know something I don’t.
• I’m following @Jesus on Twitter, how did people have faith before Twitter?

There are 25 companies in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  That’s 5% of the total.  The question is, is that a lot?  The answer is kinda tricky.  I think the best way is to look at the number of Fortune 500 companies vs.  the number of people.  Pennsylvania has 5% of the Fortune 500 and approximately 3.9% of the US’ population.

As far as Pittsburgh goes, it has five of the Fortune 500 companies (not including Consol and Mylan in Cannonsburg or Dick’s in Coraopolis).  The five are; PNC at 123, PPG at 190, US Steel at 211, Heinz at 233 and Wesco at 448.  In addition to the 3 companies that are just outsider our reach, there are also several companies with a large presence in the area but headquartered elsewhere (for example BNY-Mellon is 274th and Alcoa is 121st).  So what does that mean for us?  I don’t have the raw data to do an analysis of the numbers of how that compares to other cities.  What I can do is a quick comparison of the population and number of fortune 500 companies for some cities I was interested in benchmarking against.  I’m counting Allegheny counties’ 1.2 million people as residents of Pittsburgh.  That gives us one fortune 500 company per 240,000 people.

• Charlotte (Mecklenberg county) has 6 Fortune 500 companies and 890,000 people or 1 company per 148,333 people.
• New York City has 8,361,000 people and 43 Fortune 500 companies or 1 company per 194,441 people.
• Cleveland has 3 Fortune 500 companies and 1,283,000 people or 1 company per 427,666 people.
• Cincinnati has 6 Fortune 500 companies and 851,000 people or 1 company per 141,8333 people.

Of the four cities I looked at Pittsburgh appears to be less infused with Fortune 500 companies then most, but certainly not as thin as some cities.  What that means is another thing entirely.  I think that a good number of Fortune 500 companies is a good thing for the jobs, stability and potential investment dollars they supply.  However, I believe that number can get too low for a productive startup community.  Overall, I think I’m a fan of our position in the middle, though I’d love to have a Pittsburgh company that’s not 100 years old on the list.

Last week, myself and others urged Pittsburghers to vote for Pittsburgh to receive Google Fiber coverage before last Friday’s deadline.  How’d we do?  No one will no for sure till Google makes an official announcement, but they did make a post the other day on the official Google Blog with some information on the nominations they received, and it revealed some good news for Pittsburgh.

The good news is that Pittsburgh appears to have done well.  The map above shows the Google responses.  Little dots denote government submissions and the darker shaded dots represent the “votes”.  the larger the dot, the more votes a particular place received.  It appears that Pittsburgh and several surrounding communities submitted applications.  It further appears that only a handful (to my eye, 3) places received as many votes.  If Google will be making their decision purely on votes, we appear to be well positioned.  Unfortunately, we were one of the larger of the 1,100 applying communities so it is difficult to tell how good our response was from a relative perspective.  They also asked for creative responses (YouTube videos, blog posts, etc…) and it’s difficult to tell how we might have faired there.

Of course, responses to a survey won’t be the only factor considered.  Google claims they want to supply internet access to, “at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people”.  With a population (in the city) of about 310,000, we appear to be well positioned in that respect.  Other then that, Google’s been quiet on what the factors will be.  So until further notice, cross your fingers and hope for the best.