PG NewsPG delivery
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Home Page
PG News: Nation and World, Region and State, Neighborhoods, Business, Sports, Health and Science, Magazine, Forum
Sports: Headlines, Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, Collegiate, Scholastic
Lifestyle: Columnists, Food, Homes, Restaurants, Gardening, Travel, SEEN, Consumer, Pets
Arts and Entertainment: Movies, TV, Music, Books, Crossword, Lottery
Photo Journal: Post-Gazette photos
AP Wire: News and sports from the Associated Press
Business: Business: Business and Technology News, Personal Business, Consumer, Interact, Stock Quotes, PG Benchmarks, PG on Wheels
Classifieds: Jobs, Real Estate, Automotive, Celebrations and other Post-Gazette Classifieds
Web Extras: Marketplace, Bridal, Headlines by Email, Postcards
Weather: AccuWeather Forecast, Conditions, National Weather, Almanac
Health & Science: Health, Science and Environment
Search: Search post-gazette.com by keyword or date
PG Store: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette merchandise
PG Delivery: Home Delivery, Back Copies, Mail Subscriptions

Headlines by E-mail

Headlines Region & State Neighborhoods Business
Sports Health & Science Magazine Forum

Benchmarks: The Downtown dilemma

Sunday, December 31, 2000

By Douglas Heuck, Post-Gazette Business Editor

In today's PG Benchmarks, we attempt to shed light on the issues surrounding the next step in developing Downtown.

In this year-end section, we have stories looking at Downtown living, retail and parking, three key ingredients in any recipe for reinvigorating what is already a thriving Downtown in comparison with similar-sized cities.

By Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette

In retail, we already are ahead of the 14 PG Benchmarks cities in terms of department stores Downtown. Pittsburgh is alone among the cities, with four, even without Nordstrom, which last month decided against opening a store Downtown. That move marked the end of Mayor Tom Murphy's three-year project known as Market Place at Fifth and Forbes.

The Mayor's next step is to open the process for collaboration, and, to that end, we asked readers for their ideas on what should be done to improve the Fifth and Forbes section of the Golden Triangle. Their responses are included. Keeping and building upon what is distinctly Pittsburgh is one of the themes that emerges.

Throughout this section, you'll find our benchmark measures comparing Pittsburgh with its peer cities in quality of life. And as has been the case every year since this project began in 1996, Pittsburgh is among the leaders in terms of being a desirable place to live.

Also included are stories on some aspects of regional quality of life as well as a special graphic showing how the regions compare in the most important benchmark measures in economy, the public sector and quality of life.

The Contents:

A global learning village: Metro Pittsburgh fifth in attracting college students
United Way saw giving rise to $3.7 billion
Living Downtown: High costs, low returns plus parking issues and red tape plague developers
New parking garages may lure more visitors
Anchor stores wanted
Foundations, nonprofits increase emphasis on social capital
Letters: Readers respond with new ideas for Downtown
Letters: Downtown living is the key to vitality
Letters: New views for retail (no Nordstrom fans
Letters: Make Downtown unique, not suburban
Letters: Getting there and parking is a problem
Letters: A few simple ideas, including cleaning up
Benchmarks Chart: Downtown Statistics -- A look at how the Benchmark cities compare.
Chart: Comparative standings in the most vital Benchmarks



bottom navigation bar Terms of Use  Privacy Policy