Point / Weaker Point: Keeping Young People In Pittsburgh

How Can We Keep Our Young People In Pittsburgh?
by Jim Roddy, Allegheny County Chief Executive

Historically, our region has had some of the most precious resources on the globe. Our three rivers allowed for expedited transportation, our coal helped to produce iron and steel, and our hills and valleys produced dramatic landscape. But above all of our natural resources, the greatest asset to our region has always been, and will always be, its people.

Our region's population has always sacrificed to do what was needed to propel Pittsburgh and the United States towards its destiny. Our immigrants, African-Americans, and women tirelessly worked in the mills for over 100 years and throughout two world wars, thus securing America’s global positioning as the world’s best.

Once again, we need a segment of our population to step up to the plate. We need our bright, talented, and educated younger residents to stay in our region and help develop the city’s burgeoning economy. If we succeed in keeping young people in Pittsburgh, the city can once again assume its rightful place at the forefront of the world.

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How Can I Get The Young People Next Door To Move Out?
by Samuel Bailey, Atwood Street

Historically, the people next door to me succeed in pissing me off night after night. Those God-damned kids stay up until the wee hours of the morning blasting their urban music and shouting at the top of their lungs. They litter the sidewalk with broken beer bottles and contaminate my back yard with human excrement.

I have lived in South Oakland for nearly sixty years. I worked for forty of those years doing back-breaking labor in the steel mill. These kids today wouldn’t even last a day in the mill, let alone six decades. And now all that I want with the remainder of my life is a little R&R in the home I spent 30 years paying for.

So what I need is to find a way to kick those spoiled, ungrateful pricks off my block. I have tried calling the police, but that does not work. All I have left now is the city. I know those kids have more than three people living in that house, thereby breaking city ordinance. All I need to do is inform the city of this, and those bastards will be crawling back home, crying to mommy and daddy. I need to do what I have to in order to keep young people from living next door.