Better Redd Than Dead

"The G-20 is coming! The G-20 is coming!" Thus, the cry echoes through the litter-strewn streets and alleyways of downtown Pittsburgh -- and the city fathers (and county fathers -- and don't make me explain the intricacies of how the two interact) have turned up in force to try and figure out some say to, as the local expression goes, "redd up" the city for the confab of the Powerful and Almighty in September. Of course, the first question that ought to occur to anyone is, why are we so concerned with cleaning and fixing up the place just because company is coming? Why can't we do it all the time anyway, for the benefit of the people who live here? It's like some chaotic housewife, Phyllis Diller-style, who panics when the rich relatives say they're dropping in, and starts scraping the accumulated grease and grime of years off the walls and furniture, hiring a rug cleaning service, and hunting down the source of "that smell". The effort is already being met with skepticism of the typical Pittsburgh kind, since we have long since decided that our local politicians are basically a bunch of clueless buffoons. And it's not as bad as the overused "putting lipstick on a pig" analogy -- not really. The city was apparently chosen because it's an example of "post-industrial recovery" -- in the Great Lakes Rust Belt to boot -- and, true enough, we're better off than places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo simply because we were more diversified to begin with, we have managed to "invest" quite heavily in technology, medicine, and education, and -- I suspect -- because there is still quite a bit of "old money" floating around the area (you know, that old money that was supposed to help John Kerry win the 2004 election). On the other hand, Pittsburgh has massive infrastructure problems... significant mismanagement problems... and it has been, basically, bankrupt for decades. And yes, we have not been laid as low by the ham-handed follies of "urban renewal" as many other places... there is still plenty of civic pride here... and it's a place where normal people can actually live -- not just in the suburbs but right in the city. All very commendable... but far from an ideal situation, and maybe the honest thing to do would be to present the city "as is" -- warts and all -- and ask the assembled solons at the G-20 for some suggestions. Maybe they know something we don't! Maybe, for example, some of them have figured out that increased taxation with a shrinking tax base... laws and regulations that chase businesses away from the city (and from the state as well, for that matter)... bloated and incompetent city (and county) government... and subsidies for all the wrong things (skyscrapers, professional sports teams, casinos, tunnels to nowhere, etc.) is, perhaps, not the best formula for post-industrial recovery, to say nothing of prosperity.

Yeah yeah, I know -- dream on. What we're going to see instead is a kind of urban Potemkin Village, with fresh paint on all visible surfaces within 10 blocks of the convention center (site of the G-20 meetings) -- the mysterious disappearance of the "street people" for the duration of the conference -- and maybe even a truce of some sort that will keep gunfights and bank robbers out of the downtown area for a while. You know, the same old chamber of commerce BS that always happens when someone wants to make a "good impression". But hey, these VIPs will have their meetings, check out of their hotels, and go home to recover from dining on the... um, "rich" local cuisine, and not give the place a second thought. Then we will be left to ourselves again, and it will be business (or the lack thereof) as usual. So sad... but so inevitable.