change for goodness sake -- not for change's sake

Hi Alison,

The change we need and crave in Pittsburgh is not how it seems in your recent PG article. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04136/316574.stm

For starters, the real change is the move to tadpole status. Not so long ago, Pittsburgh was a major city, 4th largest in the USA. We are now a fraction of what we used to be. Those who have been forcing change are forcing the shrinkage. Those who are asking for a traditional view and legacy viewpoint are the one's who are most upset at our failures in the recent decades.

To stay a tadpole -- not quite. Naysayers know that not only are the days of being a tadpole here -- but -- the pond is shrinking too. The fast forward to the present was horrid and full of folly, shrinkage, management of decline, lost attitudes and missed priorities. The face of change in Pittsburgh has been full of robust acceleration to nothingness. The ones who are with pause are capable of really seeing the decline.

The tag of tadpole is the handiwork of the rulers. The power elite has starved the people and the real Pittsburgh.

The beginning of something new around here has always been more shrinkage. With changes for the worse, Pittsburgh's people grew and advanced elsewhere. Too many have left. Too many changed and chose pathways elsewhere. The precise stagnation we are now experiencing isn't a will against change. Rather it is a will against foolishness and hurtful changes.

The largest remaining primitive creature in our landscape is hype. The swamp is full of one-way thinkers. Back-patting won't fix Pittsburgh.

Encouraging changes, mergers and revisions in our budgets, our governments and our attitudes, may or may not be signs of dragging fiscal feet. Quicksand of our own making, to me, it seems, is to offer little but feel-good chatter.

Tonight was my birthday, and I enjoyed a meal with ethnic food never tasted. Yesterday I visited an art marketplace. Our recent walk along a riverfront park was next to the Fube River. So, I follow your logic, to a degree. I've told someone about something new and exciting in Pittsburgh. But, to get the ball rolling, as you say, it will take more than hype and conventioneers' talk. It would be great for our region if the PG really covered some new ideas and didn't scold for those who are NOT in the goose-step mode. To herald change, advance discussions and insist upon making changes for the better.

And, if interested in real changes --- I'd love to hear your feedback on the position paper I released at http://DSL.CLOH.Org/v1/ .