[PRCo] Re: Pen's get new luxury hotel

[Derrick J Brashear]

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008, Schneider Fred wrote:

> But, in general, I'm having trouble with investing a lot of money in
> Pittsburgh because I'm seeing a city that is continuing in decline.
> Every year sees fewer people in the area.   The youngers have moved
> out and the old farts are dying.   By 2020 I would not be surprised
> to see Allegheny County under a million people and the city of
> Pittsburgh under 250,000.   The hospitals only have viability to
> treat the elderly.  When they die, why do we need all those hospitals?

I had an interesting conversation with someone from Denver a couple months 
ago. He was here to speak about social media and the internet, but his 
day job involved statistics. His take interested me, because it was a new 
one (to me). He believed the untold story was not Pittsburgh's economic 
decline; It was how insubstantial the decline was given the aging and 
departing population. His belief was that things would change in 
Pittsburgh's favor as the aging population here... um. well, I can't think 
how to politely put it, but you get the idea, as long as we could keep up 
development a few more years, because the cost of buying here would be so 
low given the infrastructure available around the area.

I'm not sure I buy it but it seems plausible, if the empty space can be 
properly looked after and not vandalized while people are attracted to 
take it. The future of the economy here may not be medicine, but I think 
given technology coming from CMU and a growing if not burgeoning sector 
allowing telecommuting that it could fly.