County Executive Rich Fitzgerald Talks About Allegheny Proud Initiative

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald: There's nowhere like Allegheny County.
In Allegheny County, we’re surrounded by natural beauty, real innovation, and good people. There’s a lot to be proud of… just take a look at our list of 100+ reasons – and counting! We want to know why YOU are proud to live in Allegheny County. https://alleghenycountyproud.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Ninety four point five three WS.Welcome in This is the Heart of Pittsburgh
podcast. I'm your host, JohnnyHertwell, we're going to be talking about
our little small town today with AlleghanyCounty Executive Rich Fitzgerald. Rich, good
to see you again. How areyou? This could to be with you
and I like to say we're thebiggest small town in America. Well that's
why you're in. You're here tokind of help us brag about our city

(00:25):
with a kind of initiative. What'sthe idea? What are you guys trying
to do? We're trying to talkabout us Pittsburgh's we have this wonderful,
wonderful place, and by Pittsburgh Imean broader than just a city Allegany County
in southwestern Pennsylvania. But we're notalways good about bragging about ourselves and all
the good things that we have andsome of the things that have happened here,
great medical breakthroughs like the polio vaccine, and the wonderful museums, our

(00:47):
sports teams, our theaters, Innovation, innovation. People don't know how innovative
Pittsburgh are. The robotics stuff that'sgoing on right now in the artificial intelligence.
And again we do all these things. That's Pittsburgh. We roll up
our sleeves and go to work everyday, but we're not good about always
telling the story to the outside world. Well, in a way, we're
a modest peoples. We're very modest, but you know, but we're we're

(01:11):
very proud of what absolutely has.Yes, yeah, mess with one of
our football teams or or any ofour football or any or criticize anything about
your right the rivers or anything,and it's like whoa, Well, we
can talk about it ourselves, butdon't let some outside or do it.
So what's the initiative. Well,the initiative is, you know, we
want to grow again. You know, we've grown all these jobs. We

(01:32):
have our forty some thousand jobs thatare unfilled, which is so different than
what you know people remember years ago. And we have these great neighborhoods,
the affordability. We want to continueto attract young people and people from all
over the world to come and discoverPittsburgh. Our great parks, are great
trails, the great rivers, thegreat beauty that we have here. We

(01:52):
have one of the most beautiful,beautiful places and starting we get to see
it in the fall when the leavesare out and the hillsides are so wonderful,
et cetera. But we want tomake sure people learn about us,
so putting this on our website,putting on videos, getting on social media,
doing things to talk about what wehave been really good about in Pittsburgh.
We built this country a century ormore. Beef, every bridge,

(02:14):
every skyscraper has Pittsburgh steel in it. Well, in the future, you're
going to have Pittsburgh Robotics, Pittsburghrobots that are going to be building your
next assemblage of material, a car, a plane, a tractor, whatever
it might be. We are alwayson the cutting edge of innovation. Our
great universities over two dozen great universitiesthat we have in this region. So

(02:37):
all right, so what's the websiteAlleghany Alleghanycountyproud dot com. This is an
initiative to really get some of thePittsburgh is to kind of, do you
know, really tell people around theworld how great this city is. It
is and it's great to have allthese great opportunities. We talk about economics

(02:58):
a lot jobs that pay very welland are an affordable We're the most affordable
per income place in America. Youget more bang for your bucks. You
have more disposable income to go toall these great foody places that we have,
and we're known as a great foodieplace, and with all the different
ethnicities that are making things like fromour Permanny Sandwich to Peroghi's to Huluski to
all the things when you go tothese you know, different community food festivals

(03:22):
and community festivals. We do allthese things. And again from Andrew Carnegie
to Andrew Andrew Andy Warhol. Youknow, the Andrew Warhol Museum is one
of the world's most visited museums ofan iconic pittsburgher Oh, to talk about
museums, we have some of thebest museums in the world. Absolutely,
I will put our museums against Annie. I'll put them up against Washington,

(03:43):
DC, or anywhere New York,Boston, any of them. You're right.
The Carnegie Science Center Museum, theNatural History Museum in Oakland, the
Heins History Center itself, the PhotoAntiquities Museum over on East o High Street.
You could go on and on aboutthe history and the cross of again,
the great things that happened here inPittsburgh, the fact that We were

(04:03):
one of the biggest eccentric negro leaguesbaseball teams back in the forties and fifties
with the Crawfords and Grays. There'sso many things that we have done and
continue to do. Artificial intelligence,life sciences. Some of the great new
discoveries in medicine are happening right hereat pittmed at UPMC. Some of the
things that are happening here Children's Hospital, one of the greatest children's hospitals,

(04:27):
the Human Cancer Center. There's somany things we have to be proud of.
We have more aerosmith jobs here inthe Tri state area than Washington,
d C, Florida, and Texascombined. A lot of people don't know
that we're on the cutting edge ofaerospace, and that's exactly right. You
think of Cape Canaveral and Cape Kennedy. Guess where we're going to go from
the Moon? Where we're going toshoot from from Pittsburgh from Astrobotic one of

(04:50):
the main payload stations that has notonly has got these great contracts with NASA,
but also with other places. Abouteight other countries in the world that
have contracted with Astrobotic. Again,a CMU spin off right over on the
north Shore. But these are thingsthat Pittsburgh don't always know about. We
have the largest research female healthcare researchinstitute in the world McGee Women's Research Institute.

(05:15):
There's more money and more investment goinginto from breast cancer to ovarian cancer
to women's health issues right here inPittsburgh. We don't often know these things.
Granted, how special our city is, we really we don't brag about
it as much as you would likeus do. That's exactly right, And
we just got to I know,like you said, we're proud, but
we got to get the word outso that people continue to come here.

(05:36):
We have a three percent on employmentrate, the lowest that's been in fifty
years. All these great things happening, affordability, great neighborhoods. We want
to continue to tell the great storyabout what Pittsburgh has become and is becoming.
All Right, if you want alist of the one hundred and one
great things about Pittsburgh, check outthe website Allegheny Coountyproud dot com. What

(05:57):
are some of the things you'll findon the website, Well, there's one
hundred things you could see about ourinclines, about our trails. Think about
a city in which you could geton your bike and ride your bike from
Pittsburgh downtown Pittsburgh to Washington, dC. Without ever seeing a car.
That's one of the things you cando. We have over two hundred miles
of trails right here in Pittsburgh peoplecan and the recreation in the green space

(06:17):
that we might not be known foroutside of Pittsburgh. People think of Pittsburgh
as an industrial city, maybe evenan older resting city, but the trails,
in the beauty of our parks arejust transformational and when people come here
again. The three Rivers we allknow about, but the beauty of these
rivers, including adding the Yokagany thefourth River as well, is a big

(06:38):
part of what we have here inthis region and something again we should be
very very proud of. And youjust the arts and culture. We're not
necessarily known for that, but ourmusic scene is one of the best in
the world. The fact is,there's only two other cities in a country
that have more theater seats than wedo, Minneapolis in New York. And

(07:00):
during the summertime, there is noplace like us where you can see a
free concert every single night of thesummer somewhere in this region with three free
with some amazing acts. You know, the people that you know from the
eighties nineties. Today everything here forfree over the state, usually at the
at the North Park and well athartwod Acres and South Park, but even

(07:24):
in the community festivals, and weall know the joeger Sheky's and the Clarks
and the Downy Irises, you know, Scott Blazies, those kind of folks.
But there's a new generation also andoftentimes you'll have headlining ahead of Joegerscky,
for example, a young up andcoming Pittsburgh band from Lawrenceville or from
the South Side or from Rastainship orwhatever it might be. And you know,

(07:45):
you know, now you have theGabby Barretts of the world, and
you know the next generation coming upthat we see. But Pittsburgh's music and
arts scene has been tremendous forever.And what we have in our cultural district,
for example, with the theaters,with the opera Symphony, the art
galleries is something no other place.Maybe New York City and maybe one or
two other cities can have that,but we have it here on a much

(08:09):
much better affordability and more comfortable scale. We're amnest people. What we need
to start doing a better job isbragging about our region to attract more people.
Like you said earlier, there's whatforty thousand jobs available here in right
now that are unfilled, that areunfilled. All right, If you want
more information, Alleghany Alleghany County Prouddot com. But you can sign up
for a newsletter. They can signup for a newsletter and they can also

(08:31):
make suggestions. Add to that onehundred, maybe there's two hundred we need
to add and put your suggestion inthere to that Alleghany County Proud dot com.
Sign up for the newsletter. We'llsend you what everyone else is saying
about our great city. And there'sprobably even things that someone like myself who's
lived there his whole life, beenCounty executive now twelve years, that I
might find out for the first time. And that's an exciting thing about this

(08:52):
region. Well, to kind ofquote the temptations, I ain't too proud
to beg and I ain't too proudto be proud of our city because I
think we have amazing quality of life, and of course this is a great
place to raise a family and there'sa lot to be proud of in this
city. And there's a reason whywhen you watch the Steelers on the road,
half the fans are Steeler fans becausePittsburgh never They had to leave maybe

(09:13):
thirty years ago or twenty years agofor a job, but Pittsburgh never left
them, and their affection and lovefor this place just doesn't end. Rich
It's always good to see you.Thank you so much. Thanks Johnny,
appreciate it again. If you wantmore information, the website is Alleghanycounty Proud
dot com. This has been theheart of Pittsburgh podcast. I've been your
host, Johnny Heart Well, thankyou so much for listener