Let's Attract Young People to Pittsburgh

OMG! The mayor has proposed a new commission. WTF? Its goal is to attract young people to Pittsburgh. Because that's important.

I could be caustic and dismissive (and inebriated) about the whole thing. Really I could. But the Angry Drunk Bureaucrat beat me to the punch.   

But what the hell...

Look, if you want to attract the youngsters, loosen the liquor laws. Decriminalize public urination. Hire hot chics to direct traffic. Make it illegal for anyone over the age of 28 to say "hizz-ouse," "off the hook" and any other catchphrase from 1998. That new law making it tougher to add bars to the South Side? Get rid of it. In fact, change the law to make the South Sides's bar saturation standard for the city. Hire the guy who does the Girl's Gone Wild videos to be head planner. (Heh!) What the hell. Build him an arena. Keep smoking legal. Mandate tight buttocks and six-pack abs. Make all the guys from Public Works wear Hollister at all times.

OK. OK. I kid. I love the youngsters. Welcome to Pittsburgh. Have fun on your commission, dude. I mean really. Rage. Rock that democratic process. Issue your qu-izz-arterly reports.

Oops.    

Comments

[Chris Schultz]

It's about the jobs! Young people leave the burgh after they graduate because the jobs are in places like DC or NY/NJ. I left for DC years ago but came back after the cost of living in Northern VA forced me to continue to live off of ramen noodles...and I couldn't find a bar with beer cheaper than $5 a bottle! As times change and people get older, get married, look to buy a house - Pittsburgh is one of the few remaining metros with affordable housing! Why don't they market that?
If we can't fix the jobs thing then Pittsburgh has to do a better job of luring former residents and college students back to Pittsburgh after they live in those areas for a few years like I did. They can purchase that $700,000 home in Northern VA for $200,000 if they come back to Pittsburgh. That is powerful stuff!

Like you said - Pittsburgh needs to talk about things that young people really care about. If it is beer than have a campaign that shows the average cost of bottles of beer at a bar in Pittsburgh compared to NY, Chicago, DC, etc.

Average cost of Beer

Pittsburgh: $2.00
Phildelphia: $4.00
New York/NJ: $7.00

[Sam M]

Chris,

Your campaign sounds like one I might like. But I wonder... To what extent is it true? I remember getting myself a $6 Budweiser in Manhattan about 10 years ago. But there are places in a lot of cities where beer is pricey. What's one cost at one of the clubs in the Strip? At Station Square? I assume they ain't all that cheap.

Unfortunatley, when we talk about "marketing" a city, we almost always talk about mrketing the tourist traps that have been funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. And like I said, those places ain't all that cheap.

I recall my years in Baltimore. A beer at The Horse You Came In On Saloon, where I was a bouncer, was about $3. Maybe even $3.50. That was in Fell's Point. Bars at the Inner Harbor, like the Hard Rock, were even higher.

Well, I drank at a place on the edge of town where a pint of Rolling Rock was $1. Always. So, you know. I drank Rolling Rock.

But when the city put's together its marketing jingle, what are the odds it would highlight my little corner bar? Practically nil. See, what it would highlight would be the Inner Harbor and Fell's Point. Or here in Pittsburgh, Station Square or the Strip or South Side Works. In which case Pittsburgh's competitive beer advantage is far less compelling.

And that's part of the problem. People measure "hip" and "cool" in terms that sound a lot like "how much is it like Manhattan?" How many eclectic coffee shops does the neighborhood have? How many smoke-free (except for the hookahs) cupcake bakeries are available?

Not nearly enough ask, "How easy is it to get hammered on six dollars?"

I am glad to see you are on board!

Philly asked some NY art students to come up with an add campaign.

They never ran it -- It was too great and to true.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2006/06/move_to_philly.html

[Matt H]

Starting this commission can't hurt. Even if one good idea comes out of it won't it be a success?

Can't find the philly ads anymore. The cowards never ran them.

http://www.gridskipper.com/travel/philadelphia/pitching-philly-vs-nyc-181835.php

that was one

[John Morris]

Here's an article on it.

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Ads_tell_artists_life_is_better_down_in_Philly/3147.html

"“It’s much easier to throw-up $3 beer than $7 beer,” reads one poster. “Because Sid and Nancy don’t live at the Chelsea Hotel. Ethan Hawke does,” said another.

“People from real estate developments expressed some interest to market these in New York,” said Lauren Slaff, the director of Adhouse who is relocating to Colorado. “It plays on something very real: New York is such a tough city if you’re young and just starting out. As long as the city is being supported by the rich, this won’t change. There isn’t good middle-income housing.”

“It’s still a hard place to have a creative career, but it’s the people moving down there who will make it cool,” Kain said about Philadelphia. “The next step would be to go to some consortium of developers” with that idea in mind."

Meanwhile Pittsburgh is intersted in showing off how sanitized and boring it is.

[Sam M]

Matt,

Fair enough. Although I suspect it will cost something. And I just can't imagine it generating any new ideas not coming out of PUMP or any of the other groups.

If "can't hurt" is the measure of whether such projects are a good idea, I suggest we calculate how much this effort will cost, then spend the same exact amount of money on an organization called "Beer Fund for Anyone Named Sam MacDonald."

Can't hurt.

[Chris Schultz]

"Starting this commission can't hurt. Even if one good idea comes out of it won't it be a success?"

The problem is that there is already two groups(of significant size)here in Pittsburgh dedicated to keeping and attracting young people. P.U.M.P. is the one I had experience with. The Pittsburgh Sports League has been a huge success but beyond that I didn't see them doing anything to attract/retain young people. Oh, and they had a lot of happy hours.

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