Southwestern Pennsylvania as a travel destination has never been more popular. The evidence includes record amounts spent by visitors on everything from lodging to entertainment, a spike in new hotels on the books, and steady five-year growth in hospitality and leisure industry jobs. More
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Transit’s New Era
The Port Authority of Allegheny County’s chronic fiscal crisis was lifted with the stroke of the governor’s pen in November to the relief of downtown businesses, seniors, regional developers, people with disabilities and— although they might not realize it—suburban commuters who prefer their cars over a Port Authority bus or light rail transit. More
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Shale Gas and the Environment
For years the well pads, truck traffic and logos of energy companies large and small multiplied across counties like Washington and Greene as southwestern Pennsylvania became a poster child for the rush to extract natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale. More
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Finding Common Ground
The conversations began quietly two years ago in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Could natural gas be harvested from shale without writing a new chapter in the legacy of tainted air and water that had been the price of nearly a century of steel making and mining in the region? And was there an appetite among energy... More
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Steady as She Goes
Southwestern Pennsylvania’s housing market, which missed the mid-decade boom experienced elsewhere across the nation, remains in the midst of a solid recovery, particularly in the City of Pittsburgh, where shifting demographics are turning many neighborhoods decidedly younger. More
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Defying the Economy
A clearer picture is beginning to emerge of the challenges southwestern Pennsylvania’s arts and cultural organizations faced to survive the economic instability of recent years and how they managed to remain a vital regional asset. Four in 10 dealt with annual deficits, and more than a third lost subscribers. Most redoubled efforts to cultivate new... More
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An Educated Population
High school graduation rates have generally improved across southwestern Pennsylvania, although in a few school districts a third or more of the students failed to graduate on time. More important is whether they and others like them end up earning a diploma or equivalent degree sometime in their lives. And on that point, the region... More
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Creative Spark
Several metropolitan regions have rich cultural, civic and research institutions. But the idea in southwestern Pennsylvania is to get them to do what they typically haven’t done on their own – collaborate in a strategic way to create imaginative learning opportunities that are relevant to the technology-savvy children of the 21st Century. More
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Unhealthy by Any Measure
Living in a region with an abundance of top-flight hospitals, clinics and physicians is clearly no guarantee residents will embrace healthy lifestyles known to reduce the risk of disease, a recent re-examination of health data suggests. More