Pittsburgh Skyline from the trail along the Allegheny River (from adrasteia9, Flickr.com)

As the WashCycle blog points out (http://washcycle.typepad.com/home/2006/12/allegheny_highl.html#trackback), the Allegheny Highlands Trail is now pretty much complete.  Once a small nine-mile portion from McKeesport, PA to downtown Pittsburgh is completed, you’ll be able to ride from downtown Pittsburgh to Washington, DC on a bike.  Truthfully, you could have done that about four or five years ago, because I did just that with a group of friends, though it meant going out on the open road for a good portion.  Although the road portions weren’t an option with which everybody in my group of cyclists at varying levels of experience was enthralled (there were some complaints about the climb up Big Savage Mountain outside Frostburg, MD -- though that sounds a lot more dramatic than it was), I certainly enjoyed it and found it ride-able.  In any case, it seems as though it’s a lot easier now, and I certainly recommend the trip.  From what I could tell from the portions still under construction at the time, sections of the ride included railway trellises with some pretty spectacular views.

WashCycle recommends an article in the Baltimore Sun (http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/outdoors/bal-te.sp.trail13dec13,0,3730065.story?coll=bal-home-headlines), though I’m rather partial to the article I saw in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06349/746358-140.stm).  An editorial, also published in the Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06352/746932-192.stm), proclaims “Here is a project that is all about fitness, health and vitality -- and is nothing if not cool. It would seem a natural ally to the city's efforts to keep and attract young people.”

Which brings me to a subject that’s been on mind lately – how cycling can be used to promote the economic development of a city with a crumbling downtown.  While the Baltimore Sun article focuses on economic development in Cumberland, MD, the case study in the Post-Gazette piece is obviously Pittsburgh – a city whose glorious past is not always in evidence today, unless you study some of the beautiful architecture downtown.  I sympathize with the dilemma faced by Pittsburgh because I have relatives who now live there and I was born in another rust belt city with even bigger problems – Detroit, Michigan.

Truly, Pittsburgh - though still very much a working class city in attitude - isn't the pollution-ridden steel town many who haven't been there think it is.  Though the former steel mill jobs haven't necessarily been replaced completely by new jobs.  In short, the economy hasn't kept up.

(Luke Swank, Steel Worker in Foundry, c. 1934,

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh)

A real concern in Pittsburgh is keeping and attracting young people.  Ultimately, their efforts won’t work without attractive jobs, but it has been the purpose for much of the development in Pittsburgh over the past decade or so.   Regardless of one’s feelings about public financing of such things, the new stadiums were about that (though the local funding has a broader “buy-in” than in other places because it is raised through a regional sales tax that goes not just to pay for the stadiums, but also cultural and recreational entities and events); as were the efforts to build bike trails along all of the city’s riverfronts (on land formally occupied by steel mills).  A earlier Mayor, Tom Murphy, promoted the Pittsburgh Marathon to a national level with some success in order to project an image of the city as young and healthy.

Have these efforts worked?  Well, circumstantially, yes and no.  The evidence I have seen from visiting the city is that its economy is still in a slump – indeed, this weekend I just noticed that the Barnes & Noble downtown Pittsburgh location is closing (don’t bother going there to get some good clearance deals on good books – the place was already pretty much picked over).  On the other hand, I also saw evidence that the trails are being used.  On Friday, I noticed a good deal of people in the morning who were obviously commuting to their offices downtown (no small matter for a city every bit as hilly as San Francisco – though the trails overcoming this dilemma for the meek by being located largely on flat riverfront property).  As I noted elsewhere, it’s also encouraging to see

Washington's Landing Condo development

exists side-by-side with the trail.

that the city is promoting cycling to the extent that they provide bicycle racks at various strategic locations downtown (conveniently mapped out on a map provided by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership) – though, according to the good folks at BikePgh (http://www.bike-pgh.org/blog/), a lot more apparently needs to be done.  In other areas of the city, the trail runs through and around new condo developments, an old Heinz ketchup plant, and is used to promote the historic and cultural heritage of the city.  I’m thinking the guy in the late days of the great era of six day bike races (www.sixdaybicyclerace.com) who rode 80 miles before going to work at the steel mill for the day – he might have it better biking in Pittsburgh today (even though, given the dearth of steel mills today, they would be more likely to work in the heart transplant ward at UPMC Medical Center).  And, speaking of the six-day racers, Pittsburgh has something we don’t have here in Washington – a velodrome!(http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/parks/html/bicycling.html).

This isn’t by any means meant to be a comprehensive view of this huge topic, or even a comprehensive observation of the cycling scene in Pittsburgh – I’m not qualified to make such analyses.  Rather, they are my random thoughts designed to get others to think about it as well.  Ultimately, I guess my point with all this is to note that it’s encouraging to see others point to cycling as a solution to a larger problem – such as keeping and attracting young people, or encouraging economic development, or providing an amenity to new housing – rather than as a detriment to getting home in your SUV heading to the ‘burbs.  And I much rather see “fat cities” like Pittsburgh making use of this kind of healthy option to promote their community over the other options, such as the casino they’re destined to build in downtown Pittsburgh.

-- posted by Chris