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Chapter 4 In the Shadows of Renaissance II
- University of Pittsburgh Press
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141 54 in the shadows of Renaissance ii The modern Civil Rights and Black Power movements provided African Americans in Pittsburgh with a broader and more diverse range of neighborhoods, jobs, and schools. At the same time, the material foundation for these changes eroded as the city’s manufacturing economy and population continued to shrink. Seeking to stem the tide of job and population losses, the city energized its public-private partnership and launched Renaissance II, which revitalized the Central Business District (CBD) and created new technology-intensive firms. While African Americans remained largely in the shadows of the Pittsburgh renaissance, they gradually gained jobs in the emerging postindustrial economy, moved into new neighborhoods within and outside the city, and developed strategies for bringing about their own urban revival.1 By the turn of the twenty-first century, the steel industry had nearly disappeared from the urban landscape of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania . U.S. Steel closed its blast furnace and mill complexes at Rankin (1982), Duquesne (1984), Homestead (1986), McKeesport (1987), and, except for a coke plant, Clairton (1984). During the same period, Jones and Laughlin (later LTV Steel) closed its Hazelwood and South Side plants TrotterDay text.indd 141 4/14/10 11:12 AM 142 • in the shadows of Renaissance ii in Pittsburgh along with its Aliquippa Works in Beaver County. Producers of steel in the United States confronted increasing foreign competition , effective alternatives to metal products, and small mini-mills that specialized in the production of steel from scrap metal. Using advanced technology (including continuous casting processes and electric furnaces) to reduce labor costs and to effectively compete with their larger counterparts , mini-mills increased their share of all U.S. steel production from a mere 3 percent in the 1960s to nearly 30 percent by the early 1990s.2 Other related industrial firms also drastically downsized their operations . Westinghouse Electric and Westinghouse Airbrake trimmed 15,000 workers from East Pittsburgh in the 1980s before ceasing the manufacture of airbrakes and electric generators in the 1990s. Between 1979 and 1987, Pittsburgh and the surrounding metropolitan area lost 127,500 manufacturing jobs, with 63,100 of these in basic steel.3 By the end of the century, manufacturing jobs made up less than 15 percent of the Pittsburgh region’s workforce; unemployment soared to over twice the national average; and Pittsburgh slipped from third to fourth place among the nation’s corporate headquarters. In 1986, when the U.S. Steel Corporation changed its name to USX and acquired two large energy firms, the company acknowledged the passing of the “steel era” in the history of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania.4 As Pittsburgh’s industrial economy declined, a new service economy gradually emerged. In the mayoral election of 1976, Richard S. Caliguiri, the Democratic candidate, gained election on the promise that he would initiate a second Renaissance in the city of Pittsburgh. Caliguiri pledged to develop new high-technology firms and attract lucrative corporate headquarters to the city. Such firms would enable the city to assemble a new highly skilled workforce, and to shed its old image as a “smokestack” metropolis. Following his election, Caliguiri brought together a variety of public and private agencies: four major city departments (planning, housing, economic development, and urban redevelopment); the Allegheny Conference for Community Development (ACCD); and area universities and colleges—Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne, and the University of Pittsburgh—to help reorganize the city’s economy.5 Over the next decade, the city’s public-private partnership constructed a plethora of new office, restaurant, corporate, commercial, convention, hotel, residential, and cultural complexes. The most prominent buildings in the Renaissance II development included One Oxford Centre (forty-six stories of office and retail space); One Mellon Center, a TrotterDay text.indd 142 4/14/10 11:12 AM [44.223.31.148] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:49 GMT) in the shadows of Renaissance ii • 143 fifty-four-story bank headquarters; and PPG Place, the headquarters of Pittsburgh Plate Glass, which consists of six Gothic-style glass buildings next to Market Square. In 1985, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University joined city and county governments to develop “Strategy 21: Pittsburgh Allegheny Economic Development Strategy to Begin the 21st Century.” A master plan for the new century, Strategy 21 emphasized the development of international marketing and communications systems; diversified light and heavy manufacturing; and “a new mix of large and small businesses marked by a renewed spirit of entrepreneurship and university...