An abridged version of this was published on PublicSource on July 19, 2022 Property assessments in Allegheny County are again in the news. As reported by PublicSource, a group of local homeowners is currently challenging the county’s administration of the property assessment system. The legal wrangling is far from new…

History has forgotten what may be the first true electronic information network. In the 1930s, Kaufmann’s Department Store in Downtown Pittsburgh had a fully automated point of sale accounting system installed throughout the store. How well the system worked, and for how long, remains a mystery. Today, Pittsburgh is known…

In the summer of 2020, health restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic kept most Americans from going to the movies. Though it was eventually released via streaming services, producers had hoped the movie Greyhound starring Tom Hanks would become a summer blockbuster. The movie’s plot focused on a single ship…

The 2020 Census showed that Pennsylvania grew by 2.4% over the last decade, a modest level of growth compared to other parts of the country. Statewide growth is concentrated in an ever-smaller number of counties; and more than 60% of Pennsylvania’s municipalities experienced population decline between 2010 and 2020. …

Pittsburgh’s willingness to accept a future not dependent on steel did not come in the 1980s but had to wait decades and came from an unlikely source: a school board willing to say no to jobs at any price. (A condensed version of the following appeared on Postindustrial.com in May…

The following op-ed was first published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 6, 2021. The version below includes additional notes and links not included in what was published by the Post-Gazette. *** U.S. Steel’s recent announcement that it would not proceed with an expected billion-dollar investment across its local plants…