Global Resilience Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh should aim to increase regional resilience. Esquire magazine recently named Enterra Solutions CEO Stephen DeAngelis as one of the "Best and Brightest" for 2006. DeAngelis suggests that increasing connectivity is the best way to deal with global forces that disrupt economies:

This fall, Enterra teamed up with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Department of Energy site outside Knoxville, Tennessee, to form the Institute for Advanced Technologies in Global Resilience. America, the institute reasons, will protect itself best not by throwing up firewalls and digging moats but by becoming more connected, hyperconnected. The tighter and more far-reaching the network, the stronger its ability to absorb a vertical hit 'like September 11, Hurricane Katrina, or an outbreak of avian flu' and minimize the ripples spreading across the country. The more resilient we become, the faster we respond and the faster we recover.

Pittsburgh could do a better job of promoting global connectivity. Peter Taylor and Robert Lang produced a report for The Brookings Institution titled, "U.S. Cities in the 'World City Network'." Of the American cities that rate worldwide, Pittsburgh has the lowest global connectivity.

Pittsburgh's orientation is domestic, the top 10 cities as follows: Washington (DC), Cleveland, Dallas, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Charlotte, Boston, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and Kansas City. The most important international city is Rotterdam. I'm guessing that the Burgh Diaspora has a lot to do with Pittsburgh's connectivity profile. Regardless, Pittsburgh does suffer from a relative lack in global connectivity, which may undermine its economic resiliency.