PITTSBURGH – The images seem contradictory, somehow: A town with a vibrant, textured story to tell welcomes the world – and the once-in-a-generation opportunity to raise its profile – by turning itself into a phantom-zone fortress of boarded-up storefront
PITTSBURGH – The images seem contradictory, somehow: A town with a vibrant, textured story to tell welcomes the world – and the once-in-a-generation opportunity to raise its profile – by turning itself into a phantom-zone fortress of boarded-up storefronts, roadblocks and big men with big guns.
Pittsburgh strode into the global spotlight this week like many of its brethren in the age of the multinational event – economic summits, political conventions, Olympics – with confidence that, after the leaders quit town and the barricades come down, the good effects will stick around and keep making a difference.
The modern global event blows into town like a cyclone, upending everything in its path in the name of 12, 24, maybe 36 hours of Very Important Stuff. Local leaders welcome the economic infusion and prestige. Entire communities become scenery for a calibrated performance.
But after the world moves on, does something like a G-20 summit do a place any good in the long run?
Sometimes. In Dayton, Ohio, good things happened for years after the Bosnian peace accords came to town. But Malta, after the horrible weather of the 1989 Bush-Gorbachev summit billed as the meeting that ended the Cold War? Not so much. And Olympic towns that put tens of millions into construction so they can host two weeks of global competition have struggled after the athletes and media go home.
"It’s a challenge for any community. … It’s whatever people see in it," said R. Bruce Hitchner, founder and head of a nongovernmental organization called the Dayton Project. It was organized to promote peace after the 1995 Bosnian peace negotiations were held in the western Ohio city.
After various leaders descended upon Dayton for much of November 1995 including a trip to a mall by Slobodan Milosevic to buy a couple pairs of Timberland loafers the community started to get swept up.
"Afterwards, everywhere, the word ‘Dayton’ was around," Hitchner said. "In Bosnia there were Dayton cafes, Dayton restaurants, Dayton businesses. And people were talking about ‘Dayton this, Dayton that.’ And people in the community realized it would leave an impact on the city."
The question of impact is not insignificant. From Turin, Italy, to Nagano, Japan, from Los Cabos, Mexico, to Reykjavik, Iceland, communities spend millions – sometimes hundreds of millions – to be ready when the big-time visitors come and to leverage them after they leave. No figures exist as to how exactly big events cost or benefit cities, but the economic stakes couldn’t be higher.
That’s also why the specter of violent protesters makes cities so jittery. No one wants the name of their town to become synonymous with a negative event – the stigma of "Chicago 1968," for example, echoes into the 21st century.
Dayton’s impact was less tangible, less monetary. More often, cities are looking for direct economic impact. A year after the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Denver officials say the event has meant more than $260 million to the region. But mostly, it showed Denver could pull off a high-stakes, high-security event and was ready for others. That’s banked capital for the future.
"The best of all worlds is when you can use this to show that you have all the capabilities already," said Maclyn Clouse, a professor of finance at the University of Denver who studied the aftermath of the DNC in his town.
This week, Pittsburgh is being thrust front and center by President Barack Obama as a community that successfully resequenced its old-economy DNA into something more nimble and 21st century. The city’s hopes are huge.
"The impact that this is going to have around the world, we couldn’t have paid for – the exposure that Pittsburgh is going to receive, the ability for us to tell our great story," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said this week. And Dennis Yablonsky, chief executive of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, expects new jobs, new investment and companies that want to "do something in Pittsburgh."
Tracy Certo, publisher of Pop City Media, a Web magazine that documents Pittsburgh’s development and economic transformation, sees pivotal benefits coming out of this week’s events. Among them: the branding of Pittsburgh as an energy hub and the final burial of what has long been the city’s "massive inferiority complex."
"There’s a number of people here who need to be convinced about Pittsburgh’s turnaround. And if something like the G-20 doesn’t convince them, I don’t know what will. It’s had a big impact on attitude in this town," Certo said. "I don’t think it’s going to be a wasted opportunity."
At the moment, though city fathers applaud the opportunity, the attitude of residents – particularly downtown workers – is ambivalent.
"We’re trying to showcase ourselves as a thriving city, and that’s not what world leaders are going to see. They’re going to see abandoned streets and boarded-up businesses," said Valerie Kornides, whose downtown law firm is closed Thursday and Friday because of the summit.
"It’s worth it to a point," she said. "But so many lives – ordinary Joe lives – have been disrupted by this."
Whatever you think of that assessment, it may ultimately be the cost of doing business in the 21st century. In a world where image is everything, the direct economic benefits of the week – sold-out hotel rooms at premium prices, local businesses involved in building temporary infrastructure – take a back seat to longer-term PR opportunities.
Assuming things proceed smoothly until Friday evening, Pittsburgh is now, put simply, a city that can host the G-20. And that fundamental fact is a talking point for marketers that, in an era when any convention or meeting of world leaders can potentially happen anywhere, may be the most valuable fringe benefit of all.
___
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
About Post Author
