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Downtown Pittsburgh.

The heart of the city and the site of the 20th annual Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Hello, I'm Christopher Gall and I'm Mary Sweeney, and we are at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, where exciting things have been going on all week and will continue through this weekend.

Not only has this been inside of the festival, but this week, 47th US Annual Conference of Mayors was held here and will be visiting some of those mayors, as well as our own mayor, Richard Caliguiri.

And I'm going to be talking to some people from our city who have some very definite ideas about quality of life in Pittsburgh, and we'll be looking at and listening to some of the very fine live performances here at the festival, because it's all part of the celebration of the cities for the city lives.

There's a lot going on at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, as Pittsburghers and visitors celebrate the vitality of the city.

It wasn't too long ago, you know, that many of our cities were perceived as decaying, populations declining, crime increasing.

But today, the cities are making a dramatic comeback.

Mayors from more than 300 cities across the country gather here for the 47th Annual Conference of Mayors.

The theme has been one of trying to maintain that momentum and finding ways in which the cities can band together to help resolve their mutual problems, and to learn from each other's mistakes and achievements.

And with me is none other than Pittsburgh's mayor, Richard Caliguiri, who, of course, is the host mayor of the National Conference of Mayors.

And it's good to see you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Chris, and joining Mayor Caliguiri, two mayors from two very different and interesting cities across the country.

The mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, one of the women mayors here, Helen Boosalis and Ernest Morial, mayor of that charming city in the south, New Orleans.

Welcome to Pittsburgh.

It's good to have you among the three of you.

You really represent, three totally different cities.

I wonder what your views are after having attended most of the mayors conference now, about what a real significance developed.

Mayor Caliguiri, perhaps you might start.

Well, of course, as you said in the opening statement, Chris, we try to get up here and exchange ideas and views of some of the success stories that happen in various cities, because no one certainly has any, catch on them.

And we want to make sure that we're able to incorporate them in our cities.

But there's no doubt, there certainly is a trend to back to the cities, and we've got to prepare ourselves for that.

There are forces at work right now, that are accelerating that trend.

Your energy cost, crime that has not only, been in the cities, but now have gone into the suburbs, the deterioration, things of this nature are making people once again look to the cities and they're becoming more and more attractive.

So it's up to us to lay out some of the formula that's necessary to make a good environment for cities like Pittsburgh, Lincoln and New Orleans here.

And, that's what we're doing, discussing energy cost, inflation, revenue sharing activities like that.

Speaking of revenue sharing, so many of the cities have different kinds of problems.

Mayor Boosalis, your city of Lincoln, Nebraska is, I guess, made up essentially middle class, families.

And it's probably a little more affluent than some of our other cities.

Mayor Morial, New Orleans has, perhaps per capita, more people living at the poverty level or below it than many other cities.

Well, of course, you still have the very charming city.

So you each have different needs.

Do you find that the mayor's conference is helping discover how you can meet them without divisive regionalism?

Well, I don't think divisive regionalism, serves the cities of this country at all, even though our my own city is a non distressed city, compared to other cities that are distressed in the country.

Even though, unemployment rate is very low and we don't have the problems of the major cities.

I think all of us recognize that the citizens of this country need to be addressed totally, because that's where the major problem is.

If they're not there now, they may be in the future.

And I think it's incumbent on the major distressed city mayors to recognize the needs that the non distressed city like mine may have to, implement preventative measures to prevent us, to help us keep from getting into those kinds of situations while we at the same time support the distressed areas and trying to meet their needs.

What do you think, Mayor Morial?

Are you willing to give up some of your money for Lincoln?

Well, not exactly.

Because we think that there should be increased funding on the part of the federal government.

And as Mayor Boosalis has said, to take preventive measures to avoid those cities where there might be pockets of poverty as opposed to a situation where the distressed nature of the city is so pervasive, while the poverty is pervasive as it is in my city.

But we think that the government, the federal government has a a clear responsibility to provide funding sources for the city, particularly at this time in our nation, when, as Mayor Caliguiri is saying the cities are on the move, there's a major effort at revitalization.

We have underway in my city on a major effort at commercial neighborhood revitalization to restore the neighborhoods, with a joint effort of HUD, the SBA and, some other federal agencies working with the banks and lending institutions in the city.

And we think those kinds of creative and imaginative programs, while helping our cities, could also be used in areas where there are pockets of poverty to avoid the spread of the poverty in those cities.

But, we think there's need for additional funding.

Hasn't there been in the past at least?

There've been some measure of dissension about just that very, matter, the pockets of poverty.

A lot of the Sun Belt cities had said, look, we may be better off, but we have these pockets of poverty, and we need money for that.

And then cities like ours, Mayor Caliguiri, which I guess are in the Frost Belt to say that, we need it all.

That has created dissension in the past was it?

Was there any coming to grips with that in this conference?

Well, I think, as the mayor aptly put it here, because of the, the conservative mood of Congress and cutting back on some of the programs they they sort of put us in a competitive, nature and posture.

But, we're taking a different tack.

One is that you've got to address yourself to the cities.

That is, the Congress and the administration, and we're not going to be in competition for all of these dollars.

We want, new federal programs, additional monies to come forward to the cities, because there's no way that you can ignore them.

So go to city, so go this country.

And we're always so quick to talk about our great cities here while we're finally moving forward.

And we can't take a chance to slide back one inch any longer.

Where there are savings, we're going to go for those savings.

As a unit, that is the Conference of Mayors We're supporting, a lot of us, the Salt two treaty, because we feel there's going to be a definite savings in a military budget when that comes about.

All of us are going to go after that savings and get it for the cities.

It's an interesting point.

Say that's true.

Absolutely.

I certainly do.

And I think one thing that we're all learning, and we have learned from the experience of the past many years, is that dollars alone aren't going to do it all and all the money from the federal government isn't going to resolve all the problems of our cities, whether they're a major distressed or non distressed modern city, that we need to have more, a local effort and that our citizens, our corporations, we all need to be more involved in helping resolve those problems and not only with a commitment of our effort, but also a commitment of our dollars.

And that's an effort that we have been making locally the last few years to get private support, to help us meet our needs.

In addition to those federal bucks, do you think the President Carter's 1980, budget, adequately meets the needs of the cities?

I mean, particularly in a city like New Orleans and Pittsburgh for that?

No, I don't think it does.

But I think that because of the mood of the Congress, the president presented to the Congress what he thought would be a budget that would meet with approval.

The president proposed certain reductions, but now the Congress is seeking to make further reductions.

And as to the location of cities, for example, while New Orleans is a is a Sun Belt city, basically, we have us, Frost Belt problems because we're an old city.

We've lost manufacturing jobs for a number of years, but we have a major effort underway now to attract new industry into our city to to provide not only an economic base, but employment opportunities and above and beyond shipping, above and beyond, tourism and the port.

And we think that the government has a responsibility to assist those mayors and those cities where they are creative and imaginative programs to address those problems at the local levels.

And therefore, we think that it's grossly unfair at this point in time for the Congress to be, using, an ax to cut the programs that, those social and economic programs that are beneficial to American cities.

I think Doug Frazier made a marvelous statement this morning when he addressed us.

The president of the, autoworkers, he said the members of Congress, to qualify, should become mayors first and then go to Congress and see the problems that we have.

And I think it was a great statement to make, because I just don't realize the the needs of these cities and that you can't take a conservative posture with the American cities, something the late Hubert Humphrey used to say frequently about the problems of the cities.

On a slightly less earnest note.

We are, of course, in the midst of Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Arts Festival.

And I know that New Orleans, is a cultural center, as is Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Great Plains.

How important do you think it is to the vitality of the city to have festivals like this to to really promote the odds, to promote cultural events?

A lot of people, you know, seem to think that sometimes that's frivolous when there are more pressing needs.

But to get a city back, its life.

I certainly can't be frivolous.

I think, you know, I, I must tell you very candidly, I did not expect to find in Pittsburgh, and I venture to say that all the mayors who had been here before had been here for a lot of years, were amazed to find what we have found in Pittsburgh.

And I have to commend you and the people of Pittsburgh for what we find, what have you found, that vitality, that, that we see all around it has got to be a tremendous economic boost to your, to your area as well.

So how can you call it frivolous?

Oh, I'm saying that because there are so many other needs.

I think people sometimes really act against money being put into the arts when they think it should be put into roads and, and other vital services in that sense.

But those people need to be reminded that the arts can produce an economic benefit, which is tremendous.

And I think that's what we have seen here, as well as the beauty of the quad, enhancing the quality of life of the city.

Right.

And I think New Orleans exhibited that when you weren't able to put on your show this year, wasn't it prevented from what it meant having, Mardi Gras extension, as we usually do.

But I think that festivals and cultural activities are important to the quality of life in the city.

And they they provide an infusion of, interest and feeling, among people.

And it instills in them a sense of pride about their city.

Not only that, it has a certain amount of, ethnic value as well, because it allows people to understand that through all other people, other cultures and began to appreciate those cultures.

And I think that's what this nation is all about, I think.

And to cities, to the extent that the city through festivals and all the activities, are able to educate individuals that we perform a very serious and important function in addition to that.

Oh.

It has an economic spin off.

And, and it is extremely, valuable to, to the life of a community in terms of what it does economically for, for our city.

I was walking through, this area the other day, and I think that that is an economic undertaking.

There are a lot of small merchants, obviously, out there selling their way as and doing other things.

And we think that's economic.

Yes.

Of course, involved with the corporate community.

You were going to interject something.

I gotta say, I, I couldn't agree more with my two colleagues here.

Every one of us is in sort of a budget crunch.

And one of the things that I will not take out or activities such as the Three Rivers Arts Festival, our 4th of July celebration of Three Rivers Regatta.

Because people still want that.

You can't, you know, eliminate all of these types of activities from your city or would no longer be a, a viable city.

And, what you do, they cost money.

But, you know, fortunately, here in Pittsburgh, we have a good corporate community that's willing to come forward and contribute to these activities.

So all the people of Pittsburgh can, utilize them.

But as was mentioned by the mayor here, the economic spin off is there.

There are jobs connected with this whole festival.

Yeah, but without, money, of course, the arts becomes a real problem.

And one of your great concerns, mayor, Boosalis, is the idea of volunteerism and something that we experience here in Pittsburgh among all people and also particularly from the corporate community.

Is that something that you perceive as being on the rise in cities as part of at least what I describe as this dramatic comeback of the cities, people really wanting to help.

Absolutely.

And of course, mayors can provide leadership to encourage that kind of volunteerism.

And whether you call it volunteerism or citizen participation, it's all part of the same bag.

And we're not fortunate to have the great corporations that Pittsburgh had.

But nonetheless, we do solicit support not only from our business and industrial community, but from all the citizens, because all put together is what helps make a city.

And we need to have all that.

What about New Orleans?

You have the first opera house right in New Orleans.

I think it's a major theater for the performing arts.

And, as, Pittsburgh, we're not we're not as fortunate as Pittsburgh.

We do not have the corporate headquarters.

They had to provide, financial assistance for our endeavors.

But only recently, we created a task force on the arts, citizens and and our interest people, to look at the arts in our city and to develop a comprehensive program for the arts in relation to all of the festivities and other activities that we have in the city, have since submitted that report, and we are analyzing it now.

And we think, as Mayor Boosalis has said, this was a citizen participation, an opportunity for citizens to share in the decision making process of their government at, at the initiation of a program.

And, that's vital too.

The arts, I would imagine, draws people back into the city.

That, of course, has been a traditional problem with many of the larger, older urban cities like Pittsburgh, New Orleans, not Lincoln.

Your population has increased over the years.

But but it seems to me that if the arts are vital in a city, people are going to be more attracted to coming that somehow connects with.

I know America has greatest concern.

That is the revitalization of neighborhoods.

It's part of our renaissance, too.

You also, Mayor Morial are involved in neighborhood revitalization in New Orleans together.

How is it working?

You're beginning to attract people now?

We, have seen a tremendous enthusiasm among the people who live in the area and others who want to come in.

We are going through a major neighborhood restoration programs throughout the city, old homes being restored to their former glory and beauty, and young people moving back into the city.

So we think that's extremely important to the life of the city.

And to have that kind of, base within a city so that cities are made up of people, of diversity, of people.

And that's what makes with the quality of life in the city as distinct from many other, communities that we find in this country.

So we're excited about, our endeavors and what's been encouraged.

And I don't know if you two have had a chance to talk about, what's been going on in both cities, but, I don't know if, somehow mayors are learning from each other about the various programs that are going on.

Well, that's right, Chris.

You know, we said earlier here, it's an exchange of ideas, and you can see that revitalization of our neighborhoods is not unique to Pittsburgh.

There we are on the other end of the the river.

So to speak.

They're doing exactly the same thing.

Our neighborhoods for the living here, selling Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

is what we are doing now.

We're putting out a, a public relations really, on our city in our downtown neighborhoods, that the city has a place to live.

The city is a place where the action is, so to speak.

And there's no doubt with the energy crunch that's coming on, people want to live closer to all of these activities, and it's going to, force them back into the city, Chris.

So, again, as I said earlier, we want to prepare ourselves for that eventuality because it's coming.

I say the decades of the 80s is going to be the decade for the cities of coming back to life, and we feel very good about it.

There is another idea, I think that the arts helped in a lot of finance, the sense of belonging to a community that people had sort of lost in their cities and growing and identity.

Yeah.

So it's a place that's a place for us to get together around the common interest.

And I think that's where to get your identity back.

Yeah, it really is.

And we've been losing it for too many years.

At the risk of sounding a little provincial and, getting a little promotion, hopefully.

Yeah.

What sort of things have you found in your short visit in Pittsburgh that you really have enjoyed?

You mentioned earlier you liked the vitality that you felt here, which you've had a chance to pop around a little bit.

I haven't had a chance to talk about it much, but we were up on the hill last night and that's fantastic.

Oh Mount Washington.

Yeah.

Oh yes, and, of course of the downtown I thought was tremendous.

And I frankly haven't been able to see much of your city.

I'd like to come back someday when I have more time.

But, you know, in Lincoln, every tree that, you see.

And we're very proud of our tree city, we call it, we get an award every year of Tree City, USA.

But we think it's such a green, lush city.

But every tree that's there, we planted because it's, you know, part of the Great Plains.

I come here and I'm overwhelmed with the water and the trees and, oh, all the natural beauty you have that you have enhanced with a lot of hard work instead of money and gold, because it is, you know, mayor Caliguiri, Pittsburgh hasn necessarily enjoyed the most wonderful reputation as a city when I know when we were out of town.

You say you're from Pittsburgh, you say Pittsburgh, but I think, the mayors conference like this being held in Pittsburgh with these people going home and things in Pittsburgh, wasn't quite as bad of town as it sounded.

Right.

Well, that's what the reputation I've heard You're right.

In region perceptions that people have about certain things seem to be so long lasting.

And we've known, what we have here, and we wanted to show it off.

And, this is why I was very pleased to see the mayors agree to come to Pittsburgh here.

And so many of them have said just exactly that.

We had an image of the city, Dick.

And now we certainly are going to change it, and surely they're going to be our ambassador here.

And, it's just gone over quite well.

And even the weather is cooperating with us this past few weeks.

We keep our fingers crossed.

Well, thank you all very much for being with us.

I wish you could stay in Pittsburgh longer.

I'd like to go to Lincoln, and I'd like to go to New Orleans We are going to have a Mardi Gras again.

I hope.

Great established.

Good.

Come to our Hog Wild Pork Festival, and we have one of those.

Every summer.

You did.

That sounds great.

Well, allow me to thank both of you also for coming to Pittsburgh.

We're just thrilled to have you here, and we hope you come back and visit us often.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot.

Okay.

This is a song I write a couple days ago.

It's called Sunny Days.

Sunny days.

Coming my way.

Sunny day shining on me.

Blue skies, come on The great.

You came along my way to the sunny skies.

Since I looked into your eyes.

That's the reason why I love you.

I can't remember when I've been good.

Nothing ever seems to bring me down.

You are so much brighter when I stand with you.

Promise me you'll always stick around.

Because sunny days coming my way.

Sunny day shining on me.

Blue skies cover the green mountains.

You came along my way to a sunny sky.

Since I looked into your eyes.

That's the reason why I love you.

If I can ever find a way to make you see just how much I really, really care.

If I know that I would sing a never ending melody.

When I sing I know you're always there the sunny days coming on me.

Sunny day shining on me.

Blue skies covered a great number of mountains You came along my world to sunny skies.

Since I've looked into your eyes.

That's the reason why I love you.

Okay, this next song is, It's sort of a country tune too.

It's by James Taylor.

It's called Bartender Blues.

I got two tickets.

1250 piece for this guy.

So, you know, he's good.

Now I'm just a bartender and I don't like my work But I don't mind the money at al I've seen lots of sad faces and lots of bad cases Of folks with their backs to the wall But I've got four walls around me to hold my life To keep me from going astray And a honky tonk angel to hold me tight To keep me from slipping away I can light up your smokes, I can laugh at your jokes I can watch you fall down on your knees.

I can close down this bar, I can gas up my car And I can pack up and mail in my keys But I need four walls around me to hold my life To keep me from going astray And a honky tonk angel to hold me tight To keep me from slipping away Now the smoke fills the air in this honky tonk bar And I'm thinkin' 'bout where I'd rather be But I burned all my bridges and I sunk all my ships Now I'm stranded at the edge of the sea I need four walls around me to hold my life To keep me from going astray I need some honky tonk angels to hold me tight To keep me from slipping away To keep me from slipping away Part of the fun of the Three Rivers Arts Festival is the element of surprise.

Sometimes.

This week, the surprise has been finding one of the mayors among the art.

But more often it has been finding mine, Dominic Fisher, in a crowd, delighting people with the unexpected and with his unorthodox friend Fluffy Improvisations in a crowd are his specialty.

But here he is at the side of Festa SAURIS, the paper maché dragon dinosaur constructed by children at the festival.

This year's festival mine in residence Dominic Fisher with a few friends The gentleman standing next to me is Christopher Janney.

He is an architect, a jazz rock musician and a veritable sorcerer's apprentice of sound.

And Christopher is the creator of the Sound Stare, which is perhaps one of the more popular happenings here on the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

It is Christopher what the name implies, but more tell us about it in the word Well, out of my interest to try to synthesize architecture and music, I've tried to create in this particular sound that I've built a portable system that I can put on any stair anywhere and transform that stair, into a stair that will generate sound when you move upon it.

And as as you're saying this, two dancers from the dance collective in Boston are helping us see what happens.

But normally, when this event is set up and people just walk up and down the stairs and you've got a lot of people, how does that effective?

Well, in a situation like this, you know, very large festival, we have certain things that we can do.

With, we have a small computer here that's linked to 16 infrared photo cells, one photo cell per stem, and the computer links the photo cells to the synthesizer, the Oberheim Four Voice synthesizer is here.

so that when an individual walks up a stair, he or she is triggering one photo cell at a time.

But if you have 30 people on the stairs, we have the computer on something called reset, so it's constantly looking at the stairs every second so that a lot of people are on the stairs.

All the tones aren't being triggered, so you don't get a tremendous buildup of sound.

So there's some some real selectivity going on.

The computer is selecting which.

Well, what's really happening is that the computer allows the notes on the synthesizers not to stay on for a particularly long time, so that if you were with a lot of people on the stairs, everybody just gets a very short sound, that's all.

You had the set up, I know the other day at the Hilton when the, yeah, annual mayors conference was in town and I was over there and I noticed a lot of mayors leaping up and down the steps, and they really had a good time.

And people seem to enjoy.

What do you think they like about it?

I think the, the, the lyrical aspect, walking up a flight of stairs while hearing yourself, while hearing the tone ascend.

Also the interaction between people on the stairs, people walking up the stairs while other people walk down and they never know one another before.

And all of a sudden they're smiling and dancing with one another and there's a certain freedom, you enter this zone of sound over which you have a some control.

There's a certain freedom and a certain communication that goes on between people.

What?

How did you how did you come about creating such a thing?

And it seems to me a combination of space.

And you're an architect, for one thing.

You're also a musician.

Was this a the combination Putting together out of frustration I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I was designing and designing, but but really wanting to hear things.

I wanted to play music, just wasn't enough hours in the day to do both.

And, I really didn't feel I was giving adequate time to both to pursue the two.

And, so then I played music for a while in New York from 2 or 3 years, and, the design kept coming out and just various little ways, I think.

I then went to went to MIT and, there I was able to work with, Robert Just Melick, who's a project engineer who's built synthesizers before.

And we work together to develop, over two years, a system that is sophisticated and portable so that I would be able to bring this all around the country.

Do you have any plans to to make this even more ambitious, to go beyond just, what, at least on the surface, seems to be a relatively simple process.

I know it isn't simple, but.

Well, I think I certainly I mean, this is I mean, this is it, as far as the portable system and, I mean, I'd like to just tour with this thing for the next couple of years.

I mean, not every not every time.

You know, I can sit down with this synthesizer as most people can because it's such a sophisticated and Oberheim, it's just about the best synthesizer built.

I mean, I can figure here, get new sounds out of it that I never thought I could get out of it.

So there's a the musical quality to me is really what I want to pursue now I am, negotiating to do a permanent installation in a subway station.

Oh, that would be fun.

So, In other words, after the tour model, the next thing I would want to do would be do a series of permanent installations and begin to see how sound effects, space and people over a long period of time.

Yeah, that sounds really fascinating.

I wonder if I was watching people walk up and down the stairs, whether the size of people in any way affects the tone.

You get different tones for fat people and thin people or?

It can be done.

But, I stay thin, so there's no way I'm making a sort of a diet motivational sound.

Well, you're not the first one that asked that.

Really?

I know.

Not everyone is like our two live dancers out there.

That's really great.

And I wish you lots of luck Christopher.

And, Hope will be back next year.

I hope so, too.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot.

The sense of a city is found in its heroes and in its dreams.

The look of a city is how it sees itself and shows itself.

And the feeling of the people comes from what they care about and what they make a place for in their city.

And so the quality of life depends on the character of love and concern for the city by the people who make the city live.

We are at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, as you know, and the art that you saw, some of it was permanent art that lives in our city, and it was made possible by another Three Rivers Arts Festival just a few years ago, and a project called Sculpture Scape that brought it to live here permanently.

And other works by the Society of Sculptors, which is on exhibit at the county courthouse, which is impermanent, but it's there for a time, and that's art in the city, which is part of the story.

I think about quality of life, which is our assigned subject.

And I have three experts in quality of life.

Anita Morganstern.

You are a city treasure, but I won't go into that.

And you were on the advisory committee for the Three Rivers Arts Festival when it started out, 20 years ago.

Oh my gosh.

And you are right now running the county courthouse gallery forum and you are terrific.

And anything you say I'm going to write down, because I want to be able to tell it to everybody and spread the word.

Clyde "Red" Hare, who is the city's storyteller through photographs, he loves the city and has been here a long time taking pictures of it, which we are indebted to you, Louise Brown, director of the city Department of Parks and Recreation, and it work on the City County Cooperative Arts Council, which we look forward to working with Carol Brown on that.

You are three appointed experts on quality of life, and I don't even know what quality of life means except every one of the mayors we talked to said that art is a part of it, and culture is a part of it.

Maybe it's something more than that, though.

What do you think?

It's something that is needed.

You know, I just opened a show recently, called Cities USA at the courthouse, and it, is about cities, 29 cities, which were selected because they recognize certain human needs and recognize the cities who in some respects, answer those needs.

So, we're it was set up by urban experts, and they are very conscious of what the other dimension is in our lives.

What makes us, live well, work well, function well in many ways.

What do you think those things are?

What makes us live well and work well.

Pride in ourselves.

It's a lot of it.

Yeah.

I was down at the point last night before the Wind Symphony, and, there were probably a group of 20 kids from Canonsburg.

This isn't Pittsburgh.

This is pride in the whole area.

We are the area.

Yeah.

Came by waving their balloons from here.

Just press much to be at the point.

Yeah.

That's pride in ourselves.

That's what I think.

When I first came into town, it was 30 years ago.

And, the Pittsburgh was really enormously proud of itself then, because it had just made all the steel to win the war.

And we went through a great Renaissance period in which, we saw ourselves building ourselves.

We were very proud of ourselves for that.

I think things necessarily had to settle down a little bit after that.

And in some ways, maybe we lost a little bit of our pride in ourselves.

I think it's coming back.

I think is the things you see going on around the city now, indicates some of that coming back.

And the pride in ourselves, that business of, you know, I'm from Pittsburgh.

I happen to be from Madison Park.

But if anybody wants to know where I am, where I'm from, I used to be from Pittsburgh.

I say I'm from Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

Are you from Pittsburgh?

I'm not even.

I'm a real convert.

Are you?

Oh, good.

The best kind.

That is definitely the best kind of.

All right.

There's so many different adjectives you can use to describe quality of life, what it is.

But I think you kind of said it, which is it's not something that's static.

It's it's growing.

It's changing, it's moving, and it makes people feel good because there's change, because there's an evolution of things.

Oh.

It's having a lot of fun.

It's feeling really good about yourself and people.

You live with, the people you work with, your environment.

Which leads to the pride and all those things, including being proud of yourself.

You really have to feel good about yourself, to have a good quality of life.

Do you think Pittsburghers feel good about themselves?

I sometimes get the feeling that they don't, really.

Sometimes I think they feel good about themselves because so many people who aren't from Pittsburgh don't know how great it is.

So there's a little secret pride, that we know more.

We have more than most people realize that we have.

And we can pat ourselves on the back for it, you know, we're not the big event city either.

We don't have an enormous range of mountains outside.

We don't have a great ocean right next to us.

You know, these great big events that make, for San Francisco or Denver or something like that.

But when you talk about quality of life, it's the way you live, not the mountain you have to go to.

And, you know, we can be on the lake fast.

We can be on the river fast.

We can be skiing fast, we can be backpacking and lose ourselves in the woods.

We can we can work hard.

And I think another thing that is showing our pride in ourselves is that just I think fairly recently you've noticed a great growth of the specialty shops in the city of Pittsburgh.

That's a great indication that young people believe in the city and want to be here.

One of the greatest indications we have.

Are people really coming back to the city.

I know them, I don't know wether they're coming back.

We lost such an enormous number of people, 33% at 25 years.

That's a lot of people.

Statistics show that they're coming back over the years.

We'll know after the 1980 census a lot more but, but Pittsburgh is different from other cities.

I don't think we have to have a big mountain range.

We don't have to have anything so terribly big to be great.

There's beauty and simplicity and, the, the culture that we have here is built on the, homogeneity of all those middle European cultures that came over here to work in the steel mills and the glass factory, and, they the fact that they didn't get homogenized, I mean, I think, you know better than anybody.

You've got these neighborhoods, these little pockets around, because you're doing such a great job of, making people proud and active in this neighborhood.

It's, Three Rivers is a tremendous citywide event, a festival that really celebrates not only in the city of Pittsburgh, but probably western Pennsylvania, all the wonderful artists and talents that we have.

But in our little just our little part of western Pennsylvania, in the city, we've been having neighborhood festivals ever since 1976, which some are art oriented, some are food oriented, some are youth and family oriented.

Times were weekends when that neighborhood celebrates itself, the people who live in its heritage, sometimes its art, its history, its grandmothers and grandfathers, and that itself that they've been working all year.

The people in this community, The committee is working with some of the people in the parks department to have a wonderful time to kind of celebrate the quality of life in that little neighborhood.

And they all add up to the people who live in this here.

I hear that you want some kind of an award for this act.

I didn't we all did.

We all did.

Parks Department was honored recently by the Department of Interior.

Right.

Pittsburgh.

So we were delighted, excellence in Parks and recreation programing, for the people.

And I think it even said continuing to improve that.

And that's what we're really looking for is, again, moving forward and doing more and trying to meet the needs, which is what I need to start it off to say, is what the quality of life is.

Meeting a variety of needs.

I think you, I've always envied the flexibility in the Department of Parks and Recreation because recreation, after all, isn't limited to swings and things, but it's recreation.

It's that restorative place in our lives that we can't devalue.

That has to be a part of it.

And if the festival is a celebration that happens once a year, what does it tell us about what we need all year round?

What kind of communication do we need with each other all year round?

You know, at the arts conference last weekend, they were talking about communion, and I never thought of what communion really means.

It means coming together.

Community, comes from this base.

And, it's it's a community all enjoying the same excitement, the same fun together.

And, what else is the quality of life?

I mean, if you're just working and, it would be a very mundane life, but it's what you do with your leisure time that that gives it that other perspective.

That other ingredient, don't you think?

With your working time too.

How you work?

And what you contribute through your work?

Well, you you came here 30 years ago and you didn't leave.

Why didn't you leave?

Why did you stay?

Because I fell in love with the place, I really do, you know, The center of my business would have been in New York, but, I didn't want to live there.

I want to live here.

Yeah.

So you're a convert to.

Yeah, I'm a convert.

I came from, The other thing is I came from flat land in the Midwest.

Relatively flat, not flat by northern Indiana standards, but, relatively flat.

And all of a sudden, I was in a city that looks itself right square in the face.

You look out here and there was the hillside of houses, and you see the whole city.

You don't have to you don't have to get in an airplane to look down on the city.

You go right up here on Mount Washington.

The whole city let you look at it when I when I came in the first night, a young man who saved a lost photographer had the sense to take me over the top of McArdle roadway.

And there was the my city laid up, and I fell in love with it right there.

Never fallen out of love with it.

If we didn't want to keep the secret, if we wanted to tell people, I mean, I hate the cliches of, well, we have this wonderful city and it's really terrific.

What is the one particular thing that makes you love the city the least?

Don't say, Mount Washington.

I'm not going to say Mount Washington because, I mean, we all know the story.

I'm going to be honest.

I love my job because my job has enabled me to meet the people who live in the city, and I have found them to be really warm, wonderful people who want to get involved.

They care about themselves.

They care about their city.

They.

And to me, that's wonderful.

I feel very comfortable in the city.

Very comfortable.

I don't feel threatened or I think I would be threatened in New York City.

I feel comfortable and yet there's such wonderful sophistication about it at the same time.

And I it just kind of it has all those ingredients.

For me, if you could change one thing, what would you change?

About the city.

Well, yeah.

And don't say Mount Washington.

I would improve the educational system if I could.

Okay.

That's interesting, because quality of life isn't just having fun, is it?

What would you change?

Red?

Well, I have to go on the thing I like again.

I have to say it's it's the people that sent me into Pittsburgh and kept me here.

The city is a place where you can be very private and very aloof.

Unlike the country.

They keep track of you.

You can really be private.

But in Pittsburgh, Your tendency is not to be private.

Your tendency is to be part of the gang.

People speak to each other.

They're pleasant to each other.

There are even a few people that, speak kindly to each other in traffic.

That's hard.

I suppose if I had to change anything, it would be to make the area think more about it.

So as a one wholeness, instead of, thinking of ourselves as the city of Pittsburgh and this community, that community in the county, and I think there's some separation there that really should be pulled together.

It's hard when we do rely on that integrity of, discreteness.

You know, we want separate communities because they have character.

And yet I don't think we I don't think people want separate communities as much as there's some necessity for separate communities.

If you're going to separate the governments and administrations.

I think I think those are the groups that need to all pull together as a whole.

And then we could still keep the other.

Pittsburgh Metropolitan government.

No, I don't think it's the Metropolitan government.

That's that's the, you know, that's the administrative solution.

I think it's I think it's a thinking we're all one.

If you have that, you don't need Metropolitan.

It's it may be a way for playing a part and, playing with government, participating.

I've been going over, for the cities USA show.

I've been I've been going over questionnaires that were sent, returned to us from mayors, officers all over the country, and, at least half of them have, made it very evident that people are participating in their government.

They're doing things like in Wichita Falls, Texas, where the tornado happened before the tornado.

They had a program called, adoption.

And at their air base, everybody at the air base had a family who took care of them.

They welcomed them to the city.

They took care of them.

And, they made them a part of the community.

And everybody's working to make the city better.

Whether they're at the air base, temporarily or not, so that when they had their tornado, they were able to cope with it.

Did every one of those cities have a different feeling when they even the way they responded to those questionnaires, they were quite different.

But, I, I was, as I read through them, at least half of them, it was very evident that people are participating in their government.

If there's a crime, of course there's crime everywhere.

We have to admit it.

We don't play it up, but they're doing something about it.

They're not carrying guns, but they're helping each other.

They're reporting crime.

They're they're, working on it.

And, just a little thing of the matter of litter.

I've heard people here who come in to Pittsburgh from other cities complain about the litter.

Now, psychologically, how can we get people feeling responsible?

And it's the response of their city to them, not only not profit themselves, but to say to the person over there, hey, kid, you dropped something.

Would you please pick it up?

But if you're responsible, you don't drop it in the first place.

Yeah.

If you feel if you feel a responsibility to love for your city, your home, your block, your neighborhood, you know, your own room, anything.

Yeah.

But all of these things are tied up.

The feeling of community, the feeling of pride, the feeling of responsibility.

They all go together.

But what do we need?

A campaign.

Do we need a We love Pittsburgh and we're proud of it campaign?

Or is that too easy?

I don't know if you have a feeling like this.

Don't you want to get it out somewhere?

Somehow?

I think campaigns have been tried, and as this piece of litter just blows.

Right.

Okay.

Very good.

I think they've been tried.

Maybe they're not reaching the right people.

Especially in the downtown area.

And now they're trying something new, which has gotten which is the Golden Triangle Association has gotten very much involved with the city.

And there are a number of young people that have been hired by them through a contract with the city to clean up the sidewalks downtown.

But it's those businesses that have to, clean up their sidewalks and, and a major problem are the fast food restaurants where people take their Coke or their Pepsi and their McDonald's and walk up the street and throw it on somebody else's sidewalk, and it just compounds the whole thing.

Let's start on the letter and then get to some other matters.

Boy, we've got art in our city now.

We're going to sweep our streets and we're going to be proud of our city.

I'm proud of all of you.

Thank you very much.

We're going to look at some pictures that Clyde Hare took that shows our city looking right at itself.

Hello, hello, hello.

What a wonderful greeting.

Hello hello hello hello means a lot everywhere you go.

Time for all of us to get acquainted.

Listen, cause we planned to entertain you.

Hello, hello, hello.

Now, I was greeting you all with all those.

But the Lord is still my friend.

But there's something I want you to know.

I what are you mean?

Lord?

It's called another pain.

You gotta reap you down.

Reap what you sow.

You gotta reap what you sow.

You gotta reap what you sow.

the money don't give me.

Now we know that you got me, you got me.

But you some.

Lord, I have the sound of this.

And you'll be to me drowning at ease.

I'll be standing in the promised land.

You gotta reap what you love.

You gotta reap.

But some don't gotta have now.

You are not letting it go.

You gotta reap.

what you sow.

You gotta reap What's the matter?

You gotta reap What's up in the morning?

Out of heaven.

Now you are not letting it go.

You gotta reap what you sow You gotta reap You gotta reap what you sow.

Thank you!