Nonprofit’s focus is too big, critics say

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Despite spending $55 million over the past decade, a major regional nonprofit has failed in its efforts to help retain residents and attract new businesses, critics say.

Days before its annual meeting, critics say the Allegheny Conference on Community Development is spending excessively — more than $10 million a year, nearly a quarter of that on staff salaries and benefits — while failing to help bring new jobs to the area.

Some of the harshest criticism comes from national experts who say the conference has spent its time and money on massive projects, such as a conference center and a stadium, that have failed in other areas. They say the nonprofit should focus on smaller projects.

“Pittsburgh’s sort of the poster child of out-of-scale ideas,” Joel Kotkin, an economic and social forecaster with the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Milken Institute, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for a story Sunday.

Pittsburgh needs to do things such as offer lower taxes and minimal zoning ordinances to attract businesses to the region, Kotkin said.

The conference board is made up of 50 heads of the region’s largest companies, and has in the past helped write and push legislation that cleaned up Pittsburgh’s air.

“The Allegheny Conference has tried all the conventional big things that don’t work in the long run,” said Roberta Brandes Gratz, an urban expert and author of “Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown.”

“Now is the time to truly learn from the smaller, innovative efforts that produce great results and stop looking for big-bang solutions,” Gratz said.