With the wildly high murder rates in Chicago and Detroit, will Pittsburgh follow that trend? (York: crime rate, movie theater)

[simetime]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

If 33% (1/3) of the city was African-American, then I'd expect it would be most "fair" if African-Americans, on average, were awarded 1/3 of the contracts within the city. I don't believe it should be a 50/50 split because then you're favoring the minority over the majority.

With that being said I'm not a huge fan of affirmative action in general. If there are three applicants for a job, or a contract (or anything else, really), and there are two white applicants and one black applicant, I foresee no reason why the black applicant SHOULD automatically be given an "edge", regardless of credentials, simply due to his or her race. If, all things considered equally, I truly couldn't decide between any of the three candidates because they were all so overwhelmingly qualified I would be more inclined to pick a name at random out of a top hat than to just give the bid/job to the minority applicant to satisfy a specified quota or target (which I'm sure happens a lot these days). You shouldn't disqualify capable white applicants and hire less-capable minorities "just because". I realize the intent is to ensure a level playing field regardless of race after years of minorities being unfairly passed over, but I now feel as if the balance of power has shifted to where the minority is more often than not given the unfair advantage.

Whoa! See you have it wrong from the begining! The way that it suppose to work is that if everything being EQUAL amongst all of the candidates the minority (which majority of the time is a white women) will get selected. This less qualified crap is made up by discouraged and most times under qualified white men. Think about this, if that being the case companies would be filled with a whole lot of unqualified people and would be out of business. The reason that the scenario that you mention can actually happen is that the company for years have been hiring white males (qualified or not) without hiring any minorities (again qualified or not) and are getting governemnt contracts. So in order to comply with rules that they should have been doing all along they try to make up for it by hiring minorities regardless of their qualifications. Like I said before, white women have benefited more from AA than blacks in general. None of this really matters because there is still a glass ceiling in management for blacks, women, asians and latinos

[simetime]

Originally Posted by wpipkins

I grew up in Pittsburgh and like most black Pittsburghers, most of my college educated family members moved out of Pittsburgh for greener pastures. Most went away to college and vowed to never return....

To assume that pittsburgh is void of black professionals is ignorant on your part. Im raising a black family in Pittsburgh and I only associate with other black professionals in this city..... My family doctor and dentist are black. I along with most of my friends who stayed in Pittsburgh own our homes as well. Pittsburgh does not have a large number of black professionals because there are not a large number of blacks over all. The amount of professionals is relative to the population....

The Pittsburgh that you left 20+ years ago is not the city that I reside in today. Corporations are global and have learned to value diversity. All major corporations have programs to entice and retain black talent. Pittsburgh has a fresh crop of young 20 and 30 something professionals who are from outside the area. We can thank BNY Mellon, PNC, Reed Smith, Westinghouse and Shale drilling..... Black churches in Pittsburgh have a influx of black professional families. the ones that I know are in the energy, finance, and the medical field. Many of these new black families are bewildered once here but grow to like it do to COL and the amount of family oriented activites..

Your view of Pittsburgh is circa 1985....

Please show where I said that there were NO black professionals in Pittsburgh and I will gladly recant it. What I said is that there were few NATIVE black professionals in Pittsburgh, meaning born, raised and educated in Pittsburgh and live there to this day. Did your family dentitst and doctor happen to go to school in Pittsburgh and decided to stay? Proably so. You are looking at a black professional and never considered rather it was someone who moved to Pittsburgh from somewhere else. Don't you think that a city with a 26% population of blacks should have a sizable number of professional blacks?

Pittsburgh (city) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

I stand by my point, companies such as UPMC (who recently got sued), Highmark BC/BS, PNC and Mellon do hire black professionals but the majority of them are from somewhere else. Btw, It was not that long ago that I left and I still have property there so I make frequent trips to check on my family.

I tell you what the next time that you are at a black professional gathering ask them where did they come from, you will be suprised.

I spoke to a couple of relatives in other parts of the country and it seems like that hiring blacks from other places is more common than I thought

[simetime]

Originally Posted by wpipkins

Chartiers
Sugartop (Hill District)
Stanton Heights
Manchester
Point Breeze
The non project section of East Hills
Cawford Square (hill district)
parts of crafton Heights

just off the top of my head...

When was the last time that you were on Sugartop and what do you consider to be diverse?
Crawford Square diversity come from the fact that most of the rentals come from college kids so I guess temporary diversity counts

[simetime]

Originally Posted by ML North

City council is 22% black, the City itself is about 25%.

Nope, there are only 9 people on the city council and two of them are black, Lavelle District 6 (Hill) and Burgess District 9 (East liberty/Larimer)

[gg]

Originally Posted by simetime

Nope, there are only 9 people on the city council and two of them are black, Lavelle District 6 (Hill) and Burgess District 9 (East liberty/Larimer)

Yep, 9 divided by 2 equals 22%. Therefore, the city council is about spot on and almost perfectly racially balanced if that for some reason makes a difference. Goodness what year is it? Isn't there a black president? Colin Powell certainly was a man of power. Chief Harper of the Pittsburgh Police? Come on, get over this crap. It is old and played. Race means very little if anything.

[Uptown kid]

Originally Posted by wpipkins

Chartiers
Sugartop (Hill District)
Stanton Heights
Manchester
Point Breeze
The non project section of East Hills
Cawford Square (hill district)
parts of crafton Heights

just off the top of my head...

Yea I had:
Lower Manchester
Observatory Hill
Windgap
Chartiers
Southern Highland Park
Point Breeze North
Southern Staton Heights
most of the non project section of East Hills
Broadcrest Drive, Upper Lincoln, Lincoln-Lemington
SugarTop/Schenly Heights, Upper Hill
Crawford Square Townhomes, Lower Hill

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by simetime

Nope, there are only 9 people on the city council and two of them are black, Lavelle District 6 (Hill) and Burgess District 9 (East liberty/Larimer)

How is that not 22%? (22.222222222....% to be exact)

[ML North]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Yep, 9 divided by 2 equals 22%. Therefore, the city council is about spot on and almost perfectly racially balanced if that for some reason makes a difference. Goodness what year is it? Isn't there a black president? Colin Powell certainly was a man of power. Chief Harper of the Pittsburgh Police? Come on, get over this crap. It is old and played. Race means very little if anything.

9 divided by 2 is 450%. But 2 divided by 9 is 22%.

[ML North]

Originally Posted by simetime

Nope, there are only 9 people on the city council and two of them are black, Lavelle District 6 (Hill) and Burgess District 9 (East liberty/Larimer)

Ricky Burgess has a big enough personality to count for two people. So that squeezes the math a little more!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

With the wildly high murder rates in Chicago and Detroit, will Pittsburgh follow that trend?

Before you go patting your back about how Pittsburgh has managed to keep its murder rate in check, here's some news for you: year over year, Pittsburgh's murder rate is barely lower than Chicago's. It's just that yours doesn't get national attention because the President isn't from your city.

Detroit is in a whole different category altogether, as is St. Louis, New Orleans, Baltimore, Newark, Oakland, etc. But they don't get the scrutiny that Chicago does. Wonder why...