In situations like these, I always revert back to, “What would grandpa have done?”  Because he was just about the smartest and mentally-toughest person I have ever met - a product no doubt of having lost his father at the age of 14, when he was mistaken for a deer in the Banksville section of the city and shot.
 
Of course, I’m referring to the rather stunning election of Luke Ravenstahl.  I would almost have given you even odds on Mark DeSantis.  That’s how certain I was that not only would Mark pile up votes on his own, but on top of that I just couldn’t shake my belief that the people of this region both sensed and still DO sense the same impending disaster as me.
 
Jake Haulk (CEO of the Allegheny Institute for public policy) and I once had a conversation that compared southwestern PA to a forest that was now more than halfway “burned through” to the other side.  In our analogy, the city was the forest and the so-called “public officials” (custodians of the city, if you will) were now faced with a “let it burn / no, put it out!” decision.  Of course, being spectators, those in charge always had the “do nothing” option as well; which now seems to be the option they have chosen.
 
Have you ever noticed that in any game involving high-stakes, the guy with the largest pile of chips always seems to end up winning?  This is true because instead of having to start making wildly inaccurate plays (like drawing to an inside straight) the guy playing with house money can simply say, “pass” to such propositions.  In fact, he or she really, and most often, doesn't have to say or do anything.
 
OK, we all know that DeSantis did not win this mayoral (or, as it has been mispronounced so many times over the past 24 hours, “Mayorial”) election.  So let’s call this “Fact #1”.
 
But how about some that people aren't considering.  Let’s look at “Fact #2” – “Eighty-one percent of all vote-elegible city residents did NOT EVEN CAST A BALLOT.”  Or, “Fact #3” – “The average time-spent-voting (that is, standing behind a machine, contemplating your vote) was about 25 seconds in the city and over three minutes in the suburbs. This is a very easy statistic to collect.  After all, voting is no longer done “behind a curtain.”  Today it’s all out in the open!
 
But when you interpret that stat, it tells you all you need to know about that dangerous and nefarious single button that precedes all voting (for the old-timers out there - this USED TO be a lever).  What this button does, of course, is clear out your cerebrum altogether.  Because you can: A.) pull the lever/push the button, and then B.) go home to watch the Tuesday night CBS line-up!

Who the hell invented this button?
 
“Fact #4” – very few would disagree that the 14th precinct of the city (Squirrel Hill/Shadyside, etc.) is also the “brain trust” of the city.  These are the folks who both earn and spend more.  These are also the folks with the highest levels of formalized education.  As the great Yogi Berra once said, “It's true - you can look it up”.  (Of course, how long did ol’ Yog ever last in HIS managerial post?)
 
But … you get the point, do you not?  If the smart guys are voting DeSantis, why are YOU voting Ravenstahl? Hmmmmm.
 
Now, let’s look at what my Duquesne students might call the “Secondary Research.”  Just to see what both candidates are surrounded by.
 

• Pittsburgh as a region is slipping, or has already slipped, to its lowest levels of economic growth in nearly four decades.  Again, these are indisputable facts whether you measure in terms of job growth/job loss, new company formation/existing company loss. 
  

• Our debt-load is beyond any comprehension.  We are “broker-than-broke” - and because we all missed our chance to get out of here when there was at least some equity value in our assets - we can’t leave!

• And the aforementioned debt-load?  Well, in that there is no way in the Lord’s name that anyone will shut this city down without some promise to pay at least a part of the pension benefits, or else both sides will suffer.  The workers, who almost certainly will receive just a fraction of their owed medical and pension bennies; and the city government, who will be hiring skip-trace firms for years trying to recover and then squeeze dollars from their constituents.

So, and even with this mere “sprinkling” of the facts, some pictures of Pittsburgh at the time of this election now begin to sharpen up. Here’s how I see things:
 

• The city is broke, and (as my 5 year old daughter would say) it is getting “broker” each and every day,

• The solutions to this problem are myriad - but two really great ones are: A.) raise revenues by encouraging job formation, and B.) cut costs by all of the methods proposed by DeSantis over the past 90 days.

• We must take full advantage of the start-ups that are right now at CMU, Pitt, and Duquesne.  Get sharp people into these environments and then get them the money to capitalize upon their ideas.  Find retired entrepreneurs to help them through the start-up phase.

• Same thing with the other resources we have in the region. Believe it or not, water is just one of them.  We also have miles of riverfront property.

• And don’t forget history.  There is so much of it here.  Hell, I just toured the Westinghouse museum in Wilmerding.  What an amazing place!