G20 Pittsburgh Summit

When the White House announced in May that Pittsburgh would be the site of the next G-20 Summit, reporters asked, "Why Pittsburgh?"

The reason, according to the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, was that Pittsburgh today serves as a model for economic and environmental transformation in the United States and abroad. The city has reinvented itself by building a balanced, innovation-driven economy based on its strengths in advanced manufacturing, financial services, information and communications technologies, health care and life sciences, education and research, and energy and environmental solutions.

President Barack Obama visited Pittsburgh in 2008 during his presidential campaign and noted: "This American city has found new opportunity... Now, we must connect that local innovation and ingenuity to a national strategy."
Pittsburgh has a long history of renewing, reclaiming and redeveloping its environment while demonstrating a commitment to employing "green" technology to further economic recovery and development. Illustrating that is the fact that the G-20 Pittsburgh Summit will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the world's first and largest green convention center. The facility is proud to have earned LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for leadership in energy and environmental design.

Downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District sets the perfect stage for this international summit on economic recovery as it stands as a unique international model of urban revitalization. The Cultural District, once a blighted part of downtown, has spurred the development of downtown, the North Shore, and the riverfronts.

As President Barack Obama responded when asked what surprised him as he campaigned for the presidency: "I've been struck by how many beautiful places there are in the country that you don't necessarily think of as beautiful. Pittsburgh, for example, is a really handsome town with the rivers and the hills."

***Its a damn shame that it had to take Obama to say positive and productive things about OUR city...but because it just happens to be the 1st BLACK PRESIDENT of the USA....we should be proud!***