PDP Turns 15

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership launched its 15th year celebration Tuesday morning with its annual members meeting. During the event PDP President and CEO Mike Edwards noted that cleanliness and safety have always been top priorities of the partnership and that has not changed. The Clean Teams in their yellow outfits and the Safety Ambassadors are now under one contract and have been doing more than every before. He says in 2008 the Clean Teams collected more than 50,000 bags of trash and removed 3,600 graffiti “tags.” The Safety Ambassadors helped answer more than 24,000 questions from visitors and dealt with 2,500 “panhandling incidents.” He says they will continue to focus on panhandlers and the homeless. Edwards says over the last year the PDP has focused on 5th Ave and Smithfield St. and he thinks despite the slowdown in the economy the Golden Triangle will continue to attract more retailers in the coming year. He points to a pair of studies which show there has been an increase in the number of people walking around downtown from 2006 to 2008 and they have “more money in their pockets,” which Edwards says is good news or downtown businesses.