City ‘resilience strategy’ recommends collaboration

Better coordination among Pittsburgh organizations would help the city gird for a host of challenges, according to an urban blueprint introduced Wednesday.

Strong collaboration is among dozens of ideas in “ONEPGH,” which city leaders unveiled as a 119-page “resilience strategy” to approach social, environmental, infrastructure and other problems. It’s part of Pittsburgh’s participation in the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, led by the Rockefeller Foundation.

“We tackle hundreds of issues at once,” Mayor Bill Peduto said. “But we haven’t done it in a way that coordinates it all together and looks at those challenges in one holistic approach of understanding that they all are part of one system. ”

Developed with resident input, the strategy argues that “city government cannot solve problems alone.”

“Building resilience is really about helping each other,” said Grant Ervin, the city’s chief resilience officer.

In 2014, Pittsburgh joined 100 Resilient Cities, a $100 million program to help cities thrive amid rising uncertainty. A program grant of just more than $200,000 supported the resilience strategy’s development. Pittsburgh also is receiving $5 million in technical and financial resources over five years for signing a pledge with the organization.

“This is a clarion call to all . . . that there is a piece of the solution for you,” Mr. Peduto said.