Needs, fixed

The Amazon bid shows infrastructure imperatives

In the pitch it made to be the home of Amazon’s second headquarters, Pittsburgh pulled out all the stops and put its best foot forward. But the proposal-writing process also must have given government and civic leaders a sobering reminder of the region’s weaknesses.

Amazon has announced no deadline for vetting the proposals from Pittsburgh and 237 other cities vying for its HQ2, which promises as many as 50,000 jobs and demand for 8 million square feet of space. This is a good time for Pittsburgh to double down on correcting those shortcomings so as to provide a better home for Amazon and other employers who may be interested in the region, not to mention those of us already here.

Parkway traffic jams, potholed roads and jammed parking garages are a good place to start. Imagine the Amazon executive who flies into Pittsburgh, only to have to sit in traffic on Green Tree Hill for 45 minutes and then scramble for a parking place Downtown or in Oakland. How impressed would he or she be? How much worse would traffic get if Amazon put 50,000 employees here over the next decade?

The city needs to pursue the best in traffic-management technology, including smart traffic lights, demand-pricing for parking garages and meters, and more robust public transportation. The proposed bus rapid transit system between Downtown and Oakland would help. New buildings must provide adequate parking for cars and bikes — and perhaps even battery-charging stations for electric vehicles. More money should be invested in street paving, bridge rehabilitation, staircase maintenance and slope remediation, all issues affecting the city’s navigability and aesthetics.

The battle for Amazon also should lend new urgency to solving our water woes. An overhaul of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority should proceed soonest, with the aims of putting lead contamination, customer service nightmares, leaky pipes and corruption forever behind us. No one here wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Flint, Mich., the nation’s poster city for a failed public water supply.

Amazon, one of the world’s most forward-thinking companies, won’t tolerate lead in its employees’ drinking water. Nor does it want rivers, basements and streets fouled by sewage, as is often the case here when heavy rains overwhelm the combined storm and sanitary sewers.

While green projects may have a role in stopping the overflows, gray infrastructure — as in big pipes — will be needed to do the job right. Those favoring the former shouldn’t be allowed to hold progress hostage. Yes, the work will be expensive, and consumers will have to take a hit. But costs can be amortized to temper the impact.

The Pittsburgh Public Schools are another weakness. Countless reform efforts have failed to raise student achievement, especially among minority students. An Amazon workforce could do wonders for the city schools, boosting enrollment, raising the tax base and generally making the system more vibrant. But if the schools don’t improve to some degree, Amazon families won’t even look at them.

By many accounts, Pittsburgh has a good chance of making Amazon’s short list of cities in the running for HQ2. If there’s a runoff competition, it would be good for city officials to be able to report progress in the areas where we didn’t stack up well initially. While Pittsburgh likes to stress its high-tech economy and cutting-edge medical research, the basics still matter, too.