The Allegheny Conference on Community Development is a
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
, private sector leadership organization dedicated to economic development and quality of life issues for a 10-county region in southwestern
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
centered around the largest city in the region,
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, Pennsylvania.
It grew from efforts in the 1940s to coordinate improvements to regional transportation and the local environment. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association President
Richard King Mellon
Richard King Mellon (June 19, 1899 – June 3, 1970), commonly known as R.K., was an American financier, general, and philanthropist from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and part of the Mellon family.
Biography
The son of Richard B. Mellon, nephew of ...
,
Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
President
Robert Doherty, and others organized local leaders to create a postwar planning committee. Pittsburgh Mayor
David L. Lawrence
David Leo Lawrence (June 18, 1889 – November 21, 1966) was an American politician who served as the 37th governor of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1963. The first Catholic elected as governor, Lawrence is the only mayor of Pittsburgh to have ...
and Allegheny County Commissioner John Kane were early recruits. The Allegheny Conference was officially established in 1944.
The city's most visible problem in the first half of the 20th century was air pollution. The Conference brokered an agreement for phased-in implementation of smoke control that became city policy. After the Conference voiced its concern for legal loopholes to the state legislature in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...
, a comprehensive anti-pollution law was passed in 1949 for Allegheny County.
The clearer skies over the city both attracted new business and encouraged local corporations to retain and expand their Pittsburgh headquarters. The pollution-control program explicitly influenced the decision of the Equitable Life Assurance Society to invest in planning the
Gateway Center project, a keystone of economic revitalization in
Downtown Pittsburgh
Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose ...
during
Renaissance I
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
. This also led to the development of
Point State Park
Point State Park (locally known as The Point) is a Pennsylvania state park on in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River.
Built on land acqu ...
. The Conference also played a role in the appropriation of funds for the construction of
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
dams on the
Allegheny and
Monongahela rivers.
In the 1940s and 1950s, mass transit in Allegheny County was in jeopardy because of 40 private transit companies and increased competition from cars. The Conference released a report in 1951 calling for all local transit lines to be under one authority. Public suspicions and private interests delayed the measure until service cutbacks and strikes rekindled the idea in 1957. The Conference was instrumental in building public and private support. In 1959, legislation was passed to create the
Port Authority of Allegheny County
Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT, formerly Port Authority of Allegheny County) is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in the United States. The state-funded agency is based in Pittsburgh and is overseen ...
, and the first buses were rolling in 1964.
Allegheny Conference is a longtime partner with the
RIDC
The Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania--known colloquially as the RIDC--is a privately funded non-profit serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area to focus on a regional approach to economic development primari ...
. In 1981 it formed the Regional Economic Development Committee with the RIDC that included "18 of the region's top corporate executives".
The Conference also led the transformation of the 14-block Penn-Liberty Corridor into the
Pittsburgh Cultural District. A related effort was Strategy 21 that enabled public and private agencies in Allegheny County to speak with one voice when requesting state funds. Strategy 21 not only resulted in projects that ranged from the new
Pittsburgh International Airport
Pittsburgh International Airport , formerly Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, is a civil–military international airport in Findlay Township and Moon Township, Pennsylvania. Located about 10 miles (15 km) west of downtown Pitts ...
to
The Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...
.
In 2001, the Conference entered into a strategic affiliation with the
Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce is a Pittsburgh area non-profit that promotes business and community development throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Founded on December 5, 1874 the chamber received its charter on July 8, 1876 due to ...
, the Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA), with the four organizations merging many staff positions in 2003.
CEOs
* 1 - Park H. Martin - 1945 - 1958
* 2 - Edward J. Magee - 1958 - 1968
* 3 - Robert B. Pease - 1968 - 1991
* 4 - Rick Stafford - 1991 - 2003
* 5 - Michael Langley - 2003 - 2008
* 6 -
Dennis Yablonsky
Dennis Yablonsky was the CEO of the Allegheny Conference from 2008 to 2017, when he retired. He previously served as a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's cabinet as Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Developm ...
- 2008 - 2017
* 7 - Stefani Pashman - 2017 - present
References
*
*
External links
Allegheny Conference websiteNews feature on the Allegheny Conference
{{Pittsburgh
Organizations based in Pittsburgh
1944 establishments in Pennsylvania