Remaking the Growth Coalition: The Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development

Abstract

An important determinant of success for community development corporations (CDCs) is their ability to create formal and informal interorganizational networks. The Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development is one of the earliest citywide CDC networks in the United States and one of the few that became tightly integrated into the complex of financial and corporate leadership in its city. The partnership itself operates as an intermediary network for CDC real estate development and operating support, and the partnership CDCs have formed their own hub-spoke and peer-to-peer networks for employment training. But declining organizational capacity, the persisting problems of urban poverty and unemployment, and troubled economic development projects that have typically involved greater risk than those undertaken by their more housing-focused counterparts in other cities have left the partnership network vulnerable, as the political environment in city hall and in the local foundations has changed.