Khamil Bailey was in need of a space to work that offered her safety, comfort and flexibility, which she said isn't something that is easy to find in Pittsburgh for Black people like herself.
So in 2021, she built one, which has since become a thriving co-working space on Smithfield Street downtown called Emerald City that, at times, is even frequented and used by Mayor Ed Gainey.
"I knew that I needed a place to work and I wanted it to be nice and I wanted it to be inspiring, and when I came into this space, I was like, 'huh, everybody should be in here,' and I started inviting friends and then they started getting offices and then we started inviting people for no good reason at all. 'Oh you're downtown, come by,'" Bailey said during a panel discussion hosted by Pittsburgh-based Black Tech Nation at the co-working space she co-founded and runs.
"I literally had people come in here and walk through the elevator and just cry because all of this is safe," she said. "I've had people cry happy tears and frustrated tears and sad tears and mad tears but this always feels like home to people, and that's always what it is that we wanted to deliver."
But Emerald City is unique in a place like Pittsburgh, Bailey and her other panelists would discuss at length as part of a 30-minute conversation that delved into how Pittsburgh is failing its Black residents in many ways, which is directly impacting the Black contributions that can be made to its burgeoning tech and startup scene.
Each of the four panelists went on to discuss that a sustained lack of investment and support from key figures in the political and business class is a major component behind the city's inability to encourage and champion its Black development.
"There's a reason why Beyoncé didn't come to Pittsburgh," Lindsay Powell, workforce strategies director at Oakland-based nonprofit InnovatePGH and one of the panelists, said of the acclaimed artist's decision to cancel her Pittsburgh show. "At the highest level, Pittsburgh doesn't invest in Black spaces and when you think about it from an economic development perspective, there are very few neighborhoods or even spaces within Pittsburgh where Blackness and Black culture is celebrated. You kind of have to scratch at it, find it and tell a friend to tell a friend."
That's not the case in a city like Atlanta, Powell said as part of a point that for many Black individuals, Pittsburgh is a "hostile city" and it will take efforts from multiple stakeholders and investors beyond those working in the supportive nonprofit foundation landscape here to change that.
Creating and supporting spaces for Black people and the other "accouterments" that make for a friendly Black city, Powell said, can go a long way at changing a perspective she said is held by native and transplant Black Pittsburgh residents alike.
"Black folks don't want to be here and that's the hard part — selling Pittsburgh first and then trying to layer on all the other opportunities that we have in the tech ecosystem," Powell said. "That's something I think first and foremost we need to address and invest in."
For Leigh Solomon Pugliano, who founded and serves as the president and CEO of East Liberty-based The Equity | Impact Center, direct investment isn't enough to support this work. There has to be room for mistakes to be made and growth to be had as a form of support beyond those that can be offered by financial means alone, she said.
"Giving people money to grow; giving people money to stay; giving Black folks, Black entrepreneurs money to fail — that's the hard part," Solomon Pugliano said. "We don't get those opportunities. With every dollar I'm like 'they'll never give it to us unless,' and you can't build that way under all that pressure and I just think the investment and the resources, all of that has to be in abundance somehow."
In an effort to try and end the conversation on a positive note, BTN Founder and panel moderator Kelauni Jasmyn asked the panelists where they hope Pittsburgh could be in five years as it relates to making the city a more welcoming place for Black entrepreneurs and technologists.
"I'm rooting for Pittsburgh," BTN Director of Strategic Execution April Jackson said. "I believe wholeheartedly that if we have the passion to take care of each other, we will all rise. I want our entrepreneurs to be successful."
Added Bailey: "I want to see a Pittsburgh that invests in itself and its people, and I think that's possible. I think it is another thing for us to do and be intentional about, but I think that's the Pittsburgh that I want to see."
A previous version of this article implied that Khamil Bailey was the sole founder of Emerald City. She co-founded the space with Samanta Black. The article has been updated to reflect this.
