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Statistics from Saturday's paper reveal the amazing opportunity that exits for the center City of Pittsburgh. According to the article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,more than 180,000 suburbanites flow into Downtown, Oakland and other city neighborhoods each day to work, boosting Pittsburgh's population by 41 percent, the fourth-highest proportional "day surge" among large cities in the nation.

This is amazing in itself. Center-city employment is actually higher now than in the past when many jobs were at steel mills along the rivers. A large number of these come by public transit, but a majority come by car. The number has also increase over the past decade from about 300,000 in 1992 to 320,000 in 2001.

These trends run counter to much of what has happened in cities in general over the past half-century. They also spotlight two areas of opportunity.

The first is to get some of these commuters to move into the city. This is already happening to some degree. Empty-nesters, boomer retirees, childless couples and singles are already moving into downtown and other areas, attracted by new housing opportunities. This is great news, but the numbers we saw Saturday reveal much greater opportunity.

The second area of opportunity, which should serve to booster the first, is to improve transportation within the city. This should be done using surface light-rail and streetcar lines that can be built in short amounts of time. The lack of such systems will keep the downtown housing boom from moving into other neighborhoods. New housing thus far has been concentrated in areas in very close proximity to downtown and Oakland, including South Side, North Shore, Squirrel Hill and the lower Hill District. Improving the time it takes (and ease of use) of transit systems will allow, in essence, other neighborhoods to become closer and "transit villages" to emerge.

In the more immediate term, city housing advocates should focus attention on selling city living to these commuters. More increasing the variety and quantity of in-city housing will serve to insure something more than a day-time population boost, a real reversal of suburban flight.