Google Reportedly Apologizes After Company Engineer Encourages Workers To Avoid Pittsburgh Over Air Quality Concerns
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Google is reportedly apologizing after a local engineer wrote an article encouraging other workers to avoid Pittsburgh because of the air quality.
Dennis Towne said he thought Pittsburgh would be a great place to live until he started breathing the air.
Towne blasted the city's pollution in an article for the digital non-profit, Public Source.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Google management reached out to him and assured him it plans to hire a lot more workers in Pittsburgh.
"They called to disavow that statement that one employee said," Fitzgerald said. "They called to apologize. They love Pittsburgh."
Google released a statement, saying:
"Google has been a proud member of the Pittsburgh community for almost 15 years. We've grown to more than 700 employees and are excited to continue growing alongside the local community for years to come. There's been discussion surrounding a recent article published expressing concern with some local environmental issues. I want to be clear that the article was the personal opinion of one of our employees and that Google remains committed to Pittsburgh. We will continue to work alongside our elected officials at the city, county and state levels to ensure Pittsburgh remains a great place to live, work and play. We have industry-leading sustainability goals and a track record of collaboration on issues like detecting methane leaks and providing the city with tools like Environmental Insights Explorer that aid governments to make better-informed decisions. We look forward to doing more of this in the future."
