Pittsburgh ? Pittsburgh is known for steel. For sports. For smoke and smog. For a spectacular downfall. But not often for recovery.

For years, political leaders, community activists and ordinary residents tried to convince the world beyond its three rivers that this former industrial powerhouse was on the rise with an economy built on higher education, medicine and new technology.

From Sept. 24 to 25, it will get a chance to prove its point to the world leaders representing 85 percent of the world’s economy. On Thursday, the White House announced that President Barack Obama decided to host the next Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh as a way of illustrating what success can look like.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama recommended Pittsburgh at the end of the group’s April meeting in London, because the city “has seen its share of economic woes in the past, but because of foresight and investment is now renewed, giving birth to renewed industries that are creating the jobs of the future.”