A showboating boxer sometimes whirls his left arm like a windmill, as if gathering momentum to deliver a forceful punch. As his opponent's attention is diverted to the expected blow, the showboat hits him with a sneaky right. Ah, the sweet science. The local version of that sucker punch is creeping metropolitanism. Notice the soap opera to revive the fiscal cadaver that is the City of Pittsburgh. Most eyes have been on the state agencies assigned to the resuscitation -- the Act 47 team and the oversight board -- and Mayor Tom Murphy. And that is fine, if you happen to live in the city. Roughly 15 percent of the metro area does. However, if you are in the silent majority -- the 85 percent living in or around Allegheny County but beyond Murphy's clutches -- please redirect your focus. And protect your chin. The Grant Street boys are devising the least objectionable form of metropolitanism to force Allegheny County suburbanites to bail out the city while gradually merging with it. My wife and I decided a few years ago to live outside of Allegheny County. Low real estate and sales taxes, fewer assessment headaches, very low crime rate --- and the very real fear of metropolitanism. The hour-long daily commute to the paradise that is the North Side is worth it. My fears are being realized, one news story at a time. David O'Loughlin is part of the five-member oversight board. He is floating the idea that the proposed taxes aimed at businesses in the city and those employed by them should be applied statewide or, at least, regionwide. In the name of fairness, of course. It is only fair that an owner not have any choices about where to locate his business, at least based on local taxes. The fiscal restraint shown by suburban municipalities that helps businesses flourish becomes irrelevant. Regarding tax misery, Grant Street thinks one size should fit all. The occupation tax on those working in the city will be disproportional since most are suburbanites. And the proposed payroll tax on businesses probably will trickle down mostly onto those same suburban workers. Gene Ricciardi, the president of Pittsburgh City Council, has announced that if real estate taxes are increased in the city, he will push for an increase of the homestead exemption. That effectively will neutralize the increases. Guess who will make up the difference? And now in the name of compassion, those who make less than $12,000 annually would be exempt from paying the worker tax. Surely, most of those low-income people live in the impoverished city. Guess who, again, would make up the difference? Who knows how many citizens moved out of Allegheny County when Grant Street rammed through the additional 1 percent sales tax in the county to prop up the so-called regional assets. Most of them, coincidentally, were in the city. Surprise, surprise. How many more will flee the county as it slowly dawns on them that more of their paychecks are being sucked into the fiscal black hole that is this once-great city? As people keep moving to adjoining counties, property values in those suburbs will continue appreciating. The greater the demand for homes, the more pricey the supply. The Allegheny County exodus could make me rich. Metropolitanism might not be so bad, after all.

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