Tuesday was a perfect day for Pittsburghers who emerged from the just-finished and exhausting presidential campaign with a yearning for more talk of hopes and visions and failures of leaders past. Need another debate about crime and budgets and government waste? The ’Burgh has got your back.
For those desperate to break from politics … well, too bad. Buckle up. We now have two candidates for the office of mayor of this great city, and the race is on. It looks like it’s going to be a doozie.
Current Mayor Ed Gainey announced his run for reelection back in September. Yesterday, Corey O’Connor made official what everyone who can read a news story or manage a TV remote already knew: He’s challenging Gainey in the Democratic primary.
O’Connor is a former member of Pittsburgh City Council and the current Allegheny County controller. Shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday, he stepped up to a podium in an old Hazelwood steel mill site that’s now a technology center and spoke for a few minutes about those things he’s accomplished as an elected official — pushing historic paid sick leave and gun reform measures, for example. Then he launched into a bruising attack on Gainey and his administration.
“There is no vision coming off of Grant Street anymore,” he said. “Instead, as I look around, I see a mayor and administration that’s managing decline instead of working to grow Pittsburgh.”
He expressed concern that the city is “sleepwalking towards another financial disaster.” In addition, Pittsburgh residents “feel increasingly unsafe,” he continued. “Property crime, retail and car theft, trespass, burglary and shootings are far too frequent.”
To be fair, homicides and shootings have dropped since the COVID-19 days, but as we all learned from the past presidential election, vibes about crime often overwhelm actual statistics. Several hours after O’Connor’s news conference, KDKA-TV aired a report about an increase in auto thefts in certain city neighborhoods. Woe to those who own a Kia, Hyundai or Honda, hot items for thievery.
Gainey, O’Connor said, had mishandled the homeless crisis, squandered federal funds and made a “backroom deal” with a police chief who quit with taxpayer money in his pocket so he could officiate college basketball. O’Connor even hit Gainey for wasting money on fireworks, which made us wonder briefly whether we were really in Pittsburgh.
O’Connor’s list was a long one, and he ended with this line: “We cannot afford another four years of this administration.”
This is all happening less than three years after Gainey’s historic inauguration as the city’s 61st and first Black mayor. Gainey gave an impassioned speech that day in 2022 and spoke about his love for the city. He promised to be bold, progressive and principled.
In announcing his bid for reelection in September, Gainey stood beneath the Fern Hollow Bridge and championed his first-term successes. He told the crowd that the bridge, quickly rebuilt after collapsing in the early weeks of his term in 2022, had served as a “blueprint” for his administration.
He talked about a drop in shootings and homicides, his efforts to make bridges safer, and Pittsburgh Land Bank’s success in selling blighted properties so they can be usable again.
After O’Connor’s announcement on Tuesday, Gainey released a statement that read, in part, “I welcome those entering the mayoral race, as I am confident that healthy competition brings out the best ideas and will continue to foster progress in our city.” The statement touted investments in affordable housing during Gainey’s term, and a planned overhaul of Downtown.
After blasting Gainey, O’Connor ended his speech by talking about the things he’d do should he win: create affordable housing (high on everyone’s list), partner with labor unions to initiate new workforce development programs, and help local businesses succeed. He also pledged to hire a police chief committed to the city and recruit more police officers and paramedics.
One of his ending lines went like this: “Every neighborhood can have great parks, playgrounds and amenities. This can be a city where families with young kids like mine can stay here.”
After the news conference, O’Connor took a few questions, then reporters gathered around current and past elected officials in attendance. One was Ricky Burgess, former City Council member. He said he was “confident that working with Corey O’Connor as mayor we will see the benefits in the African American community.”
One reporter asked Burgess if he was “disappointed in where we’ve gone the last three years.”
Burgess hesitated briefly, then began his answer: “I believe the future is bright, and we can become a better city if we elect Corey O’Connor.”
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History remained subtly present on Tuesday. You could look up and see rusted I-beams in the upper reaches of the Hazelwood Green facility, where O’Connor held his news conference. These remnants of the structure’s past, however, remained deep in the background of an otherwise very modern building of steel and glass. And of course there’s O’Connor’s past, which he alluded to briefly early in his remarks: “I got into public service to fight for the communities I grew up in. Some say it runs in my blood.”
His father, Bob O’Connor, served on Pittsburgh City Council before becoming the city’s mayor in 2006. A rare brain cancer ended his energetic term. He died eight months after being sworn into office. Many folks remember Bob O’Connor for his “Redd Up Pittsburgh” campaign to clean up the city.
Steve is a photojournalist and writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he is currently on strike and working as a Union Progress co-editor. Reach him at smellon@unionprogress.com.