Gainey launches bid for second term as Pittsburgh's mayor

Standing under the shadow of a bridge whose collapse was among his first challenges — and whose rebuilding has proven to be among the city's lasting success stories — Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey announced his bid for reelection Saturday morning.

"In three years, we have delivered on promises that have been undelivered for years," Gainey said before several dozen supporters. "But there is still so much more work to do."

Invoking a catchphrase he has used since his first successful run for mayor in 2021, Gainey said, "We're going to move from 'Let's go get it' to 'Let's get it done.'"

The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge took place less than four weeks after Gainey took office. In part because President Joe Biden happened to be in town that day, the bridge quickly became a symbol of America’s decaying infrastructure — and its partial reopening less than a year later was a sign of Biden’s own commitment to doing something about it. Gainey too shared in that victory as he assembled a new administration.

On Saturday, he said, "We didn't know it at the time, but the Fern Hollow Bridge really became the blueprint for my administration" — which he characterized as having inherited long-neglected concerns that it would be his job to address.

"I don't want [any] mayor to ever have to wake up to that" kind of crisis, Gainey said.

In his speech, he recited a number of areas in which he sought to take up concerns that he said had long been ignored. He noted that a city Land Bank, which had for years seemed to be stuck in neutral, has begun moving scores of long-vacant properties. He touted his administration's efforts to compile a full assessment of bridge infrastructure needs, and to deploy "traffic-calming" measures citywide, as well as expanding the city's purchase of renewable power.

And he noted that the rate of homicides and non-fatal shootings in the city had dropped from a COVID-era spike. Gainey said the number of those crimes was 45 percent lower than it had been in the year before he took over — a statistic that appears to result from a spike in non-fatal shootings in 2021. The current number of homicides is on par with murder rates at that time.

In attendance at the event were a number of elected officials — including City Councilors Deb Gross, Khari Mosley and Barbara Warwick — as well as a familiar cast of activists. The latter included representatives of SEIU locals representing health care and building-services employees. SEIU Healthcare in particular played a key role in Gainey's 2021 win, and members of the union later took positions in his administration.

Some of Gainey's backers spoke from the lectern to vouch for his record.

"As a new councilperson, I have to say that in my district alone, the change that we have seen in the past three years is remarkable," said Warwick.

Gainey previously shelved a transit project, the Mon-Oakland Connector, that Warwick and others in Greenfield had opposed. And while she didn't mention that move, Warwick did credit him for having "done so much to create equity in my district," including investments in traffic-calming measures outside Squirrel Hill.

Critics were already taking issue with Gainey's sunny self-assessment pn Saturday morning. The local Republican Party chair, Sam DeMarco, issued a statement mockingly suggesting that Gainey was running because "There are still a few businesses to be driven out of town. A few streets remain to be rendered unsafe."

Gainey backers, though, credited him with bringing a new optimism to places that hadn't seen much of it in earlier rebuilding periods.

"I really appreciate his energy of being in every neighborhood, making people feel good about being in the city in spite of the challenges we face coming out of the pandemic, and infusing every neighborhood with a sense of hope," said Mosley.

Pittsburgh, like other cities, has seen a proliferation of homeless encampments along bike paths and Downtown, and they remain highly visible despite Gainey’s efforts. Police staffing remains a concern, with the force having dropped to around 750 officers — well below the 900 to which it once aspired.

Recruitment is a challenge in many cities, and Gainey told WESA that a COVID-era pause in police academy classes is still having an effect.

"We are still catching up," he said. But even so, "though we agree need more officers, let's talk about the fact that there has been a 30 percent reduction in homicides" since a peak in 2022.

"Let's talk about the things that are shifting the culture" under police Chief Larry Scirotto, he said. "That is what is making this city safe."

Gainey’s reelection announcement was no surprise: There has never been any question about his intention to seek another term, and his campaign has been blasting regular fundraising emails since mid-August. But coming just two months before the Presidential election, its timing raised some eyebrows in local political circles, and Gainey may well face a more serious challenger than those faced by most first-term mayors in recent Pittsburgh history.

A poll conducted by the Republican political consulting firm Long Nyquist + Associates this past summer suggested that, when pitted against a handful of potential competitors, including City Controller Rachael Heisler and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, Gainey did not receive more than 43 percent of the vote.

O’Connor, a former city councilor and the son of a former mayor, appears to be the most serious of those potential challengers. He is widely believed to be gearing up for a run next year, though he declined to comment on that speculation Friday.

“I’m flattered that people are talking about me, and I’ll always do what I can to help the city,” he said. “But right now I’m focused on the election we have coming up: President, Senate, state legislative races — all of which affect our region. If you are focused on May, you aren’t helping the party at this point.”

City Councilor Bob Charland, who has been critical of Gainey at times since taking office earlier this year, had similar misgivings.

“We have what is the most important election of our lifetime this fall," he said. “I’m not willing to entertain other elections beforehand, and I think it’s inappropriate to do so.”

Gainey said he made the announcement "to send a message: We're out here, we love the job that we're doing, we're going to continue to do it," Gainey said. "We wanted to put the marker down now that we are running. There is no question about it."

A historic rise — and vexing challenges

Though he’d been a former state representative who previously worked for former Mayors Tom Murphy and Luke Ravenstahl, Gainey’s rise to the city’s top office was unprecedented. He was the city’s first Black mayor, and his toppling of Bill Peduto was the first time in the city’s postwar era that an incumbent mayor seeking reelection had lost.

Gainey campaigned by criticizing Peduto’s failure to secure more financial support from UPMC and the city’s other large nonprofits, and he was aided by an activist movement galvanized by national protests about police misconduct.

Gainey bested Peduto by a convincing 7 percentage points, but even so, he won the four-person Democratic primary with slightly less than an outright majority. And his first term has faced challenges that have proven harder to resolve than the Fern Hollow Bridge.

Affordable housing remains in short supply, and the city faces an uncertain financial future, as federal COVID aid dries up while the economic impact of the virus on property tax revenues remains. And while Gainey scrapped Peduto's own efforts to have large nonprofits help finance city needs, there has been little outward progress on his own efforts to secure their support.

The 2023 municipal election season left elected city officials less predisposed to give Gainey the benefit of the doubt, among them Charland and particularly Heisler, who as City Controller has publicly questioned Gainey’s fiscal priorities.

Gainey announced a slate of new zoning rules designed to encourage more affordable housing most before he launched his campaign. And at Saturday's kickoff, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato hailed her partnership with him to address affordable housing needs and other issues.

In any case, he told WESA he didn't worry about the politics, and that he would focus on delivering for the city throughout his campaign.

"If I got caught up in what everybody else said," he said, "we couldn't have gotten this done."