The first policy debate of Pittsburgh’s 2025 mayoral race began in the bitter cold outside Troy Hill’s shuttered Cowley Recreation Center, where challenger Corey O’Connor vowed to expand resources for youth and families.
He gestured to the building behind him as an example of a community resource that Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration had neglected.
“This is a prime example of failed leadership,” O’Connor said. “Cowley Rec Center should be open. Right now, what we see are broken windows, broken doors. This should be serving the families of the North Side and it's not. … We have not reimagined our rec centers in generations.”
In response, Gainey’s administration provided a fact sheet which said there is a total of $8.6 million set aside in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan for work to rehabilitate the structure. A contract to do so was executed last month, the administration said.
“We've invested a lot in the needs of different neighborhoods to ensure that we were doing what was right,” Gainey said in an interview with WESA.
Still, work has long been delayed at the site, which closed in 2003. Multiple attempts to demolish and rebuild or renovate at the property have stalled over the following two decades, and the public works project page for the site has not been updated since late 2023.
O’Connor said Gainey should have more to show after the city, like other local governments across the country, received huge sums of federal COVID aid through the American Rescue Plan. While much of that money was meant to be spent on avoiding layoffs when the pandemic paralyzed local economies, O’Connor faulted Gainey for spending on other areas instead of shoring up community centers.
“This administration had $350 million of ARP money that wasn't planned out for a future. You went and spent it all upfront,” he said. “And what did Pittsburgh get out of it? You don't have shovel-ready sites….That shows that you don't have a mayor or an administration that's actually leading Pittsburgh into the future. And that's the shame of it.”
As mayor, O’Connor said, he’d open the Cowley center and facilities like it across the city, and extend opening hours on weekdays and into weekends. Asked where the money for such initiatives would come from, he said he would prioritize those needs but did not specify where in the budget those dollars would come from.
He did, however, fault Gainey for investing COVID funds in efforts like a $6 million effort to compile a comprehensive plan for the city. The money, which was approved in February 2024, will be used to carry out community input and other work performed by firms inside and outside the city.
“That's $6 million that could have been invested in people and families, and they didn't do that,” O’Connor said. “They chose to hire outside agencies and outside firms to, again, study Pittsburgh. If you don't know Pittsburgh, you know, then you shouldn't be the mayor.”
Gainey said his administration had used federal dollars and other revenue to fix and reopen city pools and basketball courts. He pointed to a newly-created late-night basketball program for young adults on the South Side through the My Brother’s Keeper project as an impactful youth initiative. Other initiatives he touted include the addition of an Education Coordinator and a Youth Coordinator position to the mayor’s office and the expansion of CitiSports staff and programs. He also cited after-school programs and the Youth Civic Leadership Academy.
“Creating pathways for our young people to prosper is critical to building a thriving Pittsburgh for all,” Gainey said. “And this work will continue to be a top priority in my second term.”
