What’s at stake: Pittsburgh City Council District 7 includes the neighborhoods of Bloomfield, Friendship, Highland Park, Lawrenceville, Morningside, Polish Hill, Stanton Heights and the Strip District. Deb Gross has represented the district since 2013, but this year she faces a primary opponent in Jordan Botta.
Salary: $76,544
Jordan Botta
Jordan Botta has worked as an analyst for Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle company Argo AI and the Buhl Observatory. He serves with several community organizations and has been an advocate for the LGBT community. This is Botta’s first run for public office.
Party: Democratic
Place of residence: Bloomfield
Education: Central Catholic High School; B.S., University of Pittsburgh; M.S., American Public University
Current occupation: Self-employed
Related experience: President, Bloomfield-Lawrenceville Lions Club; zone chair, Lions International District 14-B; vice chair, Proud Haven; Board of Trustees, Three Rivers Business Alliance Foundation
Supporters/endorsements: Sean Meloy, 2022 congressional candidate; previous District 7 candidates Deirdre Kane and Tony Ceoffe; Laborers' International Union of North America
Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter
WESA Candidate Survey
What should Pittsburgh City Council’s top priority be right now? How would you try to address it, if elected?
One of our top priorities should be ensuring that Pittsburgh remains an equitable, accessible, and progressive municipality. There are many hurdles ahead of us over the next decade, from ensuring affordable housing to maintaining localized economic development. If elected, my priorities will focus on the needs of our residents rather than the desires of the special interests on Grant Street. Our administration will work to incentivize more involvement among nonprofit and community organizations so that development and expansion takes place on a local level. Pittsburghers are as strong as steel, and like the metal, our job is to be the support for something greater.
What does your district most need from City Council? Why are you the right person to address it?
Above all, District 7 needs transparency, accountability, and accessibility. There are so many issues from housing insecurity, to urban infrastructure, public transportation, common-sense development, small business incentivization — and accessibility to our local officials.
District 7 is where I was born, where I grew up, and where I call home. We need a diligent, accessible, proactive councilperson who understands our issues from personal experience. Our office will emphasize the needs of all residents — whether it’s something as big as safeguarding an affordable cost of living, or something as small as filling a pothole or fast-tracking DOMI applications.
Violent crime, particularly among youth, has been a high priority for the mayor’s office and city council. What do you think council’s role should be in addressing the problem?
As the legislative branch of our city government, council has a substantial responsibility to ensure the safety, wellbeing, and prosperity of our residents, especially the youngest among us. I fundamentally believe that every child in Pittsburgh should have access to universal child care, before- and after-school programs, and subsidized mental health support. Council has the opportunity to tackle violent crime amongst our most vulnerable residents by addressing these issues at their source. We need to invest in community resource centers, counseling services, and incentivize intramural and extracurricular programs for Pittsburgh youth. I plan to personally address this disparity by working with community organizations, nonprofits, and Pittsburgh Public Schools to ensure our youth have the resources to pursue prosperous, secure futures.
Pittsburgh faces a variety of housing challenges — from a lack of affordable housing stock to a growing homeless population. What is the most effective thing council can do to address this?
City Council should pass inclusionary zoning measures citywide, to ensure that new developments safeguard an affordable cost of living for those who cannot afford the skyrocketing cost of rent. Since its inception in 2019, only a few dozen units of affordable housing have been constructed in District 7, despite tens of millions of dollars in privatized development. The Pittsburgh Land Bank has been a disaster, and our Land Trusts have been limited in their ability to curb the cost of existing properties.
I want to safeguard homeowners and renters by establishing rent-control measures, ensuring tenant liberties, and passing right-of-first-refusal legislation. We must also invest in short- and medium-term public housing for impoverished residents, and provide occupational counseling to guarantee an equitable future for all.
The state of the city’s Bureau of Police has been a topic of discussion for city leaders. While City Council has held public hearings to learn more about staffing concerns, what else can or should council do to improve working conditions for police?
Some of the most important aspects of Pittsburgh’s Bureau of Police center around officer recruitment and retention, as well as diversification of the police force. Mayor Gainey has brokered a substantive contract for city officers, and hopefully more can be done to ensure competitive salaries. I hope to ensure adequate funding for officer wellness, specifically around mental and emotional wellbeing, which is a precursor to safe, effective police practices.
I think the hybrid policing approach we are currently utilizing alongside social workers and mental health professionals is an excellent direction, and if done responsibly can be expanded to Allegheny County and beyond.
Deb Gross
Deb Gross has served as the City Council member for District 7 since 2013. Prior to her role on council, she worked in the nonprofit sector with groups including the Women and Girls Foundation, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Alliance and several community development corporations.
Party: Democratic
Place of residence: Highland Park
Education: B.A., University of Florida; M.A., Duke University
Current occupation: Pittsburgh City Councilor; chair of the committee on intergovernmental and educational affairs
Related experience: Pittsburgh City Council (2013-present)
Supporters/endorsements: Allegheny County Democratic Committee; Steel City Stonewall Democrats; Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists of America; PA Working Families Party; Sunrise Movement Pittsburgh; and labor groups including the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council and Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
WESA Candidate Survey
What should Pittsburgh City Council’s top priority be right now? How would you try to address it, if elected?
We need to invest in food, housing, mobility, child care — the services residents need! Neighborhood businesses are struggling to pay rent and workers. Food production, distribution, and retailing is controlled by fewer and fewer corporations. We are losing homes — 70 percent of current single-family home sales are to institutional buyers. Pittsburgh, like much of the U.S., is under threat of privatization and plunder.
The solution is not only to protect the city’s assets and operations from privatization, but to grow municipal facilities: social housing, child care centers, libraries, and collaboratively controlled housing, workplaces, and consumer groups. Together we can work towards neighborhood-driven change, equitable development, and investment in working families.
What does your district most need from City Council? Why are you the right person to address it?
First, District 7 needs leadership on expanding affordability issues. I have been a policy leader on these issues. Second, District 7 needs a partner on neighborhood issues. There are many neighborhood groups engaged in a huge variety of projects — from Little Leagues to gardens and street improvement. Very often what they need from me is to get obstacles out of their way, or connect them to the resources that can make their project work. Maintaining strong relationships has allowed my office to bring citizens into leadership. We’ve installed traffic-calming measures, worked on shared commercial compost pick-up, and supported urban agriculture through our City Farms program. I will always put community voices first.
Violent crime, particularly among youth, has been an issue of high priority for the mayor’s office and city council. What do you think council’s role should be in addressing the problem?
We are paying for 20 years of shuttered recreation centers, closed pools, and downsized city operations. It is time to reinvest in communities.
While I have supported gun legislation after the 2018 synagogue shooting, and have been sued by the National Rifle Association alongside my colleagues for it, still violence increases. Let’s invest in our youth and our neighborhoods. We can double the budget for Parks and Recreation. We can have counselors and coaches and lifeguards and a safety net for kids. We can invest in basic needs for our poorest households. Of households in poverty in the city, 70 percent are female-headed with children. They struggle with housing insecurity, food insecurity, and child care. That is why I am centering housing, food, and child care in my campaign.
Pittsburgh faces a variety of housing challenges — from a lack of affordable housing stock to a growing homeless population — what is the most effective thing council can do to address this?
The most effective thing council can do is diversify our policies and not rely on one!
I have supported and partnered to create 150 deeply affordable units in District 7 through inclusionary zoning. I also fought for and won Inclusionary Zoning mandates for Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and Polish Hill. However IZ is not enough.
For too long, we have decreased the amount of local publicly owned housing and have gone too far in relying on the market to provide affordable housing. It is time to add back publicly owned housing. We should flip tax incentives on their heads, incentivizing collective ownership of housing and businesses, and social infrastructure like child care and community assets.
Transitional housing helps people get their lives back. We can and should provide several hundred units that have supportive services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The state of the city’s Bureau of Police has been a topic of discussion for city leaders. While City Council has held public hearings to learn more about staffing concerns, what else can or should council do to improve working conditions for police?
Council and the mayor have the responsibility to allocate resources to meet the city’s needs. But we are using officers for too many desk jobs that could be filled by civilians. Second, there are too many neighborhood assignments for police that could be done by non-officers. For example, I have a small community festival that has been held by the same volunteers for 15 years. They just got notified that for the first time, the city is ordering they pay Pittsburgh Police officers to be on duty. Lowering these unnecessary job assignments will free up officers for work that only they can do.
