What has Corey O’Connor been up to during his first month in office? City Cast Pittsburgh podcast host Megan Harris sits down with the mayor to hear about new initiatives, tight budgets, and some fresh ideas to revitalize Downtown.
We also asked O'Connor YOUR questions. Listen to the podcast for his takes on ICE, affordability, dark sky compliance, parks, snow plows, litter, and more.
Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Go-to office snack? We still have a lot of leftover Eat’n Park Smiley Cookies.
Golf handicap? It used to be good. I haven't posted scores in like two years, but I think two years ago was around like a 3.5.
Favorite part of the mayor's office so far? I did this as the [county] controller. Even today, before you guys got here, one of my meetings ended a little early, so we walked the halls. We went to the fourth floor, saw public safety and the parks departments. And I always think it's good of the mayor to just pop in. And the reaction you get is, you know, somebody's not looking. They're like, ‘Oh my goodness! What are you doing?!’ I’m just here to say thank you. I really enjoy doing those kinds of pop-ins. They're fun.
Favorite thing about the office itself? This room is obviously beautiful, the actual mayor's office. We put out a reel the other day — we didn’t plan on this — but I tried to sit in the seat and I couldn't get the chair to go up or down. I'm not very tall. I’m 5’6, so I could barely see over the desk. So I ran and I got a cushion, threw it under, and you know, you gotta just deal with what you got in the office. But that room is really nice. It's historic, and a lot of people enjoy coming down to the mayor's office.
Your predecessor called our current budget situation “the lean years.” You came in fresh on the heels of a small tax increase. How are you feeling about Pittsburgh’s ability to pay its bills in 2026? We're still putting it together. I think what City Council did was brave, because we do have funding gaps. But now, uncovering various things as we go through this process, we're still seeing gaps in funding and trying to get our hands around what the [difference] might ultimately be. … I think it's more than what we anticipated.
Do you anticipate any new cuts for the city? Not that we're expecting. It could change. If [we have to], we'll reopen the budget and have that conversation. But I don't think we'll know the details for [another] couple weeks.
Several past mayors have tried to get the “big four” or “big five” nonprofits — including UPMC, Highmark, Pitt, CMU, and Duquesne — to pay toward city services in some way. What’s your approach? We've had some general conversations. For us, it's going in with specific asks to all of the nonprofits, within their mission, to get a community benefits agreement that's gonna benefit everybody. So does it go to rec centers? Does it go to buying us more equipment, to our fleet, which is down? So focusing on ambulances, fire trucks, police — can we get an agreement that is very specific in where the money goes. And making sure that if something like that is finalized, that the money is audited annually so that more eyes are on it and the public knows the dollars are being spent properly.
Have you started those discussions yet? We have, yeah. I mean, generally, not specific details. We'll see how it goes. Every day you're just inching the ball forward. It hasn't been done in decades, so it's not the easiest thing to do. But I think conversations have been going well, and we'll just keep pushing for a community benefits agreement.
One of your first initiatives is Main on Main, focused on revitalizing business districts. Give me an example of what you want to revitalize and what a mayor's office can do to get it done. Every neighborhood has that intersection that everybody goes to, and it's not always just a shop or a restaurant, but there's that connectivity. And I think those are the places we have to focus on. So whether it's cleaning up, putting in better lighting, providing facade grants to a new company or an existing business that already is in your main street now, those are the things that really get small business districts going again and [can create] anchors to larger developments.
How do you balance that with people who are worried about getting priced out of their neighborhood? For us, it's making sure that when there is a development — and the development we announced [in Homewood] was 44 units, 85% affordable — [that it] can anchor in a business district. It also goes back to planning and zoning. If we zone a little bit for density in those business districts, now you have a transit line. You have more people living above the new pizza shop that just opened and supporting that business. So it's not gonna happen overnight, but that's how you have to envision these districts.
You asked your department heads to bring you recommendations to improve the current permitting system. The deadline is 60 days. What do you want to change about it, and have you heard any good ideas yet? We did. We actually had two graduate students from Harvard who came here our first two weeks and analyzed our permitting system and gave us a 30 page report. … There are gonna be some minor changes we can make, hopefully leading up to that deadline and then seeing what the whole overhaul would look like once we get to that 60 days. And then whether it's legislation that needs done, whether it's internal changes — we've seen that some departments are just overloaded with permits. [The city] asking for like six permits for one little curb cut. There's gotta be a limit to what we're asking for.
Who are these changes for? Not for big developers who can pay lawyers to do a lot of the background stuff. This is for small businesses and entrepreneurs so that they're not waiting months for a permit. Even community organizations that want to build housing in their neighborhood — the sooner we speed those permits up for them, the better they can use their money and get these projects up and running.
I heard you want to change the Boulevard of the Allies. What’s the vision? The Boulevard of the Allies shouldn't feel like a major highway cutting through our downtown, especially through a campus like Point Park. So working with PennDOT and state officials to look at narrowing, possibly getting rid of a couple parking spots on either side, better lighting, better art, and green infrastructure. Now all of a sudden it is your grand boulevard entrance from both sides of town into Downtown Pittsburgh. Makes it more vibrant, makes it more walkable, but also brings a sense of Downtown as a community. Having highways going through it doesn't feel that way.
You’ve proposed a special tax diversion for Downtown where property tax revenue from neighborhoods along the transit line — the Strip District, Downtown, and parts of the North Shore — could help fund specific, small projects in Downtown. Why there and why now, especially on top of the $600 million already earmarked for Arts Landing, Market Square, and more? The $600 million doesn't fill all the gaps in smaller projects. This would be for projects that are sort of ready to go, shovel ready, or just need that additional kick start … that have sat and still need $2-3 million. We have to get up and running, because then we generate the tax revenue back and it enables us to create more housing faster, create more office space, and create more storefronts. Little things go a very long way in making Downtown more vibrant for everybody. Tomorrow, Point Park is announcing a very big artist moving to Pittsburgh, which I think is very unique. The Weeknd is going to be working in Pittsburgh now… with his company HXOUSE — a studio in connection with Point Park, which now puts us on the world stage when you're talking about artists coming to Pittsburgh, especially to help revitalize Downtown and partner with young students who want to get into the music field. It just gives us another leg up.
There’s also a pop-up program for Downtown right now, all in advance of the NFL Draft. Who is that for? For an entrepreneur that never thought they could be open in Downtown. How do we get you Downtown? And I also think the Draft is a great way to do this, because there's about 50 plus storefronts that we want to have filled. … The more we can amplify the stuff that we have here, the better off we all are.
There was a line in your inauguration speech: “Public safety isn't a statistic. It's a feeling you have when you walk down the street.” Have you heard the criticisms of that, and what do you say to people who worry about whose feelings you’re catering to? I don't follow social media, but we can't rely only on statistics. When somebody's living next to a dilapidated house that the city owns — that's gonna fall on their house. … Crosswalks that aren't being taken care of. Sidewalks that are cracked. People with disabilities who need wheelchair access, and we don't have curbs that accommodate them so now they're in the streets. Those are not statistics that will ever pop up. That's what we're talking about.
