Get To Know Pittsburgh Candidate and Mayor Ed Gainey

Mayor Ed Gainey is on the City Cast Pittsburgh podcast today making his pitch for why he deserves four more years in office. Here's a snippet of our interview.

What is Pittsburgh's biggest challenge right now?

I think our greatest challenge is housing — continuing to ensure that we get our zoning package passed. I believe inclusionary zoning is a tool that we have to have. I believe that in every housing development, when we have more than 20 units, we should have affordability in them. I don't believe that asking for 10% at 50% of that area median income is wrong. That's, what? $45,000 for a mother of two to be able to live in this new housing development? I see that as a wonderful gift. I believe we should have it all over the city because at the end of the day, we should never have wealthy people living over here and working class people living over here. We should never have housing segregation. It should always be housing integration.

What do you think can be done over the next four years to grow Pittsburgh and bring more people to the region?

One is housing. I think people will always come where you have affordable housing. I mean, that's been proven. And two is our ability to be able to continue to attract immigrants. I think that we have to continue to reach out and make sure that we're creating a situation where our narrative is that we want immigrants. That's why I was so laser focused to stand up to ICE and let them know that our city will not be participating with ICE unless it was a criminal warrant — somebody [committed] a homicide or something. Other than that, I see where ICE does more trauma than it does create public safety.

Why should someone vote for you on May 20?

I've always stood up for the people that didn't have a voice to ensure that their voice was heard. I'm also the only candidate in this race that is fighting for affordable housing because I believe that housing is a right and at the end of the day, the more affordable housing that we build, the better our city is going to be.

I'm also proud of our record on public safety. I'm also proud of our record on tourism and bringing the [NFL] Draft here. I'm also proud of our record on building housing in neighborhoods. Twelve low-income [housing] tax credit deals in two funding cycles — that's incredible. The plan that we created for Downtown: $600 million over 10 years to reimagine and reinvent our Downtown corridor. Breaking ground on Eighth Street with the arts and Cultural District to bring a new public space there. The investments that we're looking to make in Market Square and Mellon Square.

Those are the reasons I'm asking for people's vote. We want to finish what we started. The more that we get an opportunity to finish what we started, the more this city is gonna grow.

These questions have been edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation, listen to the episode and check out our other installments: