In Mayor Ed Gainey’s State of the City address, he said that he wanted Pittsburgh to be the safest, most welcoming city in America with opportunity for all.
City Cast Pittsburgh host Megan Harris sat down with him at the City-County Building to talk about what the administration is doing to accomplish that, plus his wish list for the second half of his term.
Investing in Pittsburgh’s Bridges
Nearly 40 city-owned bridges have been rated as poor, and the city is repairing at least a dozen through the new Bridge Asset Management Program.
Megan Harris: The bridges are so expensive, and you got $86 million plus some federal money? Is that enough?
Mayor Gainey: Well, it's never enough, but it's the beginning, right? We went decades without a bridge management program. I mean, think about that. We're the city of bridges, and we don't have a bridge asset management program. So, I can't be upset about what we didn't have because we were not here yet. What I can do is begin to plan, talk about how we look at this crisis, and turn it into an opportunity so we have a promise of a better tomorrow.
Boosting Traffic Calming & Sidewalk Repairs
Vision Zero is a plan that “starts with the premise that all traffic fatalities and serious injuries are preventable” and works with multiple city departments to develop holistic solutions, according to BikePGH.
Last year, the city launched a pilot to help homeowners repair critical sidewalks identified through the Safe Routes to School program.
Megan Harris: The sidewalks are really complicated too just because in Pittsburgh it's unique that a lot of homeowners are in charge of sidewalks.
Mayor Gainey: Sure, but we’ve also reached out to them and said ‘listen, it’s better to do business with us. We can offset the costs’ … So if it benefits people, it benefits the city. And those are the things that we're doing right now that don't get a lot of attention because they're not sexy, right?
Megan Harris: Sidewalks are very sexy, mister mayor.
Mayor Gainey: Yeah, I think they are! Because here’s the reality: We're talking about mobility on so many different issues. That's why a part of it was moving [The City-County Task Force on Disabilities] out of City Planning and into the mayor's office so that we could have more of an understanding of exactly what's needed and get them involved at an earlier stage in development… We don’t want a city that grows old, we want a city that grows up.
Bringing the NFL Draft to Pittsburgh
Megan Harris: I saw you also threw in your support recently, in an editorial The Trib, about the NFL Draft coming to Pittsburgh. Why make that a big priority?
Mayor Gainey: I think it's exciting to me because a lot of people's left this city. And wherever I go, you have what I call “Stiller bars.” We're all over. And a lot of them still love this city… We want people to come back to see the new city, the new Pittsburgh. We want them to come back and experience that we're not the smoky town we used to be. We're tech. We're meds. We're eds. We're inclusive. We're diverse. We're culture. We're sports. We're everything. Come on home and see why you miss home so much.
Keeping Pittsburgh Kids Safe
TribLIVE reported that more than 170 children died from gun violence in Pittsburgh in the last five years; 30 of them were in 2023.
Mayor Gainey’s first concern is with legislation: We got more guns on the streets than we got children, and legislatively, we have to change that, because at the end of the day it's not how we protect guns, it's how we protect our children.
Second? Outreach to the community: And that's why you hear us reach out to these parents and everybody else in the community. If you see something, say something. And we've seen a return on that. We've probably got more information and evidence from neighbors, from the communities, from people in the city than ever before.
