As Pittsburgh prepares for its next mayoral election, AIA Pittsburgh is working to ensure that the voices and priorities of architects are part of the conversation. To better understand where the candidates stand on key issues that shape our built environment, AIA Pittsburgh’s Advocacy Committee developed a 6-question survey addressing topics such as economic development, housing, sustainability, population growth, and the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The questions posed to each candidate were:
- What are your administration’s goals for economic development for the City for the next 4 years? What specific policies will you implement to reach these goals?
- What are your plans to increase housing access for all income levels in the City? Can this be tied to other initiatives such as the landbank to achieve greater success?
- City of Pittsburgh population is aging and has been declining over the short and long term. How will you attract more residents to Pittsburgh to build our tax base and community?
- What are your specific plans for sustainability action in the City? How will you partner with Allegheny County and other public and private regional organizations to achieve these goals?
- The Comprehensive Plan has made some strides in 2024, leading into this year. How will you amplify this effort and utilize this information to inform decisions about city planning and growth?
- What is your plan for enforcing regulations that require commercial buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh to provide properly sized, well-maintained waste and recycling storage on-site. What strategies or policies will you implement to improve compliance and enhance waste/ recycling management infrastructure in our city’s commercial core?
The responses from the candidates Ed Gainey and Thomas West below will help architects make informed decisions and engage with the policies that will shape Pittsburgh’s future. Corey O’Connor and Tony Moreno also received this survey but did not submit responses.* (*Edit: this post was later updated to include Corey O’Connor’s responses.)
Please note: AIA Pittsburgh does not endorse any individual candidate. The information provided is for the knowledge and benefit of our members and is intended to promote awareness and dialogue around issues relevant to the architecture and design community.
Ed Gainey (D)
Economic Development
“Pittsburgh is the jobs driver of the region. During my time as Mayor, I have invested in the continued growth and development of Pittsburgh’s economy focusing on making sure that every Pittsburgh resident has the opportunity to economically thrive in our city. My administration brought the NFL Draft to Pittsburgh which will create jobs, bring tourists, and spur investment in our city.
In order to have a strong economy, you must be able to work with elected officials statewide and federally. Working with Governor Josh Shapiro, I delivered $600 million in funds to revitalize downtown, which will create over 1,000 units of new housing and revitalize areas like Market Square and Point State Park. I also secured over $300 million in state and federal funds to invest in programs like affordable housing, a workforce hub, infrastructure, youth opportunities, and public safety.
Over the next four years I will continue to move forward with my vision of a Pittsburgh that is a city of growth and opportunity for all residents. In order to do that we must continue building affordable housing and investing in our local communities so that we can keep Pittsburgh home. Downtown Pittsburgh needs to be a mixed use, mixed income, 24/7 community.
I want to see Pittsburgh thrive, and to do that we must invest in the next generation of Pittsburghers by continuing to create job opportunities for our youth through programs such as Learn & Earn, while also leveraging our partnerships with PPS, Partners4Work, and regional employers to keep Pittsburgh graduates in Pittsburgh. My administration is committed to making sure that our small businesses owners have the same opportunities to participate in city contracts, and I will complete a region wide disparity study so that I can set more aggressive goals to ensure that this happens. I will also overhaul city contracting practices to make the process faster and more fair.
Major nonprofits like UPMC, Pitt, Highmark, and CMU dominate Pittsburgh’s economy and must pay their fair share. Whether it is at the negotiating table or in the courts, I will continue to fight until they agree to make a financial investment in our city. “
Housing
“I am committed to making sure that our residents have access to affordable housing and the ability to keep Pittsburgh home. We cannot afford to lose residents to outside areas just because we do not have the housing they need. We cannot see residents pushed out of the communities that they have called home for decades just because they no longer can afford to live there. I have secured funding for new housing projects, and my administration has already approved and completed thousands of affordable housing units.
The $600 million I secured with Josh Shapiro will create over 1,000 new housing units in downtown Pittsburgh, 30% of which will be affordable housing. I am committed to expanding inclusionary zoning citywide so that new housing developments include a percentage of rent controlled units.
Through the OwnPGH program, 150 low to moderate income Pittsburghers were able to make their first home purchase and we will launch a second iteration of that so that we can create the next generation of Pittsburgh home owners.
I secured a $30 million dollar affordable housing bond for Pittsburgh–the first of its kind, and I will issue a second one in my next four years.
I want to reduce the City’s affordable housing deficit by half, and reverse the loss of over 700 Black homeowners that Pittsburgh has experienced in the last decade. Since 2014, properties have sat in the Pittsburgh Land Bank and we were missing out on homes that our residents need. From the day I took office, my administration committed to moving homes out of the Land Bank and into the hands of the people. We have successfully sold over 150 properties from the Land Bank since 2023 by reforming the processes and procedures that prevented the sale of properties.
Finally, we must take care of our most vulnerable residents, those experiencing homelessness. My administration has worked with County Executive Innamorato’s team to create a shared system of housing and human services that is now a model for the country. Instead of merely building more shelter, we invested in homelessness prevention prevention and in creating “flow” in our shelter system, so that people in temporary accommodations like those at 2nd Avenue Commons are able to move into transitional, permanently supportive, subsidized or market rate housing, or, in some case, be reunited with their families. That ensures there are “first stop” shelter beds for anyone who falls into homelessness. This approach has enabled us to move people living on our northshore trail and the Eliza Furnace trail, and we are now using the same approach to move people living unsheltered on the southside into accommodation. Having cracked the code of homelessness, my job in a second term is to increase the pace with which we can bring on “post-shelter” facilities, to tighten the connections between housing and supportive and job services, and to make the experience of homelessness increasingly short and rare.”
Population Changes
“Increasing our population has two parts: retaining people who live here currently and attracting new residents. We have tremendous assets to build on – robust eds, meds and tech sectors, natural beauty and outdoor spaces, and a reasonable climate. We need to invest in all of these assets to help young people who are educated here, as well as long time residents who are experiencing push-out, as well as new neighbors looking for a place to settle can all call Pittsburgh home.
We know that one of the primary drivers of a decision a person makes to move into or out of a place is the availability of housing that fits their needs. In recent years, Pittsburgh has been delivering a variety of attractive market rate housing options for the people who are helping us to raise the median income. We’ve been less successful providing options for the many lower wage families and workers who have struggled to stay here. That’s one reason we’ve been laser focused on creating affordable units. I’d like to mention that preservation is a big part of that effort, since that lets us both create affordability and reduce the threat of vacancy and blight. We have also introduced a number of changes to the zoning code that will allow us to create the kind of density and walkability that are attractive to younger people who increasingly do not own cars. The Keep Pittsburgh Home initiative is geared to satisfying the needs of both.
We have also invested in attracting businesses and construction projects to bring jobs to the city, all the while revising workplace and procurement practices to ensure that opportunity is available to all our residents. We are very encouraged by recent data that clearly shows Pittsburgh as the regional leader in job creation.”
Sustainability
“Focusing on sustainability is a priority for me as the Mayor and many of the steps we are taking as a City focused on sustainability are outlined in our Climate Action Plan. For example, Pittsburgh has expanded its fleet of electric vehicles in every currently possible way and I intend to grow that fleet in my next term as mayor, so that we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprint. Right now we are wrestling with electric trash trucks which are not easy to make work, and we are also experimenting with electric police vehicles, where the challenge is how to charge those vehicles when they are in use 24/7. We offer discounted bus passes to City employees in order to encourage public transportation use and have heavily invested in building up our biking infrastructure. We participate in composting pilots, invest in urban farming and urban farming nonprofits, participate in partnership with GROW Pittsburgh, and dedicated $3 million in ARPA funds to food justice initiatives. Additionally, we have improved our parks through park reforestation.
One of the achievements I’m most proud of is our own energy purchasing. For the first time in our city’s history, we are purchasing power from a renewable source; today 45% comes from renewable sources and we are working with neighboring municipalities to expand our power purchasing consortium, to allow the city to achieve 100 percent in my second term and allow our neighbors to start or increase their own clean power purchasing.”
Comprehensive Plan
In more than 200 years as a chartered city, Pittsburgh has never created an integrated comprehensive plan to guide its growth. Most plans have been completed at the neighborhood level, with each having its own distinct character, history, and culture. While these neighborhood plans are important, the process has resulted in a patchwork of plans that can lead us to miss opportunities to build a truly liveable city. An integrated, City-wide Comprehensive Plan will ensure that future neighborhood plans have a consistent and shared vision for the future and ensure that we are able to deal proactively with challenges that face us all. These challenges include reducing health and wealth disparities between our residents, driving a vibrant economy in a region whose growth has historically been tied to environmental degradation, revising land use policies to reflect today’s challenges (landslides) and preferences (density) and building transportation and mobility systems that support it all. Finally, we want all of our residents to experience the planning process as one of civic engagement, so that what we choose is not imposed upon people but is instead the result of a process of visioning and compromise. There’s an opportunity to understand one another better and to become more unified as city residents. That will also be important to our resilience as a municipality. We do this through the 90- to – 1 campaign that has set the ambitious goal of engaging one in every 10 residents and was launched last month. We invite all of your members to take the survey here: https://pgh2050.com/shareyourvoice#survey “
Waste and Recycling Management Downtown
“We all want and deserve to have a clean and livable city and Downtown is the heart of Pittsburgh. When I took office, I recognized that in order to keep Pittsburgh as clean as possible we need the right people in place to enforce existing regulations around waste management and recycling. That’s why we decided to shift enforcement of this kind of problem out of the Department of Permits and Inspections and into the Department of Public works, hiring new inspectors in DPW and transferring some out of PLI into this program which is launching now. We have engaged with downtown businesses to let them know more rigorous enforcement is in effect and we are also partnering more closely with downtown business and neighborhood associations to help make this an all-downtown effort.
In my second term, I would like to begin to focus not only on the important question of how we handle trash, but how we can work together to produce less of it in the first place. Much as Vision Zero commits us to eliminating fatal crashes in our right of way, a Zero Waste initiative would benefit urban dwellers and the trash collectors and inspectors who serve them by reducing the amount of trash we produce and handle. San Francisco, San Diego and New York have set themselves the goal of breaking the “trash-to-landfill” cycle completely. It’s an idea I’d like to explore here in Pittsburgh.”
Corey O’Connor (D)
Economic Development
“We cannot look at economic development simply as something that happens in Downtown or Oakland. Instead, we need to spur investments all across Pittsburgh so that everyone can benefit from it. Residents should feel that we value the economic success and vibrancy of a neighborhood business district as much as the Golden Triangle because their community’s success is just as important.
Pittsburgh’s local economy must deliver for its people. Communities have to be vibrant with strong business districts, giving entrepreneurs the chance to succeed and neighbors access to mixed-use amenities, goods and services where they live, and the power to support small businesses.
The current mayor is content to do business as usual, and our neighborhood business districts, shop owners, and community members are feeling it. I believe that for Pittsburgh to thrive, we must commit to unlocking opportunity for everyone, developing and sharing resources for small businesses, and pursuing innovative economic strategies. And that starts at home in each and every one of our neighborhood business districts — our main streets.
I am committed to strengthening and revitalizing our main street business districts with a focus on a “main and main” approach to community and economic development that invests in areas near the primary intersections of neighborhood businesses districts and commercial corridors around which communities are built. We should not just invest in Downtown and a few select neighborhoods, but, rather, in all neighborhoods. Every Pittsburgh neighborhood deserves a strong main street, and all main streets deserve resources and a plan. That is why I will champion a Main Streets for All agenda.
The best main streets are welcoming, safe, designed well, and lit well. Under Main Streets for All, I will partner with communities to invest in streetscaping, street furniture, street lighting, vacant lot activation, wayfinding signage, sidewalk repair, mobility solutions, open space improvements, and other enhancements to the built environment to make every main street the ideal place to visit, shop, invest, and open a business.
If we want to bring Main Streets for All to every community, then the city must take infrastructure investments in our main street business districts just as seriously as it does roads and bridges. These business districts symbolize the unique character of their neighborhoods, and we must make sure that the built environment is designed and maintained in a way that enhances small business’ ability to attract residents and visitors.
A key part of my vision for my Main Streets for All agenda is connectivity. Neighborhood business districts enhance community engagement and help our residents connect with their neighbors while also spurring economic activity across Pittsburgh. Marquee developments and new projects must be tied to neighborhoods, and connections must ensure links to new or expanded opportunities.
Vacant or under-utilized properties must be better used, including commercial space available to entrepreneurs, which can help address the vacant lots that break up many of Pittsburgh’s business districts. By modernizing permitting and zoning regulations, we can spur robust mixed-use developments to revitalize communities, encourage new commercial corridors, and strengthen existing ones. Our zoning code must incentivize first floor activation to improve business districts’ walkability, increase density, and center intentional placemaking within our neighborhoods.
The most important part of a main street is people: the neighbors, the families, the visitors, the business owners, and employees. Main Streets for All will provide resources and technical support to help every neighborhood business district create street festivals and other public events and activities to bring main streets, and the neighborhoods around them, to life.
I believe that economic development and community development are inherently linked. That is why my vision is for everyone to be able to walk around their neighborhood and see a safe, clean, and vibrant community. Right now, too many of our neighborhoods are plagued by vacant, dilapidated buildings and blighted properties. This reflects a failure of accountability on the part of the city and the current mayor. Residents take pride in their neighborhoods, and the city should, too. Each resident, regardless of neighborhood, deserves to have a city that actually takes their quality-of-life concerns seriously.
There are too many communities that feel left behind and like they do not get their fair share of basic city services — and they are right. That is unacceptable, and I commit to working every day to change that through his plans for community development. The problems of blight, illegal dumping, vacant and overgrown lots, and neighborhood deterioration are not new, but the current mayor has run away from these problems. I will not dodge the hard work of cleaning up neighborhoods just because that work is not flashy. I will face these problems head on and be accountable to residents.
The city must be proactive about using the tools available to it, like code enforcement and quality-of-life ticketing. We must move away from the city’s current strategy, which has been to let problem properties go unaddressed on countless blocks in neighborhoods across the city.
Instead, as mayor, I will work collaboratively with residents to identify the most high-priority areas of blight and deterioration for targeted action, specifically when it comes to razing deteriorated structures. I will work tirelessly to address the city’s ever-growing list of demolition-eligible properties, with a goal of drastically reducing this backlog of blighted properties within four years. My goal is to improve the efficiency of demolition and remediation processes such that more properties are addressed faster than those reaching demolition-eligible status. I will also work to prioritize stabilizing structures faster, particularly those adjacent to occupied properties. Doing so will provide peace of mind to residents that dangerous situations will be addressed in a timely manner instead of being allowed to linger indefinitely.
I will work with partners like the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Pittsburgh Land Bank, community groups, and others to transition properties from blighted status to their highest and best use. This work will be guided by community participation and input to make sure that residents’ vision for their neighborhood is put into action.
As mayor, I will be committed to revitalizing our communities by cleaning up our neighborhoods. I want the city to be proactive with comprehensive assessments of neighborhood needs while centering community input to identify the most problematic areas in need of remediation based on the concerns and lived experience of residents. Under my administration, the city will initiate a 90-neighborhood cleanup program that commits to carrying out at least one prominent, multi-day cleaning and greening operation in each of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods. This will include targeted efforts to clean streets, tow abandoned vehicles, remove graffiti, and clear illegal dumping and litter.
The work to improve neighborhoods must be focused on sustainable, long-term plans. An overgrown city lot will still be a problem if it is only cut once per year. I will make sure that neighborhoods remain clean, inviting, and safe by developing responsible maintenance and upkeep plans.
We need innovative strategies and strong partnerships to make sure that Pittsburgh emerges from the coming fiscal challenges on stable footing, and the current administration is not meeting those needs. I will use comprehensive economic and community development strategies to ensure that Pittsburgh is a resilient city. Our long-term vision must bring Pittsburgh into a position where it can dynamically respond to changing economic conditions and fiscal threats. Pittsburgh’s residents want a diverse economy that supports them. Whether it comes to supporting green manufacturing, technology companies, artisan boutiques, restaurants, or other ventures, the city needs to make sure that it champions a vision of economic development that is not rooted in an outdated focus on just a handful of industries. Instead, we need to embrace a diverse local economy unique to Pittsburgh. We also must grow our creative economy by supporting the local arts, including music, performance, and culture. The creative economy helps attract tourism while complementing the city’s enduring identity.
At the same time, we want every resident to be proud of their neighborhood and proud of what the city does to support their neighborhood. Ensuring that people and neighborhoods are flourishing allows us to move past personal politics to instead focus on economic opportunity and success. We must work with all 90 neighborhoods to craft a truly inclusive opportunity agenda for community and economic development that will deliver on each community’s unique needs.
We must invest in our infrastructure so that it can support the city that we want to have. Roads carrying busses of children to school, bridges that people have to cross to get to work, and the city-operated community centers that our seniors rely on for programming and activities should all be safe.
And we must grow and expand employment opportunities throughout the city so that decent, family-sustainable jobs are available for both longtime residents and people new to Pittsburgh. Concurrently, we need to ensure that Pittsburgh’s housing stock is safe, plentiful, and affordable enough to support all of its residents.
Pittsburgh needs a leader who ensures that it can compete on a national level with other cities. It needs a mayor who can bring together our local communities, civic partners, philanthropy, the corporate community, and state and federal leaders to promote alignment with a vision of true neighborhood empowerment. We should not accept a mayor who is just satisfied with managing decline. We need a mayor with a vision of how to grow our region, unlock opportunities, pursue innovative economic strategies, and connect our neighborhoods to resources and opportunities. As mayor, I will not be satisfied with Pittsburgh taking a backseat to other cities. Pittsburgh can and will become a leader in economic growth and community development.”
Housing
“Pittsburgh needs to build more housing, full stop. It is unacceptable for other, smaller cities like Harrisburg to be eating our lunch when it comes to housing construction. We also see other cities like Philadelphia growing. We should be asking ourselves why we cannot do the same here.
Time and time again, we have seen a number of projects fall apart because the city has been using the same outdated and broken zoning and permitting regime that has been in place for decades. We have lost out on hundreds of potential new units over the last few years because the zoning code’s restrictions on height and density made a project unviable, or because permitting approvals were so backed up that a project’s capital stack fell apart in the interim. These were housing units that could have been accessible to both low-income and moderate-income residents. Instead of new housing, we have old parking lots and empty buildings.
We need comprehensive housing investment plans across Pittsburgh so that housing is available to residents where they are. Therefore, Pittsburgh’s zoning code must account for several housing construction options that are currently infeasible due to our outdated code, despite demonstrable success in other cities. For example, we need zoning incentives for infill constructions both between buildings and above one-story buildings. We should also implement code modifications to better accommodate manufactured and modular housing unit construction techniques where it is feasible to do so. These reforms will offer more options for housing construction in neighborhoods and business districts while bringing other amenities online in areas throughout Pittsburgh.
We must make it easier to build and permit new and renovated residential housing. An additional benefit to these reforms is that it would also make it easier to bring new amenities to neighborhoods in general, such as early childhood education centers, small retail businesses, cares, and more. But, most importantly, when we make it easier to build housing altogether, we also make it easier to specifically build affordable housing.
I want to improve the city’s permitting processing capacity so that permit approvals for affordable housing and home repair programs are accelerated. The lag in permit approvals affects both large-scale affordable housing developments and small-scale home preservation work, and shrinks the pool of contractors who engage in work in Pittsburgh, thereby adding more costs and delays. As mayor, I will create a dedicated unit within the City’s Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections focused specifically on permits for affordable housing construction and preservation to make sure that projects are started and completed faster, meaning more affordable homes for our communities.
Pittsburgh needs to get serious about transit-oriented development, which can go hand-in-hand with upzoning, another strategy that we should vigorously pursue. The current mayor’s stalled transit-oriented development plan really does not do much besides cherry-pick a handful of parcels around transit stops and designate them for modest upzoning, such as changing a designation from single-family to multi-family. That is not enough and does not do much to actually support transit-oriented development, the purpose of which is to spur the creation of mixed-use development and mixed-income housing in close proximity to existing or proposed transit hubs. Transit-oriented development can give us more vibrant, accessible neighborhoods. It is a valuable tool to encourage catalytic investment and development in and around key neighborhood corridors and business districts.
As mayor, I will develop a true transit-oriented development plan centered on the creation of a new zoning overlay district. Areas fit for the overlay district will be identified based on their proximity to current and proposed transit hubs. The overlay district will permit notably higher density and afford other development incentives while also reducing requirements on parking, lot size, and other costly, growth-prohibitive restrictions. This will encourage mixed-use amenities available to the surrounding community while improving residents’ accessibility and mobility options.
We need to do better in our ongoing efforts to convert real estate in Downtown to residential uses. That requires a focus on accelerating the conversion of commercial space to affordable housing inventory that supports the ongoing conversion of space to market-rate housing. A balance of the two will increase the vitality of Downtown as a neighborhood. We must assemble a pool of gap financing and private capital below-market loans that will enable a significant use of resources like Low Income Housing Tax Credits, including the four percent credit. This working connection between private capital and public gap financing dollars will enable affordable housing development and lead to a more inclusive conversion effort from office space to residential housing units in Downtown.
Funding that is available through gap financing should consist of below-market loans and deferred loans to better induce conversion projects. Although a fund for similar work was created previously, the slow pace of conversions showed us that it was not enough. A stronger gap financing program that focuses on both affordability and scale is needed, meaning that funding should also reflect the amount of square footage to be converted. We should have a goal of $250 million in funding from public, private, and philanthropic investment so that we can create a gap financing program sized to convert three million square feet of commercial space to residential use while making sure that these projects bring affordable housing units online. The conversion process can be further accelerated by expediting processing of approvals of conversion projects, expanding capacity at the Urban Redevelopment Authority to better capture allocations of volume cap financing, and establishing program goals to achieve an affordable housing mix that aligns with additional financing opportunities.
In addition to bringing more rental units to Pittsburgh, the city also needs to expand homeownership and preserve existing homeownership. This can be accomplished using programs that support homeownership, including those focused on energy conservation upgrades, accessibility modifications, lead and pollutant remediation, and housing counseling. The city can partner with other governments and nonprofit organizations to focus on increasing down payment assistance and creating first-time homebuyer programs.
With the city’s massive portfolio of publicly-owned property, it can use parcels and sites for programs that support the creation of home homeownership opportunities for move-in-ready buyers and housing units for renters. Every single vacant or under-utilized piece of land that the city sits on while doing nothing should instead be looked at as a resource for neighborhood improvement, including as a site for housing opportunities. The city has a lot of latitude in terms of how it can get these parcels back on the tax rolls and dedicate them to higher and better use, and expanding housing opportunities is a prime example of my goal to more efficiently use resources to support our neighbors.
To go even further, we need a broad-based coalition that includes the city, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, other governments, nonprofit organizations, and private real estate groups all committed to championing and implementing strategies that will increase the construction and preservation of new housing units while also supporting homeownership strategies. This means also taking the fight for more affordable housing to Harrisburg to advocate for legislation that’ll accelerate the title clearing process and allow vacant buildings to be repurposed more efficiently by the Pittsburgh Land Bank and other entities.
Finally, we must do right by our neighbors using vouchers. Households participating in the housing choice voucher program deserve better than what they are getting right now. Despite an increased need for affordable housing for low-income residents and those at the risk of housing insecurity and homelessness, there is still a substantial number of unused vouchers due to market conditions and complications with the program. Even when a voucher is awarded, placement rates are still too low. Pittsburgh has to do something about the estimated nearly 1,000 unused vouchers.
The City has to work in better alignment with the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh to expand the pool of landlords who accept vouchers and increase the number of staff dedicated to working on the voucher program in order to create turnaround processing that competes with the private market. As mayor, I will partner with the Housing Authority to increase the capacity of dedicated program staff and collaborate with private and public organizations to expand the recruitment of landlords, speed up application processing, and assist voucher holders in finding approvable units.
We know that housing solutions to increase the production of units works. In terms of evidence, we do not even have to look that far. Midwest cities like Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are all building more housing and seeing successful results. This is not rocket science: We know that modern, progressive housing solutions work. We know that more abundant housing options make cities more affordable and give people more flexibility to find the housing that they want where they want and at the price that they want. We cannot let ourselves get bogged down by outdated strategies that no longer work or have failed us when we need to be laser-focused on solving the housing crisis here in Pittsburgh.
I believe that one of the best ways to show that you love your neighborhood is to welcome more people to it. However, as long as we face a massive shortage of housing affordable to residents at all income levels, we will continue to see more residents pushed out of Pittsburgh because of rising costs and a shortage of available housing units. Having more options benefits both homeowners and renters, just as it benefits both longtime residents and newcomers, all of whom should be welcome in Pittsburgh to find a place to live and call their own. As Mayor, I will not just talk about housing — I will make sure that we actually build housing that is affordable and accessible so that everyone who wants to can make Pittsburgh their home.”
Population Changes
“I believe that one of the best ways to combat population loss is to do a better job of attracting new residents and retaining existing ones, especially families. I am running for mayor because I believe that Pittsburgh should be every family’s first choice. That requires purposeful action to invest in the places and programs that support our families. The city must reverse the yearslong trend of losing families, children, and taxpayer dollars to the suburbs.
We need leadership with a vision and direction to push for greater success for each family. That future can start by securing better outcomes for children. We must meet communities and children where they are and provide them with the critical services that they deserve. We need to think bigger and act faster to keep families in Pittsburgh and improve how city government supports its people — and it starts with a mayor that can deliver positive outcomes for kids.
However, the current administration has failed to prioritize the nearly 45,000 kids that live in Pittsburgh, and has further failed to provide them with the programming, parks, playgrounds, fields, courts, recreation centers, and support systems that they need.
The reality is that we have not comprehensively reimagined the purpose and use of our recreation centers in a generation. As mayor, I will partner with communities and nonprofits to rethink how we use these assets. I will make sure that we open our centers before school and on weekends, expand food options, grow the successful Rec2Tech program to provide our children skills for the changing workforce, and bring more services into our centers.
I chaired City Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation for eight years. I also coached youth sports in the City and am raising my young kids here. I have seen firsthand how important it is that we invest in our parks, playgrounds, and community third places, especially when Pittsburgh must directly compete with the suburbs to keep families with children here.
As mayor, I will focus our parks investment so that we provide our kids with the best facilities for football, basketball, cheerleading, soccer, dek hockey, baseball, softball, and swimming. I will invest in lighting, scoreboards, concession stands, sound systems, and more. Out-of-school youth programming is a smart investment in children’s development, and it puts money back into adults’ hands by freeing them from having to pay for other obligations for their children.
We must also be more creative when it comes to our spaces: We should be keeping the Schenley Ice Rink open in the summer with warm weather activities, building additional program spaces into our parks in the northern, southern, and western neighborhoods, and empowering our community partners who play such a critical role in coaching our kids.
For the last few years, the city has been silent on how we can expand childcare options, access to school, innovative programming, and caregiver support. I understand that the health and success of our children begins at the youngest ages. That is why I worked with Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak to secure an unprecedented $2 million investment into early childhood education when I was on City Council.
Pittsburgh still has a critical shortage of high-quality childcare seats in Pittsburgh. As mayor, I will reform our outdated zoning and permitting processes to make it easier for high-quality childcare providers to be zoned, permitted, and open.
Finally, I will create the Office of Youth and Families to spearhead my agenda for young Pittsburgers because in addition to first-rate places, they also deserve first-rate programming that expands childcare options, caregiver supports, and educational partnerships. The Office of Youth and Families will be laser-focused on these initiatives and more. It will be equipped to work across departments to establish a robust network of support for students, parents, schools, and community partners.
We need a mayor who can uplift the kids that live here, not one satisfied with the status quo of losing thousands of kids and families to other communities. There is no future for Pittsburgh if we cannot attract and retain young families and children. Our population will continue to shrink, hurting our tax base further and further.
As your mayor, I will support each and every one of our communities in building a better future for our children and families because we deserve a Pittsburgh that is every family’s first choice. That is how we get our population to grow.”
Sustainability and Resiliency
“We deserve a city that is on the cutting edge of climate policy and resilience-building. We deserve a city that is working harder to meet its emissions goals. We deserve a city that is doing more to address both the effects of climate change that are already here and the worsening ones that are still to come. And with those effects falling disproportionately on lower-income communities and communities of color, we deserve a city that centers climate justice in its forward-looking, practical solutions.
Climate change continues to have severe local impacts that require public intervention. To be prepared to mitigate the effects of climate change, we should be keeping Pittsburgh’s Climate Action Plan updated regularly.
However, the most recent version dates back to 2018. And, despite a legal requirement to update it every five years, this is the first time since the City adopted a Climate Action Plan in 2008 that it has not been updated accordingly.
Right now, we do not see the city taking these issues seriously. What we do see is Pittsburgh struggling to produce new housing units, forcing more and more residents to compete for the same outdated building stock that is not properly weatherized. We see a 2022 Stormwater Strategic Plan that makes almost no mention of how the city will pursue green infrastructure to contribute to actually managing stormwater. We see budgets for responses to ecological disasters cut. And we see a generational opportunity squandered by a failure to aggressively pursue federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act.
As mayor, I will ensure that climate action is a focal point of my policy agenda to build a more resilient city.
First, I will make sure that the city follows the law and produces a Climate Action Plan 4.0. Despite assurances that the not-yet-drafted comprehensive plan will include climate recommendations, that is no excuse for letting the Climate Action Plan lapse two years ago, especially since the comprehensive plan will not even be completed for years. Instead, I will make sure that the city is always equipped with updated, modern strategic plans that focus on areas including energy generation and distribution, transportation, land use, water and resource recovery, food systems, urban ecosystems, and building, fleet, and end-use efficiency. I make this commitment because I do not think that climate action can wait.
Second, I will use the city’s resources to better address the effects of climate change that impact us locally most frequently as we see more extreme wet weather events and harsher freeze and thaw cycles. The former leads to flooding, and the latter damages our hillsides and publicly maintained infrastructure. The current administration’s 2025 Capital Budget contains a 40% reduction in funding for flood control projects and a 70% reduction in funding for slope remediation compared to the 2022 budget that it inherited from the previous administration.
That is not how you address the needs of our climate-impacted neighborhoods as people’s basements continue to flood and their backyards continue to cave into hillsides. And we know that these problems take the longest to address in underserved communities. It is unacceptable that they are being made to wait for infrastructure investments that are long overdue.
Look at the city’s Stormwater Trust Fund, which is funded by in-lieu fee payments for compliance with the city’s stormwater regulations on development sites. Over the last few years, the city was only able to use those funds for stormwater management improvement once. This is because one of the many consequences of the shortage of new development and growth that we have seen is fewer projects paying into the Stormwater Trust Fund. That has meant less money going back into our communities.
The failure to update and adapt our infrastructure and operations means that the city’s expenses, including building maintenance, will continue to rise. As smaller suburbs make impressive strides toward more net zero buildings, solar investments, battery backups, adaptability, and more, Pittsburgh is being left in the dust.
As mayor, I will restructure and capitalize the Green Initiatives Trust Fund, which was created in 2008 to fund energy audits, capital improvements to City facilities, and more. However, it has never been properly funded and, as of the end of 2024, holds less than $10,000. I plan to change that. As the city invests further in energy efficiency measures and sees savings, a portion of those savings should be deposited in the trust fund, which in turn will be used to finance additional energy efficiency projects or supplement other related capital outlays. This will allow the Green Initiatives Trust Fund to serve as a revolving loan fund to further support city modernization efforts.
We should also pursue alternative financing models to fund energy efficiency and modernization. The city should make better use of on-bill financing through the Guaranteed Savings Act for large-scale energy efficiency projects. We also need to work in better alignment with Allegheny County to incentivize property owners from which the city leases to use Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy financing. The city’s lack of planning and creativity when it comes to financing energy savings initiatives, which would in turn save it money, has left opportunities on the table.
All city buildings should be evaluated for solar installations as part of the standard maintenance procedures and reporting carried out by city departments. Beyond funding these installations as capital projects, the city could also enter into power purchase agreements to finance these installations where the power generated and credits are sold to the city at set rates throughout the length of agreement. Solar installations would also let the city further pursue battery backup strategies so that excess energy created by solar can be stored for use during emergency and critical conditions.
The failure to invest in climate adaptation and energy efficiency means that the city’s operating costs will continue to rise each and every year. With a lack of vision and leadership, the city has missed opportunity after opportunity to make smart, strategic investments that would pay long-term dividends. For example, the city has made staggeringly little progress on upgrading and replacing its streetlight system with new, energy-efficient LED lights. After slashing the $12 million in funding the prior administration budgeted for this project, the launch was punted to election season three-and-a-half years later. At the time of project conception, the outdated streetlights were estimated to cost the city approximately $90,000 per month to operate. The upgrade was forecasted to generate almost $1 million in savings yearly while reducing streetlight energy consumption by up to 70%. We cannot keep letting climate action take a backseat to politics.
My vision of Pittsburgh is one in which we are a national and international model for sustainability and resilience. I want to lead a city where we prove our commitment to climate justice by investing in our most climate-impacted neighborhoods. I want us to develop regional workforce partnerships to ensure that we have people who can plan for, build, and maintain the necessary green infrastructure of the future. I want to reform our zoning and building codes so that it is easier to build and live in dense, walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods that are less dependent on cars. I want proactive investments to mitigate flooding and landslides instead of just reactionary clean-ups. I want residents to be assured that we have built resilient city operations that can dynamically respond to climate threats. And I want Pittsburgh to grow and welcome more new neighbors so that our tax base can support the infrastructure investments that we badly need.
I believe that Pittsburghers want the same future, and I believe that we can and will build it together.”
Comprehensive Plan
“I believe that the comprehensive plan, once completed, will tell us many things that we already know: Our zoning code is broken, our land use policies are outdated, our permitting processes are deficient, we are not acting quick enough to confront the effects of climate change, and these shortcomings are all having negative impacts on communities across Pittsburgh. We already know that we are holding communities back by making it harder for neighborhoods to grow. So long as the city continues to make it hard to build, renovate, and preserve housing, as well as to open small businesses or other neighborhood amenities and third spaces, it will continue to be difficult for neighborhoods to chart their path forward.
Our built environment and open spaces affect our public health, how our neighborhoods grow, and our quality of life. When we learn about deficiencies or shortcomings in our work, we need to take that information seriously. We cannot continually rely on doing things as they have always been done. We need to make sure that we have systems in place to always be adaptive and responsive. If we learn about how to make our city better, how to improve our land use policies, and how to better support our neighborhoods, then we need to put those recommendations into practice. We cannot keep shelling out money for long-term plans just to let them collect dust on the shelf.”
Waste and Recycling Management Downtown
“As noted, a failure to adhere to code here impacts public health, visitability, and quality of life. I believe that lax enforcement of these regulations has become standard operating procedure for commercial properties Downtown. We cannot look at an obvious problem and then do nothing about it.
The policies and regulations that are on the books need to be enforced. If a property needs to seek an exemption or modification, then the proper channels should be followed. In a sense, this is similar to code enforcement with residential properties: Letting issues go on unabated only makes the problem worse. The city has a responsibility to ensure proper compliance evenly and routinely, and that includes requirements for on-site waste management.”
Thomas West (R)
Economic Development
“As a small business owner, I understand firsthand that economic development is the foundation of a thriving city. Too often, Pittsburgh’s elected officials overlook the needs of businesses large and small. My administration will change that by fostering a pro-growth, pro-business environment rooted in fiscal responsibility and community empowerment.
We will:
● Streamline Permitting and Cut Red Tape: Simplify regulations and permitting to reduce development delays and lower costs for businesses citywide.
● Establish a Business Liaison and Advisory Roundtable: Create a dedicated liaison between City Hall and the business community, and convene a roundtable of local entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and stakeholders to provide direct feedback and shape policy.
● Invest in Underserved Neighborhoods: Offer incentives such as tax abatements, grants, and small business loans to stimulate economic growth in historically overlooked neighborhoods. This includes supporting youth pathways into entrepreneurship, trades, and higher education.
● Leverage Public-Private Partnerships: Collaborate with private industry and nonprofits to modernize critical infrastructure—from roads and transit to broadband—especially in areas with limited access, using outside capital and state/federal funds wherever possible.
● Maintain Fiscal Discipline and Competitive Taxes: Ensure a balanced city budget and a business-friendly tax structure that encourages growth while holding economic initiatives accountable to measurable results.
● Strengthen Workforce Development: Partner with schools, unions, and employers to expand job training and apprenticeships in high-demand fields like technology, trades, healthcare, and manufacturing—creating real pathways to employment, especially in underserved communities.
Economic development must be inclusive, data-driven, and focused on real outcomes. We will bring new voices to the table, partner across all levels of government, and break away from partisan politics to ensure Pittsburgh is always top of mind for new industries, investment, and innovation.”
Housing
“Pittsburgh must treat housing like the urgent issue it is. My administration will focus on expanding supply, preserving affordability, and revitalizing vacant properties—removing costly barriers to development while empowering communities and the private sector.
Key strategies include:
● Reinvigorate the Land Bank: The city owns roughly 25,000 properties, with the Land Bank controlling nearly half—but fewer than 200 have returned to the tax rolls. We will streamline this process, moving properties swiftly into private hands for redevelopment, prioritizing first-time homebuyers and community-led projects.
● Streamline Permitting and Zoning: We will modernize zoning and simplify approvals to support housing of all types—from single-family homes to duplexes, ADUs, and mixed-income developments. Reducing red tape will lower development costs and encourage builders of all sizes to invest.
● Promote Affordable Homeownership and Renovation: We’ll expand support for first-time homebuyers and offer renovation assistance to existing homeowners. By partnering with nonprofits and trade schools to rehab abandoned homes, we can increase supply while strengthening neighborhoods.
● Enforce Housing Quality and Support Responsible Landlords: We will hold negligent landlords accountable while offering incentives to those who maintain affordable units. Safe, quality housing must be the standard citywide.
● Encourage Economic Ecosystems Around Development: As we build more housing, we will also foster the small businesses, services, and local manufacturing that make neighborhoods thrive.
Through these targeted, fiscally responsible efforts, we can create an inclusive housing market that serves everyone—from vulnerable residents to middle-class families and young professionals—while returning underutilized assets to productive use and building stronger communities.”
Population Changes
“Since 1960, Pittsburgh has lost over 400,000 residents—more than the city’s current population. This decline threatens our ability to secure state and federal resources and weakens our communities. Reversing it is an urgent priority.
My administration will attract and retain residents by focusing on job creation, public safety, quality of life, and adaptive reuse of underutilized buildings. We’ll drive economic opportunity by supporting small businesses, workforce training, and emerging industries like advanced manufacturing and tech. A growing economy, paired with Pittsburgh’s affordability, will draw families, graduates, and professionals to build their futures here.
Public safety and education are central to livability. We will invest in police, EMS, and fire services, and partner with schools to foster environments that support learning and generational wealth-building. Simultaneously, we’ll pursue tax reforms that reward growth and support every neighborhood.
To promote Pittsburgh’s strengths, we’ll launch a national marketing campaign showcasing our cultural assets, parks, cost of living, and tight-knit community feel. We will ensure the city lives up to this image through clean, safe streets and accessible neighborhood amenities—from playgrounds to sidewalks.
We’ll also aggressively pursue building reuse—converting vacant offices, schools, and industrial sites into housing, community centers, or business spaces. Tools like zoning flexibility, tax credits, and fast-track permitting will enable this transformation while honoring Pittsburgh’s architectural heritage.
Welcoming diversity is essential. We’ll strengthen immigrant integration efforts, retain university graduates, and support small businesses in ethnic communities to ensure newcomers can find opportunity and belonging here.
In short, we will grow Pittsburgh the right way—through jobs, safety, inclusivity, and smart development—making our city a dynamic, attractive place to live, work, and raise a family.”
Sustainability and Resiliency
“Building a sustainable and resilient Pittsburgh is not only an environmental responsibility but also an economic opportunity. I believe we can protect our environment, reduce long-term costs, and create new jobs by embracing sensible sustainability actions. My approach will be collaborative – working with Allegheny County, regional authorities, private businesses, and community organizations – to achieve meaningful progress on climate resilience goals without overburdening taxpayers. Key plans include:
● Lead by Example in City Operations: My administration will make the City of Pittsburgh a model of sustainability and fiscal prudence. We will upgrade city facilities and fleets for energy efficiency: improving insulation in municipal buildings, installing LED lighting and modern HVAC systems. These investments will lower energy and fuel costs, saving taxpayer dollars in the long run.
● Expand Green Infrastructure and Climate Resilience Projects: In partnership with Allegheny County and the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority, we will tackle flooding and stormwater issues with green infrastructure solutions. This means installing more bioswales and rain gardens to absorb storm runoff, planting street trees and restoring the tree canopy (which also reduces heat-island effects), and using permeable pavement for projects like parking lots or alley resurfacing. We will prioritize neighborhoods that repeatedly suffer from flooding (for instance, along Saw Mill Run or in Lower Lawrenceville) for these interventions. Additionally, we must address our hillsides – I will champion a resiliency plan for landslide-prone areas, perhaps terracing slopes or improving drainage to prevent collapse. Many of these projects are ripe for public-private collaboration: for example, we can work with local foundations or corporate sponsors to co-fund parklet rain gardens, or partner with developers to include green spaces and stormwater management in new projects. Not only will these efforts mitigate climate impacts, but they will also beautify communities and create green jobs in landscaping and maintenance.
● Promote Sustainable Development & Buildings: Pittsburgh has been a leader in green building, and I will accelerate that trend. Working with our architecture, engineering, and construction community, I plan to incentivize sustainable design. The City can offer expedited permitting or density bonuses for developments that meet high environmental standards such as LEED Gold/Platinum or Passive House certification. We will also strengthen programs that help existing building owners improve efficiency – for example, expanding energy audit programs and connecting owners to low-interest financing or rebates for upgrading insulation, HVAC, or windows. This is especially important for our many historic structures; we want to help conserve them through adaptive reuse and energy retrofits rather than see them abandoned. By reducing energy and water waste in buildings (which are major cost drivers), we not only cut emissions but also make living and doing business in Pittsburgh more affordable. This is a pro-business, pro-resident approach to sustainability: use innovation and incentives instead of heavy-handed mandates.
● Improve Transportation and Mobility: A resilient city offers robust transportation choices. I will partner with Pittsburgh Regional Transit and county officials to improve public transit service – aiming for more reliable buses, better connections between neighborhoods, and exploring innovative options like micro-transit or shuttle loops where appropriate. We’ll also continue to expand bike and pedestrian infrastructure thoughtfully, creating safe bike lanes and walkable business districts in consultation with community input. The goal is to give people convenient alternatives to driving when possible, which reduces traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. Importantly, any changes will be data-driven and balanced; we will not punish drivers or impede commerce, but rather provide win-win solutions like synchronized traffic lights to reduce idling and pollution. Additionally, I will push for the city fleet and major private/logistics fleets to adopt alternative fuels or electric vehicles, and work on installing more EV charging stations (potentially using state or federal grants), but will be fluid as technology changes. Better mobility and cleaner transportation options will enhance quality of life and environmental health concurrently.
● We’ll encourage grassroots projects like community gardens, composting programs, and neighborhood clean-up days by providing mini-grants or resources to community groups. By involving Pittsburghers directly in sustainability, we not only educate and empower our citizens, we also foster a culture of stewardship. When communities are empowered to take part – whether it’s adopting a local park or participating in a solar co-op – our environmental goals become a shared mission rather than a top-down mandate.
In summary, I am committed to practical sustainability – initiatives that make environmental sense and economic sense for Pittsburgh. By partnering with county agencies, private sector innovators, and our passionate neighborhoods, we can advance Pittsburgh’s resiliency while safeguarding taxpayer dollars. A greener Pittsburgh – with clean air, efficient buildings, green spaces, and strong infrastructure – will be a healthier, more attractive city for current residents and future generations. My plan ensures we meet our responsibility to the environment in a way that also strengthens our economy and community.”
Comprehensive Plan
“Pittsburgh’s Comprehensive Plan must be a living framework that guides meaningful growth, informed by data, community input, and measurable outcomes. My administration will ensure the plan remains fluid, goal-oriented, and responsive—just like a well-run business.
We will expand community engagement through citywide meetings, digital tools, and direct outreach to underrepresented voices. Every stakeholder—from residents to business owners—will have a role in shaping the plan, ensuring it reflects the city’s true priorities.
Through transparent, data-driven planning, we will make the plan’s findings accessible and understandable. Publishing key metrics—such as housing needs or infrastructure gaps—will help guide zoning, policy changes, and capital investments with clarity and purpose.
Making the plan actionable is critical. We’ll embed it into budgeting, departmental operations, and review processes to ensure consistency. An interdepartmental team will evaluate major proposals for alignment, creating accountability and coordination across city agencies.
The plan will also guide smart growth and preservation, defining where we build and where we protect. Zoning updates, infrastructure coordination, and targeted investments will provide stability for both developers and neighborhoods. Preservation zones will benefit from stricter standards and support for historic assets.
We will treat the plan as a continuous process, issuing an annual “State of the Plan” report and conducting full updates every 5–10 years. An advisory committee—including partners like AIA Pittsburgh—will ensure both expertise and public input drive these efforts.
Ultimately, this plan will be our compass—one that empowers our people, directs resources effectively, and brings results. With the right leadership, it won’t just sit on a shelf. It will deliver a more organized, equitable, and thriving Pittsburgh.”
Waste and Recycling Management Downtown
“A clean and safe Downtown is vital to Pittsburgh’s image, economy, and quality of life. From sanitation to lighting, we must address the challenges facing the Golden Triangle with a balanced approach of accountability, infrastructure, and partnership.
We will strengthen enforcement of existing waste regulations by increasing inspections, ensuring proper disposal, and escalating penalties for chronic violations. Education will accompany enforcement—providing clear guidance to businesses and recognizing those with exemplary practices.
Infrastructure improvements will include modern public bins, centralized waste stations, and better coordination with haulers to reduce sidewalk clutter. Alleyways will be a focus, with better lighting and targeted policy enforcement to deter misuse and improve public safety.
A “Clean Downtown” initiative will unite the city, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, and local businesses to maintain daily cleanliness, organize volunteer cleanup efforts, and quickly resolve problem areas. Public campaigns will also engage residents and visitors to do their part.
Technology will play a role in monitoring and managing waste. We will expand 311 reporting, explore smart-bin sensors, and track data on violations, response times, and litter trends—ensuring accountability and targeted resource allocation.
Clean streets are more than cosmetic—they promote public health, safety, and confidence in our commercial core. Through consistent enforcement, smart investments, and public-private collaboration, we will restore pride in the heart of Pittsburgh.”