A mayoral term that began with a bridge collapse is poised to end with a budget breakdown.
Pittsburgh City Council members, number crunchers, department leaders and concerned members of the public have shuffled through the Fifth Floor of the City-County Building in December as council rushes to reshape the budget proposal Mayor Ed Gainey sent them in November. They said his estimates were unrealistic and could leave the city in financial ruin if unchecked.
Gainey didn’t appear worried during an early December interview.
“I’m comfortable with what we sent over,” Gainey said. “If [City Council members] feel like cutting services, if they feel like raising taxes, send something up, I’ll take a look.”
By then, council already signaled it would not pass Gainey’s budget without major revisions. One member introduced a bill raising property taxes 30%, and members considered contributing less money than usual to the city’s affordable housing fund for 2026.
It’s a discordant end to the tenure of a mayor whose catchword has been “CommUnity.” The mayor dismissed suggestions that his last budget was a departure from the others or in any way dishonest.
“We told the truth,” he said. “We didn’t manipulate anybody. We didn’t send over a budget that was BS. We sent the budget we said for years we would send. So I’m kind of confused on all that.
“It ain’t like we lied to them.”
Gainey will leave office Jan. 5, having lost this year’s Democratic primary to Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor. The outgoing mayor grew quiet when asked what he deems the greatest accomplishment of his mayoral tenure.
“For me, there’s been an African American mayor of a major metropolitan city elected with only 22% of the people being Black,” Gainey said. “That’s a hell of an accomplishment. What could be greater than that?”
He whispered: “That’s incredible. That’s incredible.”
He recalled watching famed Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson deliver the commencement address at his graduation at Morgan State University in 1994. Wilson later wrote the play “Radio Golf,” about a man running to be Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor, set in Gainey’s ancestral home of the Hill District.
“He was talking to the first Black mayor who had no idea he would be the first Black mayor,” Gainey said. “That doesn’t line up too often.”
Gainey said he felt his administration “would be the most scrutinized administration ever,” when he took office in 2021.
Why? “Those that see can see, those that don’t won’t. There are some things that are obvious for those that want to see. I don’t have to speak on that.”
Gainey’s status as the city’s first Black mayor was important both symbolically and practically. He frequently said he was bringing underserved neighborhoods and groups into city leadership more than other mayors to achieve his goal of “building a city for all.”
But Gainey failed to win a second term, something that used to be all but guaranteed for Pittsburgh mayors. (Gainey himself pulled off a rare defeat of a sitting mayor in 2021, but then-Mayor Bill Peduto was running for a third term, not a second.)
Public Source interviewed Gainey Dec. 1 about his own assessment of his performance. Answers pertaining to six key issues are below, lightly edited for clarity and length. Context and analysis from Public Source follows.
Issue: Policing
Gainey said in 2021 he would “demilitarize” the city’s police and rebuild trust between the force and residents.
Gainey’s take: “I think we made a great deal of progress. I think when you talk about demilitarizing the police, when you talk about a contract with a disciplinary matrix, taking the subjectiveness out of policing and making it objective … When you look at how many relationships we built between my police force and our neighborhoods, it’s been remarkable, compared to other administrations.
“When we build the trust inside our neighborhoods, when we reduce homicides by [between] 38 [and] 42%, when we reduce homicide in Black neighborhoods … that is building a relationship.
“But if you’re asking me, can we heal something that’s been forever talked about, been forever shown on television and in all types of media in four years? That would be asking quite a bit. As a matter of fact I’ve never seen it happen in the world.”
Context: Violent crime and homicide has decreased considerably in the city, as they have throughout the United States.
Gainey struggled to fill the post of police chief; his first pick, Larry Scirotto, retired after less than two years to instead referee college basketball. His second selection, Chris Ragland, took his name out of the running before he was confirmed. Gainey then allowed the choice to pass to incoming Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor.
The police union has been critical of the administration, blaming it for the city’s officer count dropping to 708 (with 60 more in training) — below the reduced target he set of 800, let alone the longtime standard of 900. Last year Fraternal Order of Police President Robert Swartzwelder sarcastically suggested the city invest in “cardboard-cutout cops. … I’ve seen no plan corresponding [to the staffing reductions], detailing how they’re going to cut services.”
Conversely, progressive groups were disappointed when Gainey resisted his own consultant’s recommendation that the force should have significantly fewer officers.
Issue: Big nonprofits
Gainey ran on a promise to get major tax-exempt nonprofits, particularly UPMC, to contribute more money to the city.
Gainey’s take: “We always knew that it would be a fight … Multiple administrations have fought this before us. I’m going to tell you what we did, we made it a hot topic. We made it an extremely hot topic, hotter than before. And I believe at some level, a deal will get done because of the heat that we brought.”
Context: Gainey did not reach an agreement with the major nonprofits to contribute money to the city or city-adjacent causes. He eventually attempted to tap major nonprofits by challenging the tax exemptions on individual properties — including the entirety of UPMC Children’s Hospital. The slew of legal challenges ultimately netted the city little money.
Gainey also nixed Peduto’s proposed solution to this issue, the OnePGH plan. That program, announced shortly before the 2021 primary election, would have seen nonprofits including UPMC contribute $115 million over five years to projects aligning with city needs.
After the city of Providence, Rhode Island inked a 20-year, $220 million PILOT agreement with local colleges, a college official involved with that deal told Public Source, “You get more with honey than with vinegar. … I think it’s appropriate to ask for money, but it’s appropriate to ask for it in partnership, not in the sense that it’s owed, per se.”
Issue: City finances
The city was in a stable but delicate financial position when Gainey took office. The COVID-19 pandemic rattled multiple revenue streams, but the federal government sent a windfall of $335 million in relief funds. Gainey’s task was to see the city through the recovery and the eventual expiration of those relief funds, which had to be committed by the end of 2024.
Gainey’s take: “We never wavered from saying that we were going to run into tough times in ‘25 or ‘26. We always said we would run into tough times and that we had to be laser focused on a narrow pathway. We provided that.
“When [council members] say it’s pie in the sky, OK, well send me something back … We told you ‘25 and ‘26 was going to be narrow in our approach.”
Context: Gainey and his lieutenants have maintained for years that the city was headed for difficult — but financially balanced — years in 2025 and 2026. City Council gave its stamp of approval to that vision, and to a practice of not counting certain transfers into trust funds as expenses, in each of the last three years. But this year, council is taking issue with that practice and accusing Gainey’s team of underestimating next year’s utility and public safety overtime costs in what they say is not really a balanced budget.
Gainey could hardly have predicted on his inauguration day that a lawsuit against the county government would reshape how property tax bills are calculated and the city’s annual take would drop as a result. But some council members are criticizing him for failing to adjust to that reality over the ensuing years.
“I feel we’ve been irresponsible,” City Councilor Anthony Coghill said during a Dec. 10 hearing about the budget. “I just felt like if we had been more responsible over the past four years — and again, I’m accusing both of us — we wouldn’t be in this position.”
Issue: Housing
The city has a shortage of thousands of affordable housing units and a surplus of tax-delinquent, often decrepit properties throughout. The Pittsburgh Land Bank was created in 2014 to address both problems but failed to get off the ground prior to Gainey’s arrival in City Hall.
Gainey’s take: “When you look at the amount of housing we built in these neighborhoods [Bedford Dwellings, Letsche School, groundbreaking next year in Homewood], 18 low-income housing tax credit deals in three funding cycles, Homewood Field being completed, Kennard Field being done, new basketball court in Allegheny Commons … Those things bring hope to neighborhoods that haven’t seen it before.
“The greatest… Let’s just go there. The greatest lie we told people was that we have done well in building all this market-rate housing.
[Gainey’s press secretary interjected to clarify that the mayor meant that previous administrations had lied, not Gainey himself.]
“I’m not against market rate [housing], I believe you have to have market rate, but you need affordability … The only administration in the last three administrations that had a population increase was mine. Because we focused on affordability.”
Context: At least one data source, new housing unit construction authorizations as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, shows a notable increase during Gainey’s tenure, with more than 2,000 units authorized in each of 2022 and 2023, compared to fewer than 1,000 per year in the preceding six years.
But the Census data includes units that haven’t yet been built, and permits in a given year can reflect effort stretching back into previous administrations. During the primary election season, developers who backed O’Connor’s campaign told Public Source they were frustrated with city permitting and zoning delays.
Pittsburgh’s population has increased modestly during Gainey’s tenure, Census estimates show, after more than half a century of decline. The growth was fueled by immigrants, whose numbers more than offset negative domestic migration and birth statistics.
The Land Bank has achieved its first measurable progress during Gainey’s term, but city officials and outside experts agree it would require significantly more funding to meet the city’s needs.
Gainey’s signature housing policy, the expansion of inclusionary zoning policy citywide, has so far been largely blocked by City Council.
Issue: Hill District development
The demolition of the Civic Arena in 2011 offered a chance for the city to revisit one of its most devastating redevelopment projects: The razing of the Lower Hill District in the 1950s to build the arena displaced thousands and ruptured the city’s Black community. But few of the tract’s acres have been redeveloped since the arena came down, and the Pittsburgh Penguins let their development rights expire in October.
Gainey’s take: “Am I frustrated by it? I’m frustrated for the people in the Hill. I’m frustrated about the history. Our neighborhoods were taken. Never rebuilt. I’m frustrated about the fact that we still don’t have a middle class Black or Latino neighborhood and that ain’t by accident.
“I’m frustrated with the fact that at the end of the day we don’t know where this development is going to go on 28 acres of prime real estate. The people of the Hill have waited a long time and have been promised, over and over again, a lot of different things that would be best for the interests of the city overall.
“But it’s also … a wonderful opportunity to restore the dignity and hope of the community. It’s a wonderful opportunity to connect the fabric of the Hill to Downtown. It’s a wonderful opportunity to diversify working contractors. It provides an opportunity to heal old wounds.”
Context: The Penguins received development rights for the site in 2007 as part of a deal that saw the team commit to staying in Pittsburgh and the construction of a new arena nearby. Around the midpoint of Gainey’s term, a representative of the Penguins’ developers warned that the team and city “have to take advantage of the window we have to increase investment in this region and not run the risk of scaring it away to other cities.” With an office tower built and an entertainment venue underway, the Penguins are skating off and leaving the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Sports and Exhibition Authority in control of the rest of the site.
Issue: Infrastructure
The “City of Bridges” is home to dozens of bridges in poor structural condition, a problem that was brought to the public’s attention when the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed just days into Gainey’s term.
Gainey’s take: “We met the moment. No more bridges in failing conditions. We had some bridges we had to close, but guess what, deferred maintenance makes you have to do that.”
Context: Gainey added staff to a new bridge maintenance team within the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, tasked with making sure the city would never again wake up to the shock of Jan. 27, 2022, when the Forbes Avenue span collapsed early in the morning, injuring several.
Gainey allocated $1.5 million for an engineering firm to perform a comprehensive review of each city bridge’s maintenance needs and the city’s inspection process.
A Public Source report, however, showed the city had more bridges in failing condition in mid-2025 than in 2022. City officials said that was a result of more rigorous inspections in the years after the Fern Hollow collapse. Bridge work is also constrained by the availability of state and federal funding.
“Even if you gave me all the money that was required to fix all 25 [deficient] bridges, it would still take me a decade or more,” bridge engineering expert Kent Harries told Public Source, citing a shortage of skilled and other laborers and the region’s climate.
While most Pittsburgh mayors compile at least eight years on which to be judged, Gainey said his team confronted more challenges than most in just four.
“From the pandemic, to the violence, to the homeless population, those things we inherited, to a bridge collapse and … knowing that we were deficient in housing since way before I came in, and still are,” Gainey said. “Looking at the disinvestment in certain neighborhoods, looking at the wage gap in certain neighborhoods, and understanding why, though they say in some circles we’re affordable … we’re not.
“We’re talking about things we’ve done in four years that many administrations haven’t had … problem-solving situations like this for eight. Our model was fall in love with adversity.”
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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