Ed Gainey and Corey O’Connor face off in dueling town halls
Candidates talked of relationship with Jewish community, visions for the city
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and primary challenger Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor shared their visions for the city’s future and addressed their relationship with the Jewish community in separate, sequential town halls.
Moderated by Laura Cherner, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, the April 2 Coffee and Conversations forums took place at the Federation before a crowd of more than 40 people.
Gainey, who has served as mayor since 2022, defended a record that has frustrated some Jewish Pittsburghers — including his handling of a BDS referendum proposed by the anti-Zionist organization Not On Our Dime.
The proposed referendum was challenged by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the Beacon Coalition and StandWithUs, and separately by City Controller Rachael Heisler. The mayor, however, did not formally challenge the referendum.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the referendum — which failed when Not On Our Dime stipulated it did not have enough valid signatures to get on the ballot — Gainey said he consulted the city’s law department, which assured him that the question would not get on the ballot and that such a referendum could not be enforced.
“Because it would violate and hurt us in regards to the business we have to do in the community and it would prevent us from doing business with a lot of different people,” Gainey said.
Ultimately, he said, his solicitor was right, as the referendum never made it to the ballot.
“It didn’t make it to the ballot because the Jewish Federation and other partners such as Beacon [Coalition] StandWithUs and 200 volunteers did sift through and discover that it didn’t qualify for the ballot,” Cherner retorted.
Asked about a joint statement the mayor released on the anniversary of Oct. 7 with U.S. Rep. Summer Lee and County Executive Sara Innamorato, Gainey said he was sorry if the statement was viewed as disrespectful or caused people to be hurt.
The joint statement was widely criticized because it did not mention Hamas and seemed to blame Israel for the war that the terrorist organization launched when it brutally murdered 1200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others. The statement also failed to mention the surge of antisemitism in Pittsburgh and globally, and its final paragraph suggested a call for an arms embargo against the Jewish state.
“If the letter was presented to me again, what would I do?” Gainey said. “I would make sure that I talk to people that I have relationship with and discover exactly what’s wrong with the wording.”
During the hour-long question-and-answer session, Gainey often played up his Pittsburgh roots and compassion for all of the city’s residents.
He began by saying that public safety has improved under his leadership. Homicides, he said, are down 33%. Non-fatal shootings are down 45% and there were no homicides in 2024 involving children between the age of 13 and 17.
For the first time in 20 years, the mayor said, a police contract was signed that included a disciplinary matrix and included a pay raise without arbitration.
Touting his work on affordable housing, Gainey said the city secured a $30 million affordable housing bond through the Urban Redevelopment Authority, dedicated $37 million to affordable housing and is slated to build more than 1,400 affordable housing units. He also pointed to OwnPGH, a program that he said has taken renters and turned them into homeowners, 80% of whom are women.
Asked about the danger of inflation, Gainey said his administration has been “laser focused” on housing, which he said has gotten too expensive.
Turning to concerns over infrastructure, the mayor recalled the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge early in his term. The Bridge Asset Management Program was created as a result, he said, noting that while some bridges have been closed, none that are open are in failing condition.
The city, Gainey said, has also invested in vehicles, something not done in nearly 15 years.
He said that the city, particularly downtown, “was on fire,” when he came into office, and that he worked with Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato to develop a plan to reimagine the neighborhood.
Gainey pointed to the $600 million committed by Gov. Josh Shapiro which, he said, will be reinvested downtown over the next decade. He also spoke of partnerships with both the business community and the Cultural District.
He also denounced proposed changes to Social Security by the federal government.
His plans for a second term, Gainey said, include repopulating the city, keeping it safe and investing in more affordable housing.
In what has become a popular refrain from the mayor and his supporters, he also called out O’Connor for donations he has received, including what Gainey dubbed “MAGA money.”
For his part, O’Connor spent much of the time deriding the lack of vision from the mayor and his administration and suggesting alternative ideas for the city.
Like Gainey, the mayoral hopeful said the city needs more affordable housing, especially for seniors. Pittsburgh, he said, needs approximately 15,000 market rate units, and he asked why the city isn’t making use of the 11,000 vacant lots it owns.
“We are not growing fast enough to accommodate people so that we can keep Pittsburgh affordable,” he said.
O’Connor bemoaned the city’s public transportation infrastructure and Gainey’s focus on converting downtown buildings to housing. Instead, he said, there should be an effort to work with Pittsburgh’s universities to use the spaces and help rehabilitate downtown, especially the Boulevard of the Allies and Smithfield Street.
Rather than applaud the public safety numbers presented by Gainey, O’Connor said the lack of a police chief and revolving leadership in the department “is an absolute joke.”
“If you want to make it more vibrant, if you want to get more people down there, you have to have patrols where people are present,” he said. “We don’t do any of that.”
About 31,000 police calls originated from downtown, he said.
Switching topics, O’Connor said Pittsburgh needs a leader who will be vocal in the fight against antisemitism.
Asked about the Not On Our Dime referendum, O’Connor said it was important to stand against the ballot question, not only because of its inherent antisemitism but also because of the restraints it would have placed on the city.
Questioned about his multiple endorsements of Summer Lee, who has introduced anti-Israeli legislation and exhibited anti-Israeli bias on social media, O’Connor said he endorsed her because she was a Democratic colleague.
“I don’t agree with the congressperson on a number of stances, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t have a working relationship with that individual,” he said. “We don’t agree on all things but being in the same party, knowing that we have to partner, we have to, you know, work together in order to grow Pittsburgh. I will always work with the congressperson, the senators, state and local officials, because that’s how you move the city forward.”
Responding to Gainey’s attack about his donors, O’Connor said that the mayor took the same sort of donations that he did.
“This talk about MAGA money is a joke,” he said. “He took the same dollars I did and all of a sudden — I think it was last Friday before his press conference where he yelled at me saying I’m MAGA … after four years of holding somebody’s check, he returned one check. He is still taking money from people who donated to Donal Trump. This is all a political game. The mayor knows this.”
In closing, O’Connor said he has 11 years of experience at City Council and in the city controller’s office, and has a strategy and vision to turn the city around.
“I know how to turn water fountains on in our playgrounds,” he said. “I know how to focus on the basics that actually impact your lives … We have an amazing city, but we’re not focused on the right things.”
The primary election is Tuesday, May 20. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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