Re-elect Mayor Ed Gainey

Roughly three weeks after Ed Gainey’s inauguration as the first Black mayor of the city of Pittsburgh, the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed. That afternoon, I remember speaking to a friend who said to me, “If Gainey manages to rebuild that bridge in the next year, no one would even dare run against him. He would surely win.” By the end of December 2022, 11 months after the bridge collapsed, it was opened to traffic again.

The rebuilding of the Fern Hollow Bridge wasn’t all Mayor Gainey’s doing. Everyone involved deserves credit. But three years later, Mayor Gainey, who navigated federal funding, PennDOT’s bureaucracy, architects, construction companies and city politics to get the job done on such an ambitious timeline, isn’t receiving the credit my friend was certain he would get.

Despite enormous challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor Gainey has accomplished a lot in his first term. His Housing for All platform invested nearly $100 million in local affordable housing, an accomplishment that City Councilmember Deb Gross called “more in the last three years than we as a city have seen in decades.” Gainey secured $600 million dollars to revitalize downtown. His administration increased shelter beds and transitional housing units to reduce the unhoused population of the city. He kept nearly 1,000 Pittsburghers in their homes with his “Lawyer for the Day” pilot project, which provides legal assistance for eviction prevention. And the mayor has made sure every bridge in the city is inspected to prevent another collapse.

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But the closer we get to the primary, the more I see Mayor Gainey being denied the credit for his achievements. Despite his advances in affordable housing and city development, two weeks ago a mailer sent from a PAC supporting Corey O’Connor showed a dilapidated and crumbling building in the Hill District with the title “Ed Gainey’s Legacy.” The mailer photo was from 2018. The building has since been restored and is in use as two apartments families can afford. But the implication that the Gainey administration is to be blamed for decades of disinvestment and neglect by previous mayors is absurd.

Then there is the mayor’s support for the Jewish community. Mayor Gainey has consistently lived up to his often-stated goal of making Pittsburgh’s Jewish residents feel safe. He provided additional security patrols during High Holidays and when a Jewish home and business were vandalized. He loudly condemned antisemitic violence, including the two violent attacks on Jewish University of Pittsburgh students. And he immediately sent Public Works officers to refurbish Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh when they were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, declaring publicly that defacing religious institutions “cannot be tolerated” and “there is no place for Jewish hate, violence, or intimidation of any kind here in Pittsburgh.”

There are legitimate critiques to be made of Gainey’s administration. But Pittsburgh’s biggest problems, including rising antisemitism, don’t begin with him. In fact, when it comes to many of the most difficult systemic issues facing the city, his administration has made tackling them a top priority.

Our city’s population has been declining since the 1950s. Did we really expect Mayor Gainey to reverse decades of economic challenges in three and a half years? Did we hold Tom Murphy, Luke Ravenstahl or Bill Peduto to the same standard? If we had, none of them would have served for more than one term.

Don’t fall for these bad-faith attacks. Join me in voting to re-elect Mayor Ed Gainey on May 20, 2025. PJC

Nancy Bernstein has lived in Squirrel Hill since 1991 and is active in local, state and national politics.