Candidates’ differences become more apparent
District 8 city council seat up for grabs in March special election
Pittsburgh City Council’s District 8 faces the kind of choices many areas would love to have — like what to do about rampant growth, and whom to select among four candidates seeking to represent the East End district in a March 6 special election.
But candidate Erika Strassburger says many district concerns are universal: “People want to know about infrastructure, including the water system, and the changing Pittsburgh. As we grow, there are going to be growing pains.”
And the race may be determined by how much change voters are seeking in the burgeoning district, which encompasses Shadyside and portions of Oakland, Point Breeze
and Squirrel Hill.
Ms. Strassburger is running as an independent for the post held by former Councilman Dan Gilman, whom she had served as chief of staff for four years. But she’s facing first-time rivals in a race prompted by Mr. Gilman’s decision to become Mayor Bill Peduto’s top aide. In debates, she has relied on her knowledge of city government — experience her rivals lack — while also arguing change doesn’t come as quickly as they’d like.
“It’s easy to promise the world in a campaign,” Ms. Strassburger said. “But when you really dig down, you realize how little black and white there is” — especially when the views of other council members, the mayor and the district’s own varying perspectives must be weighed.
For example, she said, while her rivals urged that the city’s larger tax-exempt nonprofits — including district mainstays like UPMC and Carnegie Mellon University — contribute to the city’s tax rolls, there were more nuanced questions to address.
“It’s easy to say, ‘ They should just pay their fair share.’ But what are you going to do to leverage something they might want to do that benefits the city even more?”
Such talk irks Sonja Finn, a strident Point Breeze progressive who is running as the Democratic nominee.
“I’m very pragmatic,” she said. As the owner of the East Liberty restaurant Dinette, “I make dinner every night, while also paying living wages and health insurance for employees. I can handle the nuts and bolts so well that I can also also push progressive values forward .”
By contrast, she said, Pittsburgh elected officials “talk a very progressive talk, but I don’t see the money being spent helping the people of this city.” She said the city needs to do more to provide affordable housing and noted that throughout Mr. Peduto’s first term, “our mayor said he was going to ink a deal with UPMC to help the city in lieu of paying taxes, and we still haven’t seen that.”
In part, the race has been drawn into a fight between Mr. Peduto, who once held the District 8 seat, and his most prominent critic: Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner.
Mr. Peduto has contributed money and support to Ms. Strassburger, whom he hailed for her “professionalism in the ability to work out issues.” But he lamented “there is an undertone to this race that is being driven by the county controller,” who is backing Ms. Finn.
Ms. Wagner “is calling for my head” on issues including the long-neglected Pittsburgh Waterand Sewer Authority,” he said. “I think Chelsa views [the race] as her way to get intocity government.”
Ms. Wagner, who lives just outside the district in Point Breeze, denied having ulterior motives: “I’ve been outraged at the city’s response” to concerns about lead in city water supplies, she said. “Erika’s background suits her as a great chief of staff, [but] I don’t see her as someone who will challenge the status quo.”
Ms. Finn, she said, “opened a restaurant at age 28, and it’s amazing what she’s done. The day-to-day operation of government is something you can learn, but leadership isn’t necessarily teachable.”
The race’s other two candidates are running, in part, on being outside such frays.
Rennick Remley, a Squirrel Hill Republican who works in corporate relations for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, has tried giving the GOP a friendly face, deploying humor and his unusual status as a gay Republican in a staunchly Democratic district. (At one debate, for example, he spoke warmly of Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, even though he worked on the campaign for a Fitzgerald challenger, D. Raja.)
Still, he backs familiar market-driven solutions like hiring private managers to oversee the city’s beleaguered water and sewer authority. In any case, he said, as someone outside the city’s Democratic power structure, “I will definitely question things.”
If Mr. Remley sees himself as outside Democratic circles, businessman and LGBT activist Marty Healey regards himself as an honest broker within them.
Mr. Healey, who has known Mr. Peduto since childhood, called him “a good guy, and I have great respect for his vision, but I’m willing to push back” on issues like the region’s pursuit of a second headquarters for Amazon. The city has fought efforts to release details of the incentive package being offered to the etailer — a position Mr. Healey calls “problematic.”
“I’m not part of the promayor or the anti-mayor faction,” Mr. Healey said, who is running as an independent. “I can work with people on both sides.”