Mayoral candidates face off
First in-person debate addresses equity, police
The disparities that Black residents of Pittsburgh face in their economic opportunities, housing and safety were the main focus of the city’s first in-person mayoral debate on Friday.
In their first time sharing a stage ahead of May’s primary, Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto and two primary challengers — state Rep. Ed Gainey and retired police officer Tony Moreno — were pressed on how they’d make the city livable for all and not just some.
Speaking in a forum moderated by students at Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy 6-12 in Homewood, Mr. Peduto, seeking a third term in office, insisted that he’s worked his entire career to make Pittsburgh beneficial for all but that there’s “still more work that needs to be done.” Closing the gap between the “two Pittsburghs,” as he deems them — one for white people and one for Black people — requires partnership, the mayor said.
To Mr. Gainey, it requires action, not rhetoric from leaders — a thread of criticism that he sustained against Mr. Peduto throughout the two-hour affair.
“Until we’re serious about addressing the disparities, then it will just be an open conversation with rhetoric and no implementation of action, and we’ll never get anything done that will heal the city,” said Mr. Gainey, who represents the 24th Legislative District in Harrisburg.
The relationship between Pittsburgh residents and the city’s police department was a focal point during talks of disparity, as Mr. Gainey accused the mayor of breaking his promise to strengthen the connection.
Mr. Peduto spoke of a “track record of success,” but one in which more needs to be accomplished. He described a police bureau that was in shambles before he took office and one that, under his leadership,
was eventually chosen by the Obama administration to experiment with implicit bias training for its officers.
The mayor touted his administration’s Civilian Affairs Division that works directly with the community so social workers are assisting police officers, as well as the Office of Community and Health Services — a partnership with Allegheny Health Network — to make social workers available around the clock.
Making the case that “we have to stop overpolicing” in Pittsburgh, Mr. Gainey countered that there have been no new programs or strategies to improve police-community relations and said it has led to movements like last summer’s — when Pittsburghers sustained a protest movement to call for reforms. The state lawmaker also criticized the police response to those protests.
“When you see protesters being sprayed in [Mellon Park] — innocent protesters being sprayed, being dehumanized — that’s a problem,” Mr. Gainey said.
Twice, Mr. Gainey referenced a recent Associated Press report about many Pittsburgh-area police officers participating in a private Facebook group where they wrote disparaging remarks about Democrats, Black Lives Matter protesters and LGBT people. None of the officers has been investigated or taken off the force, Mr. Gainey said — a “trauma on top of the pain that we already have.”
Mr. Moreno called for “good, empathetic policing” — which he said hasn’t been encouraged or fostered by the Peduto administration. He cautioned that police are being told not to interact in a meaningful manner with people in crisis.
“[Officers are] there to swear to and enforce the law and protect the citizens, and when you get a policy that says you’re not allowed ... it creates confusion,” Mr. Moreno said. “And that goes all the way up the chain.”
Will Parker, who is pursuing a run as an independent ahead of November’s general election, said there needs to be more diversity on the police force.
Asked how to diversify the force, Mr. Peduto pointed to a program his administration started at Westinghouse for 10th graders to start looking at careers in public safety through a Career and Technical Education program.
“You wanna have more diversification in a police force? Give kids from the neighborhood the opportunity for those jobs first,” Mr. Peduto said.
Mr. Peduto also said “you lead by example” to foster an environment for diversity, saying that his staff — and that of the boards, authorities and commissions — is the most diverse in city history.
Mr. Gainey said Black candidates are waiting to be hired by the city — but that the hiring process is subjective, not objective.
“We can fix that. Here’s how: Be intentional in hiring Black officers. Be intentional in hiring Latino officers. Be intentional in hiring LGBTQIA+ officers. Be intentional in hiring women officers,” Mr. Gainey said.
The candidates also discussed disparity through the lens of gentrification, and Mr. Peduto started the topic by acknowledging, “Gentrification is real.”
“There are incidents where people who have lived through the bad times, able to be there for the good times, but you know what else drives people out of the community? Disinvestment,” he said, insisting that when people have the opportunity to leave for better schools, safety and opportunity, they’ll move.
There is development, Mr. Peduto said, and there are people moving back into the city, “but if we want beautiful schools like this, we need a tax base to sustain them.” The best way to do it, he said, is a two-track method of affordable housing and market-rate housing.
Mr. Gainey countered that it doesn’t make sense to say gentrification is real, then say most of the people who move out of their neighborhoods do so because they want a better school district.
“Either we say gentrification is real without an excuse, or it’s not,” Mr. Gainey said.
“We have to focus on affordable housing because mixed-income housing — market rate — hasn’t worked for everybody to make this a city for all,” he added.