Mayor Bill Peduto has the travel bug and talks about his beard
Take Five with Patricia Sheridan, a new weekly feature, is a Q&A that offers a glimpse of the person behind the persona.
The youngest of four boys, Pittsburgh’s 60th mayor. Bill Peduto. has been known for — among other things — his Frick- and Carnegiestyle beard, appearing on the CBS show “Undercover Boss” and incorporating bike lanes around the city, which are loved by some and loathed by others. He has a bike and says he rides it as irregularly now as before the pandemic.
Who had the most influence on you getting into politics?
Nobody wants to take blame. [laughs] Politics was not a family business. The only two people in my extended family who ever received a check from the government were my uncle, who was a state trooper, and my brother is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. I really had a strong interest in history, and my dad started and ended his career as a history teacher. When I was in first grade, I wanted to be the first astronaut baseball player. By ninth grade, I was doing badly in science and I couldn’t hit a curve ball, so that dream was crushed. By the time I was in the second grade I had read biographies on Douglas MacArthur and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
What was your most recent binge?
I’m not really a binge personality. But on a rather wherever basis it’s been YouTube — random music videos and then following that rabbit hole into wherever it ends up. The most memorable so far: a story of Vince Taylor. He was a 1950s rockabilly Elvis wann-be in England. He was the inspiration for Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie’s fictional character. I had never even heard of this guy. Then he had the inevitable acid trip with Bob Dylan, which forever changed his
When are you most likely to shave the beard?
[laughs] Oh, I haven’t heard that since I lost my mom [in February]. I have had several extended deadlines. I started growing it in August two years ago, and it had its debut at the Labor Day parade. I will say this: If we can get back to normalcy and the Labor Day parade is still scheduled that may be the date. Right now it just has to be trimmed — it’s getting a little Jeremiah Johnson. People compare it to Czar Nicholas II, the captain of the Titanic and Henry Clay Frick — it is in that category of that kind of beard.
Where do you drift off to when you start daydreaming?
Several places. Hockey is a love of mine. Travel is a love of mine,
and music. During hockey season I become obsessed as a pseudo-general manager. I don’t just look at potential trades, but I will plan out five-year salary impacts, looking at positions and contracts. Then I’ll get on the phone and bother [former chief of staff and current Pittsburgh Penguins executive] Kevin Acklin. But I have notebooks filled with salary impact of players being rumored for trade. I also like to plan travel as much as I like to travel. I have created a plan that should I get reelected next year — and if that would be my last term — where would I want to go in 2026: a tour of the Southern Hemisphere from Antarctica to French Polynesia. I get into the details of it by watching YouTube documentaries about the different places. Then [I would schedule] around Carnival and being in Israel for Holy Week. So it would be a fivemonth journey with a return to Pittsburgh for a while.
Why doesn’t Pittsburgh have a high-speed train to the East Coast?
We never updated the tracks between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, so we still deal with higher elevation and inadequate infrastructure. As we look at technologies such as hyperloop, there could be a real possibility of allowing a new technology to replace high-speed rail. It does not seem railroads are interested in the improvements that would be necessary going east. There will be a lot of questions coming out of the coronavirus panic where people will not be as inclined to use airlines. With Pittsburgh being a six-hour [driving] trip from Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia, the idea of bringing people into the city by other means becomes very real. In combination with the early success we have had in combating the virus, it is an opportunity we should be pursuing in the next few years as we start to rebuild our economy in a post-COVID-19 world.