Electing the first Black mayor of Pittsburgh — a city famously deemed most livable, but where only some are reaping the benefits of the new economy — won’t solve everything, but it would mark an important rite of passage for communities of color to have a seat at the table, civil rights activists and Black political leaders say.
Community activists and officials who have watched the city change from steel town to a coveted “Eds and Meds” center over the past few decades say they see hope for the city’s Black communities if State Rep. Ed Gainey takes over as mayor in 2022. If he wins the general election in November, as he’s expected to do, he can include marginalized neighborhoods in discussions about the city’s future, they said, and start to answer the question: For whom is Pittsburgh most livable?
City leaders have been “screaming to the whole world internationally that Pittsburgh is this modern city that’s weathered the storm from industrial steel town to now this high tech health care, high ed community,” said State Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District. “But the one thing we have never been able to show the world is that we’re really open to diverse people and diverse things.”
Mr. Gainey’s election “modernizes us,” Mr. Wheatley said, in a city that’s long been a “get along, go along town” stifling Black voices. Now that a more diverse group of leaders are organizing and building coalitions, things are looking better in Pittsburgh, he said — and Mr. Gainey is the latest example.
For so long, Pittsburgh has seen “yesterday’s politics” impact its present day — a belief that someone has to be kept down for someone else to rise up, said Esther Bush, president and chief executive of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. But Pittsburgh is worth fighting for, she said, because it has all the tools: old and new money, companies relocating here, a sizable industry backbone based on everything from health care to glass, and more foundation and corporate money than one could imagine. There’s no excuse for why public schools are “a mess” and some children don’t have access to WiFi, she said.
It’s not about asking for handouts, Ms. Bush said, but a “hand up, or just get out of my way.” Born and raised in Pittsburgh before leaving town, she said when she came back to the city 27 years ago, she could name at least seven Black executives in the city’s biggest corporations. Today? Name that many, she says — remarking that it’s a challenge.
“When I look at all these brilliant Black people out here across the board, why do we have to pick and choose? There’s a seat at the table for everybody and not, ‘We don’t have any black people,’” Ms. Bush said. “Well, we better get one.”
It’s against that backdrop that Mr. Gainey would take leadership of the city, and it’s part of the reason why he ran in the first place. The 51-year-old state lawmaker, who beat incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto in the May Democratic primary, always uses the same phrase to describe his political upbringing: that he “never met a politician” growing up as a young Black man in East Liberty. No one in a suit ever knocked on his door or held a community meeting, he insists.
Mr. Gainey said he wants to knock on those doors. He talks of neighborhoods “left behind.” In a talk this past week to the Pittsburgh Technology Council, he said some streets in the city have two sides: one old and one new, with no one able to bridge the gap.
“That’s something we need to overcome,” Mr. Gainey said. “That’s what happens when you have explosive growth.”
Look no further than the census, said Sala Udin, to see why Pittsburgh’s “most livable” mantra is laughable. Blacks are fleeing the city to go elsewhere, he said, dismayed by a lack of economic opportunity, affordable housing, quality schooling and “certainly not a supportive and protective relationship with the police system.”
“Pittsburgh is not doing well by its Black people,” said Mr. Udin, a member of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board and a former city councilman. “Too many Black people do not see a future here for them and their families, and if they can find a way out, they are escaping as quickly as they can.”
Pittsburgh has not provided a place for Black people to succeed and grow, Ms. Bush added —- citing, for one, a 2019 report by the mayor’s office that found Black women can relocate almost anywhere else in the United States and have a better quality of life.
The election of the first Black mayor, she said, is an “awesome opportunity” to bring people together. But she cautioned against thinking Mr. Gainey can fix Pittsburgh’s problems alone.
“He’s a community guy. He believes in helping people. He doesn’t mind speaking out and speaking up. But no one man can turn this city around. He can help provide the leadership to help turn it around,” Ms. Bush said, adding that it will take other elected officials and corporate leaders standing beside him to influence real change.
Mr. Udin, whose office was run by Mr. Gainey’s mother for six years at one point, said he’s writing a piece now about how the election gives him hope, even though he didn’t always expect the state lawmaker to win.
“I was among the skeptics, I have to admit,” Mr. Udin said, “but it’s time. The annual surveys of most livable cities have become a joke [that gives Black people reason] to say, ‘Most livable for whom?’ There’s obviously another Pittsburgh that you’re describing that we don’t experience. It is not most livable for us.”
His advice to Mr. Gainey: Don’t allow yourself to be held to a higher standard, know your blind spots and weaknesses and surround yourself with good people.
“He’s not a magician,” Mr. Udin said. “He’s the mayor.”
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952, Twitter @julianrouth.
First Published: June 20, 2021, 10:00 a.m.