Mayor-elect Ed Gainey appeared on CNN Monday morning to discuss Pittsburgh’s infrastructure, social spending and the future of policing in the city.
Appearing on Kate Bolduan’s “At This Hour,” Mr. Gainey was asked about how he would guarantee that Pittsburgh receives a portion of the recently passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Ms. Bolduan cited comments from a Pittsburgh congressional member about the age of the city’s infrastructure.
“We have the oldest infrastructure probably in America,” Mr. Gainey replied, addling that “We want to be able to use it to make sure that we’re building up our infrastructure and repairing the roads, the bridges, and the rest of the infrastructure that needs to be repaired.”
Mr. Gainey said that at this time, it has not been discussed how much of the funding Pittsburgh would receive, but that “we’re looking forward to getting our share.”
Ms. Bolduan mentioned the possibility of Democrats in Washington failing to pass a larger social safety net bill, which would make the infrastructure spending the totality of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
When asked if this bill would be enough for Pittsburgh’s needs, Mr. Gainey stressed that he wants to utilize as many resources as possible to improve the social safety net.
“We’re gonna hope for the best,” he said. “We’re gonna hope that they can come together in a bipartisan way that produces the level of investment that we need to ensure that our cities and the rest of America’s cities are okay.”
Mr. Gainey mentioned that funding for universal pre-K education, a component of the social safety net bill, would be a good place to start.
“But I also want to focus on the public health aspect,” he said. “For so many years, and we’ve noticed now for decades and decades and decades, we’ve had to deal with how we talk about eradicating violence in America, whether that’s gun violence, drug and alcohol violence, poverty, education, homelessness. There’s a lot in this bill that we can really utilize in order to ensure that we beef up our public safety nets.”
Ms. Bolduan mentioned Mr. Gainey’s support for reforming — and not defunding — the police department, asking how he plans to address over-policing and make changes once he takes office in January.
Mr. Gainey said he first wants police to “walk the beat again,” repairing broken relationships with community members and especially among people of color.
Second, Mr. Gainey said he’d like to reduce over policing in communities of color.
Mr. Gainey will appear tonight on 1HoodPower’s The Power House at 7 p.m. alongside Wilkinsburg Mayor-elect Dontae Comans to discuss their campaigns. The program is streamed live on Facebook.
First Published: November 8, 2021, 5:48 p.m.
