These days, Pittsburghers can’t open a newspaper, or visit a national news site, without being bombarded by accolades for our city.
“The story of Pittsburgh is resonating,” Mayor Bill Peduto told City Paper in a recent interview. “It is, to the urbanist, the story of resiliency before resiliency became the cool thing. It is, to the environmentalist, the story of how a city can solve its problems and that we don’t have to look to nations to be able to do it. To the economist it’s a story of transition, and soon it will be a story of inclusion to those around the world that are facing the same issues.
“Pittsburgh is an urban lab to so many urban thinkers and writers, and I’m just its salesman and I put together a pretty good sales pitch.”
But perhaps the mayor, who recently passed the half-way mark on his first term in office, is being a little modest. Supporters say much of the story people are buying can be attributed to Peduto himself, who spent two decades in city government building a coalition of like-minded progressive politicians who share his vision for the city.
Today, members of that coalition hold the majority on Pittsburgh City Council. They also hold seats in other elected offices at the county and state level.
And this coalition, separate from the traditional Democratic machine that has long ruled Pittsburgh, is a key reason Peduto’s first two years in office have gone so smoothly. His appointments to key positions like police chief have been praised. Measures to reform government and improve workers’ rights have passed through council almost unanimously. And Pittsburgh’s even been selected for some high-profile national initiatives.
“He’s doing things that are giving Pittsburgh a really good reputation around the country,” says Gabriel McMorland, a community organizer. “I don’t want to pretend that we don’t still have problems as a city, but I think it’s good that the things to me that look like big problems are things he’s acknowledging and saying he wants to address.”
What little criticism Peduto has faced has come from those who worry that city council isn’t serving as a check and balance on the mayor’s administration, and others who do not support all of his reform initiatives.
But can it last? Peduto’s consensus could face opposition if members of his coalition are defeated in upcoming elections. And it might be too soon to tell whether Pittsburgh’s standing on the international stage will resonate with voters when Peduto runs for re-election in 2017.
“Peduto himself made it clear that he had ideas ready to go for years. He has been ready for this moment for a long time,” says McMorland. “Things were pretty underwhelming under the previous administration. So when he stepped in, we saw a lot of big changes, a lot of positive activity, and it’s almost not surprising that he did a lot of stuff that I feel really good about and I’m impressed by. But now that we take a look back it’s like, ‘What’s he going to do next?’”
Since Peduto took office more than two years ago, the fifth floor of the City-County Building has looked a little different. And that’s not just because of the Talent City hiring process the mayor used to fill key administration positions, increasing diversity to record levels.
It’s also because of changes to the way city government is done. Some of the reforms during Peduto’s first two years, such as using Talent City and hiring a police chief with a background in community policing, are more flashy changes. But others, like efforts to reorganize the Bureau of Building Inspection and a program to ensure every second-grader knows how to swim, are less so.
“There’s something going on every week that I look back with my staff and I just go ‘Wow,’” Peduto tells CP. “There isn’t anything on an individual basis that I can say is the hallmark. It’s a combination. It’s an attitude that Pittsburgh can do anything, that it is in partnership with our county, with our schools and with city council, more than it has ever been in my lifetime.”
This unprecedented level of cooperation has lead to a more harmonious relationship between the mayor’s office and city council than in years past. Examples include the unanimous vote to support the mayor’s budget and the passage of land-bank legislation that went from being opposed by several council members to being mostly supported. Among those who didn’t originally support it were District 9 Councilor Ricky Burgess, who now serves as the chair of the land-bank task force.
“The council and the mayor have been working in partnership to lead our city,” says Burgess. “We’ve been working in concert so that it’s a shared vision. As partners, we work together to solve what I believe are some of the most important challenges to our city. Because of our partnership, we talk [regularly] about the work each of us are doing and provide constructive criticism when necessary.”
This is a far cry from the council/mayoral relationships that Peduto experienced as a member of council. Serving as a city councilor during the mayoral reigns of Tom Murphy and later Luke Ravenstahl, Peduto often found himself on the losing end of a 5-4 council split that backed the mayor. He often railed against perceived rubber-stamp councils that those mayors enjoyed, especially on major issues.
That’s the same concern that some, including activist Julia Johnson, have about Peduto and the current council. And she worries that the vision that they have for Pittsburgh isn’t inclusive of everyone.
“I think city council needs to hold him accountable, and people need to be holding the mayor and city council accountable,” says Johnson. “A lot of times [the mayor and council] are on the same page as far as what they believe is best for the city and they don’t realize how much harm they are causing. And even when we do tell them about the harm, they continue to invalidate our lived experiences.” One such issue, she says, is that Peduto and council don’t share low-income people’s concerns about affordable housing.
When asked whether the system of checks and balances that Peduto once championed during his time on council still exists, and whether council is challenging him, Peduto said, “When we put something on the table, we know that it will face amendments and almost every time does.
“I think we have a council that has made legislation that we have authored better by the changes they have done, and that is something that only happens when you have divergent voices looking through that lens. The moment we take that as a threat we lose that, and we create a system that is no better than a rubber stamp.”
However, there’s no denying that some of the legislation the mayor and city council have passed hasn’t been well received by everyone in the Pittsburgh community. Several organizations have sued the city over pieces of legislation they say are beyond the city’s jurisdiction to legislate.
Recently passed legislation to mandate paid sick leave was defeated last month in a court challenge by the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association. And a measure to create a registry for rental properties has also been challenged on the basis that it places an unfair burden on landlords, one that could possibly be passed on to tenants.
While these measures might not have unanimous support from the Pittsburgh business community, the mayor’s commitment to keep fighting for them in court is touted by local activists, especially those organizing in the area of workers’ rights.
“We’ve felt like in the issues that have been important to the coalition partners at Pittsburgh United, that the mayor has responded by not just agreeing but by really taking a leadership role,” says Barney Oursler, that activist organization’s executive director. “When workers were marching behind the Fight for $15, the mayor not only came out and supported it, but then he immediately proclaimed that he’s going to take all city workers to the $15 level in a stepped process over the next couple years, and then he called on council to enact legislation that would make sure all the city contract workers are also brought to the $15-an-hour minimum wage.”
But some of Peduto’s progressive ideas don’t resonate with all Pittsburghers, including those in his own party and the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, says one political analyst.
“By and large I suspect that much of the existing committee outside the 14th Ward object to the mayor’s progressive instincts, and would put great trust in someone who thinks clearly ‘in the box’ rather than outside of it,” says political analyst Don Friedman.
While Friedman argues that support from the Democratic Party hasn’t been necessary to win an election in recent years, he also says the mayor’s consensus on city council could be swayed if council seats are lost to Democrats on the other side of the aisle.
“Mayor Peduto came into office with enough votes to move his agenda forward. He has failed to pick up any others,” Friedman says. “Past administrations have rarely had the ability to sway council as easily as Mayor Peduto, and inevitably it will only get tougher over time.”
And while accolades have come rolling in from national and international observers, Friedman says there’s no guarantee Peduto’s reforms have been well received by the majority of Pittsburghers.
“[It’s] too soon to tell. Except for the bike lanes which are almost universally complained about, much of what Mayor Peduto has been doing isn’t on the radar for most city residents,” says Friedman. “Garbage continues to be picked up, the streets paved and plowed, and the police still are on call.”
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2016.
why can;t we go back to having a mayor that does crack and like bad music. I don’t want to think my mayor is cool. he is supposed to be an authority and people in authority are supposed to be boring but really responsible. Like for example my dad is my dad and he gets the job done but I don’t like his music. He tries impress me by mentioning bands that were popular like ten years ago lol. Like we were changing the oil and out of the blue he was like did you hear the new kaiser chifes album? Lol my dad but he can fix anything. he fixed my bicycle with gum and but hair. mayor Peduto uses twee culture to exploit his constituency for votes.