Just before Christmas, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey highlighted the efforts of first responders and the city’s advocate community when signing its 2025 budget, which decreases the number of police officers while maintaining similar spending on social programs.
“This is about our values,” said Gainey outside Pittsburgh City Council Chambers on Dec. 23. “This is what I talk about, what I mean, creating a city where everybody feels they have an opportunity to thrive, no matter what neighborhood you come from. You feel welcome all throughout the whole city and that you can believe that you’re safe, and we are.”
The approximately $665.3 million budget removes funding for 100 police officers but gives slight pay raises to those remaining, resulting in nearly $2 million in savings, according to the latest document detailing the budget from November. Overall, social spending seems similar to that of previous efforts from the Gainey administration, which particularly touted on social media the continued funding for the Housing Opportunity Fund and other affordable housing spending.
In the Gainey administration’s approximately 20-minute conference, the mayor’s own remarks merely bookended the bulk of the presentation. Instead, spokesperson Olga George called to the podium several people who played more of an outside role in forming the budget.
Swain Uber, with the Community Justice Project, praised the administration’s past and present affordable housing efforts.
“Over the past three years, this administration has made affordable housing a priority, securing the city’s first affordable housing bond, leveraging millions … to keep and build housing in the city and ensuring that affordability is at the heart of the efforts to redevelop Downtown,” said Uber at the conference. “This adopted budget, it will continue this trend, preserving housing for those who need it most.”
Muhammad Ali Nasir, a local activist with 1Hood and Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board member who goes by Man-E, took to the podium to praise changes to public safety spending.
“We’re really encouraged to see more and more of these resources devoted to the prevention of harm, to care for people more than ever before,” Man-E said. “For the first time ever, funding is being allocated to the hiring of community services.”
The administration also highlighted the city’s recently implemented Freedom House EMT Training Academy, which offers paid 12-week programs for obtaining EMT certifications. Allyson Foster, among the program’s first graduating class, spoke at the conference about her long held desire to work as an EMT being thwarted by the impossibility of affording to train while also working enough to pay bills.
“The Freedom House Academy changed that for me,” she said. “I have always wanted nothing more than to be able to help people and care for those around me. No matter where I ended up, that was my one goal in life, was just to be there for others. This academy allowed me to become a part of something bigger and give back to my community in ways I never thought that I would be able to.”
Scott Bricker, executive director of advocacy group BikePGH, also spoke at the conference to promote the city’s commitment to Vision Zero – a pledge to reach zero traffic deaths by 2035.
“Imagine a Pittsburgh where no more families were grieving their loved one because they were just trying to cross the street or play bikes with their friends outside their home,” Bricker said. “Crashes that result in death and life-changing injuries are unacceptable because they’re preventable.”
District 5 Councilor Barbara Warwick’s office released an email Dec. 20 praising the budget for police staffing that “better reflect[s] recent staffing realities” and that leaves room for more implementation of licensed social workers for tasks sometimes done by police. Her office also praised spending allocated to infrastructure, demolition of blighted buildings, better litter enforcement and more.
According to a Dec. 17 WESA article, the budget has had its critics, including City Controller Rachel Heisler and City Council members Bob Charland and Anthony Coghill, who have doubted the numbers add up on costs projected for staffing, such as overtime pay for police. The budget passed with almost unanimous approval votes, but narratives that the Gainey administration spends and budgets recklessly, put forth by those such as Gainey’s primary challenger, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, persist.
The next few months will prove important for the Gainey administration in proving to Pittsburghers that he should remain mayor, in advance of the May primary. Gainey’s priority of securing coalitions among advocates for several social issues may prove to be his biggest asset in fending off a primary challenge. After thanking the council in his concluding remarks about the budget, Gainey thanked Pittsburgh’s advocate community.
“Without your advocacy for a better city, we would not be here,” Gainey said. “Each one of y’all has played a pivotal role in legislation that was created, policies that are being funded and what the value of our city looks like. And I couldn’t be more proud of the work that you do.”
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2025.
