WILKINSBURG MAYOR DONTAE COMANS, with his daughter, Bellamy. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
CELEBRATING OUR REGION’S BLACK MAYORS — SECOND IN A SERIES
Dontae Comans—the father, the husband, the honest guy, the “average Joe,” as he described himself to the New Pittsburgh Courier.
Well, this self-proclaimed “average Joe” has one of the most visible positions in this region — mayor of the borough of Wilkinsburg, where it feels like it will take Judge Judy to come in and settle the issue of annexation once and for all.
Comans, 36, has no average job. He had to stand tall in the face of the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation’s Daytona 500-style race to the finish line to have Wilkinsburg become part of Pittsburgh, which, if it ever happens, would make Comans mayor-no-more. He must have a watchful eye on the Wilkinsburg Borough Council, the nine-member board that, in most instances, wields more power in the borough than the mayor. And he has to constantly fight the perception that people would rather be elsewhere than in Wilkinsburg.
“The way we’re portrayed is a black cloud over us, and we have to get rid of that,” Comans told the Courier, Feb. 18. “We’re known as the borough that has the highest taxes and our kids are doing terrible in school.”
But Comans proclaimed that Wilkinsburg’s students are, overall, doing well in school. He cited that former Wilkinsburg Schools superintendent Dr. Linda Iverson during her tenure “basically cleaned house and made our schools start to flourish, and now that she’s gone, they’re still following her model with Dr. Joe (Maluchnik). So our schools are doing amazing.”
Dontae Comans with his daughter, Bellamy, in Wilkinsburg.
The Pre-K, Kindergarten and first-grade students attend Kelly Primary — the second- through sixth-graders attend Turner Intermediate.
Comans said all students in the district are learning Spanish this school year, which helps them get into future magnet school programs that the Pittsburgh Public Schools district offers at schools like CAPA and Sci-Tech. Most of Wilkinsburg’s seventh- through twelfth-graders attend Westinghouse Academy, in Homewood, a PPS school.
“We’re setting them (Wilkinsburg students) up to be the best they can be,” Comans said.
For Comans, Wilkinsburg’s school system is how he officially became a part of public service. Following his wife Ashley’s stint as a Wilkinsburg School Board director (the borough refers to each board member as a director), Comans felt that it was his time. “If we were going to have kids and they’re going to go to school in Wilkinsburg,” Comans told the Courier, “it’s always best to have some type of representation that cares.”
Their daughter, Bellamy, 2, will be attending pre-school next year.
But why stop there, Comans thought. After Marita Garrett announced she would not seek another four-year term as Wilkinsburg mayor, Comans jumped at the opportunity. He won the Democratic Primary Election in May 2021, and therefore coasted to the win in the November 2021 General Election.
“My main objective is to unify our three wards and become one Wilkinsburg,” Comans told the Courier. Also, “Get our civic engagement up, triple the voter turnout,” he said. “We have to get more people registered, let them know that we work for them. They voted me in so I have to represent the people that voted as well as the people that didn’t vote, the ones that feel like it doesn’t matter…stressing to them that it does matter; what they don’t like, they can fix it. It takes all of us, a whole community, to come together to do that.”
Wilkinsburg today has a population of roughly 14,300, with 56 percent identifying as Black. Comans has been a resident since 2012. Comans grew up in the Lincoln area of Pittsburgh, not even 10 minutes from Wilkinsburg. He graduated from Schenley High School in 2003, and attended Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.
Comans describes Wilkinsburg as a “growing community, we’re very diverse, we have two Jamaican restaurants, five grocery stores…we care about each other,” he said. “Give us a try, come hang with us for a day to see the beauty (of Wilkinsburg). The reality is, you can find a beautiful home in Wilkinsburg that you might not be able to afford in the city (Pittsburgh). We have beautiful property, no matter what they say about the taxes.”
Comans added: “If you have a complaint in the city (Pittsburgh), it’s a lot harder to get things done than you can in (Wilkinsburg) where you can actually (be at the door of your council member) and they’ll listen. That’s what I’m trying to bring forward and get our council on board, just to be more out there in the community and just listen; because we work for the people. We’re not their boss.
Dontae Comans walks with his daughter, Bellamy, in Wilkinsburg, two weeks before Election Day 2021. (Photo by Kaycee Orwig/PublicSource)
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