WITH ACTING POLICE CHIEF CHRISTOPHER RAGLAND NEXT TO HIM, MAYOR ED GAINEY WANTS TO KNOW WHY MORE OF HIS VICTORIES AS MAYOR AREN’T BEING REPORTED BY THE LOCAL MEDIA. (Photo by Chief Ikhana Hal-Makina)
With election three months away, Gainey wants his victories highlighted in media
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey isn’t changing his mind. He wants Christopher Ragland, the current acting police chief of the City of Pittsburgh, to become the permanent police chief.
But the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch said hold on. The Black Political Empowerment Project said hold on. Some members of Pittsburgh City Council said hold on. Groups like the NAACP want Ragland to meet with them so they can hear firsthand how he’ll lead a police department.
Now, there’s a chance that Ragland won’t be confirmed as permanent police chief before the May 20 Primary Election, where the incumbent, Mayor Gainey, is being challenged for the city’s top spot by Corey O’Connor. O’Connor has been a City Councilman and is currently the Allegheny County Controller. But he’s probably best known, even if he wouldn’t admit it, for being the son of the uber-popular Bob O’Connor, who was mayor of Pittsburgh in 2006 until his untimely death in September of that year.
Getting a new police chief in place isn’t the only thing on Mayor Gainey’s full plate. In fact, a lot of things seem to be happening right now as Mayor Gainey tries to secure a second term as mayor.
On the affordable housing front, his team said he earned a victory in the crisis with the launching of the “Keep Pittsburgh Home” campaign, launched Feb. 21. The campaign aims to protect renters from displacement and unfair practices, expand homeownership opportunities for first-time homebuyers, invest in and improve public housing, and combat the practice of private equity and predatory wholesalers from buying up all the available homes in Pittsburgh.
Mayor Gainey and his team called it a victory when homicides and non-fatal shootings went down in the city in 2024, as compared to 2023. The mayor and public safety officials worked hard to open a new Downtown Public Safety Center, which showed Pittsburghers that the city was serious about making Downtown safe. But on the day that the city celebrated the one-year anniversary of the center’s opening on Wood Street, all the media could talk about was the daytime shooting of a 17-year-old on Smithfield Street a day prior.
For all the good the mayor says he’s trying to do in the city, it seems as though his field of detractors cries louder. And it isn’t just O’Connor running for mayor—there’s former police officer Tony Moreno, who ran in 2021, and Thomas West, a 48-year-old business owner who lives in Highland Park.
Mayor Gainey is used to stress. After all, he leads the second-largest city in Pennsylvania, and a city that happens to have 90 neighborhoods with a variety of people and personalities. But the city now knows he doesn’t take kindly to media members who, in his opinion, try to paint his city in a negative light.
During the Feb. 20 news conference celebrating the Downtown Public Safety Center, WPXI-TV reporter Rick Earle asked acting chief Ragland how the city can fight back against the perception that Downtown isn’t safe. Earle noted the Feb. 19 shooting as well as a shooting on Jan. 5 on Penn Avenue. Earle said that the city can “throw all the stats” and “numbers” out there they want, but when people hear about the shootings, they still say, “It’s not safe in Pittsburgh.”
Acting chief Ragland diplomatically answered that “Downtown is safe” and that “in some of those incidents, it’s very difficult for you to prevent that (the shooting). What we did do is save a man’s life and take a man into custody within seconds, and that’s all due to the presence we have down there.”
Mayor Gainey then took the microphone.
“We can throw away the numbers…let’s talk about another number that really helps create a safe city. How many positive stories have you reported, Rick? How many times have you gone down there and talked about the great things that’s going on Downtown and the nightlife that has come back and really demonstrated our city in a way that shows its beauty and not the ugly?”
Mayor Gainey obviously took exception to what he feels are numerous stories done by Earle on WPXI that focus on the negative side of Pittsburgh and/or the Gainey administration.
“The reality is, part of the perception comes from you,” Mayor Gainey said, directed to Earle. “And at the end of the day, if the perception is only on the negative, then that’s what you promote.”
Earle, in his defense, said that “we” as a television station have done positive stories on Downtown Pittsburgh and the mayor’s office.
Ayodeji Young, longtime Pittsburgh community advocate and current director of the Jordan Miles Youth Engagement Center, Downtown, then jumped on the mic and had the mayor’s back.
“I’m Downtown Pittsburgh every single day, and in my opinion, it does get slanted in a negative perspective,” Young said. “It’s attack, attack, attack,” he said when he watches local news about Downtown.
“Have you seen Downtown in Atlanta? Downtown in Cleveland? Downtown in Philly? I guarantee if you reach out and compare any of those numbers to Pittsburgh, we’ll come out better. To me, this issue with Downtown Pittsburgh is more or less outsiders looking at the City of Pittsburgh and going off of what you guys report versus coming into Downtown Pittsburgh and seeing things themselves.”
Young, who seemed to be speaking to all media, then said: “From this day forward, you’re going to hear kickback and fighting back to these accusations about Downtown Pittsburgh and the overall job that the police officers, the mayor and his staff are doing. We’re done with the false narratives.
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