Corey O’Connor was my City Council rep for 10 years. I’ve held that seat since Dec. 2022—giving me unique insight on the difference between his leadership style and that of Mayor Ed Gainey.
During Corey’s time on Council, playgrounds across my district sat broken, emails and phone calls went unanswered, and when issues arose with non-city agencies, his response was often that it was a PennDOT or PPS or County issue, so there was nothing he could do. Unless you knew to contact his chief-of-staff directly, you were often out of luck.
Corey came to parades, but not to monthly community meetings. If he did show up to something, it was usually for five minutes—saying hello to key people, then making an excuse to leave.
Upon joining City Council, I quickly learned that Corey’s reputation at work was no better. He was infamous among members for conveniently leaving the table for phone calls right before tough votes and flip-flopping on decisions based on whoever he talked to last. And he was quick to throw city workers under the bus, blaming them for things he forgot to follow up on and calling them “not very intelligent” in the press.
Access to Corey is based on who you know—whether you’re on committee, went to the same high school, or are a family friend. Affluence also plays its part: During his time on Council, Squirrel Hill got 20 speed humps while neighborhoods like Hazelwood got none.
Meanwhile, I’ve had a front row seat to Mayor Gainey’s work building a Pittsburgh for all.
He’s transformed public safety —budgeting for 75 social workers, case managers, and outreach specialists who collaborate with law enforcement and community advocates to proactively support our most at-risk residents. The result has been a 33 percent drop in homicides and 44 percent drop in non-fatal shootings, a nearly 90 percent drop in calls for 81 percent of frequent 911 users, and almost all the city’s encampment residents being housed.
As the child of a single mom who grew up with Section 8, Mayor Gainey put housing at the forefront of his agenda—investing to create and preserve more than 1,600 affordable units. He kick-started the OwnPGH program, which has helped more than 150 low- and moderate-income Pittsburghers —mostly women with kids—buy their first home.
Mayor Gainey has also been bullish on infrastructure and growth: Fixing our crumbling bridges; completing 35 playground, park, and rec center projects; 60 traffic management projects; and filling 22 critical sidewalk gaps. Under his watch, the stagnant Pittsburgh Land Bank is now fully operational and the city is moving more than 200 vacant and abandoned properties a year back onto the tax rolls. He has invested in the business districts of underserved communities and won a $600 million deal to revitalize Downtown.
He even landed Pittsburgh’s bid for the 2026 NFL Draft.
But that’s not all.
Mayor Gainey has been an exceptional leader inside the city as well —carefully planning for lean years without raising taxes, bringing up our credit rating, and finishing 2024 with a $4M budget surplus. When our Chief of EMS asked for a training academy, he said yes. When our police officers asked for higher pay, more PTO, and more recruit classes, he delivered. When DPW workers were getting injured at alarming rates, he took the necessary steps to make their jobs safer. His staff has been at more than 500 community meetings in three years and he hosts regular listening sessions across the city to address resident concerns – like the need for more rec center hours and programming, increased traffic enforcement, and deer management in our parks.
Mayor Gainey has increased the number of city contracts going to minority- and women-owned businesses by 35 percent and has ushered in the most diverse workforce our city has ever seen.
He’s also been a staunch supporter of Labor—refusing to talk to the Trump-endorsing, union-busting Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Now, as we face down a second Trump presidency, Pittsburgh’s teachers, nurses, service workers, environmentalists, youth and homeless outreach teams, housing justice advocates, and those who support our immigrant and Trans neighbors are all lining up behind Mayor Gainey because they know he has their backs.
Bottom line: Ed Gainey works for the people of Pittsburgh. That’s why big-money interests—from real-estate developers to UPMC execs and even MAGA Trump donors – are spending obscene amounts of money to unseat him. They prefer mayors who show up for the photo-op, but not for the fight.
Luckily, Pittsburghers are smarter than that.
We don’t need a mayor who feels entitled to the job. We need a mayor who has earned it.
That Mayor is Ed Gainey.
Please vote on May 20.
(Barb Warwick is the Pittsburgh City Councilmember for District 5.)