‘There’s so much potential’: Thomas West makes his case for mayor of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh small-business owner Thomas West said that as the owner of a men’s clothing shop in the city’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, he hears a lot from other residents about the state of the Steel City, especially when it comes to jobs and the economy. 

And as a person with Western Pennsylvania roots, he has seen a lot of persistent challenges dogging the city. “Jobs are leaving. Families are leaving. The population is half of what it once was. We are losing businesses. We’re losing families,” he told City & State in an interview. “We all have the same complaints. Nothing’s being done. I can either complain and just be part of the conversation, or I can jump in and try to do something.”

After about a year of thinking about it, West decided to do just that this past January, joining the Republican primary race for mayor of Pittsburgh. 

“I wanted to get involved. There’s so much potential in the city, so much ambition in the city that’s continuously being capped. I’d like to release that cap and get things moving again,” he said. “I’m just tired of hearing the same complaints, the same stories, the same promises.”

West, who is facing retired police officer Tony Moreno in the GOP primary, said his decision was motivated by two major issues: the economy and public safety. 

On the economic front, West said that Pittsburgh’s business community isn’t being listened to by city leaders.

“I can tell you that many small business owners, many large business owners, feel ignored, taken for granted,” he said. “You go to sleep, you wake up, there’s a new ordinance, a new policy that changes the way you do business and makes you less competitive as a city – and small businesses or large businesses aren’t even asked. They’re not asked: ‘If we make this change, how does it affect you? If we make this change, what can we do to lessen the impact on your small business?’ So a lot of small businesses get upset, they get frustrated, they pick up and they leave.” 

West is proposing a business roundtable that would work with the mayor’s office to identify and address challenges facing the city’s business community. “We need a group of business owners, large and small,” he said. “We need to have communication between everyone.”

West also said it’s important that the city remove roadblocks for affordable housing construction and development – an issue that has surfaced in the Democratic primary race for mayor, as well, where Mayor Ed Gainey and challenger and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor have sparred over the city’s progress on affordable housing construction. West said that if elected mayor, his administration would determine what barriers prevent small and large developers from building homes in the city and remove them.

“If we really think it’s an emergency, let’s treat it like the emergency it is and get it done, instead of having this be a problem year after year, election after election, because I feel like sometimes it’s just a talking point and nothing gets done,” West said.

West said that crime and public safety have to be top priorities for the city’s next mayor, recalling when he and his partner were attacked in downtown Pittsburgh several years ago, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were attacked downtown a couple years ago walking to a public parking garage, pushed up against the wall, and didn’t know if the guy had a weapon of any sort. He demanded that we take him to our car. Obviously, we said no. He was an inch from our face. Luckily – I don’t know what happened – he kind of came to his senses and walked away. We called the police. The guy was gone by the time police got there,” he said. “I had never been in that position before, and that’s the moment where public safety smacked me in the face. Nobody should have to go through that – it’s scary.”

The GOP mayoral hopeful criticized Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration for its struggles to keep a police chief – the city has had five different chiefs during Gainey’s first term, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. West wants to address staffing challenges within the police department; he said he’s spoken to police officers and detectives in the city who have said that morale is low due to staffing struggles.

A 2023 survey of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police employees appears to back up West’s claim on morale. Of the 917 department employees surveyed, a majority said they were highly dissatisfied with staffing levels and morale, per WPXI. 

West believes that without addressing crime and public safety challenges in downtown Pittsburgh, revitalization efforts will struggle. “You can throw as much money as you want at an area, but until people feel safe … it’s not going to catch on.”

“Public safety has to be a top priority,” West said. “If you don’t have public safety, you don’t have a city.”

Pittsburgh hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since Mayor John S. Herron, who served a nine-month term from 1933 to 1934. And while West is running on the GOP side of the ticket, he says his campaign is less about politics and parties and more about solutions. 

“For me, it’s not about politics; it’s about policies and outcomes,” he said. “I’m not coming at this as a person of this party or a person of this party. I’m coming at this as a person who loves the city, who owns a business in the city, believes in this city. This is a chance to actually do something, to bring people back to the table, to get ideas that can solve issues.”

Pittsburgh’s mayoral primary takes place on Tuesday, May 20.