‘We have the ability to start rebuilding our city’: Pittsburgh mayoral candidate Corey O’Connor discusses his bid

Corey O’Connor announced his bid to unseat Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey last December, a move the Democratic candidate and current Allegheny County controller said was motivated by a city facing myriad challenges. 

The son of former Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor, Corey O’Connor previously served on Pittsburgh City Council for 10 years. He told City & State that he has the experience needed to take the city in a different direction, something he said is desperately needed in the Steel City.

“We’re about to walk over another financial cliff, and we’re not being transparent about it,” he said in an interview. “We also are not growing, bringing new companies in, creating new jobs, creating enough affordable housing. Even the day-to-day operations – we can’t turn water fountains on in our playgrounds. We don’t have a full-time chief of police after four years,” he added, referring to the city’s struggles to find a long-term chief. 

“Those things really impact day-to-day life in Pittsburgh, and I just thought – given my background on City Council and now being the County controller – that we have the ability to start rebuilding our city right away because of that experience.”

O’Connor, who was nominated to the post of Allegheny County Controller in 2022 by Gov. Tom Wolf, said the city’s budget and finances will likely be the top issue facing the city’s next mayor. “The budget is No. 1 right now,” he said.

Pittsburgh Controller Rachael Heisler, who released the city’s annual comprehensive financial report in early May, said she’s “very concerned about where things are headed” for the city, but noted that Pittsburgh’s financial landscape is “manageable,” according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 

The financial report depicts a city that ended 2024 with a $4 million surplus, dwindling federal COVID-19 funds and lower-than-anticipated real estate revenues. 

“They claim they had a $4 million surplus, but that surplus came from our own Rainy Day Fund, so you didn’t have a surplus. You’re not showing growth in real estate. You’re not building enough housing, your COVID money is now gone. … There are a lot of financial issues in Pittsburgh right now,” O’Connor said. 

In response to such criticism, Gainey has defended his record on fiscal issues, saying in an interview with City & State that the city has “done a great job” being fiscally responsible. “Everybody said we would end the year in a deficit. We got a $4 million surplus. The bond rating agency moved us from AA- to AA. That’s phenomenal coming out of COVID,” the mayor said.

There are other issues the city’s next chief executive will face, too. “Public safety is obviously a conversation, but then you get into the details and the lack of transparency, the lack of vision to grow Pittsburgh,” O’Connor added. 

O’Connor told City & State that he would like to speed up permitting processes in the city, negotiate financial deals with the city’s large nonprofits and invest in the city’s social service programs. 

Securing financial contributions from the city’s tax-exempt “Big 4” nonprofits – which Gainey has also attempted to accomplish – is something O’Connor said would undoubtedly improve the city’s finances. “Sitting down and negotiating a long-term PILT (payment in lieu of taxes, usually in reference to large parcels of property) with them would be very helpful to help the city's coffers,” he said. “Those are big-picture items I would love to do immediately, because that’ll help us grow. It’ll also secure some financing for us. I think those things make a big difference.”

He also said the city’s mayor should be having more conversations with businesses interested in setting up shop in Pittsburgh.

“Young entrepreneurs, young startups, companies that are looking for space all across the country – why are we not on their lists? Why are you not calling them? There are examples like EA Sports – (which) takes a lot of talent from (Carnegie Mellon University) in our backyard. Why are they not on a call to have a satellite here? … Those small things go a very long way, and we’re just not doing that.”

On the topic of economic development, O’Connor has proposed making a $10 million investment across 10 business districts in the city, and has also expressed interest in creating a 90-day citywide cleanup program. Under O’Connor’s “Main Streets for All” proposal, his administration would seek to invest in streetscaping, street lighting, mobility solutions, and other uses. 

Throughout the primary election cycle, O’Connor and Gainey have traded shots over transparency, affordable housing figures and campaign contributions. O’Connor has accused the Gainey administration of not being transparent about the number of affordable housing units that have been built during Gainey’s first term. Gainey has stated that 1,600 affordable housing units have been built, are being built or are in the process of being preserved. 

Gainey, meanwhile, has sought to link O’Connor to President Donald Trump, citing several campaign contributions to O’Connor from GOP donors who have previously given money to Trump. “No one invests $160,000 in you – called MAGA – and don’t expect nothing in return. This is politics,” Gainey opined to City & State when talking about the donations. 

O’Connor dismissed Gainey’s efforts to link him to Trump, saying of the mayor, “He’s known me for 30 years. He’s blatantly lying because some group in Washington, D.C., told him to say it. I’m the endorsed Democrat in the race. I’m endorsed by not only the party, (but) a number of organizations that are all Democratic. He knows it’s a lie,” he said. 

To voters who may still be on the fence about who to support in the May 20 mayoral primary, O’Connor said he will be a mayor who can market and sell the city. “You need somebody that’s going to have a vision, the ability to start Day One, growing our city, welcoming people here,” he said. 

“There’s opportunity and vacant space, not just in downtown, but in our neighborhoods. If we started investing instead of doing study after study, wasting millions of dollars there, imagine if we renovated four new storefronts where entrepreneurs started their own businesses – that’s what I’m all about,” O’Connor added. 

“I’ve always been a neighborhood person. It’s spending money in neighborhoods so that people can create their own jobs and create their own wealth in Pittsburgh. And right now, there’s no plan for it.”