Ken Rice:
Welcome to a debate in the Pittsburgh mayoral race featuring the Democratic candidates from the studio of KDKA TV. Hello and welcome to KDKA's debate between the Democrats running for mayor of Pittsburgh. I'm Ken Rice and I'll be serving as moderator. Let's welcome the candidates: Ed Gainey and Cory O'Connor. Mayor Gainey is the incumbent. He's 55, lives in Lincoln Lamington, and is running for a second term. Mr. O'Connor is 40. He lives in Point Breeze and is currently serving as Allegheny County Controller. I'll be joined in questioning the candidates by Lisa Smith, KDKA's director of community impact, and John Shamway, my fellow KDKA news anchor. Here are the rules for the debate. Candidates will have one minute to answer our questions, then 30 seconds for rebuttals to their opponents’ answers. The questioners may jump in with follow-ups from time to time. When we do, we'll make sure the response times are fair. Finally, each candidate will get 90 seconds to deliver a closing statement. And so, let's begin.
Ken Rice:
Mayor Gainey, this question goes first to you. Very simply, why do you want to continue to be mayor of Pittsburgh? And what is the single biggest reason someone should vote for you?
Ed Gainey:
You know, one, I want to thank you for having me today. I appreciate KDKA having me. The reason why I want to be mayor is because I love the progress that we made. When we came into this city, we knew that we were coming into a great deal of situations. And I believe that we show the resilience to be able to solve a lot of them. But we couldn't do it without the people of the public. So here's why you should vote for me for mayor. Built more affordable housing in my first term than any mayor in the last 20 years. Made sure that our bridges are no longer falling down and they're in stable condition. Reduced homicides by 33% and gun violence by 45%. Making sure our comprehensive plan is able to meet the moment of the time and making sure that we do climate resiliency to ensure that our city is safe. Investing in our youth, making sure that our youth has a seat at the table so that they understand that tomorrow’s future is theirs. Vote for Ed Gainey and we'll continue to create a city for all.
Ken Rice:
Mr. O'Connor, why do you want to be mayor of Pittsburgh and what is the main, most important reason in your view people should vote for you?
Cory O'Connor:
Yes, and thank you for having us. I want to be the mayor of this city because I believe our city is at a stalemate. We are going to be under 300,000 people. We are managing our decline right now instead of talking about opportunities to grow our region and it's all around us. When we see vacancy downtown, when we see vacant spaces in our neighborhoods, in our business district, that is opportunity to grow Pittsburgh. Again, as a lifelong Pittsburgher, I'm emotional about this city because I know we have better days ahead of us, and we just need direction and leadership. Somebody who's going to take accountability for decisions that are made, not blame people of the past, and be proactive to solve solutions that are affecting each and every one of us, like affordable housing, like being able to create your own wealth and opportunity in our city. And also to ensure that families have a safe neighborhood to grow in. And I believe that every neighborhood in this city can achieve that. We just need direction at the top to do it.
Ken Rice:
Mr. Gainey, 30 seconds. Is the city lacking direction at the moment?
Ed Gainey:
Not at all. I mean, if you look at the direction that we have, 1,600 units of delivered affordable housing, homicides down by 33%. Downtown, $600 million in investment. That's progress. That's called pro-growth. That's pro-development. When you talk about 12 low-income tax credit deals from around this city, we're building more affordable housing, we're building a city for everybody because I believe that at the end of the day, everybody deserves affordable housing. And we will continue to do that.
Cory O'Connor:
Yes. I mean, we've heard the numbers and we debate it all the time. But, you know, to say that this administration built more affordable housing than prior is just incorrect and we know that and the facts show that. We need 6,000 affordable units. But not only affordability, we need safety. We need leadership. We still don't have a chief of police. We can't have somebody that's not being transparent with the agreements that they make with our chief of police. We need somebody that's going to be transparent about the budget crisis that we are walking ourselves into. And that's what leadership is: being transparent about the issues that we see each and every day in our city.
Ken Rice (Moderator):
Our time for questions, unfortunately, is up. It's time now for the candidates' closing statements. The order was determined earlier by coin toss. Mr. O'Connor, you go first. You have 90 seconds.
Cory O'Connor (Candidate):
No luck. I always lose the coin toss. Um, but I want to thank KDKA, thank Mayor Gainey for being here. And Pittsburgh, we have a choice in front of us. We can continue down a path of managing our decline, going to under 300,000 people, not being transparent about the financial crisis that we are headed for. That financial crisis is going to impact each and every one of us each and every day. It's going to stop our ability to fill in your potholes. It's going to stop our ability to buy new ambulances and equipment for our public safety to keep you safe. We have a crisis, but we can solve it. We have the tools in this city to fix this problem. I got us—I worked with council members to get us out of Act 47. I have 11 years experience in city government, three years experience as your county controller. And we need a leader who's going to take responsibility and be proactive to solve our problems. I've put forth a vision for growth and opportunity. And it's all around us, Pittsburgh. We have the ability to create new jobs, help our small businesses expand, bring new businesses to Pittsburgh, create generational wealth and opportunity in each and every neighborhood. We have to build more housing of all types so that we can ensure that our residents have the ability to stay in their homes but also live in each and every community in Pittsburgh. And I did it when I supported the housing opportunity fund. And lastly, I believe having a three-year-old and a two-year-old at home, Pittsburgh should be every family's first choice. And we have to invest in our future. And so I ask on May 20th for your vote so that we together can rebuild our city again. Thank you.
Ken Rice (Moderator):
Mayor Gainey, your turn. You have 90 seconds.
Ed Gainey (Candidate):
KDK, I want to thank you for having me today. I want to thank each one of you for um providing the opportunity to answer the questions. Listen, you heard it directly. So, let me make, let me be clear with this. You heard my opponent say that the fleet, that the police, that affordable housing all decreased when he was on council. That's the level of leadership that we've been dealing with for decades that have put us behind and ensuring that we don't have the city that we need to have. Let me tell you what we've done since I've taken office. 146 delivered units of affordable housing. 150 first-time homeowners, mainly women, out of poverty and giving them a chance to understand generational wealth. The land bank—160 properties we moved out of the land bank. When I took over the land bank hadn't moved no properties. They created a land bank and they couldn't move it because of the state law. We went to the state and we got it changed. My opponent knows that. He was on council. On top of that, first time ever the police got a contract in over 20 years. Opened up the academy and started recruiting more police officers. Made sure that homicides is down by over 33%, gun violence by 45%. Continued to invest in our communities to make sure that we're building new affordable housing. 12 low-income tax credit deals and two funding cycles. Fixing bridges. No more of our bridges is in failing condition. This is why I'm asking for your vote. On May 20th, vote for Ed Gainey. Let's continue to build a city that we can be proud of, a city for all. Vote for Ed Gainey on May 20th. Thank you and God bless Pittsburgh.
Ken Rice (Moderator):
On behalf of everyone at KDKA TV, our thanks to the candidates and to you for joining us. Primary election day is May 20th. KDKA will of course have live team coverage as the results come in that night. Lisa Smith, John Shamway, our producers and crew, thank you all. I'm Ken Rice. See you on the news.
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