Democratic mayoral challenger Corey O’Connor said Tuesday morning that he’d make climate and environmental investments a priority if he were elected to lead the city of Pittsburgh. But paying for those investments may not be easy.
Standing just outside Squirrel Hill’s Wightman Park, a green space and baseball field that saw renovations during O’Connor’s time on council, O’Connor and City Councilor Erika Strassburger stressed a need for further focus on environmental infrastructure in Pittsburgh.
“It is unacceptable that we are being made to wait for infrastructure investments that are long overdue,” O’Connor said. “My vision for Pittsburgh is one where we are a national and international model for … resiliency.”
O’Connor argued that his rival, incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey, hasn’t focused enough on climate and environmental projects. He described the city’s 2018 Climate Action Plan as long overdue for an update, and said the city’s stormwater plans don’t focus enough on green infrastructure. O’Connor said he wanted to work to prevent landslides and flooding and avoid “reactionary cleanups” that become necessary when stormwater systems or other infrastructure are overwhelmed.
“With a lack of vision and leadership, the city has missed opportunities to make smart, strategic investments that would pay long-term dividends,” he said, lamenting that projects like the city’s LED street light replacement initiative haven’t moved faster. He said he’d boost funding for the city’s Green Infrastructure Trust Fund by setting aside money for capital projects saved through energy efficiency.
“We want to see [that money] invested in green infrastructure that's sustainable. It beautifies our communities. It helps revitalize business districts,” he said. “That's where our focus has to be when it comes to investing in green infrastructure.”
O'Connor's call for green investment comes amidst a campaign in which he has frequently warned that the city is "sleepwalking" into financial receivership due to bad money management. On Tuesday he did not respond directly to a question about how he might pay for the kind of environmental investments he proposed. Instead, he reiterated his criticism of Gainey for hiring too many new staffers, and for focusing too much on “pet projects,”
He did say that boosting growth and development in the city — another frequently stated goal of his campaign — would provide increased revenue for addressing concerns such as stormwater runoff.
“We want Pittsburgh to grow and welcome more neighborhoods so that our tax base can support the infrastructure investments that we are talking about here today,” he said.
Strassburger, who endorsed O’Connor just last week, voiced similar sentiments. “We need a mayor who is laser-focused on growing Pittsburgh, getting on stable financial footing, and aggressively going after any grant opportunity we can,” she said.
Officials from Mayor Ed Gainey’s campaign pointed to the mayor’s recent endorsements from a pair of area environmental-minded organizations: Conservation Voters of PA and NextGen PAC. They also pointed to previous environmental work, like securing wind power purchasing agreements for the city and garnering federal funding for converting a slag heap into a solar farm.
In response to criticisms that the city’s climate action plan is outdated, the campaign said that climate goals will be part of the framework for Gainey’s Pittsburgh Comprehensive Plan, which will seek to chart a path forward for developing all the city’s communities. Taking that inclusive approach, they said, will ensure a more “just transition” — one in which environmental goals are carried out with an eye toward equitably allocating the costs and benefits of a greener economy.
“We launched Pittsburgh’s 2050 Comprehensive planning process back in January, which integrates climate planning into our broader plans for infrastructure, housing, transit and more,” Gainey said in a statement. “That’s the right way to do this work, as opposed to a standalone plan that isn't integrated into the rest of our planning.”
