Editorial: Pittsburgh's new mayor must be the bridge to what's next

Pittsburgh’s mayor needs to be like the city — full of bridges.

The mayor has to find a way to cross deep, perilous financial waters. The mayor has to span the chasm between the needs of residents and the demands of business. The mayor has to travel from the promises made to the results needed.

And, let’s be honest, the history of Pittsburgh’s mayors is riddled with bridges broken and burned. That may be why, for the second election cycle in a row, Pittsburgh voters rejected the incumbent during the primary.

That brings us to the newly elected Corey O’Connor — Allegheny County controller, former City Council member and son of the late Mayor Bob O’Connor.

The new mayor will take office in January after strolling to an easy win Tuesday.

Could we talk about the promise of the future? Sure. But it’s easy to order pie in the sky. It’s more productive to plan for the challenges ahead.

Many of those challenges are already here. Pittsburgh is in woeful financial shape. Current Mayor Ed Gainey’s proposed budget has been roundly criticized as unprepared for what’s coming.

O’Connor should be wary. There are plenty of lessons to learn from his predecessors. Gainey came into office on the heels of Bill Peduto, pledging to make Pittsburgh “an all-in city” — safer, fairer and more inclusive and less focused on things like bike lanes. It’s not that he didn’t try to get there. He just couldn’t bridge those gaps.

His office struggled to explain decisions, deflected criticism rather than owned it, and allowed frustration to fester. When the facility-usage fee — the so-called “jock tax” — collapsed in court, when Downtown vacancies deepened, when city services lagged, silence spoke louder than strategy.

Before Gainey, Peduto faced his own version of the same problem: high expectations and limited delivery. He championed “smart city” technology, equitable development and neighborhood investment — yet by the end of his term, Pittsburgh still wrestled with aging infrastructure, sluggish permitting and distrust between communities and City Hall.

O’Connor can’t afford to repeat that cycle. As someone who has served in both city and county government, he should recognize the pattern — and break it.

The new mayor cannot pay for programs with promises. Perhaps a controller will realize that better than most.

What Pittsburgh needs most is credibility: realistic budgeting, clear timelines and, above all, resolute accountability — even when the news isn’t good.

It also will need to be immediate. There is no training period, no trial run. There simply isn’t time. There are the challenges we already see — naming a police chief, fixing the finances — and those we can plan for, like the NFL Draft in April.

But Pittsburgh’s mayors also face curveballs the Pirates could never handle. For Gainey, it was the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse three weeks after he was sworn in. For Peduto, it was the Squirrel Hill synagogue shooting.

O’Connor won his election by saying Pittsburgh deserves better. It does — but what it needs even more is a mayor who will say less and do more. Don’t just lead a city of bridges. Be the bridge that keeps a vibrant city standing strong.