Get To Know Pittsburgh Mayoral Candidate Corey O'Connor

Corey O'Connor is on the City Cast Pittsburgh podcast making his pitch to be Pittsburgh's next mayor. Here's a snippet of our interview.

What is Pittsburgh's biggest challenge right now?

First, I think it's a growth conversation. If you look at our stagnant growth, right now we seem to be managing decline instead of looking at growth. If you go to our next census, we're probably going to be under 300,000 people, which is scary. I think that's the reason to run — you know, somebody with that growth mentality, that we don't have to worry about falling under 300,000 people. We used to compete with Cleveland and Columbus. Toledo has 270,000 [people]. That's where we've come over the last couple years as we've fallen so far.

I think that's what I would bring to that office: a new mentality of growth and opportunity all around us. When people see vacant lots, vacant storefronts, and neighborhoods, I look at that as opportunity.

What is Pittsburgh's biggest opportunity?

You have space. You have the ability to bring in new companies. You have the ability to expand companies that are already here. And when you look at housing, you have the opportunity to build new affordable units. And we're just not doing that aggressively enough. I think that's where the mayor's office really steps up to say, "Hey, here's two acres here. How do we make this work? What can we do with the vacant lots that we own?" We own 11,000 parcels. Those are the things that we have to start talking about, reusing our space for the greater good of the neighborhoods.

Why should someone vote for you on May 20?

I have 11 years experience on city council, but also three years being the county controller, seeing how we can stretch every dollar in this city. Right now we are managing our decline and I want to talk about growth and opportunity in every neighborhood.

Everybody has a seat at my table if elected mayor, and together we can rebuild one of America's greatest cities. That's why I'm energetic to do this job. We will hit the ground running day one with a lot of initiatives. We're not gonna waste taxpayers' time, because we're running out of time to grow Pittsburgh and that's scary for a lot of us. That's why I'm running.

These questions have been edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation, listen to the episode and check out our other installments: