SELENA ZITO: The fall of a great American city: The societal and political decay that has upended Pittsburgh.
Larry Ceisler, a Washington County native who has offices in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, was staying at the Even Hotel and came upon the scene moments after the police arrived.
Ceisler said he had just left dinner down the street when he attempted to enter the hotel and found out quickly why he could not immediately do so. He penned a letter to the editor at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, writing that what he saw happening at the hotel was an extension of a city he saw in decay after spending the week doing business.
“In all my years of living in and visiting Pittsburgh, I have never seen the Downtown look so bad. Empty, dirty, and unsafe. Personally, I experienced an attempted homicide in the lobby of my hotel on Forbes Avenue and was accosted twice walking to my office in Gateway Center,” he wrote.
In an interview with me Thursday, it was clear the respected media pro and prominent Democrat was rattled by the city’s descent, particularly because it was upending its very heart — “A city is only as strong its core.”
A drive throughout the city in mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and in the evening found a city in decay. Homelessness isn’t hidden; it is prevalent. Patches of open-air drug markets are brazenly conducted, the smell of urine and feces is prevalent, and reports of small businesses calling it quits grow in frequency.
Two weeks ago the once acclaimed women’s clothing boutique Peter Lawrence, a hopeful anchor for what city officials hoped would be a women’s shopping district along Wood Street, announced it is closing five years after it opened, with the owner telling the Pittsburgh Post Gazette his workers were “scared to work there a little bit” because of the frequent homelessness and drug trafficking.
The businesses that are not fleeing, yet, are not requiring their workers to come into the city to do their jobs, which has led to a whopping historic high 22.5% vacancy rate, according to a report conducted by real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
At the center of this collapse is Mayor Ed Gainey, who after taking office in January of 2022 has done little to nothing to address the city’s collapse. He is surrounded by people who are so wedded to ideology and the social justice movement that they failed to realize that you actually have to govern to run a city.
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Campaign finance filings show the SEIU spent over $350,000 to elect Gainey, more than all of the other contributors to his campaign combined.
Gainey has steadfastly refused to meet with the largest employer in the city, UPMC, unless they agree to allow the SEIU to represent hospital workers, according to a detailed report done by KDKA investigative reporter Andy Sheehan. It is a curious decision to refuse to meet with the largest employer in the city and makes you wonder if he is the mayor of Pittsburgh or the mayor of SEIU.
To ask the question is to answer it. Incidentally, Pittsburgh’s last Republican mayor left office in 1934.