Mayor Peduto Previews His Plans For A Second Term
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh mayors have a certain style -- the grandmotherly Sophie Masloff, the technocrat Tom Murphy, the people-loving Bob O'Connor, and the youthful Luke Ravenstahl.
And Bill Peduto?
Maybe the workaholic idea man?
"You're willing to take chances?" KDKA political editor Jon Delano asked Peduto on November 8, 2013, before he took office.
"Very much so. Very much so, and I enjoy it, too."
That was before he took office, but he still sees himself as a change artist.
In a wide-ranging one-on-one interview with Jon Delano, Peduto outlined his greatest accomplishment to date.
His greatest accomplishment to date?
Peduto: "I think it goes more to a cultural change that we've seen in city hall that you can start to feel permeate out through the city of Pittsburgh."
Delano: "A cultural change?"
Peduto: "Yeah, there's much more transparency. The government books have been opened. My own public schedule has been given out."
But as he asks voters for a second term, Peduto says he has focused on neighborhood development like East Liberty once known for crime and abandoned store fronts.
"Today we're dealing with threats of affordable housing, and being able to keep local businesses there. It changes within neighborhoods, and it changes neighborhood by neighborhood. But the one thing we're seeing now that we haven't seen in 50 years is investment."
Peduto cited three goals for a second four years.
First, early childhood education for every three- and four-year-old in the city.
"Education, not a day care, but actual education."
Second, an affordable housing trust fund.
"So that people who have lived in neighborhoods that have seen their property values increase can stay in those neighborhoods, that first-time homebuyers can get incentives to move into the city."
Third, the smartest city technology in the world.
For example, says Peduto, "It means we'll install the smartest traffic signals in the world, traffic signals that actually speak to each other. And to be able to put them in areas so they know how far back the traffic is queued, and the green lights and red lights will be timed appropriately."
Peduto announces for reelection with no opposition but there's plenty of time for that.
March 7 is the filing deadline to run in the May 16 primary.
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