Pittsburgh City Council continues to hammer out 2026 budget as vote deadline nears
Pittsburgh City Council members failed Thursday to hash out all their differences over the 2026 budget they’ll vote on this weekend and temporarily left unanswered the biggest question: Will there be a tax hike? In a daylong meeting, council spent hours debating preliminary votes on dozens of amendments to the...
Point State Park upgrades finish early as Pittsburgh preps for 2026 NFL Draft
A $3.4 million upgrade to Downtown Pittsburgh’s Point State Park is done ahead of schedule, months in advance of the 2026 NFL Draft. The 36-acre park, which sits at the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three rivers, will be the site of some of the draft activities in April, as well as...
ICE involved as feds violently detain Latino man in Mt. Washington
Neighbors living on Norton Street in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood woke Wednesday morning to sounds of screaming. Witnesses told TribLive they watched federal agents hit, tackle, pepper spray and arrest a Latino man between 8 and 8:30 a.m. “This is a new level of violence than we’ve seen in the...
Pittsburgh scraps plan for $6.9M salt storage unit amid budget crunch
A salt storage dome along Saw Mill Run Boulevard in Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Heights neighborhood is so dilapidated there are holes in the concrete, the steel is corroding and the ventilation system stopped working. “The building itself is a safety hazard,” said Chip Gaul, assistant director of the Department of Public...
Pittsburgh City Council grants historic designation to Westinghouse Park
In 1871, George Westinghouse bought a property in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood that would be his home for the next 50 years. He built a mansion called Solitude, where he would conduct experiments, dig a gas well and create a personal laboratory as he became a flourishing inventor and engineer....
Pittsburgh mulls skipping annual $10M earmark for anti-violence program
Pittsburgh City Council has promised nothing is off limits as it tries to fix what members claim is a broken budget. On Tuesday council President R. Daniel Lavelle put his money where his mouth is. The Hill District Democrat proposed deferring a $10 million payment next year to a program...
A guide to Pittsburgh’s budget crisis
Pittsburgh City Council members agree they won’t pass the 2026 budget Mayor Ed Gainey proposed. Though the Gainey administration is staunchly defending its budget, council members aren’t buying it, and neither is the city controller or council’s budget director. They claim the spending plan is not balanced and grossly underestimates...
Pittsburgh looks into worst-case budget scenario of missing New Year’s Eve deadline
Pittsburgh officials expect the city will have a 2026 spending plan by their New Year’s Eve deadline. But Jake Pawlak, the architect of outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey’s budgets, is already exploring what would happen if they don’t. “That has not happened in the modern era of the city,” Pawlak told...
Black-owned businesses host market in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District
The Black Market: Holiday Edition will showcase Black-owned businesses in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District during the holiday shopping season. The indoor pop-up will be open Thursday, running through Sunday and again December 18-21 on the ground floor of the Encore Building at 100 7th St. in Downtown Pittsburgh. Shoppers will find...
Same budget, different universes: Pittsburgh council, mayor diverge on 2026 spending plan
Depending on who’s talking, Pittsburgh’s 2026 spending plan is either absolutely fine — or a complete disaster. City Council members, their budget director and the Pittsburgh controller seem to be living in a totally different reality than Mayor Ed Gainey’s top officials. Detractors have blasted the Gainey’s final budget as...
‘Grim picture’: Pittsburgh council meets in private to hear options for tax hike, budget cuts
Pittsburgh City Council members met Tuesday behind closed doors to hear a presentation about ways to fix a gaping hole in the 2026 budget. Council Budget Director Peter McDevitt showed council options including tax increases at various levels, scaled-down pay raises for nonunion workers and cuts to the city’s workforce....
Who are Pittsburgh Mayor-elect O’Connor’s latest picks for his administration?
Pittsburgh Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor this week announced his picks for more key posts in his administration. Sharon Werner — a former chief of staff to U.S. Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch — will be the city’s chief operating officer. Sophia Shapiro, the daughter of Gov. Josh Shapiro, will...
Mum’s the word: NFL, Visit Pittsburgh host private town hall on draft plans
As a Pittsburgh councilman, Anthony Coghill chairs City Council’s public safety committee and serves on the Sports & Exhibition Authority’s board. But even those credentials could not score him an invitation to a closed-door “town hall” Monday with NFL officials about the 2026 NFL Draft coming to Pittsburgh in April....
Budget bombshell: Pittsburgh councilwoman proposes 30% tax hike in 2026
Pittsburgh Councilwoman Barb Warwick dropped a budget bombshell on Monday, proposing a 30% property tax hike to balance what she and her peers see as a disastrous final spending plan by the outgoing mayor. A tax increase of that magnitude is only path to forward without axing services, Warwick said....
As budget deadline looms, pressure mounts on Pittsburgh council to reject Gainey spending plan
There’s a rebellion underway in Pittsburgh’s city hall. Frustrated with outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey’s 2026 budget proposal, City Council members are increasingly plotting how to blow up his spending plan. Gainey’s budget avoids tax increases and layoffs. But critics have derided it as dishonest and “sloppy.” As Pittsburgh barrels toward...
Bomb squad sweeps Pittsburgh Symphony’s chartered plane in response to threat
Allegheny County Police on Thursday investigated a security threat impacting a plane chartered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. A note “that was deemed to be potentially threatening” was found at Pittsburgh International Airport around 10:35 a.m. Thursday, Jim Madalinsky, a county police spokesman, said Friday. The county’s bomb squad swept...
Allegheny County homicide detectives probing West Mifflin man’s death
Allegheny County homicide detectives are investigating the death of a West Mifflin man in July that has been labeled a homicide. William Daley Jr., 58, died July 12 in a hospital, according to information released Thursday by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office. The medical examiner ruled he died of...
Pittsburgh council pauses $10M for affordable housing fund as it scrutinizes budget
Faced with a grim fiscal outlook and a dicey 2026 budget, City Council is taking a hard look at whether it can spare $10 million on affordable housing initiatives next year. Council members on Wednesday delayed by two weeks a vote on funding the Housing Opportunity Fund’s 2026 budget as...
2 Pittsburgh EMS officials fired amid allegations of falsified overtime
Two high-ranking officials in Pittsburgh’s EMS bureau have been fired amid allegations of falsified overtime reports. “You had somebody kind of fudging their time card to get extra money,” Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, told TribLive. Coghill, who chairs council’s public safety committee, confirmed the person who submitted inaccurate overtime expenses...
Pittsburgh vehicle repairs bust city budget by nearly $600K
Time to search the couch cushions. Pittsburgh has blown through its budget for vehicle maintenance this year by nearly $600,000 and still has a month of repairs to go. Illinois-based Transdev maintains and repairs the city’s 1,200-plus fire trucks, ambulances, snowplows and other vehicles. The aging fleet has been plagued...
Allegheny County Council unanimously OKs budget without tax hike
Allegheny County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a $3 billion budget for next year that does not raise taxes or lay off workers. The budget is balanced — neither dipping into the county’s reserve fund, which will have about $84 million at the end of this year, nor growing it...
Stumping the dump: Pittsburgh mulls ban on waste transfer stations near homes
A Pittsburgh councilwoman wants to keep waste transfer stations away from residential areas where neighbors could be disrupted by frequent garbage truck trips and air pollution. Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, proposed a zoning bill that would prohibit such uses within 500 feet of residential areas, elementary or secondary schools, parks...
Shapiro calls $740M Esplanade a ‘game changer’ as Pittsburgh project breaks ground
One of the most expensive development projects in modern Pittsburgh history, the $740 million Esplanade on the North Side, took a definitive step forward Monday with a groundbreaking ceremony that drew Pennsylvania’s governor and generated accolades for its intent to revitalize a long-stagnant brownfield. Gov. Josh Shapiro called the ambitious...
Separated at birth? Mayor-elect O’Connor and Pens GM Dubas embrace the resemblance
Pittsburgh Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor and Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas bear an uncanny resemblance. They look so much alike that O’Connor posted photos of himself with Dubas on social media Saturday, joking they could be twins like the separated-at-infancy siblings in the 1998 film “The Parent Trap.” “Great to...
Concerns bubble up over transfer of Pittsburgh’s water, sewer assets to utility
Pittsburgh will sell for a nominal fee its water and sewer infrastructure to Pittsburgh Water, the public utility formerly known as the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority, despite reservations from some council members. The city leased the water and sewer systems — including water mains, sewer grates, service lines and...
