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Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s first television advertisement for the mayoral election isn’t your typical campaign ad. Instead of taking on his opponents in the upcoming May primary election, Pittsburgh City Councilor Darlene Harris and activist Rev. John Welch, Peduto takes on U.S. President Donald Trump.
The ad that began airing today touches on subjects like economic investment and affordable housing. Peduto has been criticized by those who say the city lacks affordable housing. In the video Peduto says the city has “affordable housing in every neighborhood.”
Peduto also touts “more police and firefighters.” The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police recently swore in a new batch of police officers, and the number of officers on the force has grown to more than 900, the most Pittsburgh has seen in more than a decade.
The ad ticks several boxes: public safety, economic development and opposition to Trump. And in the final seconds, Peduto even appeals to sports fans with a dig at the New England Patriots.
While this is his first television ad, Peduto has been posting a series of videos on his YouTube page dubbed “Conversations with the Mayor”, where he discusses various topics including riverfront development, transportation and immigration.
Here’s a full transcript of the ad:
“Mr. President, you say you’ll make America great again. Well, Pittsburgh has defined greatness. We got up off the mat and grew our city for the first time in 50 years with billions in new investment, more police and firefighters, job training for thousands of new jobs and affordable housing in every neighborhood. But Mr. President, if you keep trying to cut health care and after-school programs, even a Patriots fan like you should know, that won’t play in Pittsburgh.”
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2017.
He has the race locked up. I don’t know why he needs to engage in this shameless pandering. Next he’ll be trying to get the Jewish vote by campaigning against Hitler.
This mayor is the perfect poster child for what is wrong with the Bolshevik – Democratic Party.
Macey’s Department store left the city of Pittsburgh, after this twit screwed them.
His demands idea of these bicycle lanes, that have harmed the very small businesses that he says he supports, just ask the owners of stores on 6th and Penn or 9th and Penn etc. Try the south side or North side if you can get there? With all the damn construction projects going on at the same time.
You need a mayor with a brain,!
The fact is the democrats are thieves who robbed the city of Pittsburgh of tens of millions of dollars they then robbed the city pension fund, they belong in the county jail on 2nd. Avenue , not I’m the city-county building on Grant Street, collecting pay checks.
Than the thieving democrats filed for bank ruptucey and expect the citizen’s of this city, county, state to repay the money that these thieves stole in the first place….
No one wants to go downtown, the reason is the outta of control parking rates, people are being raped, my sister Corp. Moved to south point, and freedom!
The dumbacrats have now set their sights to destroy small business owners in the south side. With making people pay till midnight metered spaces till midnight…
Then there is the city street gang the meter people.
Most people including me don’t know exactly how much the city takes in from parking fees, a council man refused to answer the question, remember they work for us!
All he would say it was millions of dollars.
I was told by someone else it Was ten’s of millions of dollars.
The media be it local or National are in the tank for these Bolshevik’s.
Not one local news organization has investigated where this money that our democratic mafia is collecting and what are they doing with it..
No wonder the National Democratic Party I’d worth over $230,000,000,000.00 Billion Dollars.
Mr.Peduto touts he hired 900 new police officers?
Where are they?
A couple of MO months ago a officer told me they were so short o. Police officers that zone 1 North side had just one Patrol officer!
I saw a interview on wiki cable station Fo
I saw a interview last fall, I believe it was WPXI, cable station Interviewed, the F. O. P. Attorney, he stated the exact opposite of our mayor, he told the truth how the mayor who wants out of the bankruptcy act, now that he is mayor, uses the act against our police officers and Denies these officers pay raises, as a result our city police force has suffered a brain drain, and a man power drain, officers have left in record numbers for police departments that have a living wage, while this mayor and the Bolsheviks, on Grant Street squander the money they stole from you in taxes.
Also, while we are still one of the more affordable cities, we used to be the most affordable of the hundred largest cities in the country. We are now having the first real estate bubble in over a hundred years.
Land value tax prevented the land speculation that leads to bubbles and makes housing unaffordable, and Pittsburgh had more land value tax than any other city. Then the county sabotaged the assessments, and we went back to conventional property tax that falls mostly on improvements.
Peduto has shown interest land value tax, but we need someone who will demand that the county assess land values properly. That means standing up to county executive Rich Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald got rid of the people who sabotaged the land assessments, but he hasn’t had the courage to fix them.
The problem is not that Peduto is evil, but that he has insufficient courage. Same with Fitzgerald.
When Peduto was first elected, i was pleasantly surprised. I thought to myself”this guy is a different kind of democrat, an independent thinker who can represent ALL citizens, not just democrats”
Well, as it turns out, that didn’t continue for very long. Now we have the typical “machine” democrat, the kind that drove this city into Act 47 bankruptcy. Uber ATC comes to town with millions of dollars of investment, so what does our mayor do? He tries to strongarm them into giving him more and more money.
“We certainly have some expectations for them and theres a Pittsburgh way of doing business, Peduto said.
Monday in the Wall Street Journal, Peduto said that Uber has turned a deaf ear to the citys requests for things like free rides for seniors and help in securing federal grants. Last week, the mayor told KDKA he wants better pay and benefits for Uber drivers, in keeping with Pittsburghs strong labor traditions.
A lot of things like workers rights are in our DNA and we expect them to enhance that not take away from it, Peduto said.”
A Pittsburgh way of doing business? Is that the same way of doing business that killed our steel industry Bill?
The commercial is insulting to any thinking persons intelligence. STFU about Trump. Trump isn’t running for mayor. But i can tell you this. That commercial is making John Welch look a lot more attractive.
One more thing. I find it tragic that not one Republican even filed a nominating petition to run for mayor. The citizens of this city have shot themselves in the foot by chasing away any semblance of political diversity. The fact that democratic rule has driven the city into bankruptcy means nothing?
Looking at this video, I guess African Americans don’t live in Pittsburgh, nor Latinos.
pedo has his legion of obnoxious bike fanatics on the attack against his opponents. in the meantime he’s delusional thinking that pittsburgh can become a “bike town”. there r 2 reasons why pgh will never be a biking town – we’re too HILLY & we have two seasons: winter or rain. so what does peduto do? spends a ton of our tax payer $$$ & gets rid of 2-lane car lanes downtown & in the northside bridges which only gums up the downtown traffic! … & the kicker is that most of the time those bike lanes are EMPTY! all that was needed were bike signs saying “share the road”. peduto is a moron.