Three to face off in Democratic mayoral primary

Two candidates will contest Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in the Democratic primary election for mayor… Two candidates will contest Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in the Democratic primary election for mayor of Pittsburgh on May 19. The three candidates ‘- Ravenstahl, City Councilman Patrick Dowd and attorney Carmen Robinson ‘- have similar goals but different strategies for getting through the economic crisis, keeping young people in Pittsburgh and making the city safer and more diverse.

Patrick Dowd

Dowd was elected to Pittsburgh’s City Council in 2007, but he believes that becoming mayor would help him reverse population decline. Dowd is known for his aggressive door-knocking campaign, and he’s hearing more and more that people are concerned about crime.

‘They want to see better management of the budgets for public safety and they also want to see prevention. They want to see opportunities for kids who know people in the city so they don’t have to turn to drugs, crime, violence and guns,’ he said.

The first project Dowd wants to tackle is budget appropriations.

‘Are we targeting our dollars for the right public safety issues? Or are we mistargeting them?’ he said, noting that the police officers have a small amount of overtime relative to firefighters.

Dowd wants to encourage young entrepreneurs in fields in which the city already excels: medicine and technology.

He said the schools bring people to Pittsburgh, but the vibrant art community and affordable housing keep people here. There’s a lot of property that the city owns or considers obtaining that Dowd wants to turn over to young people as an incentive for staying here.

Dowd, who earned a doctoral degree in European history at Pitt, said that having a house encouraged him and his wife to stay in Pittsburgh.

City-county consolidation is important to Dowd’s plan for making strategic investments. He has worked with Pitt to research the issue.

‘I think that city-county consolidation is a must. We have 170 different governments serving 1.3 million people, roughly,’ he said. ‘I think we can all agree that that’s too much government, and I’m a Democrat.’

Dowd wants to deal with sewer and water infrastructure issues right away. The citizens of Pittsburgh voted in favor of the $400 million sewer referendum last year.

‘We can save ourselves millions, and probably tens of millions of dollars in the mandated reconstruction of our systems,’ said Dowd.

While knocking on doors, Dowd said he talked to a boy who said that the city’s polluted air aggravated his asthma.If elected, Dowd said he would work with community leaders to clean up Pittsburgh’s reputation.

Luke Ravenstahl

Ravenstahl became the mayor of Pittsburgh in September 2006, and since then, he’s adopted a ‘back-to-basics’ program, which put more cops on the beat and started a program to combat drug-related violence, said Ravenstahl’s campaign Web site.

Ravenstahl could not be reached for comment.

The mayor’s ‘Blueprint for Pittsburgh’s Renaissance,’ describes the mayor’s commitment to public safety. It says that the mayor invested in technology for building inspectors, officers, paramedics and firefighters. Ravenstahl also plans to station high-tech cameras to deter crimes.

As part of the ‘renaissance,’ Ravenstahl has been working to beautify the city. He helped to open up a waterfront foot or bike trail. He paid more than $250,000 for 250 trash cans. Oakland received 13 of these trash cans.

Ravenstahl is known for his enthusiasm in a city-county merger to enhance government efficiency between the governments.

Carmen Robinson

Robinson spent 15 years working for the city police. As a sergeant, she worked alongside officer Eric Kelly, one of the three city police officers who was shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Stanton Heights earlier this month. Robinson recognizes the increase in homicides and said she’s the only one in the race who understands where the violence comes from.

‘You can’t just throw money at the law enforcement. You can’t just make new laws. You have to actually work in neighborhoods,’ she said.

Though she believes in having more officers on the job and equipping them with whatever they need, she wants to reopen community centers to Pittsburgh’s youth that have been closed since the city was declared a distressed municipality under the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, last year.

One of the mayor’s plans that Robinson would not uphold is his commitment to a city-county merger. She believes that Pittsburgh and Allegheny County can merge for buying power without Pittsburgh giving up its control.

‘It’s something that I heard in 1989 when I was coming on to the police force, that the city was going to support the county, not the other way around. Now that we have this young mayor, he’s willing to give up city sovereignty,’ said Robinson.

She added that there are uncalculated costs, such as merging the city and county police departments. If the two entities combine, the officers making less will have their wages increased to match those making more money.

Robinson, a Pittsburgh native and Pitt alumna, said that her plan to promote small business development will help the city retain its younger population.

‘I think they’re more willing to take risks than the rest of us. I think that corporations and other big businesses are realizing their bottom lines, they’re laying a ton of people off. I think that ‘mom and pop’ businesses are the way to go,’ she said.

Robinson said that Pitt nurtured her as a freshman, offering a summer program geared toward helping minority students to improve their writing. She’s grateful to the University and said that she wants to incorporate more of those kinds of programs.

She doesn’t believe in the mayor’s commitment to diversity, which is the 11th item on his ‘Blueprint for Pittsburgh’s Renaissance.’

‘I’m here to tell you that women and minorities are qualified, and certainly, if I become mayor, my cabinet is not going to be all white males,’ she said. ‘It’s going to be a lot of females, a lot of minorities and a lot of qualified people, and it is going to be fairly representative of the city of Pittsburgh.’