ULISH CARTER
The mayor’s race is finally over with somewhat of a surprise. So where does that leave the Black community?
Pretty much everyone thought it was going to be a tight race between Bill Peduto and Jack Wagner with the winner receiving about 50 percent or below and the loser receiving about 45 percent or below. I expected Jake Wheatley to pull in at least 10 percent of the vote with heavy Black support and unsatisfied White support. But he apparently didn’t receive either, and ended up with only 7 percent of the vote. A lot of this was because of his lateness entering the race, but so did Wagner, and the lack of money, which Wagner had. The surprise was a large margin of victory for Peduto.
The turnout was extremely low for a mayoral race which says the city as a whole wasn’t real excited about the candidates, or saw no real difference. I must say I really didn’t see a big difference between Wagner and Peduto when it came to the Black community. So the big question is what is going to happen to the Black communities throughout the city under Bill Peduto?
Well, before I get into that I must reveal to everyone there will be a general election in November in which Peduto must beat a Republican candidate. But the likelihood of a Republican winning the mayor seat or any other seat in the city is like receiving ice water in hell. So lets’ talk about the new mayor, Bill Peduto.
Peduto had a lot of prominent Black support in his bid, especially after Mayor Luke Ravenstahl left the race, primarily because most people didn’t think Wheatley could win and didn’t really know a lot about Wagner and what they did know wasn’t enough to move them away from Peduto.
Most Blacks who are not satisfied with Ravenstahl which I would say is about 50-50 are looking for new blood, new leadership, and Peduto should provide that. But if we haven’t learned anything else over the years we should know and understand that just because a candidate makes bold promises during an election don’t mean he will deliver once he’s in office.
The challenge to the Black community, the Blacks who supported Peduto, and those who didn’t, is to make sure he does not only what he said he was going to do but make sure the Black community is better off after his first term in office than it was when he took office.
There was a Black Agenda handed out, and many who supported the Black Agenda supported Peduto, so the first thing on the agenda of the new mayor must be addressing these issues from top to bottom.
Bill Robinson presented the challenge for a Black Agenda, and later threw his support to Peduto, to the surprise of many. So don’t be surprised if he’s leading the charge for the new mayor.
With the close relationship between Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald the city should benefit from the two of them working together. Now the next move will be for Peduto to start working with the state, both Republican and Democratic parties, to get the many things done that’s needed in the city.
In all fairness to Ravenstahl, the city as a whole did grow and Blacks were in key positions, and many prospered which means we expect a whole lot more from Peduto, especially in the areas of community development, education and employment. I repeat…community development, education and employment. If we can drastically improve these areas everything else will fall into place.
But we, not only just we who supported him, but all Blacks, must keep not only Peduto’s feet to the fire, but the Blacks who supported him, and the ones who didn’t. Because we don’t want people who didn’t support him using excuses, because they are still elected to improve conditions for Blacks, so they have to find a way to work with Peduto, because like it or not, he is the new mayor.
We have almost 6 months to put together our priorities for the new mayor and he has the same amount of time to put his programs together so when he takes office in January, he can hit the ground running. There’s no excuse for him to be talking about he’s looking for this, and he’s waiting for that. He should have his people and programs ready to go.
Just remember very few candidates, if any, is the same person when they take office. So if we expect the conditions for Blacks to improve and this city to become a beacon of light for everyone we must make sure the person in office remembers when he was a candidate.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier)
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