Wilkinsburg is at a crossroads. It lost population in the 2010s while the county grew and the borough has some of the steepest property taxes in the area. An effort to merge the borough into the city of Pittsburgh earlier this year has been relaunched, with community meetings scheduled for residents to discuss the transformational decision.
The borough of about 14,300 people will also get a new mayor in January, bringing new leadership just months before a merger question could reach the ballot. Dontae Comans, a 36-year-old Wilkinsburg School District board member, won the Democratic primary for mayor in May and is running unopposed on Nov. 2.
Marita Garrett, the incumbent mayor who strongly endorsed the merger drive and was censured by council in January, chose not to run for a second four-year term. Comans is taking a more neutral stance on the merger proposition for now, calling for an open, informed process.
While the borough’s government structure gives more power to the council than the mayor, the nine-member council will have four new members sworn in when Comans takes office in January.
The merger question isn’t the only issue for borough leaders to contend with. A school district seeing more and more children leaving for charter schools, a lack of business investment in the borough and blighted and abandoned houses are just a few of the challenges that spurred the merger talk.
With Garrett not running again, Comans said he saw an opportunity to help unite the community.
“I’m big on energy,” Comans said. “I put out a lot of good energy and I just feel like I could bring all three wards together so we can try to get some progress going.”
PublicSource spoke to Comans about what he wants for his community as the merger talks continue, why he ran for mayor and more. The conversation was lightly edited for brevity.
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