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www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 115 No. 52 Two Sections
DECEMBER 25-31, 2024
Homicides, non-fatal shootings drastically down since Gainey took office High point for Gainey as O'Connor challenges for mayor
“Our future is bright, and I look forward to earning the vote of everyone in our great city.” - MAYOR ED GAINEY
PITTSBURGH MAYOR ED GAINEY WANTS TO BE RE-ELECTED IN 2025.
by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
In the storied history of the New Pittsburgh Courier, spanning almost 115 years, along with other publications in Pitts-
burgh, no one has ever covered the re-election campaign of an incumbent Black mayor of Pittsburgh. Until now. On Dec. 10, 2024, Pittsburgh's first Black may-
or, Ed Gainey, released a lengthy statement pertaining to the upcoming mayoral election in 2025. But before this article gets into the meat of Mayor Gainey's statement, how the statement came
to be can be summed up in two words: Corey O'Connor. O'Connor, 40, the current Allegheny County Controller who formerly was a Pittsburgh City Councilman from 2012 to
2022, announced on the morning of Dec. 10 in Hazelwood that he was officially running for mayor, as a Democrat, the same party as Mayor Gainey. There had been rumblings throughout the summer
that O'Connor was considering a run. In the fall, he appeared on various local television stations in his trademark CenSEE GAINEY A5
A generation ‘constructed’ for tragedy: Older Black men hit hardest by overdose crisis by Venuri Siriwardane and Jamie Wiggan PublicSource
Alan Scott’s loved ones described the triumphs and tragedies in his life. He earned a “top salesman of the year” award from his employer, one of the largest pet food companies in the country at the time. He was also a sharp dresser who donned tailored suits and hats for outings with his friends. He lived with prostate cancer for a decade, enduring chemotherapy and other treatments that couldn’t keep the cancer from spreading to his bones. And he sought solace during hard times at a church near Braddock, where he grew up during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s — a period that led to the shuttering of most steel mills across the Monongahela Valley. Scott died in July at age 70. It wasn’t the cancer that took him. Rather, it was a fatal combination
of fentanyl and cocaine, according to the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner. He’s survived by his wife, daughter, two sisters and other family members and friends, some of whom described their grief during interviews with PublicSource. “I really thought that we were just gonna lose him eventually, but we were gonna lose him to the cancer,” said Scott’s wife, Elaine, who asked to be identified by her middle name. “Not like what happened.” Scott’s death is representative of one of the county’s starkest health disparities: Black men born between 1951 and 1970 have died of overdose more than any other group of people here. In the Pittsburgh area, only Black men born between 1971 and 1990 are dying from overdoses at a rate nearly as high. The two groups are dying at high rates in the county while overdose SEE OVERDOSE A3
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PAUL TURNER, 62, stands for a portrait outside his home on Dec. 16, 2024, in North Braddock. Turner’s friend, the late Alan Scott, was there to pick him up from rehab in 2017. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)