Each time a deed or mortgage is recorded in Allegheny County, a portion of the recording fee goes toward a fund that pays to demolish blighted structures. Based on annual reports and financial data, the county has spent less than half of the money derived from the fee to achieve that purpose.
A recent, Policy Brief reviewed the decline in scores on the state’s Keystone exams (given to 11th graders) in Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and several area school districts. Even statewide, along with PPS, the average had substantial declines in test scores between 2015 and 2025 as measured by the percentages of test takers scoring proficient or advanced. Much of that drop is attributed to the education losses during COVID.
However, as was noted, PPS’ combined percent proficient or advanced scores on math and literature had already fallen by just over 9 percent between 2015 and 2019. Statewide scores on math and literature were not significantly different in the two test years (2015 and 2025). However, both suffered major drops (about 30 percent each) in math scores between 2019 and 2025.
It is a deeply troubling number by any accounting: Nearly a full quarter of all classes of downtown Pittsburgh office space was vacant through the third quarter of 2025, concludes the latest report from the Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) real estate firm.
“Keep in mind [that] one year ago, the rate was 19.5 percent and pre-pandemic it was just 16.9 percent at the close of 2019,” reminds Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
New Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor must hit the ground running by spearheading five action items that represent the first steps to improve the city’s financial, economic and business climate situation to promote private-sector growth and healthy finances, says the research director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
