Pittsburgh’s West End neighborhoods this year will elect a new City Council member for the first time since 2010, as Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith is poised to retire at the end of her term.
Three Democrats and a Republican are running to replace her as the council member for District 2, which includes the Banksville, Chartiers City, Crafton Heights, Duquesne Heights, Mount Washington, East Carnegie, Elliott, Esplen, Fairywood, Oakwood, South Shore, Sheraden, West End, Westwood and Windgap neighborhoods.
Kail-Smith, 65, of Westwood, has worked to bring more attention to the communities she represents, where many residents complain they feel forgotten and don’t see as much investment as more bustling parts of the city. She served two terms as council president.
Kail-Smith was a vocal advocate for increasing investment and services to the city’s West End, helping bring new development based on community desires, securing city funding for park upgrades and ensuring residents weren’t left out of important conversations about the city’s future.
“I thought it was time to retire,” the Democratic councilwoman told TribLive, adding she wanted to spend more time with her family.
Kail-Smith has endorsed as her replacement Kim Salinetro, her longtime chief of staff.
In May’s Democratic primary, Salinetro will be joined by David Binkoski, who serves as director of operations for Parkhurst Dining at Duquesne University, and Amanda Neatrour, owner of the Lewis Neatrour Group, a consulting firm.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face another contested race in the November general election, with Republican Erin Koper also vying for the seat.
The winner will replace one of council’s longest-tenured members. Kail-Smith and Council President R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, are the longest-serving current council members, having been elected in 2009.
Lavelle and Council members Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, and Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, are up for re-election this year. So far, those races appear likely to be uncontested.
David Binkoski
David Binkoski, 36, of Duquesne Heights, said he wants to revitalize the district, attract more investment and bolster public safety.
Binkoski said he already is involved in the community, as he and his wife often participate in trash pick-ups or other neighborhood events, often with 10-month-old daughter Eleanor in tow.
Binkoski serves on the board of the Mount Washington Community Development Corporation and as an Allegheny County Democratic Committee representative for the 19th Ward.
While Binkoski said he loves his community, he also feels District 2 deserves better.
“Our district is, unfortunately, on so many quality of life issues, not delivering for the people,” he told TribLive. “Our infrastructure is crumbling. District 2 is a food desert.”
Binkoski said he believes the first step to solving such problems is attracting more residents and businesses. He wants to encourage people to move into the area, invest in new businesses there and stay long-term.
Binkoski said he believes cleaning up neighborhoods and improving public safety will help attract more investment in the area. Once more people and businesses start moving in, he said, he believes more and more will follow to meet increasing demand.
He said he’s supportive of zoning amendments Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration has put forth that aim to bolster affordable housing through measures that would implement citywide inclusionary zoning, permit more transit-oriented development and slash red tape for building homeless shelters.
“It is not only the moral thing to do, it is the financially smart thing to do,” he said.
Binkoski said he also wants to improve public safety — something he believes is imperative to keep people from moving out of the city.
For Binkoski, public safety is about more than just increasing policing. He also advocated for more mental health resources, substance abuse help and safe places for city youth.
As Pittsburgh struggles with declining revenues and a challenging financial forecast, Binkoski said growing the tax base with new residents and businesses is key to filling the city’s coffers and breathing new life into communities.
“We need to have a safe, thriving community where people stay, they invest their money,” he said.
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Erin Koper
Erin Koper, 44, of Elliott, last summer drew attention for lambasting Pittsburgh’s Democratic leaders at the Republican National Convention.
The only Republican to announce a bid for Kail-Smith’s seat so far, Koper is president of the Allegheny County Council of Republican Women and has worked for various Republican campaigns.
If elected, she would be the only Republican to hold an elected office in Pittsburgh’s city government.
Originally from West Virginia, she’s lived in Pittsburgh’s District 2 for the last 16 years.
Koper said she comes from a family that values public service. Her father had been involved in politics, one brother served as a police officer for 25 years and another brother served in the Army.
That same spirit of service, Koper said, drove her decision to run for council.
The top issue she’s hoping to address is public safety. She pointed to the city’s struggles to fully staff the police bureau and the recent decision to decrease budgeted overtime pay for first responders in 2025 as major causes for her concern.
“I don’t believe we ever should be slashing anything from our first responders, ever,” she said. “That’s an issue.”
Koper said she wants to clean up homeless camps, stamp down on drugs and get more police officers in the community.
She said the city should be tougher on drug crimes and drug trafficking and prohibit people from camping outside.
“I believe letting them live in the camps and providing them with the tools they need to get high is inhumane,” she said.
She criticized the mayor’s zoning proposals — which are awaiting a vote from the city’s Planning Commission amid significant controversy — as bills that would limit public input on what could happen in their neighborhoods.
One of the more controversial elements of Gainey’s plan would allow for homeless shelters and other community homes to be built without public hearings.
“I think that we need to have a system in place where the public is allowed to voice their opinion on how these buildings are going to be used, because that’s a concern,” she said.
She also called for more fiscal accountability, accusing the city of “spending recklessly.”
Koper said she doesn’t believe the city should give anyone — including council members — pay raises till it’s in a healthier financial position.
Amanda Neatrour
Amanda Neatrour, 43, of Sheraden, said she was inspired to run for City Council in hopes of making the city a better place for families like hers.
A mother of two young sons, dog mom to a rescued Maltese and caregiver to her mother with Alzheimer’s, Neatrour also runs Lewis Neatrour Group, a consulting firm that helps leaders become more intentional in their leadership.
She has also served as the director for Robert Morris University’s Center for Equity and Professional Advancement, chair of Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission, diversity and inclusion employment coordinator for the city and Miss Pennsylvania American.
Neatrour bought a “fixer-upper” house — which she’s still fixing up — in the city’s Sheraden neighborhood in 2016. She said she often sits on her back porch and watches cars zoom through stop signs, though she lives in an area where many kids walk and ride bikes.
That’s why traffic calming would be a top priority for Neatrour if she’s elected.
She said she also wants to help people throughout District 2 connect to basic resources, making it easier to access staples like child care and food. Several neighborhoods in the district lack easy access to fresh food.
“I feel like our district has been kind of overlooked in terms of the city,” she said. “That’s not a secret at all.”
Neatrour wants to see the city invest in fighting blight in communities like hers. Part of that effort, she said, could involve revitalizing abandoned buildings to provide affordable housing.
Neatrour said she wants to examine what could be done to make existing housing programs more effective. She also advocated for additional support to help struggling residents maintain their homes.
“I believe housing is a right,” she said. “I feel like everyone has the opportunity to have a home, to be warm, sheltered from the elements.”
Neatrour said she wants to see a more holistic approach to public safety. Ideally, she said, that would include community centers and programming to deter people from violence, as well as more emphasis on addressing root causes of crime, like poverty and homelessness.
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“It’s a huge problem, and it’s not something that’s going to be fixed overnight, but we need a holistic approach,” she said. “It can’t just be punitive.”
Neatrour — who was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Baltimore before moving to Pittsburgh in 2010 — said she also would focus on being transparent and communicative with residents about how the city operates and how it spends taxpayer dollars.
Kim Salinetro
Kim Salinetro, 58, of Banksville, is the only candidate who has lived in District 2 her whole life. She was raised in Sheraden.
“I just never saw any reason to leave,” she said. “It’s home.”
Salinetro, who has served as Kail-Smith’s chief of staff since she took office in 2010, said that lifelong connection to the community inspired her to run for office.
“It feels like serving family,” she said.
Already, she said, she’s been deeply involved in the community through her work in Kail-Smith’s council office. Salinetro said she’s proud to have been involved in efforts to create more housing in the area, including senior patio homes in Fairywood.
Salinetro said she’s taken thousands of calls from concerned constituents, so she knows where the problems are and how the city has sought to fix them.
She said she’d like to see the vacant properties that create eyesores in many neighborhoods transformed into affordable housing. The city, she said, needs to take a more active approach to getting abandoned properties back on the tax rolls and back to productive use.
City officials, she said, should be more aggressive in tracking down owners of abandoned properties, rather than considering some “dead-end” properties where the city doesn’t do anything to remedy blight because it’s too hard to identify the owners. She called on the city to work collaboratively with residents to find ways to breathe new life into blighted sites.
People ofallincomelevels,shesaid,shouldbeencouragedtobuyhomesinthecity.
Salinetro, who has twin daughters and two grandchildren, said she’s very family-oriented and wants to draw more families to the neighborhoods she hopes to represent.
Like the incumbent councilwoman, Salinetro said she rejects Gainey’s zoning proposals, as she feels they take the voice away from the constituents, something she said is “unfathomable.”
If elected, Salinetro said, she’d push for an increased police presence throughout the community.
“I would love to expand our police force, get a couple more (recruitment) classes going,” she said. “I’d love to see us retain some of those officers that are leaving.”
She said the city should strive to retain more long-term employees throughout its workforce to preserve their institutional knowledge.
Salinetro said she’d like to the city be “smarter” with its spending and hiring practices.
She advocated for bringing more small businesses into District 2. She said more restaurants and coffee shops could make communities more vibrant and attract additional residents and businesses.