Joseph Sabino Mistick Columns category, Page 2
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Gainey’s inclusionary zoning plan may hinder development
When Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey spoke at a planning commission hearing last week, he emphasized his “get tough on developers” version of an inclusionary zoning ordinance to develop affordable housing. Gainey wants to shift the responsibility for providing affordable housing away from his government — where it belongs — and...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We should respect the police, not make their job harder
Some people think that teachers have the toughest job in America. Others think that nurses have the toughest job. Or psychiatric social workers. But I think that police officers have the toughest job in America because they have to do all of those jobs and enforce the law. And Donald...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We can all do better being good neighbors
Last week, as Americans mourned the destruction and death caused by raging fires in Los Angeles, both Canada and Mexico sent firefighters and equipment to California. It is what good neighbors do. They help each other as best they can when help is needed, without being asked and without keeping...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The value of the truth
The truth was center stage at two very different public events last week. One was an announcement by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire, and the other was the funeral of President Jimmy Carter. Together they showed us two distinct views of the value of truth in our lives. Zuckerberg is...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: President and Mrs. Carter made America better
Jimmy Carter became larger in defeat. That’s not easy to do, but it is especially rare in politics. For many politicians, losing the big one is enough to push them into the background forever. For Carter, his one-term presidency was just one step along the way to greatness. Carter’s presidential...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Hope is alive for 2025
This last week of the year is all about hope — a short pause between the old and new year, a time when we can reflect on the past and ponder the future. Commerce has finally slowed, unused vacation days are being used up and there is even a break...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Friendship, the greatest gift
Not much good is expected from the combination of politics and the internet these days. But for our family, the gift of Christmas 2024 — celebrating a friendship across the sea that was borne of politics and the internet — is an exception to that rule. Some years ago, weary...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Basics count in local government
Any mayor who fixes the potholes, plows the snow and picks up the garbage can get reelected forever. That’s an old saying in local politics, and all it means is that the average citizen cares first about the basics of government — those services and actions that affect their daily...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Working together ‘the Pittsburgh way’ can save our city
It was in the 1940s just after World War II when Arthur Van Buskirk changed the direction of the city forever with an offhand remark to his boss Richard King Mellon, the head of Mellon Bank and all its corporate holdings. Van Buskirk, a vice president of T. Mellon &...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Giving thanks 2024
Here’s something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving weekend 2024: We had another free and fair election for president of the United States and the other federal, state and local offices on the ballot this year. You might be happy with the results or unhappy with the results, but with...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Blue city blues
As political observers search for broader meanings of the presidential election, one thing is certain: There is another election coming just around the corner. In the Pennsylvania 2025 spring primary election, the parties and their voters will select their candidates for local offices — including mayors, council members, township commissioners...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Not much expertise in Trump’s cabinet picks
“If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” That was President Calvin Coolidge’s advice in the 1920s to Herbert Hoover, who was then his commerce secretary. While Coolidge’s words are generally good policy in...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Voting for the things that count
Everybody has a theory about this election. Despite Kamala Harris’ late entry into the race — she had a little over 100 days to work with — she ran a very good campaign. She built coalitions, won the debate, gave two presidential speeches to national audiences, flooded the airwaves and...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Harris vs. Trump
The closing statements by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last week were a chance for both candidates to put their beliefs in front of America one last time. These are not slapdash events, haphazardly thrown together. They are carefully choreographed to make the best pitch to voters for a final...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: How elections really work
David Voye doesn’t sleep much these days. The manager of Allegheny County’s Elections Division says, “You fall asleep very quickly, but then you wake up every half hour thinking about things you need to do.” It has been that way since right after Labor Day. Elections departments work year-round, and,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Preparing for the post-election crisis
Just as in 2020, there will be two distinct elections this presidential election year. The first one will start when the polls open for voters on Election Day and end when the polls close later that evening. It will be all about the voters. It may not be perfect, because...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Women’s rights may decide this election
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case — reversing Roe v. Wade and throwing the issue of abortion back to the individual states — women voters have shown their political strength in every state where the issue has been on the ballot. With that collective clout, women...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pay attention to the VP candidates
When it comes to electing the president of the United States, vice presidential candidates rarely make a difference. The job has often been maligned, even by those who have been vice president. But history has taught us to pay attention to the people who could be a heartbeat away from...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Decency on the ballot
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” That was the question that attorney Joseph Welch asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1954 U.S. Army hearings after McCarthy took his reckless cruelty a step too far. Decency counted for something then, and we will see if it...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: What is Vance’s goal with attacks on families?
I am a father and a stepfather, and I have been a son and a stepson and an adopted son. From a purely political point of view, JD Vance’s attacks on families like mine are baffling. Any candidate looking for votes would realize that it makes no political sense. And...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Haitian immigrants here legally for better lives
Just about all that can be said has been said about Donald Trump’s debate performance last week. But people can’t stop talking about his bogus claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ dogs. The next day, The Washington Post ran a story with the headline, “Anatomy...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump works against many of his supporters
Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing, but those Never Trumpers who still let Donald Trump work them into a lather are not the only people suffering from a malady. Here’s another phenomenon that has puzzled many observers: Why do so many of Trump’s most militant supporters still fervently support...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: A president for all Americans
As a sure sign that many Republicans have had enough of Donald Trump, over 200 staffers of former Republican presidential nominees announced their support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris last week. These are people who worked for President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush and Sens. John McCain...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Playing politics with the border
“That’s just politics” is a common response whenever Donald Trump says or does something outrageous, and it’s true that many of his carnival sideshow antics are worthy of nothing more than a chuckle. But his decision to get Republican senators to kill the bipartisan border bill in February deserves more...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Harris vs. Trump, love vs. fear
As the 16th-century political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli said about the nature of political leadership in his treatise “The Prince,” “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” Being both is a tough act for any political leader, so most leaders choose one — love or...
