The Three Pillars of DeSantis

I'm posting some quote highlights from Mark DeSantis, culled from my interview with the Republican candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh. You'll find them further down in this entry. I may put up a podcast of the Q&A session later this week. Watch here for an update.


The name of this post, "The Three Pillars of DeSantis", kept coming to me after the interview. DeSantis used the "Three Pillars" metaphor to describe issues on which he'll focus. It reminds me of a phrase or legend from ancient mythology. Last night, I started googling the phrase "three pillars of" to see what I could find.


There are these images, among many:






If you add the pillars DeSantis mentions (efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency) to the google search, you'll get this, which includes a number of U.N. and other international links. Your comments and insights are welcome.


Quotes from Mark DeSantis:

• "I just think it's time for change. And the people I've spoken to over the last several months or so when I was considering this have said they want change and they want it now."

• "With my public sector background from Washington, and now my most recent experience as an entrepreneur combined, I think I can make a difference for this city."

• "I was hoping Bill Peduto would stay in the race. I think he's a reformer. When I saw that we're not really going to have a dialog about this city the way I had hoped, I thought maybe we should think about jumping into this race."

• "There are really three pillars: efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency. You can't have one without the others. We don't have any right now. And I think it's important that we focus on making this the best government we possibly can have."

• "We have almost 2-and-a-half billion dollars in debt and liabilities, which is unprecedented on a per capita basis in the country; some profound, profound issues that we have to deal with."

• "So, before we can think about being great, we just have to get to the start line. We have to get to what would be average performance for other cities. That's an essential first step."

• "Our focus is on the reform agenda, and what I would even call profound reform. That's what's desperately needed here. And that's going to be the focus of our policies going forward."

• "We have issues like crime, which is a big issue here. Economic development: there have been no new jobs in this city, no new private sector jobs--net new private sector jobs--in five, six years. We've had continuing population decline. It's declined consistency over 6 or 7 years, this is unacceptable."

• "That vision isn't a function of which political party you're from, what part of town you live in, or your background. That vision is all about common sense, efficient effective, and transparent government."

• "It won't matter, necessarily what you're party affiliation is, or any other aspect of your background. If you believe in change and you believe in profound reform, you're with us."