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Next OnQ, our Steelers meet the media at the Fort field the site of Super Bowl 40.

It was a frenzy of questions and cameras and characters.

We got our own special greeting.

The American, also a one on one with the Detroit mayor about his shining city and Detroit star native son.

99% of the people in Detroit are for Jerome Bettis.

On cue, Super Bowl coverage from Detroit continues next.

And good evening.

Welcome to OnQ.

I'm Michael Bartley at Ford Field in Detroit, where Super Bowl 40 kicks off on Sunday.

Between our Steelers and those Seahawks.

And you can see behind me it is media day.

So we promise on Thursday to pass the super wide.

Yeah you had a great game plan.

Oh so you're part of the special teams.

Hello.

Come on tell m something about the Super Bowl.

You know you have to exit now.

All right.

Thank you.

A word to describe this madness.

Reporters and photographers from all around the world talk to the Steelers about the big game.

Just about any questio imaginable was asked here today, but the players took it in stride.

And come Wednesday.

Coach Cowher says it's strictly business focusing on a win.

The players agree.

Talk about after today or the distractions over.

It's down to business tomorrow.

Oh yeah.

Definitely.

I mean know this the Super Bowl is overwhelming and, it can get you caught up in time.

But you know, tomorrow is going to be all about football from here on out.

You know, we're just looking forward to the challenge and the everybody knows the type of distractions that we're going to have when everybody knows what we came here to do.

I know you've answered this a thousand times, but what it's like to be playing in the Super Bowl back in your hometown.

I mean, it's bigger than a dream.

I've been telling people this is a miracle.

And, I didn't have doubt you know, and try to creep in.

You know, during the season we had a little adversity, but, we made it, and, I'm just.

I'm just living.

Living the dream.

And you're not surprised Jerome's getting the attention he' getting?

I'm a little surprised.

I'm a little surprised.

You know, I know he's the fifth all time rushing leader, but you know, that don't mean no other stuff.

How do you think the city looks?

Oh.

Looks great.

You know, I haven't been downtown since August, and, a lot of things comes up.

You know, a lot of things are up now, and, the city is on a rebuilding process right now, and, this is definitely a great start.

As you heard, the Steelers, their fans, anyone who has visited Detroit this week or as some are calling it, Bettis burg, no question, the city is shining brightly on the international stage.

And I talked to the Detroit mayo Downtown Detroit, where everything's Super Bowl 40, is happening.

It has become a glitzy, re carpet, Hollywood style party.

An eye opener for Steelers fans.

Looks pretty good this week.

You know for this Super Bowl this is looking great playin this I ever seen in a long time.

At the Renaissance Center the headquarters of the NFL where this year's Lombardi Trophy is heavily guarded, a national star is born in this imposing figure of a man, Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor of Detroit.

Kilpatrick is here to appear on the NFL network to talk about Motown hosting the big game.

That was a leade of the state House before this.

He sat down with us, too.

How in the world did you pull this off?

Well, it was way above my head, before I got here.

The yea before I actually became mayor.

Bill Ford And the Ford family, they get most of the kudos from this.

They went to the NFL and asked for a Super Bowl.

There were already plans in the works of building them a new stadium.

They went out and got Roger Penske to join them, and they offered to ask the NFL to bring the Super Bowl here.

And they got it.

And once they got it, we had to get a plan together here to move the city into a position where we can accept it.

So they went ou and did the labor, the hard work road of their sleeves and got it done.

What's the economic impact?

The early estimate says about 600 million now.

What will you do with the money?

You know, we need a desperately but to spin off, you know, the number of retail establishments that we've opened.

The number of restaurants, the number of hotels and a number of economic development housing lofts that have been created simply by the energy of this game, I think was curious, you know, far beyond the Super Bowl.

When I walked into here tonight, I was sort of cowering from biting winds and some heavy rain.

And it's chilly out there.

As the week goes on, because, you know, these Super Bowls are in Arizona.

They're in Florida.

They're in California.

Is the weather an issue for yo or are you worried about that?

Not at all.

What do you say?

One of the things we discussed when we got the bid was that it's cold in Detroit in the wintertime.

We cannot be Arizona.

We cannot be San Diego.

So we decided to create a winter wonderland.

So we actually ar creating a type of atmosphere.

We have dog sled racing downtown.

We have snow hills.

We have a whole winter festival and ice sculpting.

We've created an atmosphere sort of like the Olympics in Salt Lake City, where we're saying, let's celebrate the cold.

But you have to have a dome.

You have to have a dome for the game.

I don't even want to go t outside game, so I'm not going.

If the Super Bowl is outside, I'll be in the hotel.

So, Yeah, we have a dome.

Great dome.

I think.

The best stadium in the NFL.

Did you get resistance?

Yeah.

This is the first city, northern city to host the Super Bowl twice.

And we hosted a Super Bowl i 1982 at the Pontiac Silverdome.

That was a disaster.

It snow.

I mean, we had, like, two feet of snow.

The stadium was so far away from the center city, and we got a lot of bad press from that.

And so people were revisiting that Super Bowl.

And so we had to explain, we went back and forth to New York, to NFL.

Exactly.

We did presentations all over this country to simply tell people some new Detroit.

But outside downtown Detroit has its big city problems.

50 years ago, 2 million people lived in the city.

Now about 900,000.

It has the second highest unemployment rate in the country.

Driving in.

And Detroit is like, you know, other cities.

You have your problems?

Yes.

So will this benefit the peopl who are struggling in Detroit?

Absolutely.

When I took office, one of the things I did is I went over to our DPW yards, I went over to transportation garages, and I talked to city workers, city employees, and I went to neighborhoods.

And I talked to them all about the same thing.

This is our opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to the world.

So we developed better operations of shoveling snow, not just downtown, bu all through the neighborhoods.

We fix more streets in three years, and we fixed in the entir history of the city of Detroit.

We cut all of our parks, we have new parks, we're building more has have been about 7000 homes now in the city of Detroit, which is more than any period in our history.

And so it's created some long lasting projects that will be here, far beyond the Super Bowl.

And the prid that kind of spiritual renewal of the city will hel our citizens for years to come.

Kilpatrick believes Detroit and Pittsburgh have so much in common blue collar, rust belt cities, and we share the bus.

Jerome Bettis.

Yes.

Coming home.

Yes.

I've walked these streets here today.

The people I talked to are from Detroit.

I find no one in Detroit who's rooting for the Seattle Seahawks.

That doesn't surprise you.

Totally biased Super Bowl.

It's unfortunate.

You know, I like John Alexander.

I love the Seattle Seahawks.

I want them to have a great time.

But I gotta let you kno 99% of the people in Detroit up for Jerome Bettis and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I mean, he's our guy.

Larry Foote is our guy.

You know, Larry Foote and I play for the same little league organization.

I mean, so, you know, they they're Detroit guys.

I mean, it's poetic.

People want to see Jerom in his career on top in Detroit, seven miles away, where he started it at the Quincy High School.

And he's a hard working kind of emblematic, symbolic guy of the city of Detroit.

Guy rolls up his sleeve, get yards, the hard way.

Pittsburgh.

Detroit.

It's a kin.

It's a kinship there too.

Race car legend Roger Penske is the Super Bowl host, committee chairman.

He told me Detroit can't wait for the onslaught of Steeler fans.

My first job was in Pittsburgh, where the aluminum company.

So, you know, I'm some local on Alcoa.

Exactly.

So I go back many years.

But, you know, I love Pittsburgh.

My my dad's first job was in Pittsburgh.

So I'm somewhat of a Pittsburgh fan.

And certainly with Bettis coming here, I think we have 400 events.

I can't remember them all standing here, but believe me, we welcome the fans from Pittsburgh.

There are great fans and I'll tell you, they've got a super team.

And coming up tomorro night, you wouldn't even be able to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday on ABC television if it wasn't for a cre of Pittsburgh area technicians who wire Ford Field and prepare the cameras.

Join u Wednesday night for that story.

I'm Michael Bartley at Ford Field in Detroit.

Now back to Pittsburgh.

And our thanks to Michael Bartley for that report from Detroit.

And now we meet the mayor of that Super Bowl city.

It's time to introduce the mayor of our Super Bowl city.

Bob O'Connor has been on the job for almost a month now, and we welcome you to OnQ.

How are you, Your Honor?

I'm doing great.

Now, I understand you have a perfect record in tech since you've been elected mayor, the Steelers have not lost a game.

Are you aware of that?

I know, I know well about it, you know, and the pressure is on you.

Go keep the record alive.

Comes up this thing four weeks and we're in the Super Bowl.

After Sunday, we'll be the Super Bowl champions of the world again.

And you go keep the regular line.

Oh yeah.

You can you can count on that.

Okay.

The winning bet on a little bit me.

But the mayor of Detroit says he feels a kinship in the kind of Rust Belt city that they talk about here in this this area of the of the country.

And I wonder if you feel that same kind of kinship with Detroit.

Yes.

I was just I was in Detroit for the All-Star game.

You know, we wanted to preview becaus we have a coming here in July.

But I think we're ahea of Detroit.

Be honest with you.

You know, our hospitals, universities, our high tech.

As Michael showed you of Pittsburgh companies, even wired the Ford Stadium.

So I believe we're, at least the city itself.

I mean, Detroit's a nice city.

They've done a great job.

But I think Pittsburgh's on its way.

You know, we have, again we have 51,000 college students in the city of Pittsburgh alone.

I think we have to realize what potential we have here.

Our hospitals and universities are our factories of 25 years ago.

All right.

We going to invite you to join this discussion, too.

Now, if you want to join the conversation, the number to call right now is (412)683-3505.

Again, that phone number is (412)683-3505.

If you have a question of our mayor, mayor O'Connor.

Now Pittsburgh and Detroit ar similarly in population decline.

Michael reported that their population is dow from 2 million to about 900,000.

We're down from 600,000 or more to about 340,000, which makes us about according to the census, about, 52nd in the nation in terms of cities and population.

How do you plan to stem that with your new administration?

Well, again, we are really going to concentrate on housing people living in this city, same thing that they're talking about.

But we're, again, our downtown.

We've already, created, we have three, condominiums and apartments under construction.

We have the lasers building.

This can be converted to apartments.

We have 600 art students moving into an old warehouse that's being converted t apartments for 600 of our arts art school students.

So there's that synergy there.

You know, our neighborhoods are good.

They're getting a lot better.

If you look at what's going on in Lawrenceville, the other thing our high tech companies, American Eagle, just brought 550 jobs to the South Side.

So there's, i fact, if you ask, American Eagle why they come to South Side, their employees had a vote.

They asked our employees they had 5 or 6 locations.

Where would you want to be?

They pick South Side.

They like urban living.

Young people moved from Cranbury.

They.

You said they didn't like the suburbs at all.

They voted their average o the South Coast in the pudding.

And most I don't know what their, most employees when I was there.

I'm sure most of them are under 40.

So people want especially young people.

There's energy.

There's there's a movement across the country for urban living and we have a safe community.

We have good schools.

So we have what everyone wants.

We just have to Robert Sleeves get to work.

I like what the mayor said.

You know, I spoke with our public works people.

Let's take advantage of the situation.

We have momentum now.

This whole month has been nothing but momentum.

And then when I don't know it, when we talk about police and fire contracts overtime pay that the city may Owe.

It might slow your momentum So are you concerned about that?

Yeah.

Very concerned.

That's a financial disaster that we've inherited.

It took 20 years to get in this position.

It's not going to happen overnight.

But if we just low on the negatives we we have to move forward again.

There's so much potential here that we have to work our way through those things now.

All right.

You ready to talk to some of your constituents?

Sure.

Let's go to Oakland.

Jane.

Hello.

Hello.

Hi, Jean.

Hi.

I live in South Oakland, near Schenley Park.

Okay.

And, I was going to ask you.

I saw the mayor Patrick, say that he went into the neighborhoods and talked to the people.

Will you come into the neighborhoods and talk to the people?

Preferably here in South Oakland?

Well, I'm in Oakland, quite a bit.

I've, I was there, actually, last Sunday night after the game, I was walking the streets of Oakland.

You see them in Oakland all the time, so I don't know which, I'm not knocking on doors, every day, but I've.

I've been in Oakland quite a bit, and one of the, one of the issues, I think Oakland has a lot more potential.

We're going to come in and, clean up some of those slum landlords, that are running to college kids getting ridiculous amounts of money and not keeping up their properties.

Our building inspectors, we're going to support them when we find those absentee landlords.

And I'm not talking to the you know, the poor person needs a little help.

You know what I'm talking about.

The people who bought up those properties are not taking care of them.

When we go to court, we're going to have a lawyer backing up our building inspectors.

You'll see a change in Oakland is a prime location to get better for 4126833505.

If you have a question of mayor O'Connor, the Urban Redevelopment Authority owns a lot of property, too.

How are you going to deal wit the property that the city of, well, the city owns?

We're going to put it up for sale.

We're going to, if we don't need it.

You know, a lot of city properties were taken over because somebody didn't pa their tax or bills or whatever.

Somebody left tow and left us with a vacant home.

We want to make sur those get back on the tax rolls that they're available for people to buy first, first time homebuyers or anyon who wants to invest in our city.

All right.

Here in Pittsburgh.

Carol.

Hello.

Hi.

I just wanted to ask the mayor.

I'm just moved from out of state.

I live in Lawrenceville currently, and, I was just sort of surprise at the high amount of taxes and a lot of fiscal responsibility.

I heard that the city was bankrupt, and I was just wondering what.

And I know you just came into offic and it wasn't all on your watch, but what were you going to do to try to remedy that?

Well, fiscal responsibility, is our number one priority right now.

We have actually an oversight board and an Act 47.

We're all working together to.

We're close to solving, actually not solving the problem, getting down to the, point of where our problems are and how we can resolve them.

You know, numbers don't lie.

That's wha we're we've been debating for, actually, almost two years.

What are the numbers?

We're very close, to a balanced budget but it's going to be a struggle, and we're going to work our way out of it.

One of the best ways to do it is always attract people that live here.

That's the key.

The more people live here.

You know, we still have the same roads, the same schools.

All those things have to be maintained.

So if we increased our population, 20, 30,000 people wont cost us any more money.

A new arena and casino gambling.

Do they go hand in hand, you think?

Well, that's a that's quit an option.

We're looking at it.

We want to do what's best for Pittsburgh.

I've met with Dan Onorato, and I. We're looking to see what th best, deal for the city will be.

There's three out there right now.

We're analyzing those.

We feel, though we would like, in a new Multi, stadium or arena?

Multi-Purpose arena.

If the if the casino gets it, that's fine.

If they don't get it, what are we going to do?

So I know it's not your decision, but that sounds like almost an endorsement of the Penguins plan, because we do.

And that does sound like a logical thing.

Yeah.

We would get, a new arena multi purpose arena out of that without having to put tax dollars into it.

And that would be a better deal than the way the last stadiums would fund.

It's yeah, it sounds much better.

And the devil's in the details.

We're looking at all those options.

But also we want to work together if, if the, if they get the casino, fine.

If they don't, what are we going to do?

We still need a multi-purpos arena is really the best thing for the city It can be used 300 days a year.

Whether it be Ice Capades concerts, the 44 events the, Penguins have.

So we want to work together to make sure that happens.

Let's go to the phones and Shadyside.

James.

Hello?

Yes, hi.

Nice to watch your program and see the mayor.

I just wanted to make a, I think a well-deserved positive comment.

I am, originally from the South, I lived I'm a refugee, if you will, from Hurricane Katrina.

I, relocated to Pittsburgh by choice.

I looked around and thought about where I wanted to relocate, and I chose to move here.

I did a lot of researc about a lot of different places, and I think Pittsburgh is just one of the best kept secrets in the country.

I think this is a terrific city.

You've got a lot going for you.

I've been here a couple of months now, and so far I've seen nothing in the city or in the people that I've met.

That has dissuaded me from my, from my choice, so.

Well, I just wanted to say that, you know, you've got some, a lot of good things going for you.

And I appreciate the mayor's enthusiasm.

James, you've got two people here who would agree with you about the city and our prospects but I wonder what's submitted.

The deal for you.

So, again, I don't know what submitted the deal to come here to Pittsburgh to decide this was going to be your new home.

What?

What really mad you want to make this your home?

Well, what I saw was a city that had a lot of positives going for it, compared to other cities compared to most other cities.

It's rich.

And in cultural and recreational, attractions, low cost of living, comparatively low crime rate, comparatively, strong sense of neighborhoods, strong sense of community.

A lot of the pluses that make a good city a good city and, and, and, you know, far fewer of the negatives that plague a lot of other cities.

All right.

So it just it looked like a really, as I said, one of the best kept secrets in the country.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I use James as a, everywhere I go, there's.

James is out there, especially people.

You know, I live close to the university, so people that live here stay here, move in to work at the hospitals, say what James is saying.

They brag about Pittsburgh more than we do.

And I'm a lifelong.

Pittsburghers all include myself in that.

Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have.

And thank you, James, for your comments.

And this is something the rest of us Pittsburghers when we all start realizing how what great things and great people we have in this city and the job opportunities that we have to help create, I think when we all start talking like, James, you're gonna see this city turn around.

You know that'll never happen.

You never get everybody on how to make it happen one way or the other.

We're going to make it happen.

Thank you.

James Burg.

Mark.

Hello.

Yes, good evening to you, gentlemen.

How are you tonight?

Good evening.

Question for you.

Did I hear correctly that you guys are going to be stoppin traffic through Market Square?

No.

There was a suggestion I made to look at, we.

When we're bringing housing down time, we're going to bring more housing downtown.

And I visited other cities.

And one of the key reasons that people want to live in an urban setting like downtown is green space.

So Market Square could be one of those spots.

That could be a, much better green space.

One of the things we would look at should busses run through, shouldn't they?

These are things you just throw out on the table, see what sticks.

All right, let's go back to the phones.

Joe in Whitehall.

Hello, Joe.

Hello, gentlemen.

Congratulations on your victory, mayor.

Many good years of, health and, future success.

My question is, with the bike trails downtown.

I'm an avid biker, and I really enjoy going downtown to, to ride on those trails.

And I've heard, Mayor Murphy say that, one of his proudest accomplishments were where the trails.

And I wondered how you felt about the future of the trails, and if there would be enough money to continue developing them.

Yes.

In fact, I commend Mayor Murphy.

He led the charge.

I supported him on council, for ten years on that, we actually discussed, you know, a lot of that grant money.

We actually hired a someone to look at grants, their full time job as you want and get grants not only for for recreation, fire equipment, all those things.

But we're going to make sure every grant, we're going to be out there searching for more money to even make it better.

We've discussed where the, the the little bumps in the road.

The city is actually in pretty good shape.

There's a few connections we have to make.

I know, I know we're on the in homestead there.

We're looking at making a final connection.

So I support that 100%.

And that's the quality of life that young people.

And I enjoy riding a bike myself.

These are the kind of things that attract people to Pittsburgh.

I hope you can cut the grass along the lines of Furnace Trail.

It's getting pretty high for the joggers.

They're having to run on the, on the pavement rather than as planned on the side.

You know what amazes me there, though, what with everybody has cell phones right?

Yeah.

90% of people.

How do they do all that graffiti, you know, and without somebody saying, hey, I'm going to call 911.

Well, the I mean, the the previous mayor said that that was a good place for the graffiti to be.

I just don't like it when you come across the bridge from South Side.

Look at that.

And it's such a beautiful setting.

All right.

I've got a question for you.

I kno your staff is not complete yet, but I've been really critical of you on the radio in the selection so far and have said that it's an all white staff used to send brochures out with a wonderful looking cultural diversity when you were running for election.

And I'm just wondering when we going to see that diversity in your staff.

We're on the way of process and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when we're finished.

You know, we have a rush to hire.

We have a lot of openings still, and we have a rush to fill those.

And usually mayors have them done.

Or any politicians months ago were waiting to make sure we find the best people and we will have diversity.

And I thin you'll be pleasantly surprised, when this process is finished.

Pleasantly surprised.

Yeah.

When are you going to make those announcements?

You know, when we find the best people.

All right, we have another phone call.

Yes.

Let's go to the phones.

Hello.

Hi.

This is.

Hello, Greg.

Go ahead.

Yes, hi.

I just, I've heard of, some some ideas.

None real good.

But how do we pla on attracting people to the city with jobs, with lower taxes?

I mean, walking trails, everything else, might look and sound pretty, but we need jobs.

We need lower taxes.

What do you plan on doing to get, more jobs?

We create and more people live in the city will automatically bring down taxes.

We.

We're on a diet.

We cut, almost $40 million out of the city taxes.

So, we've we've cut a lot.

You know, but just if you're going to move to the city, you still want, the quality and the services.

So we're almost at bare bones now, and we'll manage it a lot better than it's been managed in the past.

Now, how do we create jobs?

We're going to do something.

No one else is done.

We're going to spend most of our time and energy on the companies we already have here.

We've missed a great opportunity by not working with the companies, not just the large, midsize and small companies most of our time and energy.

Now, we're certainly going to, work on bringing new companies in, but we're going to spend that time and energ growing Pittsburgh from within.

There's almost every, company I've spoken to for the one yea of campaigning corporate heads.

And, Chris, bring a few on, you know, what they want from the next mayor.

What cooperation.

All right.

They want a mayor.

You're going to give it to him You're darn right I am, right.

Are you going to Detroit this weekend?

I'm going to try to go Friday afternoon.

How'd you get tickets, man?

I got two.

I had to get them paid from.

Paid for Monday.

Check.

All right.

Well, you got a prediction on the score.

28:17 Steelers.

All right.

Congratulations to you.

And stay undefeated, especially this Sunday okay.

One more to go.

One more to go.

Thank you, mayor.

And thank you for watching.

Tomorrow night our Super Bowl coverage continues.

We'll show you which Pittsburgh companies are in Detroit right now working on the big game.

We hope you'll join us then.

Stay connected.

Good night.