Merger Information: By Residents, For Residents
The information on this site was researched and compiled by a group of Wilkinsburg resident volunteers on the Merger Analysis Committee. From January–May 2021, more forty residents worked together to inventory the kinds of questions and topics we wanted to understand better ourselves. Participants in the committee have been majority people of color. Committee members represent homeowners and renters, and a range of years in residence.
Bringing various perspectives and experiences together, we researched and discussed the best answers we could find to help fellow residents learn more about how a merger with the City of Pittsburgh could affect our community. We formed two subcommittees to tackle the toughest challenges:
- The Diversity and Gentrification Subcommittee took a strong stand that building resilient neighborhoods and maintaining our community’s diversity will require new ideas, sustained attention and effort, and moving together with intentional plans and actions.
- The Service Comparison Subcommittee tackled the daunting task of trying to understand how Wilkinsburg’s services would change in the event of a merger. We combed through both municipalities’ budgets and public communications to understand and document key differences.

We’re dedicated to helping Wilkinsburg residents understand the details of what a merger might mean, and to paint a clear picture of how we got here along with the next steps. We worked with Wilkinsburg-based communication design specialists to organize the information we’d gathered, and to make sure that we were presenting ideas in way that was as clear and accessible as possible.
Many people who study government believe that municipal consolidation is a key pathway to addressing widespread fiscal shortages—especially in areas with highly fragmented government structures, like ours. (Pittsburgh has the most governments per capita of any metro area with a population greater than 1 million.)
If Wilkinsburg merges with the City of Pittsburgh, we want our process and outcomes to serve as a model for creative, community-led change that prioritizes diversity, collaboration, and sustainable, meaningful growth.