Peduto: Coronavirus could bring pop-up drive-in theaters to Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is looking for creative ways to allow safe social activities — including pop-up drive-in theaters — if coronavirus restrictions are necessary through summer months, Mayor Bill Peduto said Wednesday.

Peduto, addressing reporters during a teleconference, said traditional activities such as Little League baseball, the city’s annual Fourth of July celebration, swimming pools and movies in parks could be casualties of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Now saying that doesn’t mean we can’t be creative,” Peduto said. “We’re already in conversations of how to bring drive-ins to our neighborhoods, to be able to have people isolated by cars in a drive-in theater that is a pop-up in a neighborhood. … We’ll still be open to safe ideas of how people can interact. But in creating public policy you always have to have a’ true north,’ and our true north will continue to be the safety of our residents.”

Peduto said the city is on the downside of a coronavirus infection curve and an easing of restrictions, including social gatherings and city activities, would require a “strong evaluation backed by science in order to make informed decisions.”

He could not provide a time frame for when Gov. Tom Wolf might lift restrictions for the region. The city is planning scenarios for when that happens, he said, adding that it’s impossible to predict how long the virus might continue.

“Anybody who tells you that they know what this virus is going to do or how this pandemic is going to work itself out is not being honest,” Peduto said. “People want hard metrics and hard measures in an area where everyone is basically writing the rules as we are going through this situation. I think the most important thing that a mayor can do is be open-minded and to be flexible….”

Peduto said employees with offices in the City-County Building, Downtown, would continue working from home indefinitely.

“I will not rush the employees back to any of our large buildings, just as I would not rush any of our residents back into any type of social gathering whether it is indoor or outdoor,” he said.

He lauded Department of Public Safety personnel for working under difficult conditions and credited Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich and Mark Pinchalk, assistant chief of Emergency Medical Services, with creating the city’s plan for dealing with the pandemic.

Peduto declared Wednesday as Mark Pinchalk Day in the city and presented Pinchalk with the Mayor Sophie Masloff Award Employee of the Month Award for April.