Mayor-elect Corey O'Connor has big aspirations to grow the city of Pittsburgh, but when he takes office in January, he also faces big challenges. 

"It is time for us to believe in each other and believe in our city again," O'Connor said in his victory speech. 

O'Connor wants to kickstart Pittsburgh out of neutral, encouraging growth, generating new jobs and attracting young families, but first he'll need to shore up city finances and services. He's dealing with a shrinking tax base, a dying city fleet, massive overtime, understaffing of police and emergency medical services. 

"What are you going to do about all those things?" KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan asked. 

"Well, let's tackle them one at a time," O'Connor said. "If you try to do 50 things at once, something's not going to work. So I think, for us, it's putting a good staff together right now." 

O'Connor says he'll give immediate attention to public safety, foregoing a national search and picking a new police chief early next month. Insiders are saying former Pittsburgh Police Commander and current Frederick, Maryland, Chief Jason Lando tops the list.

Sources also say that former Mayor Bill Peduto's chief of staff Dan Gilman will be returning to that role, and he'll be tapping Yarone Zober, who served in his father's and Luke Ravenstahl's administrations. In the next two months, the staff will be looking at potential budget cuts, improving services and developing a plan for growth. 

"The basics of producing a good product for the city of Pittsburgh, but then having an economic plan. I think we've forgotten so much about that. How do we create jobs again?  And why not Pittsburgh?" O'Connor said. 

Pittsburgh needs to grow. To that end, O'Connor says he'll be reaching out to local companies big and small, asking how the city can expand, and he intends to become the city's sales rep, promoting Pittsburgh on a national and international stage, especially touting its assets of computer science, robotics and artificial intelligence. 

"I think we have to adapt. It's not going to be all AI, but we know that the talent is right down the street from us and I think we can't lose that talent, especially when you see so many billions of dollars being spent on the AI industry. We have to be at the forefront of that," he said. 

While he'll be relying on old hands to achieve the basics, he says he will bring new blood into his administration to begin developing and implementing this new vision for the city.  

"You're going to hit the ground running," Sheehan said. 

"We have to, and I think that's why a blend of old and new allows us to do that," O'Connor said.

In the coming week, he'll be announcing those staff changes and begin outlining his plans for change. One thing is clear: he believes the city can't cut its way out of its budget problems and needs to aggressively promote itself and grow.