JON DELANO | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Jon Delano hung up his microphone on Dec. 1 after spending 30 years interviewing U.S. presidents, Congressional leaders, governors, state lawmakers and more as KDKA-TV’s money and politics editor, as well as its political analyst.

Before that, the trained lawyer was chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Doug Walgren. At 75, he’s not lollygagging in retirement. In addition to occasional appearances on KDKA, he’s board president of the Denis Theatre Foundation, which is working to restore and reopen the Mt. Lebanon landmark. He’s the typical Pittsburgher who lives just two blocks from the Mt. Lebanon street where he grew up.

So we wanted to know: What is Jon Delano’s Best of the ’Burgh?

What’s your Pittsburgh “hidden gem,” a place that you love that doesn’t get the attention it deserves?

“It’s the Downtown architecture. In Pittsburgh, we don’t look up enough when we’re walking on Downtown streets. We have some of the most incredible buildings — all the sculpture and the cornice work … It’s hidden because we look horizontally, not vertically.”

If you could only eat one local meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Fried zucchini at Primanti’s

If Pittsburgh had a theme song, what would it be?

“We Are Family” by Sister Sledge

What’s the annual tradition that you wait for every year?

Pumpkin Patch Parade in Mt. Lebanon

Favorite Pittsburgh appearance in a movie or on television?

“Flashdance”

What’s your unpopular Pittsburgh opinion? What is something you think about the city (or a famous aspect of it) that won’t win you any friends?

“I think we overdo the black and gold. Everything does not have to be black and gold to be Pittsburgh — please! I mean, even KDKA has gone black and gold.”

Where’s the first place you take out-of-town guests?

“The Strip District — because it has everything.”

You get one Incline ride with any Pittsburgher, living or dead. Who is it?

David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh’s former four-term mayor (1946-1959) and later Pennsylvania governor (1959-1963). “He was the initiator of the first renaissance. And we could use another renaissance in the city of Pittsburgh. I’d love to hear his thoughts.”

If you could bring back one Pittsburgh place or restaurant that’s no longer there, which would you pick?

The Richest Delicatessen and Restaurant on Sixth Street (“It had lots of pictures of famous people on the wall, it had a jar of pickles on the table and you could get wonderful hot pastrami sandwiches”) and the main dining room at the top of the former Press Club of Pittsburgh building on Wood Street