Sixteen years ago I knocked on doors for Candidate Tom Murphy, when he lost in his first bid for Mayor of Pittsburgh. I did even more work for him 12 years ago. Tom Murphy seemed to be a blend of community-minded and progressive, the fiscally conservative and the genuinely visionary. He wasn't even sworn in before I realized that on issue after issue Murphy had shown himself to be divisive, arrogant, and dogmatic. Tom Murphy announced yesterday that he won't be mayor for much longer.
For someone like myself who had worked in community groups, I'd seen first hand, second hand, and third hand, the enmity he had for those in community organizing. As soon as he'd gained office, Murphy made it a habit to tell community groups that they were failures and that they didn't think big enough. Within a few years, the Murphy administration knee-capped the URA's Housing Recovery Program, which had been partly responsible for the revitalization of my Pittsburgh neighborhood, Friendship. Murphy instead concentrated his efforts on the big deals like the stadiums, the convention center, Lazarus, Lord & Taylor, Summerset, and South Side Works. All projects that have or had little to no connection to where and how Pittsburghers live, shop, and work.
So I haven't been a big Tom Murphy fan for the past 11 years, but my sentiments aren't going to build a stick or polish the chrome of the Pittsburgh to come.
So, what to do?
1) A little judicious pruning, persuading the geniuses of the present administration that their services are best used elsewhere.
2) A determined but sunny attitude that things can improve would be helpful. Some might say that attitude doesn't matter, but results are what count. Obviously, they haven't observed the results of Tom Murphy's lousy (insert stronger modifier, if desired) attitude.
3) Do our homework and make sure we make good decisions in May and November (I'm not counting out a Republican or a Democrat running as a Republican). Myself, I'm going for the man or woman who has a lot of humility, who likes to not only listen (which I admit Mayor Murphy did a lot of) but hear what people have to say (which Mayor Murphy didn't do a lot of), someone who can spend time reviewing numbers (I got the impression that Mayor Murphy had a distaste for actual numbers), who can still project a vision for the city, and who can claw out favorable agreements between the state legislature, the Act 47 board, the oversight board, the powers-that-be (all of whom I imagine to number in the hundreds) and the 330,000 citizens of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh has plenty of assets and plenty of potential, and becoming the Mayor of Pittsburgh is still a desirable pursuit. I'm looking forward to seeing some promising candidates emerge. Of course, don't trust me to pick the right one. I was an early Tom Murphy backer.
Posted by mastr at December 22, 2004 09:40 AM