Mayor Thomas J. Murphy Administration (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Thomas Murphy was born in the Greenfield section of Pittsburgh on August 15, 1944. He grew up in Baldwin, attending St. Wendelin School. After high school he attended seminary and then John Carroll University. He served two years in the Peace Corps and spent a year in New York for graduate school. In 1973, Murphy returned to Pittsburgh and settled on the North Side in the neighborhood of Perry Hilltop. Murphy became involved with local politics, serving as Executive Director of the North Side Civic Cevelopment Council. In 1978, he was elected to the State House of Representatives for the northern communities of Pittsburgh. After eight terms, Murphy campaigned for the Democrat Party nomintion in the 1989 Pittsburgh Mayoral race. He finished second to Sophie Masloff, but won the next nomination in 1993. He went on to win the general election and served three terms as Mayor of Pittsburgh, from January 1994 to January 2006. Highlights during his terms were his focus of the Fifth and Forbes downtown retail development program, the building and financing of three new city structures: the baseball stadium (PNC Park), the football stadium (Heinz Field) and the environmentally "green" David L. Lawrence Convention Center; and the city's financial problems which eventually led to State assistance through Act 47 in 2004. Another significant project was the creation of parks and trails along the rivers and recording the lowest crime rates in 30 yeras.