December 28, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Paraguay: Politics: City Government: KDKA : Murphy Remembers Time In Office Fondly
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December 28, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Paraguay: Politics: City Government: KDKA : Murphy Remembers Time In Office Fondly
Murphy Remembers Time In Office Fondly
One of Murphy's proudest accomplishments as mayor is the city’s building boom. Another is the redevelopment of the city's waterfronts and creation of walking and biking trails. “Really the third is to watch some of the revitalization of our neighborhoods, whether they were old industrial sites or neighborhoods like East Liberty that had been written off years ago, watching them become alive again,” Murphy said. “That's been really a very satisfying experience.” Thomas Murphy, Jr., Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh, PA , served as a Peace Corps Volunteers in Paraguay in the 1970's.
Murphy Remembers Time In Office Fondly
Murphy Remembers Time In Office Fondly
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Ken Rice
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(KDKA) PITTSBURGH Mayor Tom Murphy is leaving office at a time of great expectations - and great uncertainty.
Murphy has practically lived in his office for the past 12 years. Leaving it will be in some ways hard -- and in some ways, not so.
Murphy says he’ll be relieved because being mayor is a lot harder than it looks.
Murphy was barely sworn into office when the city was hit with a major snowstorm. It was one of the first crises he faced as mayor.
The other was the threat by the Pirates to leave town.
“That sort of defined the first four or five years of my first term as mayor,” Murphy said. “The whole struggle of trying to keep the Pirates here, which morphed into building a new baseball park, which morphed into building two parks and then a convention center.”
One of Murphy's proudest accomplishments as mayor is the city’s building boom. Another is the redevelopment of the city's waterfronts and creation of walking and biking trails.
“Really the third is to watch some of the revitalization of our neighborhoods, whether they were old industrial sites or neighborhoods like East Liberty that had been written off years ago, watching them become alive again,” Murphy said. “That's been really a very satisfying experience.”
Murphy does have one major regret.
“A specific project, my biggest regret was really the Downtown, the Fifth-Forbes development,” Murphy said. “That we've really spent the last 10 years trying to make something happen there without success.”
Murphy says he hopes he'll be remembered for the fact that he wasn't afraid to make a tough decision if he thought it was right for the city.
“I have no bad memories,” Murphy said. “There were huge fights, but we always tried to do what was the best for the city.
“Sometimes hindsight would say they were dumb decisions. Other people might say they were brilliant decisions,” Murphy added. “But we were always trying to do the very best at the time.”
Murphy says he believes that Bob O'Connor has the potential to be a good mayor, as long as he remembers that he can't please everyone and has to say no sometimes.
Murphy says he's made the job easier for O'Connor because he was able to push reforms through the state legislature that have made the city's tax system fairer.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
When this story was posted in January 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
| PC establishes awards for top Volunteers Gaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9. |
| Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 years Congratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now. |
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
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Story Source: KDKA
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Paraguay; Politics; City Government
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