Pittsburgh's Mayor Is Friends With Racists

Well, that's what I get out of this.

Tom Murphy kind of flipped out the other day:

One of America's leading apostles of city-county consolidations assessed Pittsburgh as ripe for a merger of local governments yesterday, but Mayor Tom Murphy demurred, blaming racism in the predominantly white suburbs as a major impediment.

"If we don't confront that attitude, then we're never going to have a serious discussion about consolidation," Murphy said at a breakfast meeting of the Urban Land Institute.

The mayor complained that some of his suburban friends are afraid to visit him at his Perry South home "because there are young black kids hanging out in the street."

Presenting what he characterized as further evidence of suburban racism, he cited opposition in Hampton to a proposed methadone clinic that might draw heroin users from the city.

"It's as if people in the city of Pittsburgh have horns and so we're going to rape their kids and rob their houses," Murphy said....

You have to understand what's going on here, folks. Democrats have ruled the City of Pittsburgh for 6 or 7 decades, with Murphy at the helm for the last decade, and they have finally run it financially into the ground. Think of Pittsburgh as California in Miniature. Murphy is now desperate to get somebody, anybody, to help bail the city out of it's multi-million-dollar woes. And, whoever doesn't want to cooperate, why, they just must be... racists?

A follow-up article, today, quotes some folks discussing how the mayor had really put his foot in it:

When Tom Murphy talked to a crowd of fellow government wonks about suburban racism Wednesday, he meant to spur discussion. It worked, but not in the way the mayor intended.

As far as his timing goes — he is now trying to woo suburban support for city budget reform — the statements will go directly into the pantheon of impolitic, even inept comments made by the mayor over the years.

But as for their importance and impact, the results were more muddied. They spurred denunciations from suburban legislators who felt targeted, but hurrahs from people who deal with race relations every day....

Natch. They make their living getting offended about racial issues.

.... Murphy himself stood by his statements yesterday, saying an honest discussion about race will be a necessary part of mergers between the city and county. In a prepared statement, he also issued a sort of apology.

"I had no intention of insulting any of our many suburban friends and supporters, as I truly believe that we are all in this together," Murphy said.

Well, not after ticking off the very folks you need to help you out.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 12/05/03 08:32:14 AM
Categorized as Political.