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Murphy's flaw The mayor is off the mark on the Mon Fayette Expressway Thursday, March 19, 1998
Tom Murphy is no stranger to political risks. He backed a half-cent sales tax to support major capital construction. He has used tax flexibility to promote Downtown development. He has trimmed the city payroll to keep operations cost-effective.
He is thinking as a regional leader -- about what is best not just for his city, but also for Allegheny and neighboring counties. But we can't figure out his hostility toward the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
The $1.7 billion project would provide interstate access to struggling Mon Valley communities, some of which Mayor Murphy presides over. It would alleviate one of the city's most notorious traffic tieups, the twice-daily bottleneck at the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. And, it would provide greater freedom of movement for people and companies based in the city and those outside trying to serve Pittsburgh.
Mayor Murphy, however, remains obstinate in his objections to the highway's route into the city. While the turnpike commission, which is building the project, has shown flexibility and initiative in dealing with the city's concerns, the mayor has been throwing up rhetorical roadblocks.
Lately, he has claimed the Mon-Fayette will harm the Nine Mile Run residential project and a new industrial plant at the closed LTV coke mill in Hazelwood. Yet it's hard to see how a good highway link wouldn't foster both, if properly integrated.
State officials want to make that happen, for the benefit of the city and the region. But we're beginning to wonder about the mayor.
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