Ranking Pittsburgh's Best Mayors

[PghUSA]

I thought with the election and the "changing of the guard" with the Murphy people leaving Grant Street after over a decade of ruling the roost, not to mention the recent death of another Mayor that forever changed the course of Pittsburgh (Pete Flaherty). It would be a good time to see what locals think of the mayors of the last 2 generations, whose policies are very much still with us today in 2005.

Here's some short summaries on each Mayor:

http://www.spdconline.org/history/Facts/PghMayors.html

My own ranking goes like this:

#1 D David Lawrence 1946-1959 (basically ruled Grant Street till 1966)

(recently voted one of the TEN BEST 20th Century Mayors in the U.S.!)

#2 I Richard Caliguri 1977-1988

(could possibly be #1 overally if he hadn't gotten Cancer)

#3 D Tom Murphy 1994-2006 TIE

#3 D Pete Flaherty 1970-1977 TIE

#5 D Joseph Barr 1959-1970

(in my view lived off the fumes of the Lawrence years and basically was his "man on Grant Street" while Lawrence ran the state from Harrisburg)

#6 D Sophie Masloff 1988-1994 (besides the great entertainment not much here)

#7 D Con Scully 1936-1946 This was basically Lawrence I (D. Lawrence was his chief political strategist).

#8 R John Herron 1933-1934 (last Republican could have done some more to make things competitive)

#9 D James Gallagher 1959 (way too short)

#10 D Bill McNair 1934-1936 (Impeached and Arrested)