By Amanda Purcell /The Poughkeepsie Journal
Tom Murphy, the former Pittsburgh mayor credited with turning the former industrial city’s economic fortunes around, visited with Hudson Valley leaders Tuesday to discuss the hard decisions urban centers like the City of Poughkeepsie face in order to grow their economies in the next 20 to 30 years.
“You’re at a moment in time where you are going to drift into the future or you’re going to be very intentional about what you want to do. The world is changing,” Murphy said. “If you look at any major city in the U.S. anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of their manufacturing jobs are now gone. The Hudson Valley is no exception to that. You have watched your economy fundamentally change.”
Murphy, who served as mayor of Pittsburgh from 1994 to 2006, talked about six cities he has studied across the country and their strategies, and the economic trends that steered their development decisions.
Poughkeepsie, Murphy said, is poised to prosper if it can leverage its assets: Its plethora of colleges, waterfront properties and downtowns. Murphy said, for the most part, “cities and towns are on their own,” and it will not be up to the state to make any major investments into individual communities.
Both millennials and baby boomers, Murphy said, are becoming more attracted to walkable town centers.
Murphy said Pittsburgh lost 500,000 people between 1970 and 1990, as steel mills closed and manufacturing moved out of the area. “We lived that and it devastated our community,” Murphy said.
The city has since found its stride, making major changes to its industrial centers and waterfront, he said. That is due in part to Murphy, who helped secure $1 billion in funding to build two stadiums and a convention center. He also initiated a redevelopment plan that preserves Pittsburgh’s historic downtown districts. But, in the process, he put the city temporarily in fiscal stress and took risks to bring in major retailers that ultimately were not successful.
Ironically, as Murphy was making his pitch to grow the Hudson Valley, several leaders, including County Executive Marc Molinaro and City of Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison, were heading down to Pittsburgh to tour the city’s largest youth center. Dutchess leaders are hoping to use Pittsburgh has a model for a future center.
“We’ll be able to have them take a look at the city’s services and needs and develop different criteria for Poughkeepsie based on the type of center they have,” Rolison said Tuesday while on the way to Pittsburgh.
Amanda J. Purcell: ; 845-437-4807; Twitter: @amandajpurcell
