As for the rest of the blog - you nail it.

A City Councilman's comments to me in an email:

I believe that Act 47 Recovery Plan will keep us from bankruptcy and will help to put us on a course where we can "survive" for the next few years. Forcing the Mayor to resign might make some feel better, but the problems will still be here. As for the rest of the blog - you nail it. Lots of talk about what we should do, but not 5 people to take action and do something.

This came in as a result of last week's rant called, "Resign Already" posted on the web, with blog pointer.

Note, my goal has not been so much to survive. I don't want band-aid solutions. My aim is for Pittsburgh to thrive. We need to soar in our actions, in our community life and in our decisions about public policy. To soar, it takes an extention of wings to both the right and left as well as tail feathers.

Those who have an aim to just survive, nobel as it is, are going to fail us all. We don't need any more turnips or survival food. If we only look at ways to survive, we'll never look at ways to prosper. Sadly, the survival seekers are not interested in looking into ways to thrive. They seem to wear blinders to the big picture.

If you think that there are but only five here to take action, let me first ask you to entertain these thoughts before I dispute the notion.

More people left the city of Pittsburgh since Tom Murphy was mayor than voted for him to continue his tenure in the last election. There are tens of thousands of people who are packing their bags, selling their homes, relocating elsewhere. They are uprooting from this city in large numbers and at fast rates. That is hard work. Those people are voting with their feet. That is called, "taking action."

So, we have plenty of folks around here that are taking action on these serious problems. However, that isn't the type of action that you'd like to see, nor I, but at least I've been aware of it and giving that movement the credit it deserves. We can't pat ourselves on the back because those folks are not here.

We need to get the flood-gates to open in the other directions. We have a polorized leadership that sends people to scramble the other way. As soon as the mayor's reach is seriously discounted, his forces are neutralized, his sway is made meaningless and these folks don't rush out of dodge.

I think that the call for the Mayor's resignation is a seed of hope.

I think that the threat of a 34-percent rise in property tax is a strong poke in the eye that tells the citizens to bail from the city as fast as possible. Tom Murphy's budget and personna is inflicting pain and worry to all of Pittsburgh's citizens.

Those that don't feel Tom Murphy is part of the problem are sure to join him in the parade of dispair.

The ones who are going to feel better upon hearing serious talk of the Mayor's resignation include the one's who have left already and all those who are still hunkered down. Not everyone, but a vast majority of people are going to be uplifted by the overthrowing of the Murphy Administration. The Rooney family might cry the blues, but at least they'll be in a new musical venue soon.

Furthermore, i understand that one citizen, one pack of citizens with "Fire Mayor Murphy and City Council" t-shirts, and even one newspaper nor one city council member can force the mayor to resign. We can't force his resignation. No way. But, we can make the public request. "He should resign." The times and these situations call for bold talk and bold leadership.

We watch. I've heard the grumbling and mumbling. I'm not okay to watch as others just kick the dirt and say, "Sucks, we just shrunk the city by half and took its public funds to nothing." Pittsburgh deserves better. Pittsburgh's mayor has lead the city poorly. Pittsburgh deserves a better mayor, ASAP. Its time to clean house.