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Proclamation honoring in memoriam the Honorable Sophie Masloff, the first woman Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh.
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WHEREAS, the beloved grandmother of Pittsburgh, Mrs. Sophie Friedman Masloff, was born on December 23, 1917 and grew up on Roberts Street in the lower Hill District, the daughter of poor Romanian-Jewish immigrants, Louis and Jennie Friedman; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Masloff graduated from Fifth Avenue High School in 1934 and she began working for Allegheny County in 1936. After holding various positions in the county, in 1951, she took a position as a clerk in the jury assignment room for the Court of Common Pleas, until she was elected to serve as a member of Pittsburgh City Council in 1976; and
WHEREAS, in January 1988, Mrs. Masloff became the city's first female council president, and when Pittsburgh mayor Richard Caliguiri died in office on May 6, 1988, the city charter dictated that the city council president was next in line to assume the office of mayor. Mrs. Masloff was sworn into office as the Mayor of Pittsburgh and became the first woman and the first Jewish person to hold the office; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Masloff served out the remainder of Mr. Caliguiri's term and was reelected in November 1989. Her administration was forced to deal with urban decay, a shrinking industrial sector and crumbling infrastructure. She made fiscal responsibility the centerpiece of her term in office and she privatized numerous costly city assets including the Pittsburgh Zoo, the National Aviary, Phipps Conservatory, and the Schenley Park Golf Course; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Masloff was the first public figure to suggest that the city's baseball and football teams each have their own stadiums. She was instrumental in securing passage of legislation creating the Allegheny Regional Asset District and increasing the local sales tax to fund parks, libraries, stadiums, and cultural attractions. Her vision was eventually implemented years after she left office when PNC Park and Heinz Field were built; and
WHEREAS, among Mayor Masloff's many accomplishments, during her administration she advanced three projects including, Crawford Square, a public-private housing development that revitalized the lower Hill District, where she grew up; and redevelopment of two polluted industrial sites: Washington's Landing, formerly Herrs Island, in the Allegheny River, and the Pittsburgh Technology Center on a former steel mill site off of Second Avenue, near Downtown; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Masloff declined to run for a second full term in the 1993 election and retired to her home in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood in 1994. After stepping down as mayor, she served as a Presidential Elector for Pennsylvania in 1996 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Pennsylvania in 2000 and 2004; and
WHEREAS, in 2007, a street near PNC Park was named Sophie Masloff Way in honor of her 90th birthday celebration, and in 2011, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett was on hand at the Pittsburgh Zoo as a seal was named for Masloff; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Masloff personified Pittsburgh, she was kind and approachable, but also tough; self-made, the daughter of immigrants, and civic-minded; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Masloff's husband, Jack, a World War II Navy veteran, retired as a security guard in 1979 and passed away after a long illness in 1991. Mrs. Masloff is survived by her daughter, Linda Sue Busia, granddaughter Jennifer Busia, a grandson Michael Busia, a great-granddaughter, Scarlett Busia, and a niece, Elayne Harris;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Allegheny County Council does hereby honor in memoriam the Honorable Sophie Masloff for her depth of spirit, leadership and a lifetime of service to the City that she loved, her family and community. As the first woman Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh, she was an inspiration to all in her generation, and for years to come. Our deepest sympathies go out to her family and friends.