Last week the Northside Leadership Conference called together a dream team of bike advocates and riverfront trail experts (including former Mayor Tom Murphy and our very own Scott Bricker) to present at a riverfront trail summit. The event, which focused on the history and future of the trails as a key part of the Northside’s bike network, was attended by over 50 people. If you missed it, check out Ruth Ann Dailey’s coverage of the exciting event.

Ruth Ann Dailey | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Confession is good for the soul, and Tom Murphy had a confession to make Thursday night. He also shared one from another famous Pittsburgher — Dan Rooney.

The former mayor was addressing the Riverfront Bicycle Trail Summit at the Carnegie Science Center, hosted by the Northside Leadership Conference’s Bike-Ped Committee.

While I am safely in the “ped” camp, my cycling skills are shaky enough that, well, dedicated bike trails and lanes are advisable to protect the public from me.

Now that those bike connections are growing — PennDOT having just extended the Riverfront Trail into my neighborhood via the north side of Route 28 — I thought I’d attend the summit to show Deutschtown’s support.

Once upon a time those trails didn’t exist. Mayor Murphy reminisced about what he found when he moved to the North Side in 1974.

Most of the riverfront was privately owned and kind of junky, making a morning jog more like an obstacle course. Herr’s Island in particular defied even the wildest dreamer, with slaughtering and rendering plants, “rats as big as cats and a smell that would never go away.”

Two decades later, now Pittsburgh’s mayor, he began jogging with newly elected Gov. Tom Ridge on his trips to town. “We’d run up to Herr’s Island, and I’d say ‘This is what we want to do here, and I need money.’…”

Read the full article on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website.

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