Peter Murphy, incumbent District 9 Chattanooga City Council candidate, answers questions during an editorial board meeting at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.Peter Murphy, a one-term incumbent for District 9, is the clear choice in a race with challenger Yusuf Hakeem, a former 15-year city council member.
Murphy was instrumental in getting the empty, fenced Montague Park open and refurbished for rugby matches. He regularly brings his chain saw to neighborhood alley cleanups. And in the council chambers, he has guided more action than controversy.
“Don’t listen to what politicians say, look at what they do,” he told the Times Free Press editorial writers recently.
An attorney and native New Yorker who transplanted himself to Chattanooga, Murphy believes the No. 1 job in government is to protect the people.
In doing that he’s made some pretty independent decisions that have not always been popular. But, in his pragmatic view, they were the right things to do.