What goals or priorities should the next mayor focus on? E-mail your responses to newsroom@thepittsburghchannel.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your e-mail. Your responses could be used during a Channel 4 Action News newscast or on ThePittsburghChannel.com.

See what your neighbors are saying:

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1. Privatizing city services.
2. Lowering taxes.
3. Cutting government jobs to save on budget.
4. Attempt to decrease cost of parking to make it more friendly to shop downtown.

- Judy, Upper St. Clair

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The next mayor should work on building relationships throughout the local communities and collaborate with business leaders to create new revenue streams. I believe there was a lack of focus on keeping Pittsburgh's youth in the area, giving them no choice but to relocate. This then allowed for a tax base predominantly made up of seniors, adding to the debt problem you now have. We need to invest in the future and maintain a constant for the area's seniors.

- Joe, Mount Lebanon

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I'd say that the most important thing the new mayor should focus on is reducing real estate taxes. In recent years we have been hit very hard with the new assessments. The city's residents are getting older and more are on fixed incomes and don't want to lose or have to move from their lifelong homes because they can't afford to pay the taxes.

- Paul, Pittsburgh

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Our city has come a long way and it is time for a change and to rebuild communities. Murphy is not a bad person. He just fails to see the bigger picture. What is the point of a beautiful convention center and stadiums when you can't maintain community centers for the young and old? The future mayor not only needs to focus on revenue, but also the citizens. Maybe we'll see the city that we grew to love be revived soon.

- Mary, Ambridge

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He/She should start peeling away the unnecessary layers of administrative government personnel that are nothing but an anchorage of shadows for the mayor's office, then focus on combining county and city purchasing resources with privatization of some public services (i.e. trash collection services). This would be a quantum leap in cost savings.

- Tom, Jefferson Hills

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The most breathtaking view of Pittsburgh is exiting out of the Fort Pitt Tunnel and within seconds you see and feel the "Pride of Pittsburgh" right before your eyes. The city retains its image of a proud community of dedicated and hard-working people. If everyone would just work together without letting egos, attitudes, political associations or position of power get in the way, then we can finally start to solve the issues facing the city today and in the future. I hope the next mayor (he or she) will deserve to be called "the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh."

- Patricia, North Pittsburgh

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Hi, I was a North Hills resident and just recently moved out of Pittsburgh for several reasons. I think the city needs to do more to keep the young people as well as do things to boost tourism such as riverboat gambling and building the Downtown area up. I also would suggest bringing in some of the cheaper airlines such as SOUTHWEST. We often flew out of Cleveland since it was much cheaper. The parking tax is also out of control. I have moved to San Diego and while most things here are fairly expensive you can park almost anywhere on the weekends for free. It is a beautiful city and the mayor needs to boost the tourism.