Luke Ravenstahl was elected and took office in January 2004 before being appointed City Council President in December 2005.
38 Facts About Luke Ravenstahl
2.
Luke Ravenstahl later won a special election in 2007, and a regular election in 2009.
3.
Luke Ravenstahl did not seek reelection in the 2013 election and Democrat Bill Peduto was elected to succeed him as mayor.
4.
Luke Ravenstahl's mother is currently a teacher's aide with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
5.
Luke Ravenstahl graduated from North Catholic High School in 1998, where he was class president and played baseball and football.
6.
Luke Ravenstahl currently holds the school record for most consecutive extra points.
7.
Luke Ravenstahl is a Roman Catholic and attends mass weekly at Holy Wisdom Parish on the Northside.
8.
Luke and Erin's only child, Cooper Luke Ravenstahl, was born on October 31,2008.
9.
On November 23,2009, Luke Ravenstahl announced that he and his wife, Erin, had split and that he had moved out of the home that they had shared.
10.
On March 11,2011, Erin Luke Ravenstahl filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
11.
In 2012, Luke Ravenstahl made a cameo appearance in the film The Dark Knight Rises as a member of the fictional football team the Rapid City Monuments.
12.
Luke Ravenstahl was sworn in as the youngest member of City Council in Pittsburgh's history in January 2004.
13.
On December 6,2005, Luke Ravenstahl became the youngest President of the Pittsburgh City Council, when Gene Ricciardi stepped down from that post in a move seen as paving the way for ally Jim Motznik.
14.
However, Motznik was unable to secure the votes needed to win the presidency, and Luke Ravenstahl emerged as a compromise candidate.
15.
Luke Ravenstahl was re-elected unanimously at the re-organization meeting in January 2006, when the new members of the city council took office.
16.
Per provisions in the city's charter, Luke Ravenstahl ascended from the office of City Council President to Mayor on September 1,2006, following the death of Mayor Bob O'Connor.
17.
Per provisions in the city's charter, Luke Ravenstahl ascended from the office of City Council President to Mayor on September 1,2006, following the death of Mayor Bob O'Connor.
18.
Luke Ravenstahl stated his desire to fulfill the remainder of O'Connor's term.
19.
Luke Ravenstahl instructed the city's legal department to quickly obtain a decision as to when the election should be held.
20.
Media coverage of Luke Ravenstahl has included a feature story in The New York Times, and an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman on September 14,2006.
21.
Luke Ravenstahl was concerned about how appropriate the coverage would appear in the wake of Bob O'Connor's death, but O'Connor's widow encouraged him to participate in the media coverage and continue O'Connor's work as a "cheerleader" for Pittsburgh.
22.
Luke Ravenstahl continued O'Connor's "311" city help line proposal, as well as the "Redd-Up" crews.
23.
Luke Ravenstahl was unopposed on the ballot in the Democratic primary, held on May 17,2007, to finish the remainder of Bob O'Connor's unfinished term.
24.
Luke Ravenstahl was endorsed by Pittsburgh's two major newspapers, including the conservative-leaning Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the then liberal-leaning Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
25.
Luke Ravenstahl was endorsed by the city's police union and was profiled on Fox News.
26.
On May 19,2009, Luke Ravenstahl beat City Councilman Patrick Dowd and attorney Carmen Robinson to earn the Democratic nomination in the 2009 election.
27.
On February 19,2013, Luke Ravenstahl announced his re-election bid for Pittsburgh Mayor.
28.
Luke Ravenstahl's announcement coincided with recent controversy regarding police credit union accounts.
29.
Luke Ravenstahl played an important role in helping other local officials, including Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell negotiate with the Mario Lemieux-led Pittsburgh Penguins ownership group to keep the team in Pittsburgh.
30.
Every year, Luke Ravenstahl hosted a giveaway of free trees supported by the Shade Tree Commission, Tree Pittsburgh, and Eisler Nurseries.
31.
Luke Ravenstahl created the tree give away in support of TreeVitalize's goal of planting 20,000 trees by the year 2012.
32.
Luke Ravenstahl took on financial problems by sharing City's services and resources through purchasing in bulk with the County and other entities and merging the Housing Authority and the Police Department.
33.
On September 10,2009, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl pledged that the City of Pittsburgh would help the country achieve the goals of the Edward M Kennedy Serve America Act by joining Mayor Bloomberg and 15 other mayors from across our nation to launch the Cities of Service coalition.
34.
Luke Ravenstahl created controversy for his participation in the $9,000-a-head Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational golf outing in June 2007.
35.
Luke Ravenstahl's participation was sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
36.
Luke Ravenstahl blamed the inability to get the signs printed on City Council.
37.
On February 21,2013, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl admitted that members of his police protection unit drew from the non-authorized credit union accounts under investigation by the FBI and IRS, though neither he nor the officers were aware those credit cards were tied to the accounts or were unauthorized by the city controller's office.
38.
In 2005, Luke Ravenstahl joined Peoples Natural Gas, and was named the company's vice president of sales and marketing in 2017.