Smart infrastructure policy is burgeoning and on display in Braddock.
Picture this: the abandoned Ohringer building, once a furniture store, soon will be home to 37 artists from the region. The struggling neighborhood of Braddock will not only gain dozens of new and talented residents but will stir together a mini-community within a community composed of vitality and aesthetic appeal.
It’s a step forward toward a longstanding goal for this recovering community in its effort to reinvent itself and overcome the stigma of a rusting industrial town.
Since the peak of the steel industry, when Braddock numbered around 20,000 residents, it has lost vast segments of its population. Over the past 30 years, it has been financially distressed and continues to be plagued by a high concentration of child poverty.
The road to full recovery for Braddock remains a long one, as it was for many former steel producing cities in Pennsylvania. But Braddock is showing the rest how to begin and move along the journey.
Almost every year, a promising project or new business started in Braddock. Just a few examples: In 2014, Microbrewery Brew Gentlemen opened and now is about to expand. In summer 2017, restaurateur Kevin Sousa came with his upscale restaurant Superior Motors. The popcorn company from Ken Zeff, founder of the Pittsburgh-based Crazy Mocha coffeehouse chain, brought new life to the Cuda building on Braddock Avenue. And just last year, a former drugstore turned into a co-working space for women en-trepreneurs.
And now comes the latest endeavor. It was envisioned in 2005 when then-mayor John Fetterman (now lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania) promised to bring artists and creative businesses to Braddock. And it seems that his vision was prescient and his promise was good.
It was Mr. Fetterman who first had the idea to bring artists to the Ohringer building. Initially, in 2007, the project failed for lack of financial backing. But if at first you don’t succeed, find a committed businessman like Gregg Kander, who seems to have mustered the money for a second try.
As Braddock-redux continues to evolve, we applaud. And we caution that the borough not become too big for its britches. Other communities that have been revitalized have then had to cope with the bane of gentrification. Those on the ground floor of revitalization are victims of their good work.
Thinking ahead now to the day when Braddock may be deemed one of our most livable communities, an infrastructure policy that protects those on the ground floor of rebuilding should be contemplated by forward-thinking stakeholders.
First Published: August 12, 2019, 10:30 a.m.
