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It's often said that you can't go home again
home isn't yet a ghost town but it is haunted
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the lives of generations almost forgotten echo
on this landscape, in these buildings, their days
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and their bodies traded to build nations. This
is the Monongahela River Valley. Before the US
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was even a nation, this was the territory
of an empire on which the sun never set.
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This is the territory of the Seneca nation, led by Queen Alequippa.
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The place British General Edward Braddock crossed a river and was met with
his death. As he lay dying he gave his sash to his comrade George Washington and asked "Who
would have thought?" He was buried in the road.
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This is where my family set root in America;
one of the thousands coming to Andrew Carnegie's
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leviathan mill, which hasn't slept in 130
years. Think of all the nameless faces of
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those immigrants with little to offer but their
strong bodies and indomitable will. The brown and
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tawny castoffs looking for a better life in a
promised land where the streets were said to
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be paved with gold... working these mills, down
in the bottoms, down in the valley, down the
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house.
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My name is Ron Murajda. I grew up in Braddock, right
here in this spot, at 13th Street and Wood. Growing up in Braddock was kind of interesting because in
those days, back when I first grew up, back in the the 50s, right after the war- I was born in '47 -
uh this mill was really active because it it had
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supplied a lot of the industrial uh military
might for the for the war effort because the
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steel was critical for uh the war effort and
um it was really busy because everybody was
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employed uh it was a really busy time a
very busy place to to grow up uh you just
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look around and see things were constantly in
motion and um there was activity everywhere.
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You know the iron and steel that came out of
this region, really helped the United States
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win World War I, World War II and beyond.
The technology put in place here truly
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does change the industry and that industry goes
on to change the world in very dramatic fashion.
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It's, you know, often you know brought up about
how Pittsburgh is was this arsenal of democracy
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and it's true. There was a time when this blast
furnace complex alone was outproducing Great
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Britain. This region was outproducing all the
Axis powers together. Remember these folks came
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from Europe had nothing; when they had a house
they that was something for them. This was an
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accomplishment you had a house, you had you owned
property and when in Europe, when they came out
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of the out of the Austria Hungarian Empire
where my grandparents came from, um that wasn't
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that wasn't attainable for them, but here it
was. Now they worked in the mills to get that
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they sacrificed their bodies and their time
to do it, but they they accomplished something
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in their life. To be realistic about it whenever
they let the immigration open in the turn
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of the century, the country was developing, the
infrastructure was developing the you know the
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um mills needed labor, and uh you didn't have to be
particularly smart to be a laborer, you just had to
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be able, strong and be able to take a lot of abuse,
to be to be honest about it, take a lot of physical
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abuse to work in a mill and those places were
very labor intensive dangerous places to work.
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There was a great migration from the South
and my family moved from the South to gain
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employment. My great great grandfather,
grandfather and father all gave their
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lives for a better life, for me to be here,
in the steel mills. Most of them left the
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earth early and in an agonizing way, because
of um they were given the hardest jobs to
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do. Post war, this region, this site, um becomes a
symbol of growth for labor, in the labor industry,
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and the labor unions, um where finally that that
pendulum swings and people are making a good
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living and it's something that they they feel
is going to be generational and be able to move
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on and really find that American Dream. However,
time, fate ,technology- all of these things catch
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up- and by the 1970s things start going downhill.
By the 1980s it all collapses. You can't compete
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with 40 some old technology. In the 70s and 80s
the big competitors for the United States were
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Japan and Germany. Why is that? Well, during World
War II, the Allies decimated, you know, Japan and
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Germany's steel industry. They had thriving steel
industries and to win the war it was a necessary
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thing to do. After the war, we helped rebuild, so
they had newer plants than we did. So that you
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have Pittsburgers who could no longer live here
because they couldn't support their families. You
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don't stay where there's no opportunity. You know
back then there were many, many houses that had
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just been clearly kind of evacuated and left with
all the the sort of the family or the person's
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possessions behind inside these these homes, um
everything they'd clearly cared for uh and carried
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with them or their family for for a lifetime was
left in there um and you could just walk in and
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out of these places and it was it was incredible.
There were buildings toppled over in the street
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and they just been left there with a couple of
cones around them, you know, without I guess the
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resources of of the municipality to kind of be
able to even pick the building up and and remove
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it from the streets. That was pretty wild uh and
really striking and um and it sort of captured my
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attention. I grew up in Bradock and that was during
the time when the steel mills were going full
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force and every store on this avenue was occupied.
What happens in low income communities, people lose
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hope, people lose hope. So you're growing up in
a place that is choked out in a lot of ways
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and it creates a um a sense of always having
to to push and crawl and scratch to survive.
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When I was young ,to watch these guys work
and to see them come out of the mills that
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sometimes it's for lunch or something covered
in in grime and soot... made people sick? Of course.
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15, 20 years ago I think everybody kind of
wanted out or felt like, you know, this place
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was incredibly challenged. There wasn't much
that you could sort of take pride in here
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any longer and it was hard because it was a a
history that people sort of felt attached to,
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but they didn't feel like they could connect or
figure out what to do in town as it was. And they
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started tearing it all down; and that's when
our organization began. If you tear it all
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down and you take it all away, you're taking away
our ability to tell our story. But what also grew
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up along the way, was this rediscovery of the
site and a reimagining of the site, something
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that we didn't anticipate, but has worked out
to everybody's advantage, um you know it's the,
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it's the Bob Ross 'happy little mistake'. But you
had people coming in and exploring this place
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and falling in love with it. So it moves from
being a site of work, to an aesthetic; but in
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that process, a group of artists discover this
place, who fell in love with places like this.
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Well the Carrie Deer sculpture is actually the
second piece that my friends and I made at
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the site. The first piece that we made two
years earlier was this giant owl sculpture
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and eventually it led to a tragic moment actually
where um some local authorities opened fire on a
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on a teenager uh not connected to our artist
group. They shot this kid and not fatally, but
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they injured this kid, and it made the news. Some
local kids from Swissville came down because they
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like to explore too, but the neighbors had been
noticing people coming in, so they called the
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cops, the local Rankin cops, and said that there
were satanic rituals happening. Yeah of course
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everything's a satanic ritual if the average
bourgeois doesn't know what it is. It actually
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kind of shook us down a little bit because we were
connected to this tragic event. We kind of ducked
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out of the the limelight of that or the attention
of that, but ultimately came back because the site
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is so interesting and um was in my opinion, at the
time, it was asking for um help. It was asking for
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attention. Where is the owl- that's a good
question... so after that tragedy, the owl was partly
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dismantled. After a year or so went by, we came back
in and hoisted it back in; we restored it back to
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its position, its rightful position and actually
filmed a little a little B movie style commentary on
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what we felt happened at the mill and demonstrated
the conflict between youth and um the authorities
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and it eventually became a statement of labor.
That's just teenage hocus pocus, you now 'copper'
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Freeze freeze!
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The owl obviously disrupted some
type of harmony for people and
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decision makers and they found it as a
threatening shape or identity, so it just
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vanished. Well this building used to be my
my middle school ,seventh and eighth grade,
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and I heard that it was called Unsmoke
now and they were renting out to artists:
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I'm going to tell Jeb please, you know, so I came
down and I interviewed with him and I told him
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how this had such a history with me. I always
had my camera with me and I remember seeing
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this young girl, she, they were very poor and they
lived on our street. Their door knobs were dirty,
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their everything was just it was bad, like they
didn't have screen doors. And I remember looking
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at her and she was standing there and all you
could see was like this little tear drop going
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down and she was standing there holding a purple
balloon and I just snapped it. After seeing that
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little girl iI thought this town, is so, like
everyone is so kind and loving down here. We
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all look out for one another. It's a really great
community; the art scene has really come a long way.
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An old Hungarian artist said "Uh I have this
space right over the hill from you would you
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like to open your studio there?" Everything
just seemed like it was shutting down. There
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was not too much, not too much around when
we first started, a lot of just abandoned
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buildings. They trusted us to to um you
know, to buy the building directly from
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them rather than go through the bank. It was
affordable for us cuz we were just starting.
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The spirit's coming back again; it
just has a draw I think to people,
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Braddock It gets in your blood
and so it's a great place. We've grown to
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really, really
really kind of love Braddock.
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There's a great quote that says "If you don't
transform your pain you will transmit it." I
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learned that this community had given so much to
this country and to the world; you know skyscrapers
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existed because of this community, the steel that
built the Brooklyn Bridge came from here and I'm
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always faced with this like injustice right? Like
how can a person, a place, a thing contribute so
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much and then be discarded? This community
needed to feel loved and that it mattered
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um you had a politician years ago saying things
like "You should just bulldoze that whole shitty
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town down." I was uh born and raised in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil and I was raised by a single mom um and one
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day she was just tired of the violence, she just
kind of had enough and she came home and said we
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were moving. And we were off to an adventure and
we moved to New York City uh settled there kind
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of learning this new world. We were undocumented, we
didn't speak English. The Free Store came from this
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idea that there is so much excess in this country
but there's yet still so much need. Patrons go through the
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uh inside of our shipping containers that we use
to uh display our our clothing. It's probably the
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most fulfilling, as fulfilling as anything I've
ever done. I had two very successful careers.
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I decided I got to find something to do, for the
last thing I do, and we we help people. We give them
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we we we give them dignity, uh just a hug or uh uh
talk to them. The idea was really formed when I was
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8 years old when we had an apartment here in New
York um we had no furniture in the apartment. We
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learned about bulk garbage day, when everyone takes
out their their furniture and things to the curb.
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And we were able to furnish our apartment
entirely with what we found on the curb.
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This was born out of the pain of like 'dumpster
diving' and 'curbside shopping' and you know, the
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desk I did all my schoolwork came from the
curb, as did my bed,as did everything in my
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house. So I wanted to create an experience
for that exchange to happen that was really
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dignified and loving and that's what the free
store is. It's the idea that there's some of us
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that have too much and some of us that have too
little and we should be working together to share.
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She likes the
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toys and reading books. I'm a single mom,
three daughters. I lost my daughter last
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year to cancer. So I have the two girls
now. It's helped me a lot with like clothes
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and stuff when money was really tight.
I didn't really have a lot of money.
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Parents bring their kids down, we fix their
bikes on the spot. Everywhere I go they don't
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have nothing to do- abandoned houses and
drug sales all day. Give them something
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to do; they don't got to pay attention
to that. They still ride their bike, do
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something they like doing. Plus it's helping
out. Man a lot of them don't got their dads
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with them. Some are just single moms or with
their grandparents or something. So we're
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being a positive role model, male figure
and we doing something for the community.
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I've been with Gisele ever
since we opened the Free Store.
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We go down and we do a Bible study
and it is so rewarding and just to
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see, just to see the changes in them. Couple of them
have come down here and brought their mother for
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me to meet, you know, cuz what they needed was a
helping hand. Just somebody to care about them. So
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they made their mistake, they got out there on
the drugs, but they're still people; they still
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need love and love is the answer. Love is the
answer. Your activism can be really different.
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I'll never be the loudest person in the room
um and I've learned that that's okay. I have
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friends and relatives that have moved away:" you
still here?" " yeah! Do you know your neighbors, I
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know mine!" You know I like to refer to Braddock
as a small town with a big heart. Last year we
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won the Jefferson Award did Gisele tell you?
Oh my, it was so nice; so what I did, she asked
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me if I would do the talk and I was honored
to do it, so I just started singing 'oh happy
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day, oh happy day, when the Jefferson Award
came to Braddock PA'. We had a good time, good
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time. This came about because it had been empty for
at least 3 or 4 years. When we first walked in like
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there were no walls and ceilings and you know
we're walking through and like typical Gisele
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she's like, 'isn't this great?' and I was like, 'you
know what, yes! Like it absolutely is'. The way it's
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financially set up is that the Hollander
building pays for itself; so the women pay
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um you know an affordable rent. You have to work
with people from the community who really know it
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and who understand the need. So we used to just
get together at the local community space and
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figure out what could we do for um these over
70 families who have lost, you know, children to
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gun violence. The HOOP is 'Helping Out Our People'.
First we got um a report from the coroner's office
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of everyone we lost and that's how we started our
work. As we reached out to a family, our family grew
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and our family grew and our family grew and
we started a grief support group once a month.
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I lost my mom to suicide; I lost my son to gun
violence. Talk therapy on Tuesday at 2:00 when
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you're in stress every other day of the
week, it doesn't it doesn't work just by
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itself. Having this space which is obviously
filled with love and it's so welcoming here,
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it doesn't matter if you're like the school
teacher from Churchill who lost their son
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or daughter or the or the woman that lives in
these projects right here that lost her son or
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daughter. You're like so welcome and loved when
you come in this door, it's like everyone, even
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if there's hate and racism somewhere else, you
equally heal around here. Like you're equally a
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part of this grief and you're equally a part of
the love that we give out when we are healing.
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Why Braddock is because we had that those
relationships here and that knowledge. We
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really relied on the women to tell us what they
needed and how we should do it and who we needed
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to include. I get to be here every day and it's
just um it's a really special place. My name is
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Bridget Miller and I own East Side Laser Center
and I run the Erase Project. I remove gang related
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tattoos from people that have been incarcerated
or have been involved in gangs. They can be women
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that have been tattooed by their 'owners' quote
unquote um I try to remove stigma and give people
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a second chance. Honestly I wouldn't be able to
do what I'm doing without this building; it's a
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nonprofit and it's called For Good Pittsburgh.
The building is the Hollander. I've been removing
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uh gang related tattoos for about 10 or 11 years
now. I had a phone call from somebody that was
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working in a lockdown facility for teenagers and
they asked me if I would remove some gang related
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tattoos because they were causing conflict
between she and another gang member. It hurts.
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It feels like hot baking grease is being poured
on you, so it's it's not for the faint of heart.
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I was born in Salt Lake City Utah, ended up
Tennessee where I was basically raised. I ended
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up in getting in trouble young. I went to juvenile,
stayed from the age 11 stayed till I was I
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actually turned 18 in jail and I escaped from jail
three times and caught my adult sentence. And I did
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22 years in the state of Tennessee, seven years in
the Feds. Then finally got out, after all them years.
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I met some woman and I came to Detroit, made myself
homeless to get away from her. She was on drugs.
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So I came here, actually I'm a Pittsburgh Steeler
fan, so I came to Pittsburgh because of that.
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When I saw Dylan's face the first thing I thought
of is 'he's a perfect candidate, he's got a canvas
00:24:17
that needs to be removed'. I don't look at them
as being somebody evil; they're just somebody
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that has some marks on their faces or hands or
neck that need to be removed so that they can
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interact without being condemned. I did my face
in prison about a year before I got out. My mom
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died 32 days before I got out of prison and
they wouldn't let me go to the funeral and I
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basically did it because of that. Bridget who's
been helping me take all these tattoos off my
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face 'cause I don't want them
no more. I'm trying to change.
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Dylan is in the Pittsburgh Prison. He was arrested
for having a handgun um he was in a tussle
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with somebody and um the gun went off and it
grazed the guy's eyebrow um there had been
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alcohol involved in it. Since Dylan is a felon,
he's in jail. The first thing he said to me when
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I went to visit him last Tuesday was "I'd like
to still keep working on this." Um I was shocked
00:25:42
because I hadn't seen him in a couple weeks, how
light the tattoos have gotten. I think it's people
00:25:50
that that end up with these facial tattoos that
a lot of them are gang related um they were a
00:25:57
different person back then. Dylan started off
at 11 so he was in a lockdown for youths and
00:26:05
then spent 35 years in jail. I'm running out of
funds. Even if I don't have any funds somehow I
00:26:12
will just continue. I feel like this is what
I was put on this earth for. I mean, he looks
00:26:19
like a completely different person. I get to see
the change,. I get to see their personality change.
00:26:30
That's my son Jeremy. He made me the strongest woman
00:26:33
alive. We have five sets of low income housing,
so we have to address that. We have to be aware
00:26:41
of that. So the school in Rankin became just a
housing unit almost for young kids of color from
00:26:46
kindergarten till 12th grade you know these
were all the kids from the low-income housing
00:26:51
uh plans that didn't have the love at home and
the school district didn't know how to give them
00:26:54
the love. There they all put them in this building
and it just our violence grew. I got shot three
00:27:00
times: one in the head, one in the arm and one to
my butt. Out of nowhere it just happened so fast.
00:27:07
I was hanging with a friend. We were sitting on
his porch. I was talking to him and then I was
00:27:12
talking to his niece just remember covering
the girl. She didn't take no bullets, so
00:27:16
I'm glad about that. Well my baby son never even
got to graduate high school; you know he was shot
00:27:22
and killed by a 13-year-old boy who came to our
school district in the gifted program and left
00:27:27
here as a murderer. Like here's this little boy
who seen his mom get killed his dad gave up all
00:27:33
rights to him November 20th. He shot and killed
my son November, he moved into a foster home in
00:27:38
my in my community on November 20th; he shot and
killed my son on November 27th and he's just out
00:27:43
here. He's just out here; he doesn't have a mom
he doesn't have a dad. That's not fair to him
00:27:47
it's not fair to my family and it's not fair
to this community. Even before the situation
00:27:51
happened to me there was a lot of younger kids
in the Woodland Hills School District that were
00:27:54
getting shot and all that stuff, so for me I just
want to be able to get these kids from stop from
00:28:01
stop them from getting into gun violence and stuff
as much kids as I can cuz you know kids, when they
00:28:06
don't really have nothing to do they're going to
find something to get into. So we're just trying
00:28:10
to give them something positive and something
that's going to keep them out of the streets.
00:28:16
You have to know the areas of operation in your
community, which aren't very hard right because
00:28:21
like Kirkpatrick Street up in North Braddock, that
for years was known as a violent area you know. And
00:28:27
even the corner store and we as a community, you
know, a large number of us got together and we
00:28:34
occupied the space. We closed down the cell phone
store that really wasn't you know and we occupy
00:28:39
the space a couple times a year now still and
and now it's a safe space. What we want to leave
00:28:45
people with is we care about this community.
We care about the kids; we care that they have
00:28:52
as many resources as possible. Just to see kids
actually graduate high school and not have to
00:28:58
worry about you know going to school with the fear
of getting shot or something bad happening to them.
00:29:09
You know I joke that
there's no perks for our volunteers. I mean we
00:29:16
have no heat real, no real heat, no bathrooms.
I mean we're really fed by love here and you
00:29:22
know we dance a little when we get too cold um,
but they're here. I mean it could be snowing and
00:29:28
our team will be here. I'm part of this of this
population too you know, like I'm not, I know I'm
00:29:36
second lady now and in this role, but I'm not far
removed from being a kid who was at a free store
00:29:42
growing up. So I began volunteering at the Free
Store uh in 2012 in the month of December uh so
00:29:50
I was only 12 years old. Um at first I began
volunteering with my mother uh we're Braddock
00:29:55
residents and at the moment it was a way for me
to keep busy, get out of the house and uh just
00:30:00
along the way it became sort of a pattern in
my day just to come down to the Free Store and
00:30:06
uh be here with my my family. When you're forced
to prove that there's a need right, like you're
00:30:11
hungry, you don't to prove it to me. If you need
diapers you need them now, I'm not going to make you fill
00:30:19
out a form and then review if you're worthy to
receive these diapers. My mother, she actually
00:30:25
had me at a young age, at the age of 17 years
old. At that time I wish there were resources
00:30:30
such as the Free Store to help her. For someone
to allow you into this like really lonely or
00:30:37
scary or vulnerable place in their lives is such
a gift. I just don't want anyone else to have to
00:30:42
go through that uh what my mother went through and
thankfully she was able to make it out of that and
00:30:47
um unfortunately a lot of people aren't that
lucky to make it out of those circumstances.
00:30:52
So any way along the lines that I can help
bridge that gap, I'll come down here in any
00:30:57
weather. I do believe that we should normalize
this sense of it's okay to reuse clothes no
00:31:05
matter your income, no matter your occupation.
We have so much waste and uh the only way that
00:31:12
we can work to sort of eradicate that
waste just normalizing things such as
00:31:16
reusing, reducing, recycling and I believe every
community every school should have a free store.
00:31:27
So what we're doing here today is pictures with
Santa. When you have a lot of pride it's hard
00:31:33
sometimes to accept something, you know, for free.
But here we make it fun. I can remember standing
00:31:38
in line for 'Toys for Tots' or going to for Project
Bundle Up for a coat and not always feeling loved.
00:31:44
We open up to the community; come down today
and get two toys and a picture with Santa.
00:31:48
We're printing the pictures out. In a way this
is the honor of my mom. I originally talked to
00:31:53
her about it she said "Go for it, do it. It's it's
a good idea; these kids need it." Team Braddock, we
00:32:00
promote sports and we promote um just being you
know good citizens, being really active through
00:32:07
sports. We're promoting nonviolence through it.
Our main goal and vision is to get a lot of the
00:32:13
kids from the community together, improve
their athletic skills, improve their academic
00:32:18
skills, show them that there are other ways to
get to where you want to be. You don't always
00:32:25
have to take the route that may look easier;
you benefit better from the harder work. We
00:32:32
want to bring as many kids as possible that
we can change their lives. The community gets
00:32:38
so filled with love, but we selfishly get filled
with love too. You never truly heal, but you can
00:32:44
really cope, you know, with the right coping
skills, you can really cope through this yeah.
00:32:56
So I got my first job with the Braddock
Youth Project uh in 2008 and from the
00:33:02
beginning gardening was one uh quarter
of the programming that we did at the
00:33:06
Braddock Youth Project. And that was when
I first, you know, found my interest in
00:33:11
gardening and and realized that, you
know. I eventually wanted to have a
00:33:14
farm. We have community gardens so they're for
the community. People can just come to the gardens,
00:33:23
take what they need and then um for the most part,
what we grow, we cook and we eat. So anytime someone
00:33:30
visits the farm or sees the farm, you know, it's
it's it's a very heavy contrast of of having a
00:33:36
steel mill in the background and diesel traffic
going by and also this urban farm. As the years
00:33:41
have gone on, I've realized that it's it's more
and more a possibility to to have an urban farm
00:33:47
or a collection of urban plots especially here in
Braddock since 90% of the land is vacant lots. First
00:33:53
time I heard about the Bradock Youth Project was
from my mom . I was uh I was desperate for
00:33:59
a job cuz I I needed something to take care of me,
you know. The job is money in your pocket and plus
00:34:06
you get to learn a whole new world of gardening
if you ever choose to make your own garden at
00:34:11
your own home, you can learn how to do that through
the gardening program Basically the project just
00:34:16
gets kids out of the streets and onto them in a
positive way. You have something that you can do
00:34:23
and you're putting your energy towards instead of
running around with friends, getting into trouble,
00:34:28
doing things you're not supposed to be doing. I
applied to it so I could finally have a job. So
00:34:36
it's like cooking skills, um survival skills. They
say that one in four children that grow up in
00:34:43
Braddock will develop childhood asthma uh and that
that gives you an idea of what the air quality
00:34:48
is in Braddock. You know you have the steel mill
industry here and particularly the diesel traffic
00:34:54
that contributes to the bad air quality.
Braddock's air quality never gets below the EPA's
00:35:00
acceptable standard for a 24-hour period, so we do
extensive soil testing. Every year, Grow Pittsburgh,
00:35:06
and in in addition we've we've gotten funding.
We've gotten grants to to do more extensive
00:35:13
testing of the actual tissues of the plant. Anyone
who works at the farm long hours, you know, has to
00:35:18
be aware of the air quality on and on certain days,
uh you know, Grow Pittsburgh recommends that, you
00:35:25
know, we we take a break from the farm, because the
air quality is that bad at times. Braddock is a food
00:35:32
desert; um and it has been that way for decades.
It's an intentional, you know, it's an intentional
00:35:38
strategy that's taken place over the course of
decades and it's, you know, a part of environmental
00:35:43
racism and and you know often times black
and poor communities not being given, you know,
00:35:48
investment. What I've learned in my lifetime
is that uh sometimes, you kno you could be
00:35:58
a little kid sleeping at night and you're living
in Braddock- not saying that Braddock is a bad place- but
00:36:04
out of nowhere, out of nowhere, you'll just hear
gunshots. And I remember one time I was with my
00:36:12
uh nephew and he was sleeping. All I heard was
this engine zooming up the street, going fast and
00:36:20
there was gunshots and I hurried up and grabbed
my nephew. And I had to roll off the bed because
00:36:24
I want nothing to happen to him cuz he's little
and I want him to be able to live his to his full
00:36:28
capability. If people are getting tired of hearing
that constantly over and over again, then that
00:36:34
would make them want to participate in something
to help prevent all this violence. Before we was
00:36:41
inside and there was gunshots in the alleyway by
Braddock Youth Project. I don't come out much. I'm just
00:36:48
getting tired of seeing some kids scared to go
outside and if kids do that, they go outside, then
00:36:55
what do you think their mom is going to think 'oh
this has been happening a lot, a lot of shootings
00:36:59
with these kids'. Every time they go out, they pray
for their kid, so that nothing bad happens. Over
00:37:06
the years I realized that I can help inspire
people. It's been great to work with the Braddock
00:37:10
Youth Project this year um with our youth market
programming that Grow Pittsburgh is doing. You
00:37:15
know it it's great to see a group of hardworking,
you know, young gardeners that that want to want to
00:37:21
have a career in in farming, in agriculture
and see it more and more as a possibility. When things will go on at school, I'll come
to work and it'll just take my mind off of
00:37:33
everything cuz the people I'm surrounded by
are fun, they're very educated, you can learn
00:37:39
from them. It's just, it'll take you to a different
place, where it's a good place to be at. From this
00:37:47
job I've learned a lot of patience, because some
things in the garden test you or just and it's
00:37:54
growing your own food and basically making your
own profit. So I will definitely carry that on
00:38:00
with me. It made me like a bigger person and made
me a better person. I've learned that progress
00:38:07
takes a while. Just to see like what you've
worked on come to a masterpiece, it's amazing.
00:38:18
We didn't realize we were poor; we were just having
fun as kids. Most people are that are my peers, they
00:38:25
are they grew up here, they go to college or they
go to high school and they find a way to leave
00:38:29
and they never come back. My name is Chardae Jones.
I am the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania. I had a
00:38:38
round table discussion with teenagers and they said
"You're rich now, you're the mayor." I said "No
00:38:44
I make $120 a month from just being the mayor." I
was like "I just love my community so much that
00:38:50
I want to leave it better than I found it."
We're at a point where we can create our own
00:38:57
identity; we have a blank slate and I, I'm I'm part
of that and I want the community to have input on
00:39:03
what the community turns out to be. We were going
to create a committee to be the gatekeeper to 51
00:39:11
properties that are along Braddock Avenue. As soon
as we created the initiative we were like "Hey
00:39:16
there's some entrepreneurs in the community and it
would be cool if we could give them to the tools
00:39:21
so they could also have a level playing field
There are so many people having business out of
00:39:25
their houses, but they didn't have the paperwork
to say they were a business. So we hosted bi-week,
00:39:30
bimonthly, meetings uh with the community and we
called it the roundtable. And we would show them how
00:39:37
to write business plans. We would show, have people
come in and talk about how to get capital, even if
00:39:42
your credit isn't so great. And we would even have
marketing sessions. What we thought was cool is all
00:39:48
of this was free and all of this was for residents.
So when the time comes around for the committee
00:39:53
to select, they could say "Hey we know they're
competent because we help them throughout the way."
00:40:02
This is the first uh Mexican restaurant in Braddock.
And instead of leaving and never coming back,
00:40:11
there was an opportunity to build something
completely new that isn't there. And I think
00:40:16
more people should look at it from an optimistic
uh point of view. I think art would be a great way
00:40:23
to renovate the town, especially with artists
that are already here, since we have amazing
00:40:27
artists. From my art, into my clothes, it's like a
mood thing for me. So like I can only legit create
00:40:44
like paintings when I'm in moods. Like if I'm
feeling some type of way about my personal life,
00:40:51
I'll paint about that. Like my relationships, like
now that I'm older, l politics and stuff like
00:40:59
really irritate me. I've never had that worry
like ever. So like things like that I paint a
00:41:05
lot of very emotional paintings. And then as far
as like my clothes, it's really how I'm feeling.
00:41:12
So if you are a resident of the 15104 area you
get to utilize the studio space for free. If you
00:41:18
live on the outskirts, it's just a $5 studio
fee. It's the cheapest screen print shop in
00:41:24
the whole Pittsburgh region, so we've been told. Well
my family is from Braddock on my dad's side. Just
00:41:35
feeling like being a part of this again and, you
know, my dad's no longer, here my grandfather's no
00:41:41
longer here. And it just kind of feels good to
be like in that space that has a connection to
00:41:46
them. It's limitless what we can do and what we can
accomplish and I see so much of that around this
00:41:54
area. God just wakes me up
with my heart so full of love .
00:42:02
I do know for 100% fact is like no one's going
to fly in here and save us. We have to do that
00:42:08
ourselves. If given the opportunity,
we're a resilient people; if given
00:42:18
the opportunity, I believe that
we can create our own structure.
00:42:25
I'm talking about for the younger ones to come up
in a um a structure, where they can learn how to
00:42:33
thrive. There's a very strong spirit here.
It's something that if you're born and
00:42:45
raised here, you never lose it. It is part of
you, no matter how hard you try, it's always
00:42:50
part of you. And it finds you and it, and I
think it's because it took great courage ,
00:42:56
great strength and great commitment. You
had to be willing to sacrifice a part of
00:43:03
yourself for the greater success.
And it still stands with all of
00:43:07
us. Who would have thought? There's a Russian
maxim that politicians have become quite fond
00:43:23
of. To test what someone's made of, prod until
you hit steel'. Look around, what else is there?
