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So today we’re thinking about Braddock. And before you begin to type your “This isn’t about Mt. Washington!” comment, please consider Braddock’s plight. Home to Pittsburgh’s last steel mill and the first Carnegie Library, this neighborhood lost over 17,000 people in less than 50 years, which leaves them about 2,900 residents (that would be an 85% decrease in population).

You may think that Braddock’s situation is like any other city neighborhood–vacant properties and boarded up businesses–but there are distinctions. First is the much maligned Mon-Fayette Expressway that’s been in the works for decades. Developed to revitalize the Mon Valley, critics contend that better public transit and improvement to existing roadways would be preferable to this go-nowhere, do-nothing-for-anyone toll road. A portion of the roadway is supposed to go directly through the middle of Braddock…homes and businesses be damned.

Secondly, Braddock does not really have a natural draw for visitors. We’ve got the view. The East Side has the universities. Braddock is only about 10 minutes from the Waterfront, but Homestead leaders are still scratching their heads over how to get people from Target and Filene’s Basement up to Eighth Avenue let alone entice them to drive even further away. Efforts have been made by Braddock’s young, progressive mayor to entice artists and creative types to reoccupy and rehab some of Braddock’s abandoned, but architecturally fantabulous, structures. That brings me to the point of this post. This weekend is an opportunity for you to see some original art, enjoy music and libations and know that you’re supporting a sister neighborhood. Braddock is opening a new gallery space and kicking it off with a party.

Unsmoke Systems Launch - Braddock’s New Gallery Space
Schedule of Events on July 19:
6:30 - 7:30 pm: Screening of films by Life on Mars artist Wilhelm Sasnal in Braddock Carnegie Library, Music Hall, 419 Library St., Braddock

8:00 - 10:00 pm: Exhibition opening for Out of This Furnace at Unsmoke
Systems.

10:00 pm: After-party at Unsmoke Systems featuring food, DJs, live music, and open bar.

Event is FREE and open to the public.

If you get a little nervous when you think about going to Braddock based on a perception you’ve been holding onto from childhood in the suburbs (and I speak from experience), consider for a moment how some people must perceive Mt. Washington after recent media coverage. Not cool. Not cool at all.