Braddock-Driven Policies

On a day in late October, 2015, long before the question had become a hot-button issue, then-mayor of Braddock John Fetterman and three guests talked about how to help Syrians seeking refuge in the Pittsburgh area. Afterwards, conversation turned to Fetterman’s 6-week-old and ultimately failed Senate campaign. One of the guests told Fetterman it would be easier for him to get things done in Braddock than as a senator in Washington. One example? Fetterman’s four times a week visit to a Costco store in nearby Homestead, where an employee wheeled out a cart with several cases of fresh food. The food was free - considered unsellable, but safe to eat. Fetterman would then spend the next few days handing it out to his town’s residents. That’s the best part of my job, he said.

Then, and today, Braddock has only 2K-and-change residents.  Fetterman's belief, then and today? If the architecture and the buildings are in place, then things can come back, because you have a place to put them. ... we have to make every building and every space that we save count ... 

Then and today, signs of a nascent revival in blue-collar Braddock abound.  Take The Free Store; the name says it all.  Everything is free. Food, clothes, dishes, you name it - all for zero dollars. The Free Store is made up of two shipping containers and a parking lot; it's the brainchild of Gisele Fetterman, the then-mayor’s wife and today the Second Lady of Pennsylvania, who immigrated to the United States from Brazil and was once undocumented.

Generosity like that demonstrated in The Free Store symbolized and symbolizes hope for a town of such concentrated poverty. Next to the Store sits a brewery called The Brew Gentlemen. The owner Matt Katase and his colleague brew a dozen varieties of beer and operate what Fetterman describes with humor as the highest-rated brewery in the Pittsburgh area. GOTV can't speak to that, but we did find Brew Gentlemen well-covered online, and even in a YouTube video. The Brew Gentleman started as a school project at Carnegie Mellon University, where Katase studied mathematics. After researching Pittsburgh neighborhoods, and hearing some positive buzz about Braddock, Katase and his business partner gave it a look. The result? They didn’t just open a business in Braddock; they moved there.

Why this lengthy discussion of Braddock as a means of understanding John Fetterman and his politics?

• the beliefs and philosophy behind GOTV also started in Braddock, and, we like to think. dovetail seamlessly with Fetterman's concern for working folks

• the belief that humane policies are effective (viz  success of The Brew Gentlemen, as noted in an industry publication)

• the belief that humane policies are needed at every level of government, from boroughs like Braddock, to the U. S. Senate (can you say I withdraw my anti-abortion legislation, Mr. Graham?)

• the inability of GOTV to find any record of Mehmet Oz engaging in similar compassionate charitable efforts

So call GOTV prejudiced. But the history of Braddock and Fetterman constitutes another reason to vote Democratic. Not just to hold the Senate; not just to expand Democratic control of it and its functions; and not just for bragging rights. The reason to vote Democratic in the race for PA's open Senate seat is that practicing small, random acts of kindness is quite practical, and astute and effective politically.