Levi's Boosts Braddock's "Do it Yourself" Revitalization Efforts

The New York Times profiles Braddock Pennsylvania's Mayor John Fetterman, who has practiced a wide range of revitalization strategies to bring his town back from the brink.

2 minute read

February 22, 2011, 10:00 AM PST

By Michael Dudley


With Braddock's population reduced by 90%, and its main street devastated, its Mayor John Fetterman set up a non-profit agency -- Braddock Redux -- to help steer the community back on track. Now the town is being featured prominently in a new Levi's campaign, and the company is helping to fund the town's revitalization efforts.

"With appearances this past year or so on "The Colbert Report," CBS News Sunday Morning, PBS and CNN, John Fetterman has become the face of Rust Belt renewal. He was dubbed America's "coolest mayor" by The Guardian and the Mayor of Hell by Rolling Stone. The Atlantic put him in its "Brave New Thinkers" issue of 2009. In contrast to urban planners caught up in political wrangling, budget constraints and bureaucratic shambling, Fetterman embraces a do-it-yourself aesthetic and a tendency to put up his own money to move things along. He has turned a 13-block town into a sampling of urban renewal trends: land-banking (replacing vacant buildings with green space, as in Cleveland); urban agriculture (Detroit); championing the creative class to bring new energy to old places (an approach popularized by Richard Florida); "greening" the economy as a path out of poverty (as Majora Carter has worked to do in the South Bronx); embracing depopulation (like nearby Pittsburgh). Thrust into the national spotlight, Fetterman has become something of a folk hero, a Paul Bunyan of hipster urban revival, with his own Shepard Fairey block print - the Fetterman mien with the word "mayor" underneath. This, the poster suggests, is what a mayor should be.

Levi's Braddock ad campaign had its debut in movie theaters across the country on July 4 weekend. That same weekend, billboards with Braddock, Pa., along the bottom appeared in Times Square and across the country [featuring] the urban-pioneer motif...of the Braddock revival story."

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 in New York Times Magazine

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Rendering of California High-Speed Rail station with bullet train.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself

The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

May 19, 2025 - Benjamin Schneider

Red SF Muni ticketing machine.

San Francisco Muni Raises Fares a Second Time

A 10–cent fare hike for adults is part of the agency’s plan to chip away at a growing budget deficit.

May 21 - San Francisco Examiner

Electric car charging station with several Chevy Bolts charging in parking lot of store in Bellingham, Washington

Electric Grid Capacity Could Hamstring EV Growth

Industry leaders say the U.S. electric grid is unprepared for the increased demand for power created by electric cars, data centers, and electric homes.

May 21 - GovTech

Top view new development riverside residential and commercial neighborhood with vacant land in Texas, USA.

Texas Bill Supports Adaptive Reuse in Commercial Areas

Senate Bill 840, which was preliminarily approved by the state House, would allow residential construction in areas previously zoned for offices and commercial uses.

May 21 - The Texas Tribune