John Fetterman
Revitalizing towns and cities that the economy seems to have written off is not a challenge for the faint of heart.
When Harvard Kennedy School graduate John Fetterman moved to Braddock, Pennsylvania in 2001 to work for AmeriCorps, he’d planned on helping school dropouts get their GED. Four years later he was running for mayor. He won by a single vote.
Braddock’s problems seemed unsolvable. In the 1920s, it rivaled Brooklyn in population density. But after the decline of the steel industry in the 1970s, it couldn’t hold on to its residents, and by 2009 the population had dropped below 3,000. Fetterman has begun programs to lure young artists back to Bradford, and renovate the town’s vacant housing. He purchased the First Presbyterian Church for $50,000 to save it from demolition, then the warehouse nextdoor for $2000. Two shipping containers on the roof later, he moved in.
His commitment to Braddock is literally etched on his skin; Fetterman has the dates of each murder that occurred under his watch inked onto his forearm, a visceral reminder of the work left to be done.