WQED program to feature Uniontown, Brownsville
A Tale of Two Cities – not the Charles Dickens classic, but a feature on Brownsville and Uniontown, will air Tuesday night on WQED’s OnQ Magazine program. It is the second part of a special report on the Brookings Institute study “Back to Prosperity: An Agenda For Renewing Pennsylvania.”
Monday’s OnQ episode will provide an in-depth look at the Brookings Institute report on why western Pennsylvania’s economy has remained stagnant over the past 20 years. OnQ airs at 7:30 p.m. and is repeated at 11:30 p.m. and at 12:30 p.m. the following day.
Tuesday’s episode looks at Brownsville and Uniontown as examples of the region; Brownsville with its vacant downtown area and Uniontown in the midst of making a comeback due in large part to an infusion of capital by businessman and community leader Joe Hardy.
“There’s just something about driving through Brownsville that really gets at you,” said Dave Solomon, the supervising producer for OnQ. “It’s just a compelling story there. It’s a marked example of a small town that really fell on hard times in the business district.”
Solomon said a crew spent several days in Brownsville conducting interviews and shooting footage of the town. The crew was also provided with old films of Brownsville from the collection of the late mayor and county commissioner Marion “Slugger” Klingensmith from the early 1960s.
“We’ve been given permission to use some of this old-time video to show what Brownsville was like in its heyday. We’re going to burn it to DVD so it can go in the Brownsville archives,” Solomon said.
Solomon said the old footage should stir memories for anyone originally from the Brownsville area. The clips include a 1963 march in memory of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, the groundbreaking for Brownsville General Hospital, the dedication of the Maxwell lock and dam and a memorial service for President John F. Kennedy.
Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan was among those interviewed for the segment.
“My first contact was from Dave Solomon who said he read the article in the paper about Brownsville being on the endangered historic structures list. He asked if he could come in for a tour,” Ryan said.
Ryan said the WQED film crew also interviewed patrons at Fiddle’s Restaurant and took pictures of the downtown area.
“I think it will show us in a negative light. Right now, we are in a negative position in our town, but I have high hopes,” Ryan said. “I think this is all part of God’s plan. We have a lot of good people who care.”
“Any time you do a story on one of these small towns, it really hits a chord. Everybody relates to it. Everyone thinks ‘It could be my town,'” Solomon said.
Solomon said about half the program, which includes both live and taped segments, will be about Brownsville. The other half of the program will feature the apparent comeback of the Uniontown business district.
“There are reasons why some towns go down and reasons why some towns come back,” Solomon said.
Solomon said there is no one cause or one solution to the economic problems in Pennsylvania’s towns.