Braddock , Pennsylvania ( CNN ) -- In 2001 , I came to Braddock , the poorest town in Western Pennsylvania , to serve the community 's severely disenfranchised young people by starting an employment and GED program . Their lives were the embodiment of what happened to Braddock and this region : chaos through abandonment . However , tough times and severe hardship are nothing new . It 's been this way for decades . Once one of the most important steel manufacturing centers in the world , Braddock -- what 's left of it -- solemnly affirms one of the great economic maxims of our society : socialism for the rich , and capitalism for the poor . Since the massive banking bailout of 2008 , I have often wondered what Braddock would be today , if 35 years ago , the U.S. government also channeled hundreds of billions of dollars ( and trillions in guarantees ) to save the steel industry , the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs it produced and the families it sustained . Instead , places like Braddock were allowed to descend into decades of disorder , poverty and desertion . Braddock went from a prosperous community of 20,000 residents , to a shattered town of fewer than 3,000 today . Braddock looks every bit the deserted battlefield it truly is : 90 percent of our town 's people , buildings , businesses , and homes are gone and what remains , bears witness to the torment . In 2005 , those same young people I was privileged to work for helped elect me mayor . Senseless homicides long lost their ability to shock , so I began to tattoo the dates of the killings on my arm as a living document of our collective loss . Upon taking office , we set out to help reinvent Braddock through diverse solutions ranging from effective policing and the arts , to urban agriculture and youth employment . Today , buildings have been saved and repurposed . We farm for organic produce from formerly overgrown land , and can offer full summer employment for our youth . Perhaps most importantly , no dates have been added to my forearm in over 20 months . However , at the start of my second term as mayor , we have decades of work ahead and we 'll never come close to replacing what 's been taken . As the saying goes , we 're not looking for a handout , but a hand up and the chance to ameliorate three decades of socioeconomic unraveling . Towards those ends , the stimulus , known as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 , has been a true fiscal balm , especially since our community 's hospital , and largest employer , University of Pittsburgh Medical Center announced it would be shutting Braddock Hospital later this month , taking jobs along with our residents ' access to health care . CNN iReport : Share your thoughts on the State of the Union . Braddock received $ 250,000 in stimulus funding for the EPA compliance upgrade of our sewer system and $ 30,000 that enabled us to hire an additional 30 young people this past summer who would have otherwise been unemployed . Without question , these stimulus funds were a needed infusion of resources . However , I believe the greatest promise of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 remains untapped and now represents an unprecedented opportunity for growth and renewal . In Braddock and in the surrounding areas , we have an abundance of quality , shovel-ready projects that range in complexity and scope from small-scale urban farming , and retrofitting a now-vacant 300,000 square foot hospital , to a $ 300 million-dollar repurposing of a former steel mill site into a green enterprise zone of economic redevelopment . Investments like these will not only help reinvent communities like Braddock , but will also foster a boom in job creation and long-term growth . These and similar projects across the country represent but a tiny fraction of the resources spent to save feckless bankers and Wall Street from their own unchecked greed and hubris . Perhaps equally important , I believe this kind of investment will help restore a sense of social justice that is completely absent in today 's public debates . Consider the absurd juxtaposition of rescued banking executives defending multi-million-dollar bonuses , to our community at over 30 percent unemployment , widespread abandonment , and pervasive poverty while losing the area 's only hospital and access to medical care . The explanation of this circumstance is as simple as the contrast is stark : one got capitalism and the other , socialism . Basic fairness and equity demand that the color of your collar should not dictate if you receive a bail-out or get bailed on . For Americans living in places like Braddock , I believe the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is perhaps the last , best chance to help overcome the injustice and harm that the decades steeped in a laissez-faire orthodoxy have wrought . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Fetterman .
For decades , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , has been in decline as it lost jobs and people . Mayor Dan Fetterman says the population shrank from 500 to fewer than 100 . He says stimulus spending has helped reverse the tide in the old steel town . Fetterman : Government bails out Market Street while allowing Main Street to suffer .