All language subtitles for Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown S10E04 Pittsburgh (1080p x265 10bit Joy)

♪

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain
on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain
getting colder ♪

- ♪ La, la
- ♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

- ♪ Sha la, la, la
- Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

Pittsburgh is a city
of neighborhoods,

each with its own
rites and rituals,

a patchwork of cultures that
took shape over a century ago.

Back then, the city was a
beacon of hope and possibility

for people from
all over the world,

offering the promise of work,
prosperity, a new life.

Pittsburgh could have been
another company town

gone to beautiful ruin,

but something happened.

The city started
to pop up on lists

of the most livable
places in America.

It became attractive to a new
wave of people from elsewhere

looking to reinvent themselves
and make a new world.

And so we find ourselves
asking the same questions

we ask in other cities
in transition.

Are the new arrivals,
new, money, new ideas,

saving the city
or cannibalizing it?

Who will live in the
Pittsburgh of the future,

and will there be room for
the people who stayed true,

stuck with it their whole lives?

♪

Ah.

Oh, man, I'm very
happy about this.

Sausage and peppers,
one of my favorite things.

All right.

Bocce, the ancient
game of kings.

Throw the little ball, try and
get the other balls close.

Closer than the other guy's.

Gene, Uncle Gene,
this is Anthony Bourdain.

- How do you do?
- 103 years old, 103 years old.

Looking good.

He was up
in Donnie's bocce courts

faster than anybody else.

Wow, that's delicious.
This is a weakness of mine.

You know, they have these
street fairs in New York

where they do sausage
and pepper stands.

I cannot walk past one of those
things without getting them.

Ohh!

So how long have you
lived in this community?

78 years.

- So your whole life.
- Yes.

Now, the first wave of
Italians who came here

from Italy,
why did they come here?

Did they come here
for steel jobs? Coal?

Actually, trade. I think they
came here more for the trade.

Yeah.

Yeah, plumbers, bricklayers,
any kind of trade like that.

Some Italians said that they
were told to come over here

and they were gonna find
the roads paved with gold.

They said, "They didn't tell us
we had to build them first."

Yeah.

How's the neighborhood
changed over the years?

Still predominantly
Italian American, or...?

Yeah, not as much as it was,

but it's still more Italian
than anything else.

For 35 years or so, it was
a tough time for Pittsburgh.

Why did people stay?

Family. Familia.

I tell people,
when you come to Bloomfield,

don't talk about anybody

because we're
all connected somehow.

- All right.
- Thank you.

- That's it!
- Harder!

Okay, go ahead.

There it goes.

- Hey.
- Don't hit nothing,

Don't hit nothing.
Oh!

- Ah.
- Bad break.

You gotta get ahead of that.

Here, Gene. Hey.

Uncle Eugene can
take care of it.

Oh, no way.

Oh!

That was the... oh, man.

103 years old.

103-year-old Uncle Gene

ruins my dreams
of bocce immortality...

Come on.

And the weather,
as if on cue, turns bad.

An augur of doom, perhaps.

- Ohh!
- Oh, shit.

Oh.

♪

That's a shame.

And God himself appears
to align himself against me,

hurling all that beautiful
salsiccia and meatballs

onto the cold, wet ground.

- They're still good.
- That's still good.

- Yeah.
- No.

These things are gonna fly away.

♪

Oh!

- Well, I'm glad I got to eat.
- Right.

♪

"'Oh, ' Arlene said, as they
passed the old Nabisco plant,

"cleaned up and
advertising condominiums.

"'Have you heard
how much they're asking

"for a one bedroom?'

"'How much?'
'A million two.'

"'That is highway robbery.

"Who would honestly pay that
to live in East Liberty?'

"'They're calling it
Eastside now.'

"'Who's calling it that?
No one I know.

"It's a boondoggle
if I ever saw one.'

"Beside the greed factor,

"she didn't actually mind
the condos.

Better than leaving
the building empty."

Stewart O'Nan is a local author

who's written 15 novels,
many set in Pittsburgh.

We're the city
that made the steel

that beat the Confederacy,

beat the Kaiser,
built the skyscrapers,

built the bridges,
and beat the Nazis.

♪

Who came in the very beginning,

lured by jobs in steel and...

Most of the people
that came here,

once the steel industry
was in place,

were people from Central Europe.

♪

They were blue collar,
they worked long hours,

they worked hard,
dangerous jobs,

and made the money
to send their kids to schools

to become white collar.

♪

At one point, I believe we were

the sixth largest city
in America.

We're now 63rd.

Now, wait a minute.

Sixth largest in America,
now 63rd.

- 63rd, yeah.
- So what happened?

Well, the steel industry
began to falter in the 1960s,

and by the 1980s
it was essentially dead.

In the 1980s,
this place was a ghost town.

We lost half of our population.

It went away.
Right.

And half of your population
means at least half,

if not more, of your tax base.

- So what went right?
- What went right?

What went right, weirdly enough
is what went wrong.

It became attractive to
people outside of Pittsburgh

because it's super affordable.

Bow down to your new
masters, your techie future,

the robot overlords
of a shiny, new Pittsburgh.

The computer science program
at Carnegie Mellon

is one of the best
in the country,

inspiring an arms race
between companies

looking to recruit braniacs

for new fields of
artificial intelligence,

cutting-edge medical research,

possibly cyborg super nerds
who will no doubt

revenge themselves on all of us

for their painful
high school experiences

by crushing us between
their synthetic mandibles.

They're also good for business.

- Here you go, guys.
- Thank you.

Thank you.

The Googlers that are coming in

are coming in at
the very top of the food chain,

and they're walking
into brand-new housing.

They're making six figures.
They're 23 years old.

- Right.
- And, you know, I think

the old-school, the people
that have been here forever,

are not happy about that.

I mean, you know,
it's gonna be all pencil necks,

like in 20 years.

Bad breeding stock.

It's the problem of
inclusion and exclusion, right?

It's the American
problem, right?

It's what Fitzgerald writes
about in "Gatsby."

Who is included, who's excluded?

Who's allowed in, who isn't?
Right.

And that's the worry,
that we're gonna forget

the people that have
lived through it,

and that have stayed here,

and had no choice
but to stay here.

Pittsburgh's Deutschtown is home

to one of the oldest German
clubs in the U.S.

Immigrants founded it in 1854

to preserve a link
to their motherland.

Today, a new generation

is leaving
their mark on the city.

♪ That's because every day

♪ Feeling the same way

♪ Getting lost
in the daily grind ♪

♪ Feel like I lose my mind

Justin Severino
opened his restaurant, Cure,

as an ode to flesh,
smoke and animal fat,

Maggie Merskey designs and
creates bar programs

at bars and restaurants
across the city,

and Sonja Finn was here
from the beginning,

planting the flag
for farm-to-table cooking

back in the early days
with her restaurant, Dinette.

♪ For our future

♪ How many years will we wait,
the devil controls our fate ♪

♪ Our minds and lives at stake ♪

♪ They're using us for bait

The countryside around
Pittsburgh is beautiful.

Another world.

I joined a group
of foodie all-stars

about 20 miles outside
of town for a meal.

Are there typical, iconic
Pittsburgher qualities?

You probably worked here
and brag about working here.

You complain about Millennials.

You complain about the people
on the street harassing you.

You don't like
anything new at all.

- Right.
- You're describing me.

The menu is flipping good.

Right in my happy zone.

Racks of pork rib,

grilled hearts
of escarole and turnips,

a sauce made from
the pork drippings,

and four types of sausage.

- What now?
- Look at this. Whoa.

- The food's amazing.
- That's titanic.

I don't want to speak about
Pittsburgh in a dismissive way,

but it was not known
before being what it is today.

People are talking a lot
about the food scene here.

'Twas not always so.
What were people eating before?

You know, steak and potatoes.

You know,
living in San Francisco

as a young person in your 20s,
you were going out to eat.

That was really important,

and we all knew
about the restaurants,

whether you were in the
restaurant business or not.

- Right.
- And that wasn't Pittsburgh.

When I opened Dinette
in 2008, you know,

I'm expecting people
like me to be coming in.

I'm 29. That's who I'm
building this restaurant for,

and everyone was...
56.

Yeah, my parents' age or older.

You know, I thought to myself,

I'm going to this neighborhood

that's basically desolate.

I'm gonna take this
building that's been...

It's a restaurant that's been
closed for seven years,

and, you know, I'm gonna
do something nice here.

You know, I didn't
expect the reaction I got

from the actual people
that lived around me.

Right.

You know,
which was not positive.

They liked it the way
it was, you know?

That was their life,
and then, you know,

I move in and all of a sudden,

I open this restaurant and
people with nice, fancy cars

are taking their parking spaces,

and now I'm a yuppie gentrifier.

- Well.
- You know what I mean?

You know, own it.

Sometimes it
kind of hurts, right,

as a restaurant owner
or small business owner

because there are always haters
out there, and you feel like,

okay, so somebody wants me
to be a small business owner,

and take care of my employees,
and then also on me,

they're gonna talk
about gentrification, right?

Like, you're just trying
to do your thing.

You're just trying
to do something good.

Right.

And you're trying to do it
for you, and you should.

Yeah, but I don't know.
I mean, for me it's different.

Like, I definitely was thinking

about the neighborhood
when I did it.

Like, I'm not some egomaniac
who thinks that, like,

just putting out
my food is a reason, like,

so everyone can enjoy
the, like, artistry of my food.

That's why I'm opening
a restaurant.

That's not the point.
Well, I mean,

not to disagree with anything
that you just said,

but, like, I didn't open
Cure in Lawrenceville

because I wanted to change
the neighborhood.

I honestly opened Cure
for me 100%.

I was, like,
struggling professionally,

struggling personally.

Cure was all about
satisfying me, like, 100%.

If I'm running a high-end
restaurant in Pittsburgh.

Who am I employing
as porters, dishwashers?

- Honestly, like, our...
- Students.

Our dishwashers are...
They're white kids.

- No way.
- Yeah.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

is a big, bright
shining star of an example

of what blue collar America,
I think, was 100 years ago,

When we're looking at,
like, who's applying,

we also need to look
at neighborhoods.

The topography
of Pittsburgh is such that,

like, neighborhoods
are separated by...

- Bridges.
- By bridges and ravines,

and this sort of thing
means that, like,

people stay
within their neighborhood.

- Go.
- One.

- Go.
- Two.

- Go.
- Three.

Up, two, good.

Everybody's talking now

about a Pittsburgh renaissance.

You've got artists coming.

There are new restaurants.

Somebody's making money.
Yes.

Money's definitely coming in.

Is it lifting all boats?

No. It is not.

♪

The new Pittsburgh
attracts new people,

but it doesn't change the life

for those workers

who were left behind
and kind of spit out.

This is the Hill District,

traditionally African American.

The numbers here do not
indicate a renaissance.

Black homes
take in half the income

of their white neighbors,
and African American youth

are six times as likely
to be arrested,

go through the system,

from which many
can never break free.

When activist Sala Udin
was growing up here,

the neighborhood was thriving,

the Golden Age Harlem
of Pittsburgh.

They used to call this
city hell with the lid off.

The mills ran 24 hours a day.

I grew up at a time when

most adult men
in the neighborhood,

in the morning,

I saw them getting up
and going to work.

My dad, for example,
dropped out of school,

but was still able to find work

that paid enough
to raise a family.

My mother had 12 children.

And your dad was able
to raise 12 kids on that.

- That's right.
- Wow.

That was a very
different America.

That was
a very different America.

- How you doing, Sala?
- Good, good.

This is where I live.
This is where I grew up.

All of this area,
this whole flat

parking lot area that you see,

this is where we lived.

Devastation.

They just completely devastated

our whole neighborhood.

In the 1950s, the city came up

with a plan to revitalize
the Hill District

by leveling large swaths of it.

8,000 residents, including
Sala, were displaced,

and instead of new housing,

the land was used
to build a hockey arena.

Difficult, painful memories

of what used to be, and now,

we see suburbanites coming in

to have a good time,

visit the Penguins.

They don't live here.

They just play here,

and they don't know the pain

that this playground...

caused.

What's the missing
component here?

What's missing
is an economic plan

that includes everybody,

not just the techies
and the computer geeks,

but regular people.

By day,

a mild-mannered
dentist in training,

but at night she becomes,
well, a superhero.

Brittany Baker is a star

of the International
Wrestling Cartel.

Britt! Britt!
Britt! Britt!

Britt! Britt! Britt!
Britt! Britt!

Tonight, she defends her title

in a battle
of the wrestling titans.

Boyfriend, Adam Cole, hopes to
win a championship of his own.

Why do you think it's big here?

In Pittsburgh?

Yeah, what is it
about Pittsburgh that...

Pittsburgh is a big
sports city in general.

We have the Penguins,
the Pirates, the Steelers.

They're so proud
of their sports teams.

They're also very proud of
their wrestling organization.

Everyone's independent.
No one's, like, contracted.

You work where you want to work
and how you want to work.

It's the big town,
small city vibe.

So the fact that it's not
WWE is a point of pride?

Yep. To me, wrestling fans
are the most passionate fans

of any form of sport
or entertainment.

This is awesome!

I will confess to you
that I took a dim view

of professional wrestling.
Oh, okay.

Like, ah, it's not real,

it's like there are these
outrageous characters.

I don't get it at all,
and my daughter started

to get really into it
with her best friend,

so I got tickets
to WWE in New York.

- Oh, right on.
- And I'd go in, I'm like,

"I want to wear a bag on my head"

because I'm, like,
really embarrassed

to go to this thing.

This is gonna be totally lame.

Well, five minutes
into this thing,

I think, this is like
the greatest show on earth.

Britt! Britt! Britt!
Britt! Britt! Britt!

♪

It's physically very,
very demanding,

and more to the point,
it's super dangerous.

- Yeah, oh, yeah.
- Yeah.

I mean, most wrestlers
get really busted up.

Some of these pile drivers,

neck cranks,

body slams,

you got to be...
Correct me if I'm wrong,

you can get that wrong,
it's bad.

Everything can be gone
in a second, yeah.

Wrestling is inches
in many scenarios.

Like you said, with,
like, a pile driver,

if you're off
even by a little bit,

that could be a broken neck.

- A lot of trust.
- Yeah.

Right before he's about
to go out and wrestle,

I'll always grab him
and be like give him a kiss

and like, "Be safe, be safe."

Every aspiring wrestler,
since the great local hero

Bruno Sammartino,
needs nourishment.

In this case, Kielbasa,
sauerkraut, some pierogis,

and a side of molten
mac and cheese.

Oh, I should ask,
are you the heavy...

Is it the heavy or
what's the bad guy called?

The heel.

- The heel.
- Yes.

Are either of you the heel
or are you the...

She's a big baby face.
I'm the big heel.

So baby face is who
everybody wants to win.

- Yes.
- You're a heel?

I am.

So what qualities is one
looking for in a heel?

It's just being someone
that an audience member

either doesn't want to be

or wants to see
get their ass kicked.

- So over-confident.
- Yep.

- Narcissistic.
- Yep.

- Sneaky.
- Uh-huh.

- He's good.
- Yeah, exactly.

You got it.
You could be a great heel.

Yeah, you could be
a heel tomorrow, yeah.

Comes naturally.

Is it a sport or is it
more of a cathartic,

emotional experience
because it goes beyond sport?

There's nuance there.

There are tortured souls
who are struggling

with the good and evil
in themselves.

- Wrestling is live theater.
- Right.

It's sport.
It's a rock concert.

It's all this stuff
wrapped into one.

I think that when people realize

that pro wrestling
has more in common

with "Game of Thrones"
than it does UFC...

- Right.
- They accept it more

and they appreciate it
for what it is.

Come to the Jozsa Corner
where the kolbasz is delicious.

Chunky too. Tasty too.

Make your belly feel so good.

Everybody!

Come to the Jozsa Corner.
Come to the Jozsa corner.

Alexander Jozsa Bodner
fled Hungary

during the Soviet Union's

crushing suppression
of their revolution in 1956.

- One more time...
- Come to the Jozsa Corner.

At Jozsa Corner he runs,

what's not really a restaurant
in the classic sense,

but a house party with food.

Classics from the old country
like chicken paprikas,

langos and kolbasz.

Cheers.
Salut.

My dining companion is part

of a more recent
wave of immigrants.

Jamilka Borges moved here
from Puerto Rico in 2007

and began working in what
was then a restaurant scene

that was just getting started.

You spent your
whole life in Puerto Rico

before you came here?
I did.

I moved here, what,
when I was 21,

and, I don't know, Pittsburgh
is, like, really unique,

like in the sense that
everybody knows each other.

It's such a small town that,
like, here you know everyone,

and it's really easy
to make friends,

and that made it easier.

What about culturally?
How different?

Oh, cucumber salad?

- Cucumber salad.
- Beautiful.

It's very much like
a really white town

that you go to every
single restaurant

and, like, it's white males.

People not even
understanding, like,

the relationship that we had
as a country with Puerto Rico.

Like, "No, I don't need a green
card to work here," right?

Ten years later,
she was running Spoon

and getting national attention
for her Latin-influenced take

on new American food.

Why did you decide to stay?
I wanted to cook,

which I had no clue
what that meant,

and I needed to prove something,

like for me, for my family,
for, like, I don't know.

- Spite.
- Yeah, it's spite.

It was like,
"No, like, I'm gonna do this."

- That's a powerful motive.
- It was kind of like...

My family had no clue
what I was going into.

I still remember, like,
my grandma being like,

"You're gonna be what?"

I'm Puerto Rican, like,
my grandma's vision was like,

"Oh, you're gonna either cook
for your husband or family

or you're, like,
professional help."

Certainly, when I started
in the business anyway,

it was pretty much
a boys' club in the kitchen.

What was it like here
when you started?

Was it different here?

It was, and I think, to a
certain degree, it still is.

Like, this mushroom guy,
he comes every year.

He knows who I am
and I'm like the only person,

like, with a clipboard in white,

and he's still like,
"Can I talk to the chef?"

Right.

That's me.
I'm on the side of...

Let me smack you
and write "chef"

backwards on your forehead.

So who's coming to town now?

I mean, who are your customers?

So, you know, last three or
four years we have been having,

like, new move of,
like, 30's, like young,

mid 20-something
to 30-something, like,

engineers and, like techies
moving into town.

- That's good for business.
- Sure, but...

You seem wary about the future.

Do you think this is a bubble

or do you think
it's gonna keep growing?

I think I'm actually like
a really positive person

and I'm like, I want...

I want it to work, I just...
Yes, I am definitely worried.

I think that the city
is growing fast,

and, like, I don't know

if we're able
to keep up with it.

This is not my town anymore.

When I was young and growing up,

I was shooting craps
and chased by the cops.

Now I'm sitting around
with a bunch of people

talking about hops.

This is not my town anymore.

The town of Braddock
is where Andrew Carnegie

built his first steel mill
in the 1870s.

By the turn of the century,

he bought another one
up the river,

the Carrie Furnaces.

These smoke and fire
belching behemoths

were the heart of
a steel-producing industry

that spread throughout
the Monongahela River Valley,

generating wealth
and power to the few

and a decent living to many.

When tomorrow comes, you'll
have a better so-called today.

So you're thinking of the day

will decide your destiny
and your future.

And if you don't succeed,
it's your own fault

because you didn't take
control of what you think

because what you think
is gonna decide what you do,

and what you do is gonna
decide what you get.

Now, that's all for today,
folks. Let's go to work.

For the last 40 years,

Tony Buba has been
making documentaries

about the fate of the
working class in Braddock.

He grew up here
during the town's heyday,

the '40s and '50s,

before leaving to go
to film school.

Why did you come back?
Why did I come back?

I was gone from
about '68 to about '75.

They I came home,

and I saw everything's
decaying even worse,

and the people I hung out with,

like there's Sal Carulli
and other guys,

they were these
really characters.

Chico pushed the button me.

No one' gonna push
the button on me.

Nobody. Nobody.

The only guy that can do
that is that guy up there,

J.C.
J. C., my man.

There's a lot of
World War II people

that were starting to die off,
and I was really like,

"This is gonna disappear,
and the industry's going away."

So I didn't know what else
to make films about,

so I just started documentaries
and I just wanted to capture,

and get some of these
characters on film,

and make them mythical.

But you stayed in Braddock

because Braddock
was your subject.

It's my subject, and I thought,

"Okay, what if I move?"

If I move to Los Angeles,
maybe I can get a job

in the industry,
but what if I get stuck

working on "Love Boat"
my whole life, you know?

Yeah, that would be
the nightmare scenario.

Yeah, exactly.

In the mid-20th century,

the population
of Braddock was 20,000.

Today it's down to 2,000,

more than 40% of whom
live below the poverty line.

This is where I went
to Junior High School.

- Closed?
- Yeah, closed.

So who's moving in?
Is anyone moving in now?

Nobody's moving
into Pittsburgh, actually.

Well, I thought you had
all these tech jobs

coming in, Google and Uber.

You know, all that stuff is
coming in but they sort of do

this upbeat bullshit
about people coming in.

If it wasn't for some
30,000 immigrants,

the population would have
dropped even more.

- Now, this is the brewer.
- Right.

Yeah, they've done
really well with this place.

Well, who drinks there?
I mean, are they locals?

No, no, it's too expensive,
$7.00 a beer.

There's people coming in
on bicycles, grabbing a beer.

Getting something
from the taco truck,

and they want to sort have

like, a "The Wire"
experience, you know.

"Yeah, I was in Braddock
having a beer."

You know, sort of giving
a little cred to their lives.

I don't know,
and it's all sort of,

you know, white businesses.

In 1988, the state
classified Braddock

as financially distressed,

their term for bankruptcy,

a status it still holds today.

This is still working.
This is still working.

It's the only plant working
in the whole Mon Valley.

This is where my dad
worked for 46 years.

The last time I was there
it looked like a spaceship,

it was all so modernized.

There's probably 500 people
doing the work of, you know,

when my dad was there, 5,000.

So what do you think
it's gonna take?

Or do you think
it's just gonna die?

I think we're in the last
stages of capitalism,

because this is...
You're talking socialism?

Yeah, yeah, I'm talking
socialism, yeah.

When the magical workers'
paradise arrives,

will Braddock be here?
Will Braddock be here?

I wish there was, like,
a simple answer to all this.

I'll die before I actually
see what happens.

I'm not gonna know the story,
and it really bothers me.

It's the only thing I hate
about the thought of dying

is that I don't know
what the story's gonna be.

Braddock, Pennsylvania,
sustained a real traumatic

unraveling that was common

in Rust Belt
communities and towns,

but ours was a particularly
severe example of that.

- Average income?
- We're around $20,000, so...

- Which is...
- Which is substantially below

the Pennsylvania average.

Yeah, I'll have mothers
that will call me on a Monday,

and, you know, by Friday

they're gonna be out of food
to feed their three kids,

and this happens
quite regularly.

John Fetterman does not look
like your typical mayor,

and he isn't.

He came to Braddock in 2001

to help at-risk youth
get their GEDs,

and ran for office here in one
of the most depressed towns

in the state four years later.

His wife, Gisele, is from Rio,
and she runs a nonprofit

that provides food and
essential supplies for more

than 1,500 families each month.

A lot of people
in this country are angry.

They feel that their
anger has not been

acknowledged in any way,

and frankly,
I think they're right.

- Yep.
- There is a sense,

particularly in rural,
white America,

of aggrievement
that nobody's listening,

nobody's caring about them.

I mean, Western PA
played a pivotal role

in helping elect Donald Trump,

and he turned Pennsylvania red

for the first time since '88,

and did it so with a margin
of about 44,000 people,

a lot of whom,
as you referenced,

are disaffected Democrats.

Somebody phrased it to me
where it's like,

"If the economy's
not gonna work for me,

then I don't want it
to work for anybody."

How does that manifest itself
on a local basis for you?

It's an honor to be involved,

and I hope whoever it is
that's next

realizes that you need

to go outside your community's
borders to bring help in,

and that's what
I've tried to do.

That means people like
four-time Super Bowl champion,

Franco Harris,

and if you're wondering
how he could help,

you might be surprised
by the answer.

Franco and I hope to be
growing medical marijuana

about a block from here.
We put in an application

for a large grow facility
here in our community,

which would be a real
economic shot in the arm,

and it's been a real honor

to partner with someone
like Franco.

Why is this a cause for you?

I'm a believer
in medical marijuana

because of pain management,

and I run into many ex-players

who deal with pain management,

and, right now, the
alternatives don't look good,

and we have a lot of problems

with the alternatives
that they've had so.

There's no doubt about that.

Western PA's been ravaged
by the opioid crisis,

and it positions us
for the eventual legalization

of marijuana and...

It would also pull
Braddock out of Act 47,

so we would no longer
be fiscally bankrupt.

Braddock lost its initial bid

for a medical marijuana license,

but there are a few other

madcap entrepreneurial
efforts in town,

lone dreamers with a plan.

One such dreamer
is chef Kevin Sousa.

Kevin was the first
of a new generation of chefs

to bring national
attention to Pittsburgh

when he opened his restaurant,

Salt of the Earth, in 2010.

What are we looking at
here, Chef?

- All right, so...
- Beautiful.

We are landlocked,
so seafood is tough.

This is Lake Erie Walleye Pike,

some new potatoes from the farm,

some of the crackling
from the fish,

took the skin crisped it up,
it's nice and crunchy,

and then just a lot
of little farm herbs.

Now, after some bumps
in the road,

he's improbably turning
this building,

a former Chevy dealership,
into his latest restaurant,

Superior Motors.

Opening night is less
than a month away.

Do I have to eat this?

I mean, it's too pretty.
It's too pretty to eat. Jeez.

The fish is amazing, by the way.

Oh, thank you very much.

Where were you born and raised?

McKees Rocks.

- You're close to your roots.
- Yeah, yeah,

in locality and in spirit.

Is the restaurant
business any... I mean,

'cause I know, you know,
it's been bumpy for you.

It has.

You over-expanded
or over-extended?

Over-expanded with no capital.

I just thought we were
gonna open the doors

and everyone was gonna
go apeshit

for whatever it is
that I served, and I learned.

As serendipity would have it,
I met John.

Asked if I'd be interested in
going for a walk in Braddock.

Came out to Braddock.
Fell in love.

- With Braddock, not me.
- With Braddock.

You know, it reminded me of
McKees Rocks, and McKees Rocks,

you know, has suffered much in
the same way as Braddock has.

Kevin says he has ambitions

that go beyond turning a profit.

His restaurant hopes to
provide tuition-free training,

and they're partnering
with a local urban farm

that employs high school
students to grow produce

in the shadows
of the old steel mill.

And though we are talking
a swank, high-end restaurant

designed to attract the monied
classes from out of town,

locals will be offered
steeply discounted meals.

So this is beautiful,
grass-fed beef short ribs

sitting on a bed of lightly
blanched milkweed buds.

On top, a bunch of
over-wintered sun choke chips.

- Nice.
- Awesome.

That's the compliment
I was looking for.

I was trying to work
that one out.

So what happens
if everything works out

the way you want it to,

meaning people are driving
from all over the state,

they're flying in to Pittsburgh
from all over the country,

the parking lot is full,

the place is packed
and fully booked every night?

Then what happens?

You're moving towards
the "G" word, and...

No, not yet.

Braddock is gentrification
proof, essentially.

Our biggest challenge
has been abandonment,

not people being displaced.

To directly answer
your question, Chef,

long after I've shuffled
off this mortal coil,

the work will never
be done here.

This is a decades' long process.

♪

If you head east 30 miles
from Pittsburgh,

you'll find yourself
here in New Alexandria.

It's a whole other world.

No tech incubators here,
or fears of gentrification.

Just good, heartland fun
on a Friday night.

Family, fried dough
and demolition.

Brooke Davis grew up
a few towns over from here.

Tonight, she's driving
in the modified class,

which means these cars
ain't exactly street legal.

The winner gets 900 bucks.

So how long you been doing this?

Like getting into it?
Like, six years.

And how did it all begin?

Well, my dad, him and my uncle,

you know, ran back in like,
the '80s and '90s,

and it's just been something
I grew up with, so...

I mean, the only other thing
we really do for fun

is, you know, four-wheelers,
RZR Side by Sides, and hunt.

Chris Quenzler's a welder
and considered

one of the best demo mechanics
in the area.

What are the rules as far
as the vehicle itself?

I mean, can you build...
Theoretically you're allowed

to build some monster
road warrior, you know, thing

with some guitar dude
on the front and, you know,

special hidden reinforcement
and spikes and shit?

No, it's not "Death Race."
It's not "Death Race."

Brooke is one
of the best girl drivers,

female drivers, that I've seen.

Wait a minute, what's
the difference between male

and female drivers?
Is there any?

There's not very many females

that actually compete
with the guys.

Yeah, but wouldn't it be great

to see some big meathead
falling to his knees

sobbing after you've
just totally destroyed...

Maybe.
Depends on who they are.

Some guy's been
talking shit all week.

- Okay, yeah, yeah, definitely.
- I mean, come on.

- Yeah.
- That would have to be good.

So tonight, are you
gonna be the only girl...

Probably I'm the only girl

that's running out there
with the guys.

Let us hope that tonight
is your night.

I'm gonna get another shot.

- Cheers.
- Yes. Cheers. Thank you.

Countdown.
Ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five,

four, three, two, one.

♪

Ooh!

- The point of the game is?
- To be the last car running.

Right.
Now what's the sweet spot?

Where do you want to hit a car?

- Wheels and tires.
- Wheels and tires.

Yes.

I like to look
for the weakest car,

and get them out
of the way first.

I'm running with guys
that have been running

a really long time,

and sometimes they think
I'm an easy target.

Maybe I might get scared,
but definitely not like that.

I can battle it out to the end.
I'm not gonna quit.

♪

What's the best part
of the driving?

I mean, other than
winning, obviously.

- I was gonna say winning.
- My best moment of driving

is any time it comes down to me

and my brother or one of...

Me and my friends,
when you get down to the end,

you know, and you beat
everybody else...

So when you destroy
a friend's hopes and dreams,

that's...
Oh, that's the best.

♪

Oh!

♪

By the end, most cars
are worse for wear.

Brooke comes in third place,

so she doesn't walk away
empty-handed.

So I present her
with a $50 bill.

You started off that good.
Congrats.

Thank you.

All over Western Pennsylvania,

from small towns like this to
the largest city, Pittsburgh,

people face the same
struggles as beleaguered,

deindustrialized areas
across the country.

How do you move into the future

and hold on to what
you love about the past?

There are probably
no easy answers.

Things will change.

They are changing,

but for now,
let's just wreck some cars.

♪