Kittanning, PA Changed Their City One House at a Time
Andrew Laddaslaw, a local pastor in Kittanning, PA, had this idea for a project to do during their Summer of Giving programming. 5 years ago, Kittanning, PA had a blight problem. Many houses in neighborhoods needed sprucing up, repairing, and a few needed tearing down.
He and his crowd got together and decided to create a spreadsheet listing houses in each neighborhood. They ranked them from best to worst and headed out to change their town, one house at a time. Volunteers started with the easy wins – the yard needed mowing, bushes needed help, weed whacking assistance, a loose board on the porch, a fence that needed stabilizing, painting steps, windows, doors, and a myriad other small steps they could take began.
He’s been able to connect with the organizations that help homeowners and renters with improvement projects to target and coordinate their efforts all across town. The public has gotten on board and is updating their own properties, as they are able. And Andrew shared that there is more public and private investment now, making a real difference.
Since they began, they are at 48% improved city-wide!
How they did it
This 12 minute video walks you through the process you can use in your neighborhoods to change your city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCZ4344WUkI
Year Five Update Video from Andrew Laddaslaw
Of note, they are at 48% improved city wide! And he’s noticing that not only has the public gotten on board to update their property as they can, but there is more public and private investment making a real difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTeL9DrYBCY
f you want to learn more about the system or see progress from years past, check out the videos below:
2018: • The Plan to Fix Up Kittanning (Solving Bli…
2019: • How You Can Change Your City (A Simple Sys…
2020: • A Simple System to Transform Your Small To…
2021: • A Simple System To Change Your Small Town …
2022: • Another HUGE Improvement in Kittanning (So…
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Available on pretty much every other podcast platform as well. Just search Kittanning:Greatest City in the World 😃