Hello! My name is Lizzie Dickerson, and I’m a junior at Pitt. My majors are Politics & Philosophy and Urban Studies. Outside of the classroom, I write and edit for Policy and Political Review, Pitt’s undergraduate policy magazine. I’m passionate about local government, urban design, and building strong communities! One of my favorite parts of going to Pitt is exploring Pittsburgh neighborhoods and discovering art, small businesses, and amazing hilltop views. This semester, I’m excited to branch out and explore Fayette County as part of a course run by the Frederick Honors College.
This course is part of the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative, or ACRI, a project created by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). ARC is a federal program that focuses on economic development in the Appalachian Region through building community capacity. ACRI allows college students to join in this work by conducting research in Appalachian communities. The purpose of this research is not to fix Appalachian problems. Our goal is to come alongside local partners and leverage community strengths to spark growth.
The University of Pittsburgh has made a 10-year commitment with Fayette County, providing the resources of a large public university to augment the work community leaders are already doing. Our FHC cohort partners with the Fayette County Cultural Trust. Although Pitt students will come and go throughout the years, the Cultural Trust is embedded in Fayette year-round. Their work has already sparked revitalization in the town of Connellsville through support for small businesses and development of the tourism industry.
My Urban Studies cohort will be working with the Cultural Trust on the latter goal. My hope is that we can develop an understanding of the tourism supply chain in Fayette County, and provide recommendations on how to fix any missing links. Transportation has already come up as an issue. Tourists visiting Fallingwater, Fayette’s biggest attraction, struggle finding transportation between airports, hotels, and the site itself. Resolving the transportation issue is important not only to make Fayette more navigable for tourists, but also to boost Fayette’s economy. Currently, tourists have little incentive to explore beyond their destination. Improved transportation, bike lanes, or road signage could guide them to towns like Connellsville and bring revenue for small businesses.
The ACRI project is a perfect fit for my academic and career interests. For years, I’ve been fascinated by regional and urban development policy. Neighborhoods, cities, and regions live and die by policy decisions. I saw this firsthand during years of traveling to my mother’s Ohio hometown. North Canton, Ohio could not have been more different than the D.C. suburb where I lived. As in Fayette County, factory shutdowns in North Canton led to an economic spiral. Downtown dried up, businesses shuttered, and attempts to attract jobs only led to failed investments and deals with shady developers. The economy boomed back in D.C, but outrageous housing prices and waves of gentrification pushed middle- and working-class families out of their neighborhoods. I grew up wondering about the stark differences between Ohio and D.C, turning over possible solutions in my mind. What policies could spark growth in a distressed area? How could policy ensure equitable outcomes in thriving cities?
I’ve investigated these questions throughout my time at Pitt. In my courses, activities, and free time, I explore regional development policies from housing to job creation. I connect the dots between my Urban Transportation and Politics of Appalachia courses to understand how the Appalachian Regional Commission administers development policy for Southwestern Pennsylvania. On my own, I read books like Robert Caro’s The Power Broker to understand the problems of planning for a metropolitan area. I write monthly papers for Pitt’s undergrad policy journal, Policy and Political Review, comparing different cities’ approaches to balancing equity and economic development. I’ve discovered that policies on job creation, homelessness, welfare, and transportation all have the potential to shape cities and regions.
Last fall, I took this policy interest to an internship at Uptown Partners. This community development nonprofit serves a neighborhood that has not experienced the same revitalization as other parts of Pittsburgh. In many ways, Uptown is a microcosm of Fayette County. Compared to Oakland, the Uptown neighborhood has not experienced much growth. It struggles with abandoned properties and blight. Similarly, Fayette County has not bounced back from the fall of the steel industry like Butler or Allegheny County has. As an intern, I learned about local development from a nonprofit angle and began to understand strategies cities use to jumpstart economic development.
Joining the ACRI project is the natural next step in my journey at Pitt. I’ve worked and lived in urban areas. I feel well-versed in policy and planning questions around gentrification and managing growth. But I still have many questions about places like Fayette County. I want to understand what policy and planning solutions can help Fayette grow. I’m eager to learn from community stakeholders and hear about their dreams for Fayette. And I’m curious about how growth in a rural, Appalachian, Rust Belt area looks different than an urban center like D.C. or Pittsburgh. What would the best version of Fayette look like?
As I answer these questions, I plan to expand the skills I gained through an internship this summer. I worked with D.C’s Office of Planning and helped host a community workshop for a neighborhood design plan. During the workshop, I talked with community members and listened to their thoughts on our planning proposals. The ACRI project will allow me to level up on the community engagement skills I gained from that experience. I’ll be researching stakeholders and initiating conversations with them. I’ll learn which questions I should ask to get the information my group needs. And I’ll discover how to engage with a community that is much bigger and more dispersed than a few neighborhoods in D.C. In the end, I will be part of the group creating a proposal based on research and presenting it to the community. I’ll learn how to design a presentation tailored to community members.