McKeesport is not the gritty city you’ve heard described in the media. That was the most common sentiment expressed on a windy Friday evening as about 20 people took refuge in the Carnegie Library of McKeesport’s children’s section. 

Editor’s note

For our town hall series, Public Source is asking participants to speak from their own experience and listen to understand. To preserve that openness, this recap doesn’t include names or attributed quotes. To attend a future town hall, click here.

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They had come for the second of seven “You Have the Floor” town hall events facilitated by Pittsburgh’s Public Source, and gathered among the usual bookshelves, computers and activity areas, brightened by posters and plushies of leprechauns and clovers for the coming St. Patrick’s Day holiday. 

Communal gatherings like this emerged as something deeply important to the group. With deeply negative perceptions of McKeesport commonplace, the people present said they find community to be paramount. They share a love of nature and sunshine enjoyed during the baseball games, concerts and block parties of the summers, when the community gathers.

Attendees came from McKeesport and neighboring areas such as Glassport and North Versailles, which sit within Allegheny County but are thought of primarily as a part of the Mon Valley. After one-on-one discussions, Public Source’s co-executive directors encouraged the participants to talk in small groups before putting their thoughts together and sharing with the whole room.  

Tenants gather for a meeting in the sun at Hi View Gardens in McKeesport in July 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)

The most common sentiment from the group went something like this: Though McKeesport and the Mon Valley have suffered shootings, some high profile, that’s all people end up hearing about. Print media coverage tends to be appreciated by the group, but local television news and social media discourse paints an ugly, unfair picture, they said. 

This isn’t to say that the group didn’t have concerns regarding safety. That showed up on many of the sticky notes produced in response to prompts and then clustered on white boards, and in discussion of both crime and what someone described as an outsized police presence on the streets. 

Snow coats downtown McKeesport on Jan. 16, 2024. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)

Members of the group said safety concerns make them all the more passionate about the importance of getting to know and caring for their neighbors. That’s made more difficult, some said, by subpar transportation; a lack of places to meet and spend time with people; and local journalism that summarizes problems but doesn’t empower residents to do anything about them. 

A better local media would include opportunities for residents to get involved and provide resources for making their lives better, the group agreed. And it would show that the McKeesport area has more beauty and humanity than the media may commonly show.

Matt Petras is a visiting lecturer of English at the University of Pittsburgh and a freelance reporter and can be reached at matt456p@gmail.comand on Bluesky@mattapetras.bsky.social.

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