he grew up here during the town s heyday. the 40s and 50s before leaving to go to film school. anthony: why d you come back? tony buba: why d i come back? i was gone from like 68 to about 75. then i came home and i saw everything became even worse. and the people i hung out with, like sal carrilla and other guys. they were just really characters. archive: she s going to push the button on me, no one is going to push the button on me. nobody, nobody. the only guy that can do that is that guy up there. jc, jc my man. tony buba: a lot of wwii people that were starting to die off, and i was really like, this is going to disappear. the industry is going away, so, i didn t know what else to make films about so i just started documentaries. i just wanted to capture it, and get some of these characters on film and make them mythical. anthony: but, you stayed in braddock because braddock was your subject. %-p move to los angeles. maybe i get a job in the industry, but what if i get
anthony: 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 the steel producing industry that spread throughout the monongahela river valley. generating wealth and power to the few, and a decent living to many. archive: when tomorrow comes, you ll have a better so-called today. so your thinking of today 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 going to decide what you do. and what you do is going to decide what you get. that s all for today fellas. let s go to work. anthony: for the last 40 years, tony buba has been making documentaries about the fate of the working class in braddock.
anthony: well, yeah, that would be the nightmare scenario. tony buba: yeah, exactly. anthony: in the mid-20th century the population of braddock was 20,000. today, it is down to 2,000. more than 40% of whom live below the poverty line. tony buba: this is where i went to junior high school. anthony: closed? tony buba: yeah, closed. anthony: so who is moving in, is anyone moving in now? tony buba: nobody is moving into pittsburgh actually. anthony: i thought you had all these tech jobs coming in? google and uber. tony buba: yeah, you know all that stuff was coming in but they sort of do this up-beat bullshit about people coming in. if it wasn t for some 30,000 immigrants, i mean the population would have dropped even more. anthony: now this is new, the brewer. tony buba: right, yeah, they ve done really well with this place. anthony: well who drinks there, i mean are they locals? tony buba: no, it s too expensive, $7 a beer. there s people coming in on bicycle
their lives, i don t know. and it s all sort of, you know, white businesses. anthony: in 1988, the state classified braddock as financially distressed. their term for bankruptcy. a status it still holds today. anthony: this is still working? tony buba: 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. it was probably 500 people doing the work. you know when my dad was there with 5,000. anthony: so what do you think it s going to take? or do you think it s just going to die? tony buba: i think we re in the last stages of capitalism. anthony: so you re talking socialism? tony buba: yeah, yeah, i m talking socialism. anthony: when the magical workers paradise arrives, will braddock be here? tony buba: will braddock be here? i wish there was a simple answer to all this. i will die before i actually see what happens. i m not go
this place. anthony: well who drinks there, i mean are they locals? tony buba: no, it s too expensive, $7 a beer. there s people coming in on bicycles, grabbing a beer, getting something from the taco truck. and they want a sort of the wire experience, you know? yeah, i was in braddock, having a beer. sort of giving a little cred to their lives, i don t know. and it s all sort of, you know, white businesses. anthony: in 1988, the state classified braddock as financially distressed. their term for bankruptcy. a status it still holds today. anthony: this is still working? tony buba: 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. it was probably 500 people doing the work. you know when my dad was there with 5,000. anthony: so what do you think it s going to take? or do you think it s just going to die? tony buba: i think