Levi’s Jeans and Braddock, PA: another marketing tool puts the abandoned city into view

Levi’s, the deeply red, white & blue jeans company, is reinventing what the modern-day American pioneer looks like. In their recent ad series, their “go forth to work” mantra now applies to making crumbling, dilapidated US cities such as Braddock, Pennsylvania live and breathe again.

Similar to the “we put our boots on and went exploring” ads of Palladium Boots that I wrote about in Urban Renewal and Designer Shoes, Levi’s is bringing attention to the town of Braddock. Not that the town’s mayor, John Fetterman, hasn’t been doing his fare share of re-popularizing the once-prosperous city.

21st Century Agriculture: Rooftops and Store Shelves Welcomed, Soil Need Not Apply

Growing food in urban areas has existed for some time, whether herbs and tomatoes are grown from one's balcony or window bed, or a supermarket staple like New York's Zabar's invests in greenhouses atop their Upper East Side buildings. Recently, the process of hydroponically growing these fruits and vegetables atop urban roofs has gained notoriety.

"Hydroponics (from the Greek words hydro [water] and ponos [labor]) is a centuries-old method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water and without soil." (Urban Gardening, Part 1: The Hydroponic Lab on the Roof, Ted Madden, TechNewsWorld June 22, 2010)

Because of limited space, many urban areas are looking to make use of their rooftops--and because of the weight-savings that hydroponically growing your vegetables provides, this process is gaining in popularity. Meet, for example, Gotham Greens:

"Gotham Greens is creating New York City’s first commercial scale greenhouse farm. The 15,000ft2 rooftop greenhouse facility will annually produce over 30 tons of premium quality, pesticide-free, sustainably-grown, vegetables, fruit, and culinary herbs. The farm will combine technically sophisticated Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) techniques with unique energy saving innovations. The produce grown will be sold under the Gotham Greens brand at grocery stores and farmer’s markets, as well as restaurants across the city. The greenhouse facility will begin crop production in 2011." (Gotham Greens website)

However, this new concept isn't void of its own challenges. The weight of greenhouses, collecting fertilizer runoff, transporting items to and from the rooftop garden, building permits etc. require a solid investment of time, expertise and capital.