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"Don't forget about us." Altoona community forum brings residents together to talk about the region

Altoona Forum
Kate Lao Shaffner/WPSU
Some dominant themes from the evening included education, the community-university relationship, lack of citizen interest in municipal matters, and a need for revitalization.

Altoona area residents who came to the Keystone Crossroads/WPSU public forum described their hometown with these words:

  • full of promise
  • sad
  • isolated
  • a nice place to raise a family
  • nostalgic (some say to a fault)

And the word "nativism" came up a fair amount. This simultaneous nostalgia, sadness and hope was a common theme in discussions among the 60 people who attended the forum at Penn State Altoona's Devorris Downtown Center on Tuesday evening.
Read the full version of this report at the website of Keystone Crossroads, a new statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities. WPSU is a participating station.

Kate Lao Shaffner was the Keystone Crossroads Reporter for WPSU-FM from 2014-2015. She reports on infrastructure, economic, legal, and financial issues in Pennsylvania with reporters from WHYY (Philadelphia), WITF (Harrisburg), and WESA (Pittsburgh).
Naomi was the editor for Keystone Crossroads. She came to the project from WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut, where she was News Director. Before that, she was a factchecker at Consumer Reports magazine. She has a master's degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Naomi is a Philadelphia native.
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