UPMC Braddock closing (Pittsburgh, McKeesport, Jeannette: houses, dangerous, move)

[neurodistortion]

Originally Posted by badguykc

They might as well build the Mon-Fayette Expressway and wipe Braddock clean off the map. I won't miss it one bit. No offense to anyone.

Well, the plan was to have the Mon-Fayette Expressway cut right through the middle of Braddock, although there was resistance to the proposal. Anyway, this is what I don't understand about public vs. private enterprise. If you have a mall that's dying with 15 stores left in it, a developer can theoretically buy the place out and give the remaining tenants an incentive in lieu of terminating their leases. Then once the place is emptied out, then demolition can commence. Why can't something like that be done to Braddock? Yes, we're dealing with an entire town here, and yes, we're comparing apples to oranges, but my point is similar to the private sector, eg. the mall. Rather than seizing the properties via eminent domain, why not allow the remaining 2,000 or so residents to agree to a deal with a prospective developer? The developer then could pay the residents a fair share like $10,000 in lieu of either doing upgrades to their properties or $20,000 for selling their land that the properties sit on. Residents don't have to agree to the deal but I think many of them would for a number of reasons. Once a large portion of land is purchased, then it can be redeveloped into new uses. Like I said previously, most people are not going to invest in Braddock until something is done with the crime down there. My plan, as radical as it sounds, is also not likely unless someone with millions of dollars of capital can step in.

[badguykc]

Originally Posted by neurodistortion

Well, the plan was to have the Mon-Fayette Expressway cut right through the middle of Braddock, although there was resistance to the proposal. Anyway, this is what I don't understand about public vs. private enterprise. If you have a mall that's dying with 15 stores left in it, a developer can theoretically buy the place out and give the remaining tenants an incentive in lieu of terminating their leases. Then once the place is emptied out, then demolition can commence. Why can't something like that be done to Braddock? Yes, we're dealing with an entire town here, and yes, we're comparing apples to oranges, but my point is similar to the private sector, eg. the mall. Rather than seizing the properties via eminent domain, why not allow the remaining 2,000 or so residents to agree to a deal with a prospective developer? The developer then could pay the residents a fair share like $10,000 in lieu of either doing upgrades to their properties or $20,000 for selling their land that the properties sit on. Residents don't have to agree to the deal but I think many of them would for a number of reasons. Once a large portion of land is purchased, then it can be redeveloped into new uses. Like I said previously, most people are not going to invest in Braddock until something is done with the crime down there. My plan, as radical as it sounds, is also not likely unless someone with millions of dollars of capital can step in.

I agree with you, and I think that just buying out Braddock, wiping it out completely and dissolving the borough (or slowly rebuilding it) would probably be the best thing. It's a dying town on life support, and someone just needs to pull the plug. However, there would most definitely be a few hold-outs (as well as numerous lawsuits) and it would probably take years (if not decades) to pull it off. That would probably leave eminent domain as the only option in that case.

To tell the truth, it actually saddens me to see what the area has become. For Braddock go from a thriving steel hub of 20,000 to a crime-ridden ghost town of about 2,000 probably best tells the tales of Pittsburgh's rise and fall. I would say that maybe annexation by a neighboring borough would be an option, but Rankin and North Braddock have problems of their own, and it really wouldn't make a difference one way or the other.

I do applaud Mayor Fetterman for trying to revive the place, though. If there were more folks like him in small, depressed communities, this would be a much better world.

[neurodistortion]

I also think anyone should read about the history of Columbia, Maryland, it's a very fascinating story. It was built from scratch and it's not all mid- and high-end housing either, there's low income housing too and it's done tastefully.

[badguykc]

Originally Posted by neurodistortion

I also think anyone should read about the history of Columbia, Maryland, it's a very fascinating story. It was built from scratch and it's not all mid- and high-end housing either, there's low income housing too and it's done tastefully.

I just read about Columbia...interesting.

Imagine that, a "new" Braddock? I would actually support that concept.

[Pgher4life]

If i lived there, I would move...like yesterday.

[neurodistortion]

Now there's a plan to raze the hospital to develop an office building on the site.
Onorato proposes new office building to replace UPMC Braddock

Even if it's demolished, will another developer buy the land to build the new office structure? Or will the land just sit vacant for years to come?

[Faer]

Originally Posted by neurodistortion

Now there's a plan to raze the hospital to develop an office building on the site.
Onorato proposes new office building to replace UPMC Braddock

Even if it's demolished, will another developer buy the land to build the new office structure? Or will the land just sit vacant for years to come?

From the article:

"Once that occurs, the county will put out a request for proposals from private developers willing to develop the vacant site."

Isn't this the problem to begin with? No one wants to set up shop there. Assuming you take away half the significant employers in the area (Edgar Thompson being the other), why would putting up an office building in a near ghost town change anything?

[diannejean]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Just one more reason for me to hate for UPMC! I'll bet this isn't the only hospital UPMC will close.

Makes me sick----buying up almost all of the area hospitals only to start closing them down.

UPMC is destroying healthcare in our city! I can't believe nothing is done to stop this monopoly!

Excela is doing something similar in Westmoreland County. It is very difficult to get anything that is not Excela

[neurodistortion]

Like UPMC did to Braddock, Excela is doing the same thing to Jeannette Hospital, albeit slowly. It wouldn't surprise me if they close it down in the near future.

[diannejean]

They are closing down Jeannette March 15th. I heard they are closing down the ER and making it a URGICENTER and no more inpatients. I think the lab will stay open but there was talk that they wanted the doctors to take over the hospital for office space. Westmoreland ER is overwhelmed and often on standby so I'm not sure what will happen. I think making the ER into an urgicenter is a good alternative to closing it all together, though. I personally wouldn't go to Westmoreland because of all the chaos, and a lot of people I know feel the same way. I drive to Latrobe or Pittsburgh. I don't think that hospital realizes what a bad name it has in the community. They keep getting business because there is nowhere else to go but if there was people would go elsewhere.