Braddock, PA hospital closing tonight

Tonight is the closing night for the Braddock PMC hospital. This hospital was a branch hospital of the PMC hospital system that provides medical care for much of the Pittsburgh, PA area. This will be the first time since 1908 that there has not been a hospital within the city limits of this once major steel producing city.

The current mayor has been in the local news frequently during the past few months, as he has led the efforts to keep the hospital alive. He has made some interesting comments about his efforts to keep the city alive as well as the general health of a region that provided the bulk of the steel used in the US for many years...

I don't agree or disagree with the man's statements... but it is interesting to listen to a young working man who took up the reigns of community government.

Once one of the most important steel manufacturing centers in the world, Braddock -- what's left of it -- solemnly affirms one of the great economic maxims of our society: socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor.
Since the massive banking bailout of 2008, I have often wondered what Braddock would be today, if 35 years ago, the U.S. government also channeled hundreds of billions of dollars (and trillions in guarantees) to save the steel industry, the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs it produced and the families it sustained.
Instead, places like Braddock were allowed to descend into decades of disorder, poverty and desertion. Braddock went from a prosperous community of 20,000 residents, to a shattered town of fewer than 3,000 today. Braddock looks every bit the deserted battlefield it truly is: 90 percent of our town's people, buildings, businesses, and homes are gone and what remains, bears witness to the torment.