In a perfect world, Braddock's hospital would stay open and be operated by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, just as it has been since 1996. But it is not that kind of world, and last Sunday the hospital closed.

Two days later, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato unveiled a promising plan to demolish the building and replace it with a new $24 million structure containing the doctors' offices of Braddock Family Health Center, 90 housing units for the elderly and a training center for Community College of Allegheny County. It may not be a hospital, but it's a way to keep vitality on that block of Braddock Avenue.

The proposal gets better. UPMC would tear down the former hospital at a cost of as much as $5 million. It would provide $3 million for redevelopment of the site, which would be matched by $3 million from the state. That $6 million could lure a private developer that would be responsible for the rest of the construction cost and would later own the building, which would go on the property tax rolls.

Another benefit is UPMC would make payments to the borough of $90,000 a year for five years in lieu of the wage taxes that hospital workers had paid. Since Braddock got $34,000 a year in taxes from UPMC workers who lived there, the health system's payments would be the equivalent of 13 years of such revenue.

Mayor John Fetterman, an ardent advocate to save the hospital, realizes that there is no interest by another health organization to take over the facility. He's ready to turn the page and make the next best use of this site, which could very well be the plan announced by Mr. Onorato.

But Braddock Council is blind to the proposal's benefits; on Wednesday it unanimously rejected the idea. Council wants the county to reopen talks with it and other local groups to start a national search for a health care provider that would take over the Mon Valley hospital. Good luck with that.

Council's self-delusion reminds us of those in the 1980s who thought the steel mills would come back. They didn't and, sadly, neither is this hospital. We agreed with Braddock early on that that is unfortunate and it is not what the community should have.

In an imperfect world, however, this offer makes the best of a bad situation, and Braddock will be the loser if it walks away.

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