If you’re familiar with our work, you’ve heard us say or write the sentence, “Baltimore is a city in crisis.” We’re not kidding. We’re not just saying it for dramatic effect. It’s a fact. And why do we keep saying it? Because we’re concerned that our current city government and many candidates running for Mayor or Council don’t have an appropriate sense of urgency.
Urban Blight?
In Sandtown yesterday, Governor Hogan with Mayor Rawlings-Blake announced an impressive $700 million program called CORE. The acronym stands for Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise. The link will take you to the official press release.
The idea is that a good number of selected vacant and abandoned structures in the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods will be torn down over the next 4 years and turned into green spaces that will be developed, eventually, into to mixed use commercial and residential facilities.
Reality Check: Lowering Property Taxes
Candidate for Mayor Nick Mosby has just today published a paper called “Connecting The Dots, A 15 Point plan for Baltimore’s Future.” It’s his platform statement.
Candidate Dixon’s Program To Reduce Crime
Government By Throwing Everything Against The Wall
And Waiting To See What Sticks
Yesterday, Sheila Dixon released what she calls “A Four Point Plan for Making Baltimore Safer.” Her program is in the PDF at the bottom of this piece. You’re all invited to comment on the plan.
Missing The Point
The screenshot above is the opening paragraph from a December 26, 2015 article in the Sun. It’s a good, highly informative piece by Doug Donovan.
Financing For Employers
If you’ve read our post entitled “Vacants-To-Jobs,” you know that Baltimore Rising is introducing legislation that gives employers who are willing to locate in the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods free property and no property taxes for 5 years. The simple, but nonetheless profound idea is that we’re going to make employers offers they can’t refuse to get them to do what too many businesses have avoided. We’re going to give them a compelling reason to set up shop in a neighborhood some of them don’t even want to drive through, much less park there, get out and spend the day. Heaven forbid, maybe go out to some local place for lunch.’
Vacants-To-Jobs
As you may already know, there’s a Baltimore city government program called “Vacants-To-Value.” It’s primary purpose is to encourage people to refurbish and move into vacant property around the city – properties, mostly residential, that the government has taken over. The objective is to turn the huge number of abandoned properties around the city into homes that are attractive and well-maintained by resident-owners, many of whom will be new to the neighborhood.
Eminent Domain
As you may have noticed, we have already posted a map of the 16,885 documented vacant structures in Baltimore. These structures – in addition to the thousands of vacant lots – are a potent tool for attracting desperately needed employers and new residents to the city.
Zoning: What’s the point?
You’ll notice that the featured image for this article about zoning isn’t a map of this or that district plan. It’s people waiting in line for jobs. Whatever jobs they can get.
Technical Problem
A few days ago, we posted an article that talked about the urgent need to study, right now, the economics of the 150,000+ complaints that are filed with “Rent Court” every year – and that result in 7000 evictions annually. It’s a really important study that addresses a very, very significant problem in our city, the resolution of which is essential to the accomplishment of the economic recovery which is our mission. (Not so subtle note to contributors… It’s a study Baltimore Rising would gladly do for the city if you’d like to fund it.)
150,000 Complaints, 7000 Evictions
Those numbers in the title? Particularly the 150,000 in a city of only 620,000 people? They’re huge, aren’t they? They’re the number of rental unit complaints and resulting evictions that The Sun, the Washington Post, The 7000 Families Campaign and others have been talking about.
The Problem With Startups
Hey. Just a quick note about supporting startups as a strategy for creating jobs. This may sound cold, but it’s huge waste of time and money. Here’s why…