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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 30, 2018 7A
Baltimore trying to stem decades-long contraction
PATRICK SEMANSKYI Associated Press
A man walks past vacant rowhomes in the Harlem Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Oct. 26.
“There are whole sections of our city that look like 1980’s Beirut,” said Carol Ott, an advocate
for tenants’ rights in Baltimore who has helped bring the punishing scope of the decades-old
problem to light.
BY DAVID MCFADDEN
Associated Press
BALTIMORE — LaShelle
Rollins’ rental house in
West Baltimore is wedged
between a line of derelict
properties valued only by
street gangs, drug addicts
and firefighters conducting
arson drills. And even though
her family’s $700-a-month
address sits across from
a public school, they are
among the only occupants of
this desolate block.
Life in an emptied-out,
rundown cityscape is a slog
and Rollins is worn out by
all of it: The sounds of late-
night interlopers stomping
down the stairs of a musty
wreck next door; a constant
fear of fire set by vandals;
the social isolation; the rats.
With no faith in a prompt
police response, they keep a
bat at the ready.
“It’s like we’re a forgot
ten population,” said Rollins,
a Baltimore native who’s
studying for a community
college degree that she hopes
will get her family out of this
gloomy neighborhood —
maybe even out of the city
that part of her still loves.
The African-American
woman with a bright-eyed
6-year-old daughter and a
husband on disability isn’t
the only one with leaving on
her mind. At a time when
rival cities are gaining popu
lation, Baltimore’s decades-
long disappearing act is only
continuing.
In 1950, Baltimore was
America’s sixth most popu
lous city, with nearly a
million residents, many
employed by Bethlehem
Steel. Over decades, with
factories closed and “white
flight” in the 1960s and 70s
followed by waves of “black
flight,” it’s shrunk to the
country’s 30th largest, a loss
of nearly 350,000 people.
According to U.S. Census
estimates, Baltimore led all
American cities in popula
tion loss for the last two years
running. Census figures
indicate the city saw more
people leave its boundaries
than Chicago, which also
reported significant losses,
even though Baltimore is
only a quarter of its size.
Even with job gains, stately
historic districts, and gleam
ing waterfront areas, Balti
more overall has about the
same population today as it
did 100 years ago. Only 17 of
Baltimore’s 55 communities
gained households between
2010 and 2016, according to
the Baltimore Neighborhood
Indicators Alliance. Many
are in the city’s prosperous
and mostly white areas.
Maryland’s biggest city
is hardly alone in dealing
with issues of urban decay.
Nationwide, places like
Detroit and Newark have
struggled with similar prob
lems. Out of 33 U.S. cities
with a population larger than
500,000, only Baltimore and
Detroit have seen overall
declines since 2010.
But Baltimore’s sea of
vacant lots and roughly
16,000 uninhabitable row
homes with weeds growing
out of boarded-up windows
have proven especially
intractable in racially seg
regated, deeply poor areas.
Housing researchers say
some 20,000 other city
properties are unoccupied
and pose a risk of becom
ing crumbling shells. They
largely sit in downtrodden
swaths of West and East
Baltimore.
Those predominantly
African-American neighbor
hoods with a concentration
of derelict buildings offer
ghostly scenes: A silenced
piano coated in chipped
paint, bowed floors with
stacks of pulpy notebooks, an
entire row house given way
to a tree bursting through its
roof. Scavengers can easily
get inside boarded up prop
erties to wrench pipes from
walls. Criminals stash con
traband there.
“There are whole sec
tions of our city that look like
1980’s Beirut,” said Carol Ott,
a Baltimore tenants’ rights
advocate who has helped
bring the punishing scope of
the decades-old problem to
light.
Despite political rheto
ric to the contrary, policy
makers have often ignored
the deterioration as fewer
households meant a smaller
tax base. Meanwhile, specu
lators bought cut-rate row
homes and sat on them, wait
ing for a payday.
But Michael Braverman,
the energetic director of
Baltimore’s Department of
Housing and Community
Development since 2017, is
confident the city is turning
a corner. Braverman says
city government is focused
on stabilizing and revitaliz
ing neighborhoods that can
grow, and on building from
areas of strength.
Disenfranchised areas
are expected to see new
investment via federal
“opportunity zones” and a
public-private Neighbor
hood Impact Investment
Fund, created by Mayor
Catherine Pugh earlier this
year in part with $55 million
from city-owned garages.
Other grants and funds aim
to boost affordable housing
and foster what Pugh touts
as an inclusive “new era of
neighborhood investment.”
Ramped-up demolition
aims to increase odds of rede
velopment. Entire blighted
blocks are slated for demoli
tion through Project CORE, a
$75 million initiative to raze
a chunk of the city’s 16,000
uninhabitable buildings — a
total that’s stayed constant
for years. Gov. Larry Hogan
unveiled Project CORE in
2016, eight months after a
young black man’s death in
police custody thrust the city
into chaos.
“Whether Baltimore is on
the right track to inclusive
economic growth, I am not
sure. I know the city’s lead
ership is focused on these
issues. They’re battling a
decades-long legacy of racial
and economic segregation,
industrial change, and trans
formed consumer prefer
ences,” said Alan Berube,
an expert on metro U.S.
economies at the Brookings
Institution.
Seema Iyer, associate
director of the University of
Baltimore’s Jacob France
Institute, believes real
momentum is building.
“The mayor’s put together
a really strong team. All the
pieces are there. Whether
they can connect the dots
remains to be seen,” said
Iyer, whose research sug
gests that commute times of
more than 45 minutes to get
to work are the strongest fac
tor in population loss.
Many citizens living in
neighborhoods crushed by
decades of neglect remain
skeptical. They’ve seen
numerous government plans
to combat blight come and
go. Some fear success could
breed gentrification, which
could push them out.
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