About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 2018)
NATION 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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