Old West Baltimore: Crying for Intervention

East Baltimore, despite its cookie cutter architecture and our current real estate crisis is experiencing a huge rebirth thanks to EBDI. Old West Baltimore, on the other hand has grand architecture yet has not experienced a rebirth in any way shape or form. The title of this post may be deceiving because Old West Baltimore has had some intervention but it hasn't produced the rippling effect of gentrification that's needed or the mix of incomes that the community had enjoyed in its glory day that current residents and city officials are trying to recapture.

The boundaries of Old West Baltimore are as follows; Franklin Street to the South, North Avenue to the North, Monroe Street to the West, Eutaw Place and MLK Boulevard to the East. The neighborhoods that lie within these boundaries are Upton, Druid Heights, Harlem Park, Sandtown Winchester, and Madison Park.There was a time when Old West Baltimore was what everyone wants it to be today a mixed income community that residents were proud to call home. Many of America's most influential African American leaders grew up within Old West Baltimore's boundaries. It was and will be Baltimore's Harlem, a point I will discuss more fully later in the post. Life centered around Pennsylvania Avenue with its eclectic mix of shoppes, boutiques, restaurants, and salons that catered well to the community. Houses were large frame row homes that provided residence for the poor and middle class. Those who could a afford lives in a single family unit and those with fewer means lived in a multi family home. Dividing large homes into smaller apartments was common practice for Old West Baltimore due to housing segregation laws in the early 20th century. This caused for overcrowding as was the case for all black communities across Baltimore and America with strict housing laws.

Between the two World Wars Baltimore saw a huge influx of blacks from the south. Most of them were poor and looking for work in Baltimore's then booming industrial economy in preparation for World War II. This influx did not mean an expansion of the area that blacks could live in. Old West Baltimore was beginning to show signs of blight and aging. In the early 1940s the city began erecting public housing projects to house poor residents. These pre war projects included McCollugh Homes/Spencer Gardens, Poe Homes, and Gilmor Homes. This provided housing for the poor and eliminated blight that was starting to show and helped deal with over crowding.After World War II Baltimore's Black population continued to explode. This time middle class residents didn't stay in Old West Baltimore. Instead they moved west of Monroe Street into formerly all white neighborhoods or "second hand suburbs." Old West Baltimore became almost exclusively poor. The city erected public housing high rises to help house this population . Murphy Homes and Lexington Terrace were built right across the street from each other and adjacent to McCollugh Homes and Poe Homes. This spelled the beginning of the end for Old West Baltimore.

After World War II a new highway system was being built nationwide and Baltimore was no different. Plans for an East West Expressway were on the drawing board roughly along North Avenue the northern border for Old West Baltimore. Also proposed was running I-70 through Leakin Park to meet I-95 and a spur called I-170 that would empty into Downtown. It would run between Franklin and Mulberry Streets demolishing all the homes and businesses in its path which just so happened to be the southern border of Old West Baltimore. Funny thing ended up happening they built the I-170 spur but Baltimore fought and won the battle against extending I-70 through Leaking Park so it ends just east of I-695. So right now there's this floating expressway that stops and starts with no rhyme or reason. The neighborhoods on either side were destroyed for nothing including the southern border of Old West Baltimore. The expressway remains the same today as it was in 1976 when it opened assuming it would connect to I-70. The East West Expressway never came to fruition either however, North Avenue was widened destroying the row homes and businesses along it.

I got a little ahead of myself when I talked about the interstates. Before the 1970s Old West Baltimore endured a huge blow as did all neighborhoods almost 40 years ago to the date. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4th,1968 Baltimore erupted in riots from Poplar Grove St.on the west Milton Avenue on the East, 25th St. on the North and Baltimore St. on the south. This very obviously includes Old West Baltimore. For four days the city was under siege as Federal Troops were called in to restore order. Bombs went off, buildings were burned, looters attacked and injured hundreds of people. Several thousand arrests were made in Baltimore during those four days 25% of the nationwide following MLK's assassination. Old West Baltimore, like much of the city was left in shambles and Baltimore's reputation as being unsafe was as prevalent as ever.

Today Old West Baltimore is thought of just place to house the poor and nothing more, and no I didn't make that rhyme scheme on purpose. The mixed income community that Old West Baltimore was in its heyday is just a memory. Crime, drugs, blight, poverty, poor education, and population loss on a grander scale than the city's average have become a way of life for the residents who remain. The 2000 census paints the grim picture all too well. Druid Heights has a 40% vacancy rate, 29% Homeownership, 40% of the population making less than $10,000 and 71% of the population has no vehicle. Sandtown Winchester has a 27% vacancy rate, a 33% homeownership rate, 28% of the population making less than $10,000 and 68% of the population with no vehicles. Upton has a 22% vacancy rate, a 14% homeownership rate, 42% of the population making less than $10,000 and 74% of the population with no vehicles. Madison Park has a 22% vacancy rate, a 10% homeownership rate, 35% of the population making less than $10,000 and 56% of the population with no vehicles. Harlem Park has a 40% vacancy rate, a 22% homeownership rate, 36% of the population making less than $10,000 and 62% of the population with no vehicle. Of the three "Edison Schools" in the city tw o of them lie in Old West Baltimore Furman L. Templeton Elementary in Upton and Gilmor Elementary in Sandtown.

As far as intervention goes it's come in fits and spurts and the effect has been limited to the small area around it, in other words there hasn't been a comprehensive master plan for Old West Baltimore as a whole. What has taken place has been the demolition of the Murphy Homes high rises and Julian Gardens public housing projects with the Heritage Crossing town home community with a mixture of public housing and market rate homeown ership, Sandtown Winchester has had new affordable housing built mostly on its southeastern border and has been named an "Empowerment Zone" and has gotten slew of private investment from the Enterprise Foundation spear headed by none other than James W. Rouse, my personal hero. The Druid Heights redevelopment committee has been building affordable housing units there as well. Upton has come up with a master plan that focuses on its attributes, revitalization of Pennsylvania Avenue, building new affordable housing, and the rehabilitation of the architectural gems that have been rotting for decades on end. Pennsylvania Avenue has seen lots of commercial reinvestment on the private and public sector most not ably the Avenue Market renovation (formerly Lafayette Market) which has been an anchor to additional facade improvements along Pennsylvania Avenue. Pennsylvania Avenue was also designated as a Main Street which provides funds for streetscape enhancements.

Despite these isolated success stories Old West Baltimore as a whole is still crying for intervention. What needs to be done is to have a Comprehensive Master Plan for the area in question. It wouldn't get in the way of current efforts already in place but it would provide intervention for areas that have no vision set in place and it would treat all of Old West Baltimore as one area instead of a collection of different neighborhoods. The areas in question are Harlem Park and the north and west ends of Sandtown including Gilmor Homes where demolition plans may already be in the works. The redevelopment of Gilmor Homes and the Fulton Avenue and Monroe St. Corridors will finish what the Enterprise Foundation has started. The new development and rehabs will cater to middle to upper income buyers because everything else in the area has catered to low income renters and assisted homeownership. In this new development will be a new school that will consolidate small under utilized schools into a brand new state of the art campus called "Sandtown Winchester Elementary/Middle. The three schools that will be closed and housed in the new school are Gilmor Elementary, George G. Kelson Elementary, and William Pinderhuges Elementary. In Upton a similar school initiative will take place involving its schools except in this case an existing school building will be used to house the students from the closed schools. The Booker T. Washington building will be renamed "Heritage Crossing Elementary/Middle and it will house Furman L. Templeton, Eutaw Marshburn, and Samuel Coolidge Taylor Elementary Schools. Youth Opportunity and Renaissance Academy will relocate to the career center at Briscoe.

Harlem Park will receive the most attention as it is in the most dire situation. It, along with Franklin Square and Poppleton never recovered from the I-170 fiasco. Ironically, this puts Harlem Park in a unique situation that it can capitalize on. Once the Red Line gets built the TOD potential is huge. From the West Baltimore MARC Station to MLK Boulevard along is a blank canvas along Route 40/Edmondson Aveune/Franklin/Mulberry Streets. The expressway will be taken dismantled and the land it occupies will be raised up to ground level. All eastbound traffic will be diverted to Mulberry St. and all west bound traffic will be diverted to Franklin St. The Red Line will use the fact that the expressway is underground to its advantage providing a tunnel that already been dug. The expressway will have its original urban grid restored and high density mixed use development will connect the West Baltimore MARC Station to Downtown. This new development in the new defunct expressway will hopefully be pushed north and south by market forces into Harlem Park and Franklin Square respectively. Harlem Park will be reborn as an extension of Downtown while at the same time preserving its architecture when feasible. The two public squares will be community high lights hosting community functions in the summer. The schools will see a similar fate as others in Old West Baltimore Harriet Tubman, and Harlem Park Elementarys will be housed in a brand new Harlem Park Elementary/Middle. Harlem Park Middle will close as scheduled. Baltimore Talent Development High and Augusta Fells Academy of Visual Arts will now be housed at Edmondson-Westside High.

Old West Baltimore may be crying for intervention now but it can dry its eyes in the not to distant future especially with the State Center Development on the horizon. Old West Baltimore will truly be Baltimore's Harlem which went through a gentrification and an influx of new residents itself.

Highway Construction: Undermining Transit Iniatives

All Photos From Google Earth

Here we are paying upwards of $3.50 per gallon of gas with it projected to hit $4.00 per gallon in the summer and here we are continuing to commute by car in record numbers and highway construction will only add more cars, more traffic and ultimately more traffic jams which decreases gas mileage and wastes still more gas making the greedy oil companies raise the price of gas even higher. There has been a movement to use public transportation in the Baltimore area but the transit system is lack luster at best and will continue to be so until at least 2035. What will it take to ear mark highway construction funds to pay for transit instead? $10 per gallon? It's not that far fetched.

Most of the highway construction funds are to be used around Baltimore City rather than it which further encourages suburban sprawl. There has also been a recent movement to move back into cities especially young single adults and empty nesters. They, along with college students are the most likely to use transit. The worst part of it is every highway construction project takes away the likelihood of transit lines being built. Don't believe me? Well here's a list of construction projects in and around Baltimore that will take away funds and ridership for transit lines.

$1 Billion+ I-95 Travel Lanes/I-695 interchange Green and Purple Lines

I-695 southwest side widening Orange and Yellow Lines

I-170 Red Line

Boston Street Widening Red Line

Orleans Street Widening Green Line

Northern Parkway/JFX Interchange Improvements Blue Line and Charles St. Trolley Line

I-795 Expansion into Carroll County Green Line Expansion into Carroll County. Although I-795 would go north to Hampstead and the Green Line would go to Westminster you can't fund them both. The Green Line hasn't been extended to I-795's northern Terminus.

White Marsh Boulevard Extension Green and Purple Lines

MLK Boulevard/JFX Interchange Blue and Green Lines

I-70/I-695 Interchange Improvements Red Line

Pratt Street Two Way Conversion Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Charles St. Trolley Line

BW Parkway/Russell Street Widening and Reconstruction Blue Yellow and Orange Lines

Dolfield Boulevard/I795 Interchange Green Line

Reisterstown Road/Owings Mills Boulevard Interchange Green Line

A Cherry Hill Divided Will Not Stand

My Own Pictures are Coming Soon
Photo From Developer Website

It was honest Abe some 145 odd years ago who said "A House Divided Will Not Stand." This was during the Civil War years that President Lincoln made this speech but the words still apply today in Baltimore and the entire country. Right now I will apply it to Cherry Hill which may be on the forefront if its own civil war.

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

Cherry Hill differs from other Baltimore in that its history is rather short.The Bulk it was a product of FDRs' "New Deal" to stimulate the economy during the great depression. It was meant to be housing for black World War II veterans returning home. Uplands was its white counterpart. Cherry Hill was built in a time where housing segregation was still the norm. It was one of the last pieces of undeveloped waterfront land in Baltimore located between Westport and Brooklyn it contained some industrial land. After living the life of housing for Veterans the 600 unit Cherry Hill Homes became public housing. Cherry Hill Homes kept expanding over the years topping out at 1713 units. Obviously, Cherry Hill Homes was and is the dominant development creating huge pockets of poverty.

Photo From Baltimore Housing.org

Cherry Hill didn't enjoy a long period of success as a thriving neighborhood. Crime, drugs, vacancies, population loss, and public health concerns over toke the quality life in Cherry Hill. Cherry Hill Homes began a "modernization" process in the 1990s which included the demolition of 193 units bringing the new total of units to 1520. Some new affordable home ownership town homes were built but for the most part, the land that the public housing units remained vacant. Quality of life in Cherry Hill remained low in Cherry Hill despite the notable success of a few residents, the revitalization of Cherry Hill Town Center, 2 aquatic centers, Cherry Hill Park, Middle Branch Park, Reedbird Park, a youth recreation center, a light rail stop, a branch of an Enoch Pratt Library, and 2 medical centers in addition to Harbor Hospital. Cherry Hill might have the most amenities of any neighborhood in Baltimore. In late 2006 an additional 126 units of Cherry Hill Homes were demolished bringing the grand total down to 1394.

Photo From Cherry Master Plan

Today Cherry Hill is a divided community. There is a market push to develop land as upscale apartments, condos, retail, offices, and possibly a boutique hotel seeing as it is a waterfront community. However, crime, gangs, drugs, still persist at disturbing levels. There have been 12 murders in Cherry Hill in the past year. Still the push is on for market rate housing; Waterview Overlook, a brand new upscale town house/condo development is being built in Cherry Hill and it sold out before they laid the first brick! There is also a waiting list in case people change their mind!

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

The perfect analogy for the divided Cherry Hill would be the former Arnett J. Brown Jr. Middle School building. It is now home to two high schools New Era Academy and Southside Academy. New Era Academy is the perfect name for the school too because it represents the soon to be influx of new residents a "new era" if you will. New Era Academy also draws citywide and is for college bound students. In sharp contrast Southside Acdemy students are more local and are much more troubled than their fellow New Era tenants. This has erupted in violence between the two schools in at least one instance the schools were put on lock down.

Photo From Developer Website

Now here comes the tricky part; unifying the divided Cherry Hill. Ok lets start with the buildable parcels of land already available. Waterview Overlook is already being built so we can omit that. There is the industrial land next to the light rail station, there is the wooded undeveloped land next to the light rail station, there is the industrial land between Westport and Cherry Hill and finally there is the vacant land left over from the 319 units of Cherry Hill Homes that were demolished in the 1990s and 2006. To deal with the deep concentration of poverty in Cherry Hill I propose using both conventional and unconventional methods. The conventional method would be more demolition in Cherry Hill Homes, 697 units to be exact which is half of the current 1394. Now I'm projecting about 250 of those 697 units are vacant so the number of displaced families isn't as alarming as one would originally think. The demolished units would be redeveloped as mixed use mixed income housing, retail, and offices.

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

Now the unconventional method; the units preserved in Cherry Hill Homes will be the original 600 (or however many of them are still standing) built before World War II. There has been an interest in reusing pre war public housing as market rate housing, something Baltimore hasn't done so I'm proposing that this be done with the oldest Cherry Hill Homes units however many of them are still standing. They were modernized in semi recent years so they would in fact be "de modernized" to restore them to their original appearance to qualify for historic designation. Now where would the remaining 697 families from the old Cherry Hill Homes Go? The only remaining units will be sold as market rate condos! Well they will be in scattered sites throughout Cherry Hill which will now be solely new homes, offices, and businesses.

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

When President Lincoln said "A House Divided Will Not Stand" could he have been thinking of Cherry Hill?

Reservoir Hill:Could We Be Sitting on Real Estate Gold?

Reservoir Hill or Lake Drive as it was originally called was once considered a suburb to Downtown Baltimore and was home to Eastern European Jews who made it big. It also was and still is to some extent home to some of Baltimore's best row house architecture. Its proximity to Druid Hill Park and Eutaw Place (Bolton Hill) made a destination from the cramped over crowded neighborhoods of Old East Baltimore where the poorer Jews were still living. In addition to row houses some Reservoir Hill residents fancied the luxury of apartment living. Like the row houses, apartment buildings were also architectural gems. Although Reservoir Hill was an upscale neighborhood in its own right, it always played second fiddle to its neighbor to the south; Bolton Hill.

The story of Reservoir Hill after World War II is one that I've told many on this blog in different variations but I keep telling it because it has so much significance in Baltimore and urban America as a whole. Since the homes in Reservoir Hill are so large in size many divided into apartments to deal with over crowding. Since it wasn't too far from the black neighborhoods Reservoir Hill became majority black almost overnight. There was little to no evidence of block busting tactics here but I'm sure it was used by block busters as an example of how fast a neighborhood could change.

The flight to the suburbs was on in full force in the 1960s and 70s. It seemed as though urban America had become nothing but slums for the poor. Reservoir Hill had become one of those places with a sizable chunk of its housig stock being devoted to low income families. It was at this that Lakeview Towers and Extension was built. These were two public housing high rises located between Reservoir Hill and Druid Hill Park. Speaking of Druid Hill Park, it had been completely sealed off on all sides by high speed parkways and interstates. By the 1980s the blows of being an inner city neighborhood had taken their toll on Reservoir Hill. Population loss, trash in the streets, vacant boarded up homes, and a high crime rate had taken over this once grand upscale neighborhood.

Today Reservoir Hill is in transition. Revitalization efforts have come in fits and spurts with varying levels of success. Homesteaders have lovingly restored blighted houses to their original elegance making homes that were multi family single family once again. The real esate boom of the early 2000s have made prices in Reservoir Hill shoot up sky high only to have that back fire by the real estate slump we're currently in. One reason Reservoir Hill hasn't gentrified the way citizens and elected officials have hoped is because it was done backwards. Usually a big development or redevelopment project will occur first and then spur homesteaders. Another reason is because so much of Reservoir Hill's housing stock is federally subsidized and it has to stay that way for a certain number of years, a roadblock for a mixed income community. There has however been news on the development front for Reservoir Hill.

Vistas on the Lake" a new condo development taking advantage of the views of Druid Hill Park is being proposed by the same developer of "Waterview Overlook" in Cherry Hill. Remember when I talked about how grand it was to have an apartment in Reservoir Hill? Well I'd like to recapture that in a couple ways first demolishing Lakeview Towers and Extension and redeveloping it as a mixed use mixed income community. Second I will take the old once grand apartment buildings and rehab them into upscale condos and/or apartments complete with valet services, concierge, doorman, business center, and 24 hour on site maintenance. With big developments projects I'm proposing in addition to the already proposed "Vistas on the Lake" row house homesteading will be much more successful. Another problem with Reservoir Hill is its accessibility to its neighbors Druid Hill Park and Bolton Hill. Druid Park Lake Drive current separates Reservoir Hill from Druid Hill Park and is currently 10 lanes. I would have it narrowed down to 4 lanes to create room for a sidewalk and a lane designed for bikes. I would narrow North Avenue which separates Reservoir Hill from Bolton Hill and rebuild the homes destroyed to widen it further integrating the two neighborhoods together. Lastly I would widen Eutaw Place in reservoir Hill to expand the beautiful green landscaped median in Bolton Hill and turn it to two way traffic.

Now the initial question I posed was: Reservoir Hill Could We Be Sitting on Real Estate Gold? Short Answer Yes and you just read the long one.

Waverly: Still Yellow After All These Years

Yellow, in traffic it means slow down, prepare to stop or use caution conditions ahead maybe be hazardous. The cluster of neighborhoods I will describe all will focus on the same theme: the color yellow and the traffic signal analogy.

The title of the post can be deceiving it says they're waiting to turn yellow but they already are. The current conditions for someone who lives there or is visiting would have to use caution as there maybe hazardous conditions ahead. Waverly lies east of Greenmount Avenue north of Downtown and are a mix of row houses, lack luster retail, blighted industrial uses, surface parking lots and vacant under utilized land.

The color yellow wasn't always so closely associated with the greater Waverly area. It used to be "Green" as in all systems go full speed ahead. The communities grew as farming villages along the York Road just north of the city line. Rich businessmen built their weekend and summer estates along here as well. In the mid to late 1800s the greater Waverly area was annexed by the city and the neighborhoods were developed with row house and light industry throughout. By the mid 20th century the color yellow was being introduced into the cluster of neighborhoods. Overcrowding, blight, and white flight in East Baltimore Midway was occurring. Rather than turning "red" and turning the neighborhoods into crime infested ghettos by building public housing high rises the city did something a little different.

They rehabbed targeted blocks mostly along Grennmount Avenue and other main neighborhood streets and located the new Stadium for the Orioles on 33rd just east of Waverly in the Ednor Gardens neighborhood dubbed "Memorial Stadium." Memorial Stadium was a great boost to the neighborhoods surrounding it making them "Green" as in full speed ahead all systems go. East Baltimore Midway was still struggling but everything else was in good shape. Waverly and Ednor Gardens had become one of Baltimore's most culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods at a time when that wasn't the norm. Memorial Stadium carried Wavelry and Ednor Gardens into the 1980s when decline finally set in the neighborhoods began to turn "Yellow". Population loss and vacant boarded up houses were showing up. Even Memorial Stadium, the area's driving force was beginning to age and with the Inner Harbor revitalization its location seemed out of the way. The 1991 baseball season was the Os last at Memorial Stadium and next year they moved into their brand new home dubbed "Oriole Park at Camden Yards" which became a model for building new stadiums. It's also Downtown and a few blocks from the Inner Harbor and Light Rail.

Conditions in East Baltimore Midway only worsened and it was spreading like wildfire into Waverly. Conditions had turned "red" as in stop! Memorial Stadium stood vacant, a shell of its former self for several years until Baltimore acquired itself an NFL team dubbed the Ravens (formerly the Cleveland Browns) used it as a temporary stadium until MT&T Bank Stadium was built for them Downtown adjacent to Camden Yards. The stadium was almost completely demolished in 2001 with the the exception of the Memorial that bared its name. One would think that this would worsen conditions in the Waverly/Lakeside area but then the community fought back.Crime still persists but there is an underlying community spirit that won't be shaken. Waverly/Lakeside has emerged as a culturally and economically diverse section of the city with residents old and new. There has been plenty of development since the demolition of Memorial Stadium. On the site a YMCA was built and senior housing. There is room for more development on the site that leaves room creativity. When Martin O'Malley was elected mayor of Baltimore in 1999 a promise of his was to attract quality supermarkets to the city. Waverly is now home to a brand new Giant. Also popular is the Waverly Farmers Market on Saturdays which has regional and local appeal. Conditions have moved from "red" to "yellow." East Baltimore Midway still remains "red" where investment hasn't picked up.

Now I come to a general conclusion and an explanation of the traffic signal analogies. I used traffic signals and mainly the color yellow as a theme to this post to introduce the Yellow Line of the Baltimore Regional Rail Plan. The Yellow Line has been ignored by the MTA as have many other transit initiatives but this time I'm focusing on the Yellow Line. The Yellow Line, built in full is supposed to go from Columbia Town Center to Hunt Valley where the current Blue Line ends. My version of the Yellow Line doesn't have it going to Columbia but running semi parallel to the MARC line at the Dorsey Station to Fort Meade for the expected influx of BRAC residents. The current Blue Line has two southern ends, one at BWI and the other at Glen Burnie. The Yellow Line would solve this it would use the Blue Line's route to BWI and the Blue Line would end at Glen Burnie. These portions of the Yellow Line aren't what would gentrify the neighborhoods discussed in this post. The biggest priority would be from Camden Yards to Towson. It would run under Calvert Street up to Penn Station and then Greenmount Avenue/York Road to Towson where it would meet the Blue Line. The amount of Transit Oriented Development in Barclay, East Baltimore Midway, and Waverly due to the construction of the Yellow Line is staggering. The Kirk Avenue bus facility can be turned into, with the 25th St. Yellow Line a Multi Modal Transit Hub for easy transfers to buses.

After the construction of the Yellow Line, East Baltimore Midway and Waverly would think of the color Yellow as most people think of the color Green as in "all systems go! Full speed ahead !

Public Housing: Let Me Set the Record Straight

Now public housing has always been somewhat of a hot button issue in Baltimore and every large city across the country and I would like to tell you where I stand on it. First of all I keep reading that's a waiting list to get in to public housing that's growing by the day. At the same time I hear that complexes continue to grow vacant. One could use the argument that beggars can't be choosers but that would be ignorant and wrong.Now why are complexes going vacant? It's not due to a decreasing number of qualified residents it's simply a matter of safety and the condition of the structures. Even with renovations in the 80s and 90s many complexes have fallen into a state of disrepair and residents are moving out and residents on waiting lists simply refuse to move in. Still it's not that simple there are some who would love to move in to the vacant run down complexes but the city is systematically emptying them out to demolish and rebuild them as new mixed income communities. If you've read my blog for any length of time you will know that I'm in favor of this and I'm against deep concentration of poverty that were the order of the day in the 1940s through the 1970s when the bulk of these complexes were built. I'm not against public housing in fact I think it's a necessity in breaking the cycle of poverty that's plagued Urban America for generations. Now how can government hand outs break the cycle of poverty you ask?Public housing in my opinion should be used a stepping stone. When you move into public housing your goal and the goal of the city should be to get you out quickly. In other words don't get too comfortable. Now how do we achieve this? When someone moves into public housing they will be assessed on their current situation and what it will take for them to be gainfully employed and no longer needing public housing. Now what all does this include? It includes free college education, job training, daycare, health and dental insurance (this can include drug rehab and counseling) and proper interview etiquette. Now that our public housing resident has become gainfully employed he/she can move out on their own and not need the assistance of public housing and the unit that's been vacated someone else can move in the whole process will start all over again. If the number of residents who need public housing dwindles the number of units allocated for public housing will go down as well. It almost sounds too easy right? This is just my Utopian ramblings that will never see the light of day.Now lets get back to the physical condition of the complexes. HOPE VI funding has dried up thanks in no small part to the war in Iraq so the city has stepped up the plate with redeveloping their blighted complexes. Uplands, O'Donnell Heights, Westport Homes Extension, 100 units of Cherry Hill Homes, and Somerset Homes either have or will hit the wrecking ball. There is talk of demolishing Douglass Homes and Perkins Homes. Other complexes that need redevelopment are LaTrobe Homes, Mount Winans Homes, Owsego Mall, and Poe Homes. Sure on paper the number of public housing units will go down but the vacancy rates in these complexes are so high that the number of functioning units once the redevelopment is complete won't be a whole lot lower than they are now. Not only that deep concentrations of poverty have been broken up and middle and upper income families will begin moving into once depressed neighborhoods.

Northern Parkway:Every Cloud Has a Silver Line

They say every cloud has a silver lining, that after every tragedy something good comes from it. Land on Northern Parkway west of I-83 is tragically underutilized but something good can come from it, redevelopment and a transit line; the Silver Line.

Northern Parkway was built in the earlier part of the 20th century before interstates to accommodate the automobile, the declining streetcars, and the increasingly suburban nature of north Baltimore. Today Northern Parkway is a four to six lane thoroughfare that runs east west from Belair Road to Liberty Heights Avenue. East of I-83 Northern Parkway isn't much of an issue, the neighborhoods although suburban are generally clean, relatively low crime and vacancy rates, and low poverty rates.

Now let me shift gears a little bit and talk about transit. I've spoken my opinions on the state of Baltimore's rail transit but I'm going talk right now as if everything in the Baltimore Regional Rail Plan was built already and exactly to my specifications granted hell will have frozen over and pigs will be flying but stay with me anyway. Many of the transit lines go through north Baltimore but they've got no connection within North Baltimore they all meet up Downtown. Suppose someone wants to stay in north Baltimore but wants to ride rail transit? That's where the new silver line comes in. It will allow north Baltimore region to ride rail transit without having to go Downtown if they don't want to.

The Silver line will be the only line that doesn't go Downtown but it will connect to other lines allowing for TOD and gentrification. The Silver Line will begin at Belair Road and then meet the Green Line Northern Parkway stop at Harford Road and will travel west along Northern Parkway and meet the Yellow Line at York Road and Belvedere Square. It will then meet Charles Street marking the northern terminus of the Charles St.Trolley Line. It will then meet the Blue Line at I-83 and continue west to meet the Green Line. My tweaking of the Green Line will have it meet Reisterstown Road and travel under it above Northern Parkway and then will turn westerly to run parallel to Northern Parkway and the Silver Line until it meets Wabash Avenue and the Green Line will turn south and run under Wabash Avenue which it currently runs above. After Wabash Avenue the Green and Silver Lines will no longer cross paths, Northern Parkway dead ends at Liberty Heights Avenue right after this. Now this is where things will get complicated because although Northern Parkway ends, the Silver Line still has a journey to complete. It will have a stop at Grove Park (The End of Northern Parkway) and then turn easterly to run under Liberty Heights Avenue. It will stop at Gwynn Oak Avenue at the newly redeveloped retail center that will replace Super Pride. It will continue on Liberty Heights until Garrison Boulevard where it have a stop and it will turn south and run under Garrison Boulevard. Garrison Boulevard ends at Clifton Avenue which will be a great place for a Walbrook Junction stop. It will run under Clifton Avenue for a New York Minute and then it will once again turn south and run under Hilton Parkway. The Silver Line will finally end once and for all at the red line's Rosemont. stop.

Now lets talk benefits of the Silver Line. West of I-83 Northern Parkway may eventually have a lot to offer. The road itself will be narrowed to 2 lanes in each direction with on street parking, sidewalks furniture plantings, additional lighting, and updated traffic signals. Mt. Washington basically turns it back on Northern Parkway with a thick forest separating the two. Well not anymore, new high density mixed use development with apartments, condos, and offices all with ground floor retail will replace the trees from I-83 to Reisterstown Road. Pimlico Middle, which closed last year will be torn and redeveloped in the process. Further down Northern Parkway the aging Seton Business Park will redeveloped as a high density 21st century office park. Across the street from the Seton Business Park is Grove Park and another large swath of trees. I bet you can't guess how I'd develop it huh? Well you're right another mixed use TOD development.

Once the Silver Line parts from Northern Parkway the benefits will be more limited because the neighborhoods aren't as blighted and land isn't available for development. One benefit may include better retail selections for residents like sit down restaurants and high quality grocery stores. Residents have been waiting many years for these services and haven't gotten them yet.

Now it has been said that every cloud has a silver lining but I don't think they were talking about rail transit and the development that follows. Now Here's your Silver Line.

Hotels:The Sign of a Great Economy or an Ailing One

I work in the hotel industry so I'm particularly excited about this. The 757 room Convention Center shows a huge commitment to the city of Baltimore and the belief that Baltimore's tourism economy will be viable for decades to come. It takes decades to make back the money one spends building and operating an upscale hotel so the owner of a hotel has to have great faith before committing such huge funds.

In addition to the convention center new hotel construction is drawing board for every big development project. The State Center Development, Westport, Canton Crossing, and the Westside of Downtown are slated to have an upscale hotel while two have already been built at Inner Harbor East. These are just new hotels this doesn't even account for the dozens of hotels that vary in age and amenities. With all this new hotel construction the new hotels will no doubt have features like Hi-Def TVs, WI-FI Internet access in all areas and over all more modern decor in sleeping rooms, conference rooms, banquet rooms, and restaurants. Will this mean that older hotels built from the 1980s and 1990s will lose business due to increased competition? Well they're not going down without a fight.

Many of Baltimore's upscale hotels are going through, have gone through or are slated to go through massive renovations. A general rule of thumb is that hotels need to be renovated every 5 years to keep current with market trends, technology, and decor. The cost of renovating a hotel with several hundred rooms, multiple restaurants, a couple dozen conference and banquet rooms is staggering. Hotels try to go as long as possible without renovating (I know from personal experience) but you can't delay the inevitable. The same projection that warrants the building a new hotel is used for renovating an existing one. You'll eventually make your money back. If these hotels didn't think Baltimore had the economy to support their hotels they wouldn't renovate and may even close but they're renovating mostly to the tune of eight figures.

If you read the paper and get depressed about all that's wrong with Baltimore such as a decaying housing stock, population loss, out of control murder rate, and a failing public school system just look at the construction and renovation of hotels to cheer yourself up because it speaks volume about Baltimore's economy and that thousands will travel here whether for business or pleasure.