Just a little updat O'Donnell Heights is being torn down and redeveloped. Also Athena Square, a new town home development is being built in Greektown.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Southeastern Neighborhoods: Stranded By Industry
Just a little updat O'Donnell Heights is being torn down and redeveloped. Also Athena Square, a new town home development is being built in Greektown.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Good Job!
There have been several instances where either the city or the developer has just plain gotten it right. I'd like to take this opportunity to give them my personal hats off.
Gateway South-Carroll Camden Industrial Park has long been an eyesore for motorists o I-95 and or 295 alike, and much of the land is vacant and under utilized. Ray Lewis is planning to build an educational center on the property. Other uses include a new Grey Hound bus terminal and upscale office and retail space.Library Square-Revitalization first was strictly south of Patterson Park in Canton. Then it crept on the eastern and western side of the park in Highlandtown and Upper Fels Point respectively. Now revitalization has made it to the northern border of the park. The area still is in pretty rough shape but development interest is at an all time high. Patterson Park Community has come up with a master plan to filter development and improve infrastructure on the public sector.
Johns Hopkins Biotech Park-In East Baltimore's worst cluster of neighborhoods there will finally be signs of life in the coming years. Not only will there a biotech park that will bring jobs to the city but the plan calls for 1200-1500 new and/or rehabbed housing units and a new school. This shows a long term vested interest in the community that is sure to pay off.
Albemarle Square-Jonestown was in the right place at the right time to benefit from Inner Harbor East, Fels Point, and Canton. Little Italy won't have to wall itself off from this!
Westport,Cherry Hill, Brooklyn-What? Yes I'm using these troubled neighborhoods as an example of planning success stories. All three have development projects in various stages of the "pipeline" to transform their waterfronts from abandoned industrial land to glitzy upscale apartments, town homes, retail, office, and hotel. Once the new waterfront development is completed though the real challenge will be transforming the existing neighborhoods from their current state but private will prevail.
New Song Academy-What better way to show case long term commitment and investment in Sandtown Winchester by building a new school for minds young and old alike.
Gateway South-Carroll Camden Industrial Park has long been an eyesore for motorists o I-95 and or 295 alike, and much of the land is vacant and under utilized. Ray Lewis is planning to build an educational center on the property. Other uses include a new Grey Hound bus terminal and upscale office and retail space.Library Square-Revitalization first was strictly south of Patterson Park in Canton. Then it crept on the eastern and western side of the park in Highlandtown and Upper Fels Point respectively. Now revitalization has made it to the northern border of the park. The area still is in pretty rough shape but development interest is at an all time high. Patterson Park Community has come up with a master plan to filter development and improve infrastructure on the public sector.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclfajhBIqL07ttz3Aoi8yUbhmCe5mA_jgjiLW_UaI6ssBv04kgNoclPyKm2UwWPRkqnhQfDVkgTnXhsI4N1khhTCarEca7a8a69C45fdB7oxchgNXVwgOMuSOY9BnlbRJkzIscsRv6m-Z/s320/Albemarle+Square4.jpg)
New Song Academy-What better way to show case long term commitment and investment in Sandtown Winchester by building a new school for minds young and old alike.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Can the West Really Have Zest?
All of these precursors to big box development thrived until the 1950s when the flock to the suburbs began. The world famous Lexington Market, the 225 year old public market also calls the westside home. There was also the Hippodrome Theatre and Lyric Opera House on the westside.
The flock to the suburbs brought change to the shopping habbits of baltimoreans. The flock to the suburbs and the ever greater dependence on the auto mobile allowed the big department stores to open new branches in areas like Woodlawn, Catonsville, Towson, Rosedale, and Edmondson Village. By the 1960s racial change brought sit ins protests and riots to the department stores and racial integration at the downtown stores caused sales to drop as wealthier white shoppers went to the more convenient suburban branches. The1970s and 80s sale closure after closure of departments stores on the westside, by 1990 the scars of urban decline and decay had made their mark with the closure of the Hippodrome Theatre and all department stores and five and dimes. Even Lexington Market was in bad shape.
The Westside Master Plan had called for massive demolition of block after block of vacant building. One that the westside has always had going for it was the architecture and design of its buildings. Department store heads and shop keepers alike spared no expense when it came to the facade of their buildings. In short, the demolition of all these buildings would be a big mistake thus the Westside Master Plan was scrapped in favor of something that saves and reuses more of the existing buildings. Don't get me wrong there was and is still plenty of demolition in the cards for the westside but a lot less than was originally planned.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtGtK2Xd02o5HwEEFvGGSwwBEFS5diadwlVL0UEISD_bvljoj9l4F-tMmjHWqzOGwMIiZJ7AtLdMP64Y8dzBykibGXOOURiercwN4U1Hnt8mY6fpv-a2LiAMf9ZZTQp308z6yaHGYdB7f/s320/1st+Mariner+Arena.JPG)
One thing the Westside Master Plan did do was spur interest on the private sector. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is part of the westside but it didn't spur a lot of additional investment on its 1992 opening. The reopening of the Hippodrome Theatre is arguably the biggest catalyst for reinvestment in the westside. Today the westside is right in the middle of its transformation, completed projects include; Social Security Building, University of Maryland, Enoch Pratt Central Branch, and Library for the Blind. Projects currently under construction include Centerpoint, BGE Building, Chalres Plaza, and UMB Housing. Future projects include Superblock, West Lexington Market, and two Convention Center Hotels.The Westside has seen a increase in residential, office in cultural development. None of these alone can bring a critical mass of people like it did back in its hey day as a shopping district. Some ways to bring this back would be for it to offer things that the Inner Harbor and they city as a whole doesn't offer. This could include a department store, a multi screen movie, and more trendy upsacle boutiques. This would not resemble suburban big box development. It would fit the existing urban grids and be the ground floor or floors of a residential and/or office tower. Another problem is vechicular acess, there are sections of both Lexington and Howard streets that don't cars, both of these areas should be reopened to vehicular traffic. Also the Howard Street light rail needs to be relocated under ground as I've said before and I'll say again. Once the Westisde has the large groups of shoppers and tourists that the harbor does we can truly say that the west has zest.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Public Housing: Who Says it has to look the part?
This has been a question that has been asked and was answered correctly many times over in recent years resulting in several new "Hope VI" developments across the city.
After World War II Baltimore and just about every large city across the country was given a problem. How to house the poor, eliminate blight, and create new right of ways for interstate highways. The answer to all three questions was all to plain and simple; Public Housing High rises. Public housing high rises would be built where blighted housing once stood, house the poor, and would create space for new interstates where other blighted and also non blighted housing stood (but that's not what highway planners would have you believe.) Almost as soon as the high rises went up they turned into the slums they were supposed to eliminate. The buildings and the neighborhoods that surrounded them were held hostage by crime, drugs, sanitation issues. The real kicker was that in Baltimore that most of the interstates were either canceled or a much lesser version of what they were planned to be.
In the 1990s it became well known that the high rises had to come down and income levels should be more evenly dispersed. The high rise developments to come down in Baltimore would be Murphy Homes (now Heritage Crossing), Lafayette Courts (now Pleasant View Gardens), Flag House Courts (now Albemarle Square), Freedom, Claremont (now Orchard Ridge), Lexington Terrace (now Townes at the Terraces) and Broadway Homes (now Broadway Overlook but on a different parcel of land.) One thing about these new developments is that they're lower density consisting primarily of town homes and most importantly they're a mixture of income levels. The developments contain units designated for public housing, market rate rental, subsidized home ownership, and market rate home ownership. Units don't look different from one another either and they blend in better to the existing neighborhoods than their former high rises.
As of right now the new developments have been a huge success. However their long term future is still any one's guess. The rental units have maintained and upgraded so the values privately owned homes remain competitive and residents of all income levels have to be watchful so that the crime, drugs, and sanitation issues don't come back again.
These aren't the only public housing developments in the city that have had problems. There are many other developments throughout that need this kind of intervention to aide in the comeback of their larger neighborhoods. They include McCollough Homes, Westport Homes and Extension, Cherry Hill Homes, O'Donnell Heights, Somerset Homes, Monument Homes, Douglass Homes, and Bel Park Towers.
Hope VI proves once and for all that Public Housing does not have to look the part nor should it.
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*Update despite pooring millions of dollars into Hope VI crime has reared its ugly head in these new communities. There have been fatal shootings in Heritage Crossing and Pleasent View Gradens.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Barclay: Gateway to the North
Pen Lucy and Wilson Park: The Market Will Turn These Two Around
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Relocation: It's Impossible to Avoid
In order to acquire property that is owner occupied it is much more difficult and delicate matter. Eminent Domain made it much easier for the city to acquire property from its owners. This controversial matter is now being questioned however. A few examples are the biotech parks in Poppleton and Middle East. These neighborhoods are in dire need for redevelopment, jobs, and additional residents to fill vacant units. Now say you're a resident in a desolate section of one of these neighborhoods. You're the only unit in a row of homes that's occupied, that's right the whole rest of the row is vacant.
Mass Transit: Baltimore's "Big Dig"
Every one's heard about the "Big Dig" right? Well if you haven't allow me to fill you in, (no pun intended.) It was Boston's attempt at a Downtown renewal that involved relocating its big interstate that ran throughout it underground. With the interstate underground there is now room for major redevelopment of the land that the interstate sat on. The Big Dig has deemed a success with the exception of a wall crushing a car and the driver.
*Update Baltimore and the state of Maryland have all but abandoned the Baltimore Regional Rail Transit Plan in favor of a $1 Billion upgrade to I-95 from I-895 to White Marsh Boulevard including a redesign to the Eastern interchange of I-95 with I-695 and new EZ pass lanes. That $1 Billion could have built the Green Line in its entirety not just to Morgan State University but all the to White Marsh and Martin State Airport. The Purple Line could also have been built with that money. This project won't clear up traffic but it will set the state back a lot and encourage more suburban sprawl rather than focusing on repopulating the city.
Uplands: A Tall Order to Fill
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