UMB Biotech Park: Not Enough By Itself

There is a new wave of urban renewal sweeping the nation's older blighted cities. The wave is Biotech Parks. Now why Biotech Parks? Biotech Parks provide lots of jobs and new residents to struggling cities while at the same time providing jobs to existing residents that don't require a lot of formal education. Baltimore is no different when it comes to bio sciences. Two Biotech Parks are being constructed one on the west side the other on the east side. The park in question is on the Westside. The University of Maryland is crossing Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to build its Biotech Park in the highly distressed neighborhood of Poppleton.
Poppleton fell when Baltimore's Black middle class fled for the outer city second hand suburbs leaving Poppleton to be left with high concentrations of poverty and disconnect through parkways and failed interstates. Today, a few blocks due south of Poppleton in Pigtown there have been signs of reinvestment and development with Camden Crossing and "Main Street" designation of Washington Boulevard. Even Poppleton has seen recent reinvestment with renovation of the Poe Homes public housing complex,The renovation of Poppleton Place subsidized apartments, and perhaps the best of them all the tearing down of the Lexington Terrace high rises and their replacement the Townes at the Terraces (terraces). Although this investment in the community has been great it has done very little to raise the 17% home ownership rate and the 48% of residents making under $10,000 a year.

Across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard sits the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus. This ever expanding campus has done wonders for the southwestern edge of Downtown. The constraints of space however eventually took its toll on future plans for expansion, particularly in the Biotechnology field. The University took a bold leap of faith and decided to build its biotech park in Poppleton. Crossing west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was not something for the squeamish a few years ago. Never the less acquisition commenced and demolition began. In 2005 the first building opened. When completed the park was to have 6 office buildings with ground floor retail and a parking garage but pretty quickly the size was bumped up to 10 buildings. The second building is set to open this year. The park's location is on West Baltimore Street where new development is desperately needed.

In stark contrast to the Biotech Park is West Poppleton. All of the investment and development occurred and is occurring on the eastern edge of the neighborhood with frontage on M.L.K. Boulevard. West Poppleton is severely distressed with vacant boarded up homes and lots with trash strewn about. The question is Can West Poppleton rebound with the eastern edge in its current state? The current state of Poppleton's eastern edge is poor. It is almost exclusively low income housing. To attract new middle and upper income residents to an area where there are concentrations of poverty is a liability. My suggestion for the eastern edge of Poppleton is to create a broader income mix.

As public housing residents move out of Terraces the city can sell that unit at market rate or offer it as subsidized home ownership. Subsidized home ownership can be offered to existing terrace residents as well. Given that the Terraces are new homes their marketability is relatively easy. As it stands now Terraces have 250 public housing units and 100 market rate home ownership and 41 market rate rentals. What i'd like to see is 75 public housing units, 75 subsidized home ownership, 75 market rate rentals in addition to the 41 and 66 market rate home ownership in addition to the 100. Terraces has a peice of land with frontage on M.L.K. Boulevard that was never built on that can used for additional units. Now if the city sells off some of its public housing units it will have turned a profit right? Now how can the city spend this money to benefit the area? Redevelop Poe Homes? Yes, although modernized in 1989 Poe Homes is still the city's oldest public housing development and its units would be harder to sell than Terraces. In place of Poe Homes would be the mixed income community of Edgar Allan Place with a mix of income and housing types. The new development would reopen Poppleton St. between Lexington and Saratoga Streets where the current Poe Homes has it closed off. Income types would range from public housing and subsidized home ownership to market rate home ownership with an even split between the three. Housing types would be two two story town homes stacked over top of each other for four level structures and two story town homes over top of a one story apartment. One thing that happens when public housing or any blighted urban housing is torn down what goes in its place is of a lower density therefore suburbanizing it. The new Edagr Allan Place I'm proposing keeps density high maintaining its status as an urban neighborhood. The third low income development is the privately managed Poppleton Place. Poppleton Place just went through a renovation by its owners Hampstead Properties whose portfolio is exclusively low income developments. I don't propose changing Poppleton Place. Now that the concentration of poverty on the eastern edge of Poppleton has been broken up we can focus on the west side.

West Poppleton, although void of public housing has farred much worse. There are very few intact blocks that can be saved and sold for rehabbers. Also in West Poppleton are two schools housed in the same building. The schools are James McHenry Elementary and Southwest Baltimore Charter School. In my never ending quest to close and rebuild new city schools I have a plan for the site that the school(s) sit on. The current engulfs part of the block of Saratoga, Schroder, Carolton, and Lexington Streets. The current building would be torn and rebuilt to house additional school populations. In additional to James McHenry and the Southwest Baltimore Charter School, Lockerman Bundy and Franklin Square Elementaries resulting in their closures. The new school would be renamrd Poppleton Elementary/Middle and house grades PreK-8. In my other never ending quest to keep density high the new shcool would have underground parking and its playing fields on the roof. Back to housing since much of the housing has been demolished the only choice would be to build new. New housing would consist of town homes that are two to three stories maybe with an apartment or condo underneath to keep density high. Housing would be built to attract a diverse array of buyers and renters some of which will be working in the new Biotech park.

Now why haven't I talked about the Biotech park much in this post and only talked about the neoghborhood of Poppleton? Well the master plan for the Biotech park only addresses the Biotech park buildings and not the sourounding community. In stark contrast, the East Baltimore Biotech park does adress the issues of the sourounding neighborhood of Middle East by building and rehabbing 1200-1500 housing units as welll as retail, open space and a new a school. Now if the Poppleton Biotech park did this I wouldn't have to write this post and employees of the new Biotech park might actually move into Poppleton.

Oldtown Mall: You Tube Worthy

What would you do with Old Town Mall? That's the question that's on the mind of a few young women who travelled the severely vacant and distressed property with a video camera asked themselves and each other. Each member of the group put in their two cents about what would be done with the property and then they gave panoramic views of just how bad the property is. One can also that nobody else was there. The mall was trash ridden, the stores were shuddered and the center square with the mall's logo, was obsolete and dated. The video, two of them actually was submitted to you tube and while I was gathering info about Old Town Mall, I just happened upon it.First a brief history of Old Town. As its name suggests the neighborhood is old. It was one of Baltimore town's earliest settlements because of its proximity to the harbor and the Jones Falls. Throughout the 1800s Old Town played host to German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian immigrants. The neighborhood was poor and living conditions were rough but each group of immigrants persevered and eventually prospered. Once residents made enough money they left for a more prosperous neighborhood, usually uptown to the northwest and then a new poorer set of immigrants repopulated the neighborhood. During World War I the city's black population continued to grow and Old Town became a black neighborhood. Old Town, always being a working class neighborhood always thrived but being at the city's center it began to decline after World War II. As the flight to the suburbs got into full swing the population of Old Town swelled especially the poor population. Old East Baltimore plays host to the highest concentration of public housing in the city. As part of "blight elimination" and "urban renewal" of the 1960s Old Town Mall was built. Old Town Mall is a pedestrian only plaza that used to be the 400 and 500 blocks of Gay Street. Old Town Mall opened in the 1960s catering to the area's poor population. It was surrounded almost completely by public housing or privately owned subsidized housing. The mall catered to this and offered goods and services at discount prices. The architecture screams retro urban renewal of the 1960s and 70s. The never really thrived but it held its own for a while. It was spared during the riots following the MLK assignation.

A few things contributed to the down fall of Old Town Mall. First, the opening of Harborplace and the Gallery at the Inner Harbor. Although the glitzy new shops of the Inner Harbor didn't cater to the same market as Old Town Mall, there was a definite drop off in patronage. Second, crime since Old Town Mall is located in the middle of several low income housing development crime was almost inevitable. At this point I'd like to list just how many public housing developments are near Old Town Mall they are or in cases were; Flag House Courts, Lafayette Courts, Broadway Homes, Douglass Homes, Somerset Homes and Extention, Monument House, Latrobe Homes, Clay Courts, and Lester Morton Courts. This bring me to my third factor HOPE VI. Although HOPE VI helped with crime and blight in its targeted developments, it lowered the density in its targeted developments at the same time. Fewer people living near the area means fewer shoppers. Since the 1990s there have been proposals to redevelop Old Town Mall but nothing has to come to fruition. Lots of high hopes for the future turned into broken promises. Old Town Mall is about 70% vacant according to a recent article.One reason plans haven't left the drawing board is because they only contain the small pedestrian mall. What needs to be done is take a comprehensive look at the mall and the surrounding neighborhoods.My plan for redevelopment includes the entire Old Town Neighborhood, Penn Fallsway, and Douglass Homes. Current conditions can't support the businesses of Old Town Mall, so we change current conditions. Old Town is a neighborhood comprised almost exclusively of public housing, Penn Fallsway is nothing but office buildings with sprawling almost suburban like surface parking lots. Douglass Homes, located in the Dunbar Broadway neighborhood, which according to the 2000 census has a 40% vacancy rate. There are many things that can be favorable to this area. First, in Penn Fallsway there are many surface parking lots that can be used to increase density. Second, its proximity to Downtown.

The proposed demolition of the Jones Falls Expressway will make this area an extension of Downtown. Third, the proximity to mass transit. The Metro Subway runs underground and has a stop at the Shot Tower and Johns Hopkins Hospital. My plan includes creating an Old Town Mall station in between the two. Fourth, lack of historical buildings. The blight elimination of the 1960s and 1970s that created these deep concentrations of public housing and poverty demolished many buildings that could have been considered for historic designation. Old Town Mall and its suroundings today will hardly be missed. Lastly, the East Baltimore Biotech Park. The East Baltimore Biotech Park will have a domino effect on surounding areas thus creating a demand for housing of all types.Normally when public housing is demolished what goes in its place are fewer housing units at a lower density. In this case it will be just the opposite. When you add up the number of units demolished in Douglass Homes, Somerset Homes and Extension, Monument House and Latrobe Homes the number is staggering. Although the end result will mean fewer public housing units the overall number of units will be higher. The new development will use the traditional urban grid and contain mid to high rise apartments, condos, office buildings and a hotel, all with ground floor retail and underground parking garages. In short the site will be mixed use in and mixed income with some public housing units sprinkled throughout. Unlike Old Town and Penn Fallsway the Douglass Homes site will feature town homes with two floors stacked on top of each other for a total of four floors per structure. Since the Old Town Mall area isn't too close to the harbor it can get away with taller buildings. Baltimore's skyline will surely expand and cover more ground once complete.

Now what would you do with Old Town Mall? I look forward to watching your responses on You Tube!

Integration: Are We Finally Making Progress?

Integration is something that Baltimore, like many cities has been avoiding for centuries. Whites have always wanted to live near other whites and blacks have always tried to move into white neighborhoods causing the neighborhood to change from white to black. The 2000 census shows certain neighborhoods as bring very diverse and integrated. Could this be permanent integration or the beginning of resegregation?
After the Civil War Baltimore's black population exploded. Former slaves and free blacks alike migrated from the south looking for work. The same can be said about whites from the south. At the turn of the century, the city drew lines of where blacks can live that generally "hugged" Downtown on the east and west. What is now known as "Old West Baltimore" was one of these areas. Old West Baltimore consists of Harlem Park, Franklin Square, Sandtown Winchester, Upton, Madison Park, and Druid Heights. Blacks lived in areas near Old West Baltimore with whites in Poppleton and Penn North as well. On the East side, at first consisted of what is now known as Oldtown, Penn Fallsway, Oliver, Johnston Square, Gay Street, and Dunbar Broadway. A few other black neighborhoods came in to existence like Mount Winans, Morgan Park and Cherry Hill. The city's original black settlement is Sharp-Leadenhall which is in the midst of the gentrified neighborhoods of Otterbein and Federal Hill. Not sursprisingly, as was the case with other cities Baltimore's black neighborhoods became overcrowded, once grand row homes were divided into apartments allowing for denser living conditions. Deterioration set in as well and after World War II blacks were on the move.
Those who could afford it moved into white neighborhoods in hopes of integration. Post World War II America was not ready for integration and Baltimore was no different. As blacks began to show up in white neighborhoods change was afoot. In a few short years entire neighborhoods turned from completely white to black. West Baltimore's demographics changed much quicker and covered more ground than the east side where it was more gradual. First on the west side from 1945-1955 was the Greater Rosemont/Coppin Heights area up to Gwynns Falls Park and Park Circle. From 1950-1955 it was the Walbrook/Mondowmin area. From 1955-1960 it was Allendale, Uplands, Forest Park, and Windsor Hills. From 1960-1965 it was Edmondson Village, Rognel Heights, Penrose/Fayette Street Outreach and Reservoir Hill. From 1965-1970 it was Park Heights, Upper Howard Park, and Westport Homes. From 1970-1975 it was Lower Howard Park, Irvington, and Carroll South Hilton. The sudden change from white to black was no accident, this was carefully planned by a few greedy real estate agents looking to cash in white fear and the housing shortages for endured by blacks. The agents were known as "Blockbusters", they got whites to sell low and blacks to buy high and they kept the difference. Knowing that a black family on their block would instill panic in the white neighborhoods the block was "busted" and within five years the block would be resegregated as a black neighborhood. In 1968 blockbusting was outlawed but the behavoir similar to blockbusting would continue for decades to come.
On the east side, as I said before change was more gradual. A big reason for this was the white neighborhoods were poor to working class rather than the middle class ones in the west side. Whites couldn't afford to pick up and move to the suburbs. On the other hand, like their westside cohort, they didn't like the idea of integration so eventual resegregation was the order of the day. From 1950-1960 it was Berea, Broadway East, Barclay, and East Baltimore Midway. From 1960-1970 it was Coldstream Homestead Montebello and Harwood. From 1970-1980 it was Jonestown, Washington Hill, and Middle East. In the 1980s and into the 1990s it was Govans, Waverly, and McElderry Park. During the 1990s it was Bealir Edison and Upper Reisterstown Road.

During the 1990s is when there was a turning point in integration. The trend of black settlement in all white neighborhoods continued but white flight was much less evident. There may have been initial flight by a few but long time white residents stayed as well as new white settlement. This can be attributed to a new generation of urban pioneers staking their claim in Baltimore. These new urban pioneers could have come from Washington D.C., Philadelphia, or New York where race relations are a little better. Not all neighborhoods are privy to black settlement but the tide has certainly turned. Neighborhoods who have embraced black settlement include Union Square, Hollins Market, Pigtown, The Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville, Hamilton, Mount Vernon, Charles Village, Hunting Ridge and Ten Hills. It hasn't just been blacks settling in white neighborhoods there has also been white settlement in black neighborhoods as well. Reservoir Hill, Jonestown, Station North, Govans, Washington Hill, and McElderry Park have seen new white residents buying vacant homes or warehouse spaces and rehabbing them. The increase of diversity within neighborhoods is not just confined to blacks and whites. Both east and west of Patterson Park there has been a huge Hispanic population surge. Unfortunately this may not be permanent. The soaring property values of the real estate boom may price this new Hispanic population out of these neighborhoods.

Baltimore has made huge strides toward integration in the past 15 or so years but the fact of the matter is many neighborhoods are still segregated. However, I do think that this trend of integration will continue into the future. Black settlement will continue into outer city neighborhoods and white flight will be minimal. White settlement will continue in inner city neighborhoods as the Inner Harbor momentum spreads and projects like the East Baltimore Biotech Park, Transit Oriented Development, and artist designation continues. As far as integration making progress I believe we've made progress but not perfection.

Mixed Income Neighborhoods: Their Past Present and Future

Mixed Income neighborhoods is something that has been the talk of the town for quite some time now. Fist a little history of Baltimore's income distribution. I 'm using the term "little" very loosely here but to truly understand the complexity of Baltimore's income distribution throughout its neighborhoods and suburbs one must understand the past.Once upon a time mixed income neighborhoods were the only neighborhoods in Baltimore. Baltimore's oldest neighborhoods contained the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. As more and more immigrants came through Locust Point Baltimore became overcrowded, those who could afford it moved northwest into new "gentleman's" communities such as Franklin Square, Union Square, Bolton Hill, Lafayette Square/Harlem Park, Sandtown Winchester and Upton. The poor and middle class also expanded beyond the harbor and into modest row homes in what is now referred to "Old East Baltimore" and were centered around Patterson Park.
The upper class gentleman's communities of old West Baltimore were generally home to families whose ancestors immigrated from Germany generations ago and were Protestant while the working class communities of East Baltimore featured a diverse array of European Immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Greece and Russia and were of the Jewish and Catholic faiths many of whom, if they were lucky got jobs at Bethlehem Steel. Back then North Avenue was the city's northern border. In 1888 the city expanded its borders to the north and west the their northern and western borders are today.
The developers and population chose to go north first. With the annexation came the already thriving Mill Village of Hampden Woodberry comprised of working class southern transplants. City annexation turned this rural county enclave to a working class city neighborhood almost overnight. Well I've tried to avoid it but I feel I must bring it up: race. One can't discuss the distribution of income levels without the discussion of race. Sharp Ladenhall was the city's first black neighborhood located in South Baltimore. After the civil war migration from the south was not just whites looking to work in Hampden. Many ex-slaves and their decedents migrated to Baltimore as well. Not only did Baltimoreans at the turn of the century not want mixed income neighborhoods they also didn't want mixed race neighborhoods. Baltimore drew boundaries of where blacks were allowed to rent and buy homes (which was frowned upon). One way these newly created black neighborhoods differed from white Baltimore was trying to accomplish was that they were mixed income.
That's when these neighborhoods thrived, blacks poor, middle class, and elite whether they fled from the south or had been living in Baltimore for generations all lived side by side. Needless to say when blacks were allowed to buy in Old West Baltimore and what was then Northeast Baltimore the whites in those neighborhoods fled. Where did they flee? You ask? They fled above North Avenue the city's former northern border. Those living in Old East Baltimore, who immigrated here more recently moved northwest to Reservoir Hill, Penn North, Mondowmin, and Walbrook. Those living in Old West Baltimore whose means were more considerable than their East Baltimore cohort moved to the posh new enclaves of Peabody Heights (Now Charles Village), Roland Park, Homeland, Guilford and Lake Walker.
Now in 1888 the city voted to expand its boundaries to the north and west but I've only really talked about development and movement to the north. Well that's because up until World War I that's the only part of the city's new land that was utilized. Reservoir Hill, Guilford, and Roland Park although within the city were considered suburbs and they set the standard for development for Baltimore and Nationwide. Just as development begins on Baltimore's new western edge there's more annexation.
In 1918 Baltimore city largely became as it is today by moving its boundaries to the northeast including the farming villages of Govanstowne, Lauraville, Anthonyville, Hamilton, and Gardenville. Almost immediately after the annexation came Homestead village, the area's first middle class row house suburb. Whether it's west, northwest, north, or northeast using existing roads as their guidelines development began at break neck speeds from World War I to the mid 1950s. During this time period Baltimore's middle class exploded in numbers and builders were all too pleased to capitalize on it. Row house communities were dubbed "streetcar suburbs" due to their proximity to streetcar lines. They included Edmondson Village, Park Heights, Coldstream Homestead Montebello and Belair Edison. Single family homes were generally located further from the city center, were aimed at slightly wealthier buyers, and were built after World War II. No matter the income levels if it was built after World War II in the city it was overlooked.

After World War II the city's population swelled, neighborhoods became overcrowded especially in the older working class neighborhoods white or black. Even though the city's black population multiplied many times over the boundaries in which they could live had barely changed since the turn of the century. Cherry Hill was built during the depression but that was a mere drop in the bucket. In what seemed like the blink of an eye these outer city communities turned from completely white to completely black.
The original black neighborhoods were the only mixed income neighborhoods at that time and when block busting occurred, those who could afford it left for middle class neighborhoods like Forest Park, Park Heights, Walbrook Junction, Edmondson Village, Barclay, Waverly, and Coldstream Homestead Montebello. In the older neighborhoods the population was literally draining yet the number of residents living in poverty swelled. The solution to this was the public housing high rises. The high rises never really succeeded. Almost immediately after they were built they had problems ranging from poor maintenance to violent crime to open air drug markets. Worst of all the problems from these high rises didn't stay there, they had a rippling effect on the surrounding neighborhoods.The deterioration of the high rises, the widespread poverty caused by the flight to the suburbs became a turning point for Baltimore. Unlike other cities at the time Baltimore focused its redevelopment efforts on its Downtown rather than its residential neoghborhoods. Whether or not this was a good move is debatable. Sure Charles Center, the Inner Harbor, homesteading in Otterbein and Federal Hill have been a huge success having a ripple effect from Canton to Hampden, from Pigtown to Patterson Park, from Mount Vernon to Fels Point and Charles Village to Little Italy.Now wait a minute weren't these neighborhoods the original mixed income neighborhoods that Baltimore's elite and middle class fled during the 1800s for these "new" gentlemen 's communities that are now almost all slums? Yes, I'm afraid so for at least a little while these neighborhoods became and or are still mixed income neighborhoods.However,these neighborhoods due to the real estate market surge and their proximity to the harbor. Long term residents were driven out due to the real estate taxes associated with the value of the property. Neighborhoods that were once home to the nitty gritty working poor are now home to countless young urban professionals or yuppies.

In the 1990s Maryland Senator Barbara Makulski championed a bill that would get rid of public housing high rises and replace them with brand new mixed income town home and/or garden condo communities. The program was named Hope VI. Baltimore got its fare share of Hope VI funds over the years replacing six dilapidated high rises with brand new mixed income town home communities. The first two communities replaced Lafayette Courts and Lexington Terrace with Pleasant View Gardens and Townes at the Terraces respectively. These two communities although they've been a huge improvement over their predecessors have one big problem; too many of the new housing units are public housing. Sooner or later the same problems from the high rises will come back. The Good news is the newer Hope VI developments are a more even split between public housing, market rate rental, subsidized home ownership, and market rate home ownership. These communities will more than likely succeed better in the long run.

Now what's next? What does the future hold for mixed income communities? Well as much as it's needed I don't for see it coming to the neighborhoods surrounding the Inner Harbor. Currently the Uplands apartment complex and two thirds of O'Donell Heights are being torn down for mixed income communities. The neighborhoods surrounding the East Baltimore Biotech Park will serve a mix of incomes seeing as the employees hired there will make a range of incomes. There are a few areas of Old West Baltimore that I'd like to see an income mix added. Sandtown Winchester, with the support of the enterprise has made tremendous advances in building new affordable and a more optimistic community with it.

The new housing has been almost exclusively been subsidized home ownership, (something that the city as a whole is lacking.) which has done a lot to stabilize the community. The next step for Sandtown would be to develop vacant lots and rehab existing vacant homes to attract middle and upper income buyers. Similar to Sandtown is Druid Heights. Druid Heights though much smaller is redeveloping a generous portion of its housing stock for affordable housing. Druid Heights isn't as far along in its redevelopment as Sandtown is. When the community stabilizes as Sandtown seems to have (no murders this year) Druid Heights can start shifting its focus to middle and upper income buyers.

Well there you have it Baltimore began as a mixed income city and although it strayed away from it for a couple hundred years it looks like it will be one once again.

Say Goodbye to Pimlico and Park Heights as We Know Them

My Pictures Coming Soon

First a little bit of history of the Park Heights neighborhood. This neighborhood came up from the 1920s to the 1940s as Jews continued to migrate Northwest from East Baltimore. Park Heights just like Edmondson Village was a streetcar suburb. Park Heights thrived as a middle class Jewish community until the mid 1960s. As blacks migrated from the same slums as their Jewish cohort white flight in sued and by 1970 the neighborhood was almost entirely black. Edmondson Village has always been thought of as the poster child for block busting and complete racial turnover. In fact Park Heights did it in roughly half the time of Edmondson Village. Edmondson Village's turnover took 10 years (1955-1965) while Park Heights was 5 (1965-1970). Not only was Park Height's racial turnover quicker than Edmondson Village but it also decayed quicker. This my have little to do with the neighborhood itself. Since Edmondson Village changed earlier than Park Heights which gave it the ability to thrive as a black community. By the time Park Heights changed urban America was decaying faster than ever. The rise of the Black Panthers, The Building of interstate highways, public housing high rises, the MLK Jr. riots accelerated urban decay nationwide in the late 1960s through the 1970s. One thing that Park Heights always had in its favor was and is the Pimlico racecourse, home of the Preakness. But could the crown and jewel of the Park Heights community be holding it back? Read on and you may in for a shock.......

Photo From Google Earth

Park Heights has been a troubled neighborhood for close to 40 years now. Pimlico race course home of the famed Preakness and little else is easily its biggest attribute but it may be the biggest thing holding it back. There have been many proposals over the years to either build relocate or build more on the Pimlico site. I think that Pimlico should be relocated in a more desirable location for tourism. Some have said Pigtown for the new race course but I don't think it's a good idea to buy up Pigtown and destroy a neighborhood that has made so much progress in the past few years. People are right on the money when they say southwest of Downtown and the existing stadiums. I have four words to solve the issue: Carroll Camden Industrial Park. What better way to complement the new Gateway South development and the reconfigured Russel Street? The amount of vacant and underutilized land in that area is more than enough to build a new arena and services like hotels to go with it. It's near the blue line, the new Orange Line and MARC lines of mass transit as well.

Photo From Google Earth

Now back to Park Heights, like I said a minute ago the neighborhood is in bad shape. Violent Crime, Gangs, Drugs, AIDS lack of services on the public and private level and block after block of vacant dilapidated houses to name a few. However Park Heights has a lot that can and will be done to and it is poised to make a major come back in the not to distant future. As I mentioned before Pimlico racetrack would be moved and in its place would be a mix of offices and new housing. The Park Heights Master Plan created by the city says the site can accommodate 1,000,000 square feet of Office Space, 3000 to 5000 new jobs and 1,000 new housing units at the same time. Also the Park Heights Master Plan calls for a huge chuck of vacant housing to be redeveloped in the center of the neighborhood. This part of the neighborhood is in the worst shape 900 housing units 850 of which are vacant and rotting. In its place will be a brand new mixed income development with apartments, condos, town homes, and detached homes. The commercial nodes in the neighborhood will also be redeveloped with a full service grocery store, an Enoch Pratt Free Library, and better neighborhood services.

Now for the fun stuff the Park Heights Master Plan doesn't cover.
Photo From Google Earth

First lets talk public housing. There are two public housing developments in the Park Heights Neighborhood. Oswego Mall, a small row house development near Park Circle has got to go, the violence and drug activity has gotten out of control that redevelopment is the only alternative. In its place will be new market rate home ownership town homes. The homes surrounding Oswego Mall will instantly be stabilized a more desirable address.

Photo From Google Earth

The second public housing development is BelPark Towers, a 274 unit high rise located in the middle of a row house neighborhood. Although not nearly as violent as the previous HOPE VI developments this will be redeveloped in the same manor. In its place will be brand new town homes that are two levels stacked over top of one another making the structures four levels. They will be a mix of subsidized home ownership and public housing a 50-50 split to be exact. Traffic conditions may slightly improve with the new development as well. Nelson Avenue and Cordelia Avenue will now connect with each other which they don't as of right now when BelPark Towers was built. With town homes instead of a high rise apartment building the neighborhood will be back to scale.

Photo From Google Earth

Now lets talk Northern Parkway and transit oriented development(TOD). The Park Heights Master Plan suggests that there is limited TOD opportunities in the Park Heights neighborhood. I strongly disagree with this because I don't believe the Wabash Avenue corridor should remain industrial. I go into much further detail on my Wabash Avenue post. The Northern Parkway corridor in the Park Heights and Howard Park neighborhoods leaves something to the imagination. The road itself will be narrowed to two lanes to provide room for sidewalks and a bike lane. Streetscape enhancements will include asphalt pavement instead of cement, brick crosswalk, landscaped medians with neatly manicured plantings and flowers, and additional lighting both on either side of the street and in the medians. Back to TOD, Park Heights has the advantage of being served very nicely by both the Blue Line and the Green Line. Like I've said in almost all of my posts, I believe that these existing transit lines should be barried underground to improve the flow of traffic, higher rail speeds, and the freeing up of land at ground level for development. There is ample land for development in addition to Wabash Avenue, there is space on Northern Parkway throughout Park Heights and Howard Park.

Photo From Google Earth

The new development on the former Pimilico will have Northern Parkway frontage. Opposite what is currently the Pimlico racetrack is the Glen/Mount Washington neighborhood. There is very little development in Glen and Mount Washington that actually faces Northern Parkway but for very good reason. During the interstate planning and building era neighborhoods used limited access parkways to try to distance themselves from decaying neighborhoods. But with the new mixed use development I'm proposing I would like to see this swath of land developed as another mixed use development to compliment its counterpart to the south. One thing that is one the other side of Northern Parkway is the soon to be former Pimlico Middle School. This represents even more available land on this side of Northern Parkway.

Photo From Google Earth

Further down Northern Parkway is the Seton Business Park. It's all to obvious that this was built in the 1970s and today it's one of the ugliest Business Parks in Central Maryland. Redevelopment will transform this eyesore to an Office Park that will give Canton Crossing a run for its money.

Photo From the Barclay Master Plan

Lastly I'd like to focus on social issues. Until now all I've talked about is physical redevelopment. Most importantly Park Heights has the one of the highest occurance of HIV and AIDS in the country, a large contributer to this is not sexual but dirty needles. It's no secret that drug addiction including herion is a major problem. One solution that I'm advocating is the needle exchange program. This is very controversial because critics say that it encourages drug use. I personally do not encourgae drug use and neither do the majority of politicians who are in favor of this. Needle exchange is the lesser ofd two evils,although it does nothing for the drug epidemic it does a lot to slow down the AIDS epidemic. It's the same people who turn their noses at the needle exchange program who try to stop condom give aways at high schools because it encourages teen sex. Condoms just like clean needles stop the spread of AIDS and teen pregnancy. Now that I've got babies on the brain I'd like to talk about the infant mortality rate. Park Heights has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. This has a lot to do with the environment their mothers are exposed to. Mothers don't have access to health care, fresh healthy food and are more likely to addicts which in turn makes their baby an addict. With the exception of addiction the health of the mother and the rest of the population can be solved almost exclusively by the physical redevelopment aspect. Physical redevelopment can usher better services like better grocery stores, free clinics, and WIC centers. Now lets talk education, the elementary schools score relatively well considering their city schools but are still pretty terrible. I did a post a while back on school construction so refer to that when it comes the school buildings themselves. When it comes to test scores and the high drop out rate I got nothing.
Education woes aside I think we can say goodbye to Pimlico and Park Heights as we know them and they won't be missed.

Baltimore Has a Crime Problem!

Well thank you captain obvious! It does however merit a discussion. I grew up in Columbia which is right in between Baltimore and D.C. Our T.V. even gets both network stations so we get to pick which local to watch. Both cities struggle with large amounts of crime especially in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up. I guess living in between these two cities I assumed that all big cities have this constant permanent wave of violent crime. Needless to say I was wrong and nieve, perhaps I was just living in a bubble, a crime filled bubble.
Now the question is how to get crime back down again. First lets start off with a recent history of crime in Baltimore. There was plenty of crime before the 1960s but it was then that crime became more widespread and frequent.
As white flight to the suburbs occurred neighborhoods became repopulated with African American residents who bought their homes at inflated prices. The riots after the assination of Martin Luther King made once stable neighborhoods crumble.
Baltimore's urban renewal of the 1960s, 70s and 80s consisted primarily of Charles Center, Inner Harbor and surrounding neighborhoods. Neighborhoods without waterfront access along with their remaining residents were left to crumble.
The 1990s brought attention to neighborhoods other than those surrounding the harbor. Improvements were made in scattered areas throughout the city.
The 2000s is when the biggest crime reduction occurred. The murder rate is what still remains high.
There is no solution to truly get rid of crime especially gun violence. Different Mayors have had very stances on violent crime and how to get it down. Kurt Schmoke was soft on crime. Now that's not entirely true, he tried to examine the social situations that "cause" crime. During the 1990s Baltimore's crime rate remained high while other large cities' crime plummeted. The opposite can be said about population, while other cities in the 1990s gained population Baltimore continued to lose population.
In 2000 Martin O'Malley was elected on the premise that he would cut the murder rate in half. Although the murder rate went down considerably during Mayor O'Malley's tenure it wasn't but in half. One can say that O'Malley shot himself in the foot by giving such precise number of how much he would cut violent crime. Unlike Schmoke O'Malley was seen as "tough" on crime and was "cracking down." Today Martin O'Malley with the help of yours truly is Governor of our fair state. City Council President Sheila Dixon is currently serving as Mayor. Mayor Dixon may not be able to make a name for herself because the mayoral election is this November and she was sworn in as Mayor this past January. From 2000-2004 Baltimore's murder rate was lowered but it slowly crept up in 2005 but then in 2006 and so far this year forget it, it's out of control. Sheila Dixon seems to be more like Schmoke when it comes to crime.

I personally think that when it comes a Mayor's stance on crime he/she can have their cake and eat it too. You can explore the roots of what makes a criminal while at the same time punishing and cracking down on offenders and sending them to prison. I don't personally believe that a persons living situation makes them a criminal.There are many people who live in Baltimore's most crime ridden neighborhoods and grow up to be honest hard working members of society. On the flip side there are who grow up in the best of circumstances and turn to a life of drugs and crime. The Baltimore City Police Department has had a revolving door of Police Commissioners during the O'Malley years with charges of corruption and domestic violence causing them to resign. One thing residents are asking for is more police foot patrols. I couldn't agree more. Just driving around in a police cruiser doesn't give officers enough of an idea of what's going on the neighborhood. There have been many arrests but few have led to charges. Either the Police Department is making too many arrests or the Judicial System is throwing out too many cases. Surveillance cameras have taken the city by storm ever since 9/11. Homeland Security is partially picking up the tab for some of these even though terrorist attacks are the last thing that would happen in most of these neighborhoods. Some complain that the cameras aren't doing their jobs because violent crime remains high.The cameras have however gotten petty crime suspects caught such as robbery, car thefts, drug deals, open bottles, smoking marijuana. The media doesn't report these so it's easy to see that the cameras don't work. The aforementioned crimes are the vast majority of crimes in the city. If there's a reduction in those crimes which there has been neighborhoods can appear safer.

Nothing can really bring down the murder rate. We can stem the tide of young violent criminals by increasing the number of after school activities and tutoring to keep kids in school and give them a sense of self worth. Getting to the youth of the city before gang members do maybe the only hope for getting the murder rate down.