Revitalization In Baltimore City Revitalization

Register to read the introduction… Then there’s the whole other race factor: Is concern over “income levels” and “demographic change” just gloss for an underlying assumption—that neighborhoods go south when white people move out and black people move in.
If that isn’t enough to roil the revitalization waters, this emerging shift in neighborhood policy rings all kinds of alarm bells about gentrification and social engineering. Baltimore has avoided such prickly issues for the last decade with a community development approach under former Mayor Kurt Schmoke that favored the most decayed sectors in the city. Now, as Mayor Martin O’Malley’s administration begins formulating a new approach that gives greater consideration to neighborhoods that haven’t yet deteriorated those tricky issues threaten to surface. That has raised fears in some quarters of a polemical battle. But a surprising number of community leaders and activist—including some in the most blighted neighborhoods—recognize it’s a long-overdue change in direction, and they point to 12 years of stasis to make their point (“Turf …show more content…
Dozens of decaying drug infested communities remain unaltered, only communities like Canton and Federal Hill that have the potential to draw the attention of the upper class sector of citizens are even mentioned in the plans for revitalization (“Turf Wars”). Most of the remaining lower class citizens are relocated to several of the city’s remaining indigent communities like Patterson Park and Sandtown or the surrounding counties. Many residents are unable to afford the high costs of city living due to the process of gentrification that is currently underway in Baltimore City (“Rent Control”). Baltimore City’s remaining neighborhoods continue to fight for funding of the revitalization projects in their communities. Many areas are intentionally targeted for decay so that large companies are able to purchase enormous amounts of land at nominal fees. This is taken place in the areas surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital and Television …show more content…
And thus, the audience accepts a policy that does nothing to solve the drug problem and creates a pretext for wholesale eviction of the poorest neighborhoods. The announcement of a forum to discuss the new shopping center covers the economics portion of the meeting………… And then came “revitalization” (a.k.a. gentrification). Real estate developers and politicians promise the population an economic recovery if they will support (or at least tolerate) these development schemes. One of the first was the Inner Harbor project in the 70’s, which converted much of Baltimore’s waterfront area into a playground for tourist and college students to blow disposable income at trendy restaurants and