Gov. Larry Hogan already closed Baltimore’s decrepit men’s jail. Now, the state and city governments are looking to wipe out some of the city’s big swaths of vacant properties.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake stood together in Sandtown-Winchester to announce a new plan to demolish the vacant properties. Known as Project C.O.R.E, includes funding for thousands of demolitions and potential development opportunities.
Over the next four years, Hogan said the state will spend $75 million on demolition, and is expected to receive in-kind donations from the city to put the number up to $94 million. In the first year, officials are estimating that they can make 20 city blocks blight-free. They’re targeting “as many full blocks of blight as possible” throughout the project. The first block on the docket is the 1000 block of N. Stricker St., an entire block that’s slated for demolition. It’s located in Sandtown, where Freddie Gray grew up.
Once demolition is complete, the properties could remain as green space. But the state is also contributing $600 million toward financing opportunities that’s designed to encourage private entities to redevelop the land. Hogan said affordable housing, retail and small businesses are examples of some potential new uses for the property.
There are about 16,000 vacant buildings in Baltimore City, and another 14,000 vacant lots. The boarded up rowhouses are markers of the city’s population loss, and can notoriously become havens for drugs and crime. The blight also depresses home values in the areas where they are located, and provide a home for the city’s unwanted rats.
“Transforming vacant homes and vacant buildings into inviting green space and livable new developments is a critical part of our goal of attracting 10,000 new families to Baltimore City and dramatically improving the quality of life for current city residents,” the mayor said.
The new funds from the state will add to the city’s existing, multi-pronged program to address blight. Called Vacants to Value, the program has received national praise. But a recent independent report by the Abell Foundation found that the city’s overall number of vacants still increased over the first four years of the program.
“The continued growth is not due to lack of program success, rather it is because of a lack of jobs, decades of disinvestment and population loss, a lack of financing, and a limited response by a government strained by a lack of resources,” the Abell Foundation report states.
Here are some questions we ought to ask. From BRACE: The Baltimore Redevelopment Action Coalition for Empowerment
1. What input did Baltimore residents have in creating this plan? How many neighborhood meetings were held?
2. With $94 million to be spent on demolition and $600 million to be spent on redevelopment, the spending will be heavily titled towards new development. By clearing land and offering massive development incentives, it seems likely this program will promote neighborhood turnover and gentrification (especially with the mayor’s stated goal of attracting 10,000 new families). How will current residents be protected from displacement?
3. Why is the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) engaged in city demolition? What city hiring criteria will be put in place so that Baltimore residents can be employed by the MSA in this project?
4. What environmental demolition protocols will be followed to protect residents and workers from the lead dust in the air that will arise due to demolition?
5. Also in terms of employment, are there opportunities for Baltimore residents to gain employment through brownfield rehabilitation (based on the lead dust and maybe other toxic pollutants that will be kicked in the air)?
6. Will funds from the Rental Assistance Demonstration (derived from the sales of public housing developments for the purpose of making critical repairs) be used to provide financing for Project C.O.R.E. developers?
7. Will Project C.O.R.E. development activity take place on land sold via the Rental Assistance Demonstration?
8. What role will affected communities and existing residents play in the envisioning, planning, and developing of the neighborhood revitalization?
9. Will Project C.O.R.E. developments feature community ownership in full or partially through mechanisms such as community land trust?
10. What measures will be put in place in order to affirmatively further fair housing in the Project C.O.R.E.-financed developments?