CityLab blasted Gov. Larry Hogan for trumpeting a $700 million investment in ridding West Baltimore of blighted vacants after killing the $1.235 billion Red Line.
The web magazine called bull on Hogan’s claim that he squashed the transportation project that would have connected West Baltimore residents with East Baltimore job opportunities to save the state money, pointing out that “he simply shifted all of those funds to improving roads and highways … everywhere in Maryland except Baltimore.”
In announcing Project C.O.R.E., a $700 million project to demolish and redevelop vacant buildings in West Baltimore, Hogan told residents: “We have heard your calls for action.”
CityLab argues that Hogan didn’t demonstrate those same listening skills when he nixed the Red Line, a project that had been planned since 2002 and took “a lot of convincing” to get residents to trust the government would follow through.
Vernice Miller-Travis, who was involved with the organization of Red Line “strategizing sessions” among West Baltimore neighborhood associations told CityLab she had “never seen public transportation planning as thorough as what was done for the Red Line.”
