When will "native" Baltimoreans take responsibility for the death of this city? (foreclose, appliances)

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by atariwhizkid

Decent history of the Metro Subway: Baltimore Metro Subway

A tear comes to my eyes everytime I look at that map..*sigh* what a great city we would have had if most of these lines were built..(the exception being the orange line...not sure of the purpose of that one).. The Green Line deserves a Willie Don.. 'DO IT NOW' memo as does the light rail loop around downtown. The Red Line is OK.. maybe they should just take it from Woodlawn to downtown.. drop the Canton section and shift the funds to the Green Line (at least to Fullerton at the Beltway) and the downtown Light Rail Loop.. which could double as the Charles Street Streetcar that is in limbo

[Curiousdriver11]

Well, Washington DC is not much better off. It only looks like it is because of a few megarich people living in there and the fact that its property values are sky high. The cost of living there is pretty high as well, so the working class there are worse off than those in Baltimore. That was for the people who feel that Baltimore stays alive only because of Washington. I agree that Baltimore could do with much more political transparency as well as responsibility from both politicians and citizens. Transparency is the key word (especially seeing what happened to the last mayor).

[boreatwork]

Originally Posted by Curiousdriver11

Well, Washington DC is not much better off. It only looks like it is because of a few megarich people living in there and the fact that its property values are sky high. The cost of living there is pretty high as well, so the working class there are worse off than those in Baltimore. That was for the people who feel that Baltimore stays alive only because of Washington. I agree that Baltimore could do with much more political transparency as well as responsibility from both politicians and citizens. Transparency is the key word (especially seeing what happened to the last mayor).

Baltimore allows too much degeneracy. DC makes progress. compared to the 90's DC was far worse than bmore. Not ne more

[legalsea]

I will always remember the Baltimore Colts, led by Johnny Unitas.

[B.K.]

My uncle in DC is a former president of both the Illinois Central and Amtrak. Since his retirement he has done planning and consulting work for passenger rail transport systems all over the world:China, South America, Canada, eastern-Europe, the middle-East, and of course the USA. In 1990 he was asked to review Baltimore's planned Light Rail system. He told the powers that be that the system was obsolete on paper, and would be of service to virtually no-one (remember, this was at a time when the city had a population of 110,000 more than it does now). Using city, state and (mostly of course) Federal tax dollars the city built it anyway. The result? Ridership is less than 25% of the city's projections, year after year. For the first five years of its existence the Light Rail didn't even go to BWI. For nearly two years in the 2000's much of it was unusable while "double tracking" was going on. (With ineffable Baltimore logic/political greed/corruption, the thought seemed to be, "Well, since no-one's using it now, why don't we just double the number of rails already available?") Does anyone else remember how most of Hunt Valley Mall's stores closed following the huge spike in shoplifting when the Light Rail stop there opened? The one that resulted in the temporary closing/bypassing of this stop entirely? I see the projected East-West lines falling into the same quagmire of great expense, non-usage and massive inconvenience to the affected neighborhoods.

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by B.K.

My uncle in DC is a former president of both the Illinois Central and Amtrak. Since his retirement he has done planning and consulting work for passenger rail transport systems all over the world:China, South America, Canada, eastern-Europe, the middle-East, and of course the USA. In 1990 he was asked to review Baltimore's planned Light Rail system. He told the powers that be that the system was obsolete on paper, and would be of service to virtually no-one (remember, this was at a time when the city had a population of 110,000 more than it does now). Using city, state and (mostly of course) Federal tax dollars the city built it anyway. The result? Ridership is less than 25% of the city's projections, year after year. For the first five years of its existence the Light Rail didn't even go to BWI. For nearly two years in the 2000's much of it was unusable while "double tracking" was going on. (With ineffable Baltimore logic/political greed/corruption, the thought seemed to be, "Well, since no-one's using it now, why don't we just double the number of rails already available?") Does anyone else remember how most of Hunt Valley Mall's stores closed following the huge spike in shoplifting when the Light Rail stop there opened? The one that resulted in the temporary closing/bypassing of this stop entirely? I see the projected East-West lines falling into the same quagmire of great expense, non-usage and massive inconvenience to the affected neighborhoods.

That is what pisses so many people off.. everything is done per Political Greed not what makes sense or what will benefit the community. I had a wise old politco once tell me that his constituents dont care about him getting kick backs and graft.. as long as he gets in on the back end. Nine times out of ten if the community benefits at large from a project or a development.. residents could care less who gets 'paid' off of it. If you think about it.. its sad but true. In Baltimore however, its the other way around.. a project wont make it off of the drafting table unless the politcos and their buddies get their kick back or first dibs and the gravy. If they dont get it.. it goes no where and thats why so much of what happens here seems incomplete, wreckless and thoughtless.. its politically driven instead of community driven.

[maxgrace]

Originally Posted by Lil Tunechi

Baltimore is a sh**hole.

With that said there is nothing that can revitalize it, unless the trading and manufacturing industry picks back up. I don't mean to sound cocky but D.C. is the only reason Baltimore is still hanging on.

Sure DC, but there's also Northrup Grumman and BWI and Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Mead that surround the city. Oh yeah, and a little institution called Johns Hopkins. Don't forget the University of Maryland Medical College and Loyolla and Goucher and Towson and Morgan State. And Legg Mason.

And the Ravens.

When was the last time DC had Indy cars screaming around The Mall?

I'll take Fells Point over Adams Morgan any day of the week. But I will give you Brickskeller's over Max's.

In summary, you are wrong on both counts.

[boreatwork]

Originally Posted by maxgrace

Sure DC, but there's also Northrup Grumman and BWI and Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Mead that surround the city. Oh yeah, and a little institution called Johns Hopkins. Don't forget the University of Maryland Medical College and Loyolla and Goucher and Towson and Morgan State. And Legg Mason.

And the Ravens.

When was the last time DC had Indy cars screaming around The Mall?

I'll take Fells Point over Adams Morgan any day of the week. But I will give you Brickskeller's over Max's.

In summary, you are wrong on both counts.

I hope they can pave the streets as a benefit for those indy cars

[SOBOJO]

Baltimore's problems come from both ends of the socio-economic sphere. The working middle class has been pushed out of the city. Once stable working class neighborhoods have either had section 8 housing forced upon it by the city braintrusts which has caused urban flight or it has allowed large developers to go unchecked causing massive overdevelopment and gentrification in the cities oldest and most stable heighborhoods.

The densely populated gentrified areas of South Baltimore and Canton/Fells Point now provide 80% of the cities tax revenue. These folks on the high end of the income scale pay for the services of those on the lower. The end result is that the working middle class that built this once great city have mostly been forced to the suburbs. Keep in mind that the gentrified areas although they look good are not really stable because the mostly young professionals seldom stay when there offspring becomes of school age!

If the economy continues to slid or if the next crop of twenty or thirtysomethings professionals decide that ADVENTURE LIVING (Cily Living) is not for them? God knows what will happen to Baltimore

[rudy_d]

Originally Posted by SOBOJO

The densely populated gentrified areas of South Baltimore and Canton/Fells Point now provide 80% of the cities tax revenue.

As someone who loves data, you piqued my interest with this statement. It turns out that it's not even remotely true. According to the stats, Ward 27, which covers a large swath of North Baltimore (and includes neighborhoods such as Guilford and Homeland), pays about 25% of all property taxes. The second highest is ward 26, which covers most of NE Baltimore.

Canton is in Ward 1 and Federal Hill is in Ward 24. I'm sure that the average property tax residents of those neighborhoods pay is much higher than the city average, but the neighborhoods are relatively small in relation to the overall size of the city.

Total City Taxes by Ward | OpenBaltimore / City of Baltimore's Open Data Catalog