Race, class and antisemitism in Baltimore (broker, luxury, dangerous)

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by Woodlands

It is indeed.. Unfortunately, Baltimore is the way it is because of one bad political decision after another..

Barante......Whats going on down in SW Baltimore with CSX and the residents of Morrell Park shows a prime example of race and class.. Lower Income Blue Collar Whites are fighting against the City, State, and CSX to prevent the development of an Intermodel Transportation Center that will transfer containers from trucks to trains... Its an interesting debate... I can see both sides of the argument. Obviously, CSX owns the railyard and that area has an industrial history/heritage which built/supported that community along with other working class areas like Curtis Bay and Brooklyn and have existed near them for over a century and thus built the City. Now however; local folks no longer work at those facilities and the negative environmental and social/health concerns are now more widely known and thus most people dont want these facilities to exist or expand near their homes.

I for one am disappointed that the City and CSX didnt first meet with the neighborhood and present/discuss options before allowing all of this to get dragged into the press and it becomes a fight. CSX needs to cough up the money (if it MUST go there) and build the necessary wall screens and "dark sky" lighting systems so that the quality of life is not ruined for those there. If it is impossible.. they need to buy the homes that are too close and turn them into buffer areas... As far as the trucks are concerned.... I dont know if it is possible but maybe they should consider building an exit ramp directly into the complex from I-95 as opposed to routing it through the neighborhood. CSX is a billion dollar company surely that can figure something out......

The irony of all of this is ...some people in Locut Point and a few other areas pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for views of the port, railroad tracks down there street, and the industrial feel of a harbor community.... I know this is way different.. but interesting just the same....

Good luck getting a railroad company to cough up one extra penny than they have to. They are notoriously penny-pinching operations.

Intermodal is a big deal for Maryland. If we wash out, some other port WILL sweep in and take the business from us. I don't agree that all of those mitigation steps are necessary. Some neighborhoods are mixed use, industrial noise goes with the territory. When you buy a house next to a train yard, expect to see, hear, and smell train operations. We would kill for an intermodal node in Western Maryland. We are working hard with neighboring WV to try and make it happen.

I for one, like it. We have a hump yard in Cumberland and the freight cars are crashing together all day and night. It took my dear wife a while to get used to it. She kept thinking they were thunder or distant explosions. My kids on the other hand love it. My 2yo. knows the rail lines in the city like the back of her hand. Her little head is on a swivel as we drive through town scouting out the tracks for trains. "My Choo-choo" she says with glee.

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Good luck getting a railroad company to cough up one extra penny than they have to. They are notoriously penny-pinching operations.

Intermodal is a big deal for Maryland. If we wash out, some other port WILL sweep in and take the business from us. I don't agree that all of those mitigation steps are necessary. Some neighborhoods are mixed use, industrial noise goes with the territory. When you buy a house next to a train yard, expect to see, hear, and smell train operations. We would kill for an intermodal node in Western Maryland. We are working hard with neighboring WV to try and make it happen.

I for one, like it. We have a hump yard in Cumberland and the freight cars are crashing together all day and night. It took my dear wife a while to get used to it. She kept thinking they were thunder or distant explosions. My kids on the other hand love it. My 2yo. knows the rail lines in the city like the back of her hand. Her little head is on a swivel as we drive through town scouting out the tracks for trains. "My Choo-choo" she says with glee.

I am somewhat of a railfan myself.. I grew up in the Carolinas and trains are/were an intergral part of the life in our community. From the conductor waving from the caboose (which no longer exist) to riding Amtrak up to visit relatives in Philadelphia.. I still ride Amtrak to this day down to the Carolinas...my daughter loves it as well. From what I can see.. railroads have played a critical part of Baltimore's evolution and the neighborhoods near the railyards are likely there because of the railyards and the port facilities.. since many workers may have live nearby.. so I get what you are saying in terms of knowing what you are getting into when you buy.

I remember the season of "The Wire" at the Docks... where the Frank Sobotka character pointed over to the Port from his lodge and you could hear the motors and banging of the containers happening in the background and see the cranes moving around. He said "you know what that noise means to me???? Jobs!!!!".. There is alot of truth in that though I am not sure if the CSX yard will benefit any unemployed residents of Morrell Park.. would be nice if it could though.....

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by Woodlands

I am somewhat of a railfan myself.. I grew up in the Carolinas and trains are/were an intergral part of the life in our community. From the conductor waving from the caboose (which no longer exist) to riding Amtrak up to visit relatives in Philadelphia.. I still ride Amtrak to this day down to the Carolinas...my daughter loves it as well. From what I can see.. railroads have played a critical part of Baltimore's evolution and the neighborhoods near the railyards are likely there because of the railyards and the port facilities.. since many workers may have live nearby.. so I get what you are saying in terms of knowing what you are getting into when you buy.

I remember the season of "The Wire" at the Docks... where the Frank Sobotka character pointed over to the Port from his lodge and you could hear the motors and banging of the containers happening in the background and see the cranes moving around. He said "you know what that noise means to me???? Jobs!!!!".. There is alot of truth in that though I am not sure if the CSX yard will benefit any unemployed residents of Morrell Park.. would be nice if it could though.....

If you ever make it up to Cumberland, you can stay at the Holiday Inn and have a view of the CSX mainline. Most customers "in the know" ask for rooms opposite the tracks......but I know many railfans that request rooms on the track side to watch the trains.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

but I know many railfans that request rooms on the track side to watch the trains.

rail fans are special LINK

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by MrRational

rail fans are special LINK

LOL.. ok.. just to clarify.. I am a rail fan..not a rail fanatic...I take the MARC Camden Line into Camden Yards sometimes and every time the train passes through St. Denis.. there is always a group of grandpas out there in overalls along with their grandkids waving and taking pictures of the train much to the bewilderment of most Baltimore bound passengers.

One of the later trains stops there as a "flag stop" and a woman passed a bag of homemade cookies on to the conductors.... When the MTA tried to close St. Denis a few years ago.. the out pouring of outrage was immense.. You would think that they were trying to build a nuclear plant in the middle of their neighbrohoods.. They won and St. Denis is still a MARC Stop.. though only twice a day.. I believe. Im not one of those folks...LOL

The irony of this is that St. Denis is also near a CSX yard and there are houses very close to the tracks as well.. but these residents seem to embrace the train and their rail heritage..which is a slight contrast to Morrell Park.. though the reasons why the folks in MP oppose the railroad is quite different....

[barante]

The transfer station is a done deal, IMO. It m u s t be built somewhere because without it Baltimore will lose whatever competitive advantage it may gain from the widening of the Panama Canal. The need for something is urgent because generations of gutless politicians have avoided addressing the real issue: the insufficiency of Baltimore's ancient railroad tunnels.

Too late to stop this train, I think.

[dogpark]

CSX is the heir of the old B&O, Baltimore and Ohio RR, the first commercial RR in the USA, responsible for building SW Baltimore, employing many, many folks (especially Irish coming from the Potato Famine at home), logical and perfect extension of Baltimore's port.

In Locust Point, some of the newcomers complain about PDI refrigerated produce trucks moving at early hours, about the train (CSX transfer point there and Dominos feeder), the sugar factory. Luckily the city moved in the mid 2000s to protect the M3 zoning. It would be a shame to lose what industry is left.

[barante]

US Slave: The Brown Decision in Baltimore

[Hamish Forbes]

^^ I wonder if the legion who write about such topics have any concept at all of "common sense." Or do they just blather on about "counter-intuitive narratives" and things like that?

As a simple test, one might look at the state of Baltimore City public schools in 1954, in 1970, and today, and from those checkpoints judge whether desegregation has helped the City school system or not.

As a point of reference, when my family was blockbusted out of the Edmondson Avenue area in 1954, my parents moved to the northern part of the City, but deliberately chose to stay within the City limits. The reason for this was that the schools in the City were historically better than the schools in the County. I wonder how many people who write about this kind of thing even realize that.

How so today? "What Baum's Brown is missing is a forthright discussion of the benefit to black students of learning with whites." Indeed. Have black children benefited from the nearly complete destruction of their once-functional schools by incompetent but supposedly well-meaning liberals? Evidently, at least in the eyes of the "race, class, and balderdash" crowd, the primary purpose of a school system is social engineering rather than the education of children. We now see the results.

[barante]

Professor Howell Baum has written an excellent book about the history of desegregated education in Baltimore City.

Mr. Forbes may want to remember that neither Baltimore nor any other city had any choice in this matter; the ruling came from the U.S. Supreme Court. So Professor Baum's focus is the process. It is not an examination of the results.

If Mr. Forbes wants to write a book about the results, go ahead. I will preorder a copy.