why is reservoir hill area of baltimore vastly undeveloped? (Columbia: sale, houses)

[bmoregrimey]

@remstone i still think the city owns too many vacant homes in reservoir hil why else would they jump start their new program called SCOPE in reservoir hill, im not against development in upper or middle class neighborhoods, i just understand that if u dont try to develop the poor communties the violence and drugs will spill over into the affluent communites which creates a no win situation for all parties

[(-)]

Originally Posted by Woodlands

I can agree with this to a certain extent.... Most City Politicos have "poor" sections in their district. Most politicians.. though they recognize that the more middle and upper income residents do vote.. are often fearful to invest even at a moderate level in a middle or upper income neighborhood. The fear is "I cant believe you are putting a new sidewalk in Roland Park when Park Heights looks like ****." Whether this is fair or not depends on your perspective. .but most people's perception IS reality. I read a copy of the Roland Park Master Plan that was adopted by the Baltimore City Planning Commission (disclaimer: I am NOT a resident of Roland Park).. They have major infrastructure issues like many areas of the City when it comes to roads, water, and sewer lines etc. They also have want amounts to an HOA that does take assessment to make some repairs and residents do pay for the repairs to their sidewalks where applicable.. But its interesting that you wont catch any politico on a soap box advocating for Roland Park for fear that they would be railroaded by the poorer neighborhoods. This is an extreme example there are dozens of other examples of less affluent neighborhoods that experience the same form of treatment.. If a politico did this for one of these other middle or upper income neighborhoods.. there would be someone running against them and using this against them in the next election by trying to whip the poorer neighborhoods into a frenzy. To me, many politicos have always pit one neighborhood against another rather than trying to work to improve ALL neighborhoods.

this is just my opinion and my opinion only BUT...

you can put poop in a new toilet but it's still poop. putting "bad" people into new neighborhoods won't make them "good" people. you can be poor and not be immoral. somewhere along the line being poor became an excuse for being immoral.
i have put lower income (section 8) tenants into really nice houses i had rehabbed in GREAT communities. and sadly, out of the 30+ tenants i have done this with, i can count on one hand the number of those folks who have treated those neighborhoods with respect and conversely those houses with respect. some people just don't want to do right. here you have the opportunity to live in a great neighborhood, in a newly rehabbed house, with no violence and great schools and parks, and you live like an animal by littering on your yard, disrespecting your neighbors, and trashing your house. again, you can put poop in a new toilet but at the end of the day it's still poop. rather than focusing on roads and buildings, we need to focus on building people with better character and morals. the foundation begins within the person, not the building.

[KLynch10]

Yeah, preach on. I know there are some good section 8 people out there, but every time I have lived near one, there is so much drama that follows. So many domestic calls for the police, shady people going in and out, and so on.

It's like the thought that If my kid gets into a good school, they'll succeed. I went to a pretty affluent HS that had some bad neighborhoods mixed in, and the majority of those kids underachieved, and were ineligible for athletics. Bottom line, if you are a crappy parent, you kid is not going to succeed, no matter what environment you put them in.

[remstone]

Originally Posted by bmoregrimey

@remstone i still think the city owns too many vacant homes in reservoir hil why else would they jump start their new program called SCOPE in reservoir hill, im not against development in upper or middle class neighborhoods, i just understand that if u dont try to develop the poor communties the violence and drugs will spill over into the affluent communites which creates a no win situation for all parties

Well sure, the city owning any homes when there's a functioning market can feel wrong. Of course if the city just gave them away without any oversight then they might just stay vacant like on Callow or turn into further Section 8 like so many other places. I think there's an obvious direction for the city to go with their properties but we'll see.

The reason the city started SCOPE in Reservoir Hill (7 years ago now) is that there was a functioning market and buyer interest thanks to a concentration of houses - the city had spent a good amount of effort acquiring homes and then stopped acquiring when prices inched up a bit. And the early round of SCOPE went very well with good homeowners rehabbing directly, before becoming more and more investor-based and not as useful. In other neighborhoods the numbers usually just didn't make sense for someone to fully rehab a house given the expected value at the end of it.

And I'm not sure who you're addressing but my preference is that the city should be addressing low-to-middle income transistional neighborhoods by injecting some market forces into them. At least that's how I define "develop" in this case. Otherwise you're just pouring money into a poor neighborhood and seeing it stay poor, as has happened through decades of housing policies now. Less charitably you're warehousing the poor - which is exactly what many in the wealthier neighborhoods and suburbs prefer.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by (-)

this is just my opinion and my opinion only BUT...

you can put poop in a new toilet but it's still poop. putting "bad" people into new neighborhoods won't make them "good" people. you can be poor and not be immoral. somewhere along the line being poor became an excuse for being immoral.
i have put lower income (section 8) tenants into really nice houses i had rehabbed in GREAT communities. and sadly, out of the 30+ tenants i have done this with, i can count on one hand the number of those folks who have treated those neighborhoods with respect and conversely those houses with respect. some people just don't want to do right. here you have the opportunity to live in a great neighborhood, in a newly rehabbed house, with no violence and great schools and parks, and you live like an animal by littering on your yard, disrespecting your neighbors, and trashing your house. again, you can put poop in a new toilet but at the end of the day it's still poop. rather than focusing on roads and buildings, we need to focus on building people with better character and morals. the foundation begins within the person, not the building.

One of my top 10 City Data posts of ALL TIME! Great analogy and use of the word "poop" in an appropriate context.

[meme_23]

what housing authority is one of the safest i have a 7 yr old n dont want to b in the middle of a drive by i want to relocate from nyc

[davecj]

My oh my that was headache inducing to read.

[bmoregrimey]

havent seen this thread in a while but i have good news, i have been living in reservoir hill for about a yr and i have seen atleast 7-8 rehabs in the the neighborhood and many of them have sold. there is still lots of development going on in the neighborhood, so interested buyers should check out this historic neighborhood next to one of the best parks in the city

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by bmoregrimey

havent seen this thread in a while but i have good news, i have been living in reservoir hill for about a yr and i have seen atleast 7-8 rehabs in the the neighborhood and many of them have sold. there is still lots of development going on in the neighborhood, so interested buyers should check out this historic neighborhood next to one of the best parks in the city

Whats the status of Madison Park Apartments on North Ave? I recall that they were going to have their CO revocked and then there was alot of backpedaling then nothing....

[bmoregrimey]

last i heard was that the city put in an order for the revocation of the license to operate the property on the grounds that the owner did not keep up with maintenance of the apartments and also was not keeping the property clean...however the owner has appealed the city's decision