Baltimore's Population Up 1,100 Over Last Year (best cities, real estate, insurance)

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by JamPilot

I consider myself an optimistic person...are these people really that pessimistic or are they correct when they present this news as being nothing to get excited about?

Baltimore has its own brand of sour pessimists. They are to be ignored.

[remstone]

And the pessimists tend to frequent the Sun comments section. They're not indicative of anything, except right-wing frothing points.

[EdwardA]

So Baltimore is a magnet for illegals. Greatness lies in her future.

[KLynch10]

Originally Posted by JamPilot

Damn, pretty much ALL of the comments on the Sun article are negative...people talking about how this really isn't any good news, talking sh*t about immigrants and how crappy the city is, etc etc.

I consider myself an optimistic person...are these people really that pessimistic or are they correct when they present this news as being nothing to get excited about?

Anyone who is very familiar with Baltimore knows there is a ton of positive things going on in this city, and tons of neighborhoods making turnarounds, but as long as the population decreases many naysayers will only point to that. Homicides are down a ton since the days that created The Wire, and population is now had a steady year followed by a year of increase. I'm sure many will find reasons to say Baltimore isn't improving (which is insane if you compare now to the 80s), but now they can't use population decrease... at least for a year.

[trickymost]

Originally Posted by JamPilot

Damn, pretty much ALL of the comments on the Sun article are negative...people talking about how this really isn't any good news, talking sh*t about immigrants and how crappy the city is, etc etc.

I consider myself an optimistic person...are these people really that pessimistic or are they correct when they present this news as being nothing to get excited about?

I think they are correct.

When I see data like this, I immediately think about a thoughtful piece in the Atlantic from 2008 about murder in a suburban ghetto outside Memphis, and how anti-poverty programs from the 70s and 80s failed.

Here's the link, I suggest everyone check it out:

American Murder Mystery - Hanna Rosin - The Atlantic


The story already played out in Memphis, but it's very much identical to what people bicker about here in Baltimore.

Basically...

1. Well intended anti-poverty programs forced the poor from the cities to the suburbs.
2. Research shows there is a pattern to how the poor migrated to the county, and how it impacted crime. Here is a quote, and it could be describing Baltimore Metro:

"The inner city, where crime used to be concentrated, was now clean. But everywhere else looked much worse: arrests had skyrocketed along two corridors north and west of the central city (the bunny rabbit’s ears) and along one in the southeast (the tail). Hot spots had proliferated since the mid-1990s, and little islands of crime had sprung up where none had existed before, dotting the map all around the city."

3. The poor fare better in the city, and have started to migrate back into the city from the suburbs.

[Mahatma X]

Mostly Hispanics and DC commuters.

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by Tinawina

Not gonna happen until the public school situation improves IMO.

The Mayor and School Official want to borrow a billion dollars to repair/rebuild Baltimore City Schools. Though an admirable goal..my concern is how strategic is it. If enrollment is declining along with test scores that is not all attributed to poor school conditions. I think they should invest in certain schools both in terms of infrastructure and programming and close/sell/demo others.. I read articles about alumni and neighborhood groups fighting to keep open a neighborhood school that is crumbling and operating at 40% capacity along with having poor test scores. Why not invest in building/rebuilding new schools and invest in the programming as opposed to building/rebuilding dozens of schools in every neighborhood that wants to keep theirs only to have them under enrolled and continue to fail? I know I am over simplifying the problem.. but all I hear about is build new schools build new schools.. without any analysis of if it makes sense.. is the school age population in baltimore increasing.. if it is.. would people choose to send their kids to a City school just because its a pretty building as opposed to a private school?? It just seems like a prime example of the the Bull Durham theory of "build it and they will come" though all we can say for sure is ... 'it would be nice if they would but we dont know for sure'

At the end of the day its will certainly be a nice boom to the local construction industry,contractors, planners, and project managers.. who are likely more than happy to eat the taxpayers dollars on these projects....I think that they need to start somewhere.. but I dont know if i would start at a billion and work up.. I would start off with a smaller number at selected schools and work incrementally while monitoring the progress, test scores etc of the schools after they are built and make adjustments off of the lessons learned. I would also intergrate new/rebuilt schools into area redevelopment plans in order to complement a new school with improved programming along with rehabbed or redeveloping neighborhoods.. since that gets at the attracting family issue. I would also focus on relocate successful charter schools into some of these new buildings in targeted redevelopment neighborhoods


The Money Pit - News and Features - Baltimore City Paper

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by JamPilot

Great news for the city, hopefully this trend continues

Baltimore's population up, following decades of loss - baltimoresun.com

quite a turnaround.

[fibonacci]

Baltimore should just transform itself into a city totally based on health care. Hopkins practically owns half the city already, just convert already. More people would move here for jobs. I see new projects improving housing that's aimed for middle class all over the place in Bmore. Bmore is in a really good location to be a health and biotech industry hotbed. They should give big tax breaks for new biotech companies that create jobs in the city and cut down on red tape.

[Tinawina]

Originally Posted by Woodlands

At the end of the day its will certainly be a nice boom to the local construction industry,contractors, planners, and project managers.. who are likely more than happy to eat the taxpayers dollars on these projects....I think that they need to start somewhere.. but I dont know if i would start at a billion and work up.. I would start off with a smaller number at selected schools and work incrementally while monitoring the progress, test scores etc of the schools after they are built and make adjustments off of the lessons learned. I would also intergrate new/rebuilt schools into area redevelopment plans in order to complement a new school with improved programming along with rehabbed or redeveloping neighborhoods.. since that gets at the attracting family issue. I would also focus on relocate successful charter schools into some of these new buildings in targeted redevelopment neighborhoods


The Money Pit - News and Features - Baltimore City Paper

I'm with you here. It's the outcomes that are most important... is the school effective? There are some neighborhoods that are in transition where an improved public school would be a boon and help things along... those should be a priority... and there are some schools that get pretty decent outcomes with low income students but could do even better with more staff and some building upgrades... I say focus on those. For the schools where the building is literally crumbling, well it makes sense to replace those, but in a case where the school is only half full as it is and all the kids are failing, well funding a new approach to teaching (and perhaps adding a social worker and the like) makes more sense than building a brand new building for people to fail in.