The Two Baltimores (crime, neighborhoods, public schools)

[Tallybalt]

Baltimore City has traditionally spent more money per student than any other county in the state.

http://www.eiaonline.com/districts/Maryland.pdf

The link above is the per capita student spending in Maryland counties for the 2010-2011 school year. Baltimore City is #1, spending just slightly more than the two powerhouses of Montgomery and Howard Counties, and over $2,000 more than Baltimore County.

[dogpark]

I find this to be a fascinating topic.

Although in the past it may have been mostly viewed thru a racial lens, I see the problem as more economic and class related. There is a book published in the 1990s (tried to find a link) talking about the concept of regionlaism and how the wealth moved out of Baltimore beginning after WW2 and stranded the elderly and poor. The irony is that the folks that reside in Baltimore's wealthy county suburbs are largely the folks looking down on Baltimore, when their own abandonment of the city was a major contributing reason leading to its decline. According to the book above (still looking for it, there was a long thread, can't find that either right now) If Baltimore City was part of a larger county, the metropolitan area would reorganize priorities and spread resources across a wider area.

Other news items:
On Leadership: A Tale of Two Cities | Baltimore Citybizlist
Is A City-County Metro Merger Coming? - Local News - Baltimore Sun Talk Forums

[remstone]

Dogpark-

You're probably thinking of Baltimore Unbound by David Rusk. He also wrote Cities Without Suburbs, which has a recent updated version.

[baltplanner]

Originally Posted by deandre

the problem is alway the same as its alway been the have and have nots. Whites will never let the black community grow past the poor stage or let they become more educated and have the power. They will alway see us as a threat and divide and conquer to control us black on black crime is the white most important weapon against us

I feel like this is a fundamental misunderstanding that's creating alot of unnecessary racism from black people towards whites. It's not to our benefit to keep a group of people oppressed.... its actually very expensive for us to support people that need help. Spending disproportionate amounts on policing, incarceration, social services and blight reduction, not to mention the lost tax receipt potential due to low wages and property values is a very expensive proposition for the state, local, and federal governments. Of course there will always be classes in society but having the lower class be predominately one race and frequently incarcerated for non-violent crimes is counter productive for generating wealth and social harmony.

In short, most white people want black people to succeed, and most white racists I know think the way they do because they're so frustrated by the pace of progress in black communities (however most of them don't acknowledge how past and existing policies are holding people back. They just want to blame the victim and talk about self determination). With that said Maryland is not Mississippi. The vast majority of people that I've met here are supportive of creating changes to help the black community. They acknowledge the racism and the hardship that black people have had to face and they're ashamed of the white policies that suppressed so many people for so long.

Please know that most of us (at least in the younger generation) are on your side with trying to correct injustices.

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by remstone

Dogpark-

You're probably thinking of Baltimore Unbound by David Rusk. He also wrote Cities Without Suburbs, which has a recent updated version.

Thanks Remstone - that's it, David Rusk. I checked it out from the Pratt (love the Pratt, they'll order from another institution if they don't have it).

[kharing]

As a Black woman, I can honestly say that many of the issues if not all apply to myself. The division has more to do with finances and class than race.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by baltplanner

So the City of Baltimore is left with...

right long with all the other cities...older post-industrial or not.

If you want to do more than moan about the current situation
you'll need to look deeper into the causal (which btw is also not exclusive to B'more).

Originally Posted by kharing

The division has more to do with finances and class than race.

^^What she said.

[emmiesix]

Originally Posted by deandre

the problem is alway the same as its alway been the have and have nots. Whites will never let the black community grow past the poor stage or let they become more educated and have the power. They will alway see us as a threat and divide and conquer to control us black on black crime is the white most important weapon against us

I understand where you're coming from, given undeniable (and recent) history. But I think you're wrong as far as what most white people today want to see happen, especially the younger generation. What's holding us back, frankly, is the protestant ethos which pervades the thinking of a lot of white people. Drugs need to be see not as a crime, but a disease and symptom of societal rot that we (or more particularly our ancestors) not only encouraged but actively introduced. If you systematically destroy families and social structures, you have destroyed the environment for healthy human development. Of course we need economic opportunity for everyone in Baltimore, but we also have to start at age 0 giving support and a better environment for the next generation.

It doesn't work to put money into schools that kids might see at the age of 6, when poor kids are entering with 1/10th of the vocabulary of their upper-class peers, and many have already had so many traumatizing experiences that they have been hard-wired for addictive and destructive behaviors and learning disabilities (for more on that, read Gabor Mate's excellent book, "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts").

And it doesn't make sense to spend 20k/year to put a kid in jail for selling drugs when 20k/year would be, if not a great salary, at least above the poverty line if we could put him/her into job training or through school.

As the OP said, we're already spending the money, but in STUPID ways that don't actually help anyone. I'm tired of the idea that drugs are a crime instead of a disease (or even a rational action, if you want to get very radical about it), and I'm tired of the "tough on crime" mentality that leads to totally wasted lives.

We could go a long way by seriously changing our drug laws and the way we do rehabilitation. See what they're doing in Finland, where the focus is on trying to return the criminal to society. We don't do that. We "punish".

[baltplanner]

Originally Posted by MrRational

right long with all the other cities...older post-industrial or not.

If you want to do more than moan about the current situation
you'll need to look deeper into the causal (which btw is also not exclusive to B'more).

By "casual" do you mean the erosion of the middle class and the growth of the lower classes (an economic structure issue) or are you talking about racial issues? Could you explain?

[dogpark]

Another major influence on the decline of Baltimore and cities like it IMO is the decline of manufacturing and the production sector in the US, the loss of low skill/high wage/family supporting jobs. Hopkins is now the major employer in Baltimore with ~55K employees and Beth Steel is done and dismantled.