Sun: Baltimore Has a Race Problem (2015, gated, income)

[pwduvall]

Todays Sunpaper delivered a broadside against Baltimore's remaining white population:

Baltimore leaders agree: City has a race problem - Baltimore Sun

Does the Sun think the city (or at least the remaining population) would be better off if the remaining white people left? Or does the article imply that the problem is virulent 50's style racism by that remaining population, a population that needs to immediately search its sole and reform itself?

I'm not really sure what white Baltimoreans are supposed to do with the knowledge that the city's leadership thinks that the city's problems are caused by white racism. Are whites living in the suburbs not racist because racism is confined to white Baltimoreans? Can white Baltimoreans cleans themselves of racism simply by moving over the line into the county?

Lots of questions, not many answers... unless you have them.

[james777]

I think Baltimore would be a lot better off if the Sunpapers left. I wonder how long it will be before it happens.

As far as racism goes, I have read several times on this Baltimore forum that whites living in the Baltimore suburbs are racist because they chose not to live in Baltimore City. So one who wants to live close to work and pay half as much as a city resident in property taxes for the same size/value property, not to mention the taxes on cell phones and tennis shoes, is racist. Who knew? We suburbanites must not be racist because we live side by side with the blacks who escaped the crime, grime, and high taxes of Baltimore City. How come no one talks about the blacks who moved to the suburbs to escape the hellhole?

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by pwduvall

Lots of questions, not many answers... unless you have them.

I suspect that any answer will start with using economic terms
rather than racial terms when describing the divide or stratification.

What EVERY CITY needs is to reduce the number of economically insufficient
both as a percentage of the whole but also as a raw number... whatever race may be involved.

INCREASE the number of income and property tax payers.
DECREASE the number of net consumers of services and public wealth.
It's really not much more complicated than that.

[pwduvall]

Originally Posted by james777

I think Baltimore would be a lot better off if the Sunpapers left. I wonder how long it will be before it happens.

As far as racism goes, I have read several times on this Baltimore forum that whites living in the Baltimore suburbs are racist because they chose not to live in Baltimore City. So one who wants to live close to work and pay half as much as a city resident in property taxes for the same size/value property, not to mention the taxes on cell phones and tennis shoes, is racist. Who knew? We suburbanites must not be racist because we live side by side with the blacks who escaped the crime, grime, and high taxes of Baltimore City. How come no one talks about the blacks who moved to the suburbs to escape the hellhole?

I have to assume that my city leaders are complaining about racist city residents. Why would they care about people that they don't represent?

[pwduvall]

Originally Posted by MrRational

I suspect that any answer will start with using economic terms
rather than racial terms when describing the divide or stratification.

What EVERY CITY needs is to reduce the number of economically insufficient
both as a percentage of the whole but also as a raw number... whatever race may be involved.

INCREASE the number of income and property tax payers.
DECREASE the number of net consumers of services and public wealth.
It's really not much more complicated than that.

I don't totally disagree with you. But that clearly isn't the direction that the leadership appears to be going.

By the way, I have to do something that I RARELY do, defend the mayor. Since her comment made very little sense, I have to assume that she was aware of her interviewer's intentions and tried to be careful what she said. He was probably forced to quote something out of context because she wouldn't give him the quote he wanted.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by pwduvall

I don't totally disagree with you.
But that clearly isn't the direction that the leadership appears to be going.

The traditional economic model is that we would always be able to GROW and expand
and by that to create opportunities for EVERYone to have meaningful work that even if
it didn't sooth their soul it would earn them enough to live and raise a family on.

Some people still hold to this as being feasible and realistic.
I'm not one of them.

[choccity]

I moved here and lived for awhile and Baltimore to me appeared very segregated, I moved here in 2002 but don't live in Balt anymore. I live in DC which most of my life was very segregated as well, with the city majority black and white residents left for the suburbs. But DC has changed tremendously now with pricing out long time residents while attracting new residents with more disposable income. So now you have people living here with more money, black or white or any other nationality. In Baltimore, there is a concentration of wealth in say Roland Park, Guilford and now Harbor East, were the mostly white residents live with a lot of disposable income. In west Baltimore its poorer and abandoned not so much disposable income, maybe except Ashburton. Coming into Baltimore if you're not from here and dont know the history, it looks very segregated. Where I lived in Balt all the white neighbors left and moved to PA or county who could afford to within the last 10 years. I agree with Mr. Rational, the city needs to attract more people with disposable income who will spend money and pay property taxes, period. There needs to be a reason to bring people here to make the city more attractive for people to live not just in Harbor East but thru out the city.

[pwduvall]

Originally Posted by choccity

I moved here and lived for awhile and Baltimore to me appeared very segregated, I moved here in 2002 but don't live in Balt anymore. I live in DC which most of my life was very segregated as well, with the city majority black and white residents left for the suburbs. But DC has changed tremendously now with pricing out long time residents while attracting new residents with more disposable income. So now you have people living here with more money, black or white or any other nationality. In Baltimore, there is a concentration of wealth in say Roland Park, Guilford and now Harbor East, were the mostly white residents live with a lot of disposable income. In west Baltimore its poorer and abandoned not so much disposable income, maybe except Ashburton. Coming into Baltimore if you're not from here and dont know the history, it looks very segregated. Where I lived in Balt all the white neighbors left and moved to PA or county who could afford to within the last 10 years. I agree with Mr. Rational, the city needs to attract more people with disposable income who will spend money and pay property taxes, period. There needs to be a reason to bring people here to make the city more attractive for people to live not just in Harbor East but thru out the city.

Clearly Baltimore is segregated. That isn't exactly the same as saying that the city's white population is unusually racist (compared to other white people.) Perhaps the elected leadership is offended that they still have people they see as their former oppressors as constituents.

Also, it seems odd to me that unusually racist white people would chose to live in Baltimore in the first place. If you really don't like black people, why would you live in Baltimore? In any given year at least 10% of the city's white population has moves in from outside the city. Do you think they are moving in so that they can to oppress the majority population? I couldn't find it in the Census reports but I wouldn't be surprised if nearly half of the City's white population has been here for less than ten years.

[choccity]

https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2010/0...wspapers-role/

Good article about the covenants and the racial segregation in Baltimore. And the role The Sun played.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by pwduvall

Clearly Baltimore is segregated.
That isn't exactly the same as saying that the city's white population is unusually racist...

Because it isn't.

it seems odd to me that unusually racist white people would chose to live in Baltimore...
If you really don't like black people, why would you live in Baltimore?

The two motivations are quite unrelated.

In any given year at least 10% of the city's white population has moves in from outside the city.

And a similarly mobile population moves out or on or up.
Otherwise the pop as a whole, going up 5% a year, would double in 20.

I wouldn't be surprised if nearly half of the City's white population has been here for less than ten years.

You would be wrong. You're also making the same (inversed) mistake as the article
implying some sort of monolithic nature to the white population(s) or their thinking.