Race, class and antisemitism in Baltimore (buying, live, law)

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by oneworld25

I can pretty much guarantee that won't be happening. The mission of CHAI is to preserve the Upper Park Heights neighborhood. Not to assist in the revitalization of and gentrification of urban neighborhoods like Reservoir Hill.

Something interesting to note about CHAI (and many other local nonprofits for that matter) is that they are funded by non-profits named after some rather unsavory characters. These include the Goldseker Foundation (Goldseker was a notorious blockbuster)and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation (Mr. Weinberg was a slumlord).

That being said.. seems like that would expand there mission to assist in the jewish resettlement of the area around Druid Hill - Res Hill. which I thought used to be primarily jewish? There is a synagogue or two in the area that have remained even though most of the jewish population moved to park heights and eventually to upper park heights. The area may appeal to young jewish families that may want to live closer to downtown or in a more urban environment??

[MrRational]

"there mission to assist in the jewish resettlement..." is within areas where those people (and especially families) will want to live to stay put and perhaps expand from...

Moving into Druid Hill or Re Hill requires a martyr or zealot dink with their own (or grand dad's) cash to make it work. And who knows? Maybe in another ten years those people (but not the warm bodies of Russian immigrants) will actually stay when they discover that schools matter.

[jonjj]

US2010

This is a great site with statistical information regarding race, class, etc.

[barante]

. . . is located between the historic Lloyd Street synagogue and Bnai Israel, the Russishe shul, in the Lombard Street's Corned Beef row area. It has superior collections and also a vigorous publication program. Particularly useful are Lives Lost, Lives Found: Baltimore's German Jewish Refugees, 1933-1945 and Enterprising Emporiums: The Jewish Department Stores of Downtown Baltimore.
The museum has now released an extraordinary 176-page double issue of its membership publication, Generations. Dedicated to "The Search for Social Justice" it contains a dozen relevant articles. Highly recommended. A steal at $10 a copy, obtainable from the museum gift shop which also has other publications.

[barante]

Justice, on screen and off - baltimoresun.com

[barante]

Saturday, April 30: Tonight @ 7 p.m.// North Avenue Market (next to the Wind-Up Place)
The Big Bag of Dirty Tricks
A toy theater presentation on segregation in Baltimore. The theatrical piece will tell the story of Baltimore segregation laws and their successors using song, puppets, archived images and cardboard flats. Baltimore: Open City

[barante]

Am I whistling in the dark? But I see signs that suggest that the decline of the NW area from Ashburton, Forest Park, Arlington, Groveland Park -- even Pimlico -- may be halting. So what? Well, this is the area that the filmmaker Barry Levinson depicted in his cinematic valentines to Baltimore, Avalon, Liberty Heights. Diner and Tinmen.
Between 1955 and 1969 that whole area, formerly a bastion of the upward-mobile Jewish middle-class, became African American. That change initially produced a mirror image in that many blacks, too, were frpm middle-class. But particularly after the 1968 riots following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination black strivers began fanning to Liberty Road communities in Baltimore County. The city side began deteriorating. Old frame houses were turned into rooming units, halfway houses etc. Garrison Boulevard became a street of broken dreams -- patrolled by prostitutes and drug dealers feeding habits.
I see signs that decline is finally coming to an end. Here is my evidence:
* Garrison Boulevard has been largely cleared by police. Meanwhile new housing has cropped up. Some is for homeowners; in another week a big senior citizen apartment complex will be inaugurated across from the Forest Park branch of Enoch Pratt Free Library. Meanwhile, a big garden apartment complex housing rockbottom tenants is boarded up.
* The revamping of Mondawmin Mall has brought in a big Shoppers supermarket, which appears clean and well-stocked despite sales that are uneven, peaking whenever Social Security and welfare checks come in. The mall now also has the only Target in the city. Across Gwynns Falls Parkway, Coppin keeps expanding (about seven block from Garrison). Druid Hill keeps getting better after the city sank millions in ongoing repairs. The forthcoming renovation and occupancy by the Parks and People Foundation of the park's half-collapsed superintendent's house, between Swann and Reisterstown, promised to strengthen the corner closes to Mondawmin.
* Pimlico is getting a badly-needed shot in the arm when the MVA offices move from Mondawamin. The addition of a hundred workers and endless stream of customers should revive retail and office businesses around Reisterstown and Rodgers. Stepped-up policing efforts in that vicinity, too, seem to have resulted in less open prostitution and drug dealing. I'm not sure how much homicides have decreased; this used to be one of the most violent areas in the city. (Antero Pietila describes the trransition of the Pimlico area in Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotory Shaped a Great American City, including how early black homeowners fled to Liberty Road when a lower class of buyers swamped the area after the FHA introduced no-money down mortgages..
* City has spent a bundle at Cylburn Arboretum, at Pimlico's easter edge, near Sinai Hospital and Coldspring New Town. The smallish park is now a delight, with new walkways and configurations.
None of this is to suggest that what I perceive as happening now will be easy. Neighborhood improvement in Baltimore, if it happens at all, takes far longer than in many other cities, including in particular the District of Columbia. Pimlico in particular is a concentration of segregated poverty, but high drug use, whether a habit or not, is still in evidence elsewhere as well. But I detect signs of hope.

[barante]

Three years ago the University of Baltimore sponsored a very necessary conference on the 40th anniversary of the 1968 riots that devastated the city. A book is now about to be published about that event. I haven't seen it but it promises to be of interest. Amazon.com: Baltimore '68: Riots and Rebirth in an American City (9781439906620): Jessica Elfenbein, Elizabeth Nix, Thomas Hollowak: Books

[barante]

Now and then we have discussed this topic. Here are the latest top 10 -- and the list doesn't include Baltimore.
Not that this is a list of urban areas. Not also that the list may be somewhat skewed because it may compare apples and oranges. Baltimore would be an apple because, along with St. Louis, it is unique in that it is an independent city and not part of any county. As a consequence, a top 10 that covers only cities might be somewhat different

The 10 most segregated urban areas in America | Slide Show - Salon.com

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by barante

Am I whistling in the dark? But I see signs that suggest that the decline of the NW area from Ashburton, Forest Park, Arlington, Groveland Park -- even Pimlico -- may be halting. So what? Well, this is the area that the filmmaker Barry Levinson depicted in his cinematic valentines to Baltimore, Avalon, Liberty Heights. Diner and Tinmen.
Between 1955 and 1969 that whole area, formerly a bastion of the upward-mobile Jewish middle-class, became African American. That change initially produced a mirror image in that many blacks, too, were frpm middle-class. But particularly after the 1968 riots following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination black strivers began fanning to Liberty Road communities in Baltimore County. The city side began deteriorating. Old frame houses were turned into rooming units, halfway houses etc. Garrison Boulevard became a street of broken dreams -- patrolled by prostitutes and drug dealers feeding habits.
I see signs that decline is finally coming to an end. Here is my evidence:
* Garrison Boulevard has been largely cleared by police. Meanwhile new housing has cropped up. Some is for homeowners; in another week a big senior citizen apartment complex will be inaugurated across from the Forest Park branch of Enoch Pratt Free Library. Meanwhile, a big garden apartment complex housing rockbottom tenants is boarded up.
* The revamping of Mondawmin Mall has brought in a big Shoppers supermarket, which appears clean and well-stocked despite sales that are uneven, peaking whenever Social Security and welfare checks come in. The mall now also has the only Target in the city. Across Gwynns Falls Parkway, Coppin keeps expanding (about seven block from Garrison). Druid Hill keeps getting better after the city sank millions in ongoing repairs. The forthcoming renovation and occupancy by the Parks and People Foundation of the park's half-collapsed superintendent's house, between Swann and Reisterstown, promised to strengthen the corner closes to Mondawmin.
* Pimlico is getting a badly-needed shot in the arm when the MVA offices move from Mondawamin. The addition of a hundred workers and endless stream of customers should revive retail and office businesses around Reisterstown and Rodgers. Stepped-up policing efforts in that vicinity, too, seem to have resulted in less open prostitution and drug dealing. I'm not sure how much homicides have decreased; this used to be one of the most violent areas in the city. (Antero Pietila describes the trransition of the Pimlico area in Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotory Shaped a Great American City, including how early black homeowners fled to Liberty Road when a lower class of buyers swamped the area after the FHA introduced no-money down mortgages..
* City has spent a bundle at Cylburn Arboretum, at Pimlico's easter edge, near Sinai Hospital and Coldspring New Town. The smallish park is now a delight, with new walkways and configurations.
None of this is to suggest that what I perceive as happening now will be easy. Neighborhood improvement in Baltimore, if it happens at all, takes far longer than in many other cities, including in particular the District of Columbia. Pimlico in particular is a concentration of segregated poverty, but high drug use, whether a habit or not, is still in evidence elsewhere as well. But I detect signs of hope.

Park Heights is the still the hole in the donut..All of these areas are being held back because of the problems in Central Park Heights/Pimlico proper. IF this area was cleaned up the rest bloom even more.. However, as it stands now it is too close for comfort for some and thus drags on the momentum of improvements for the other areas. The next step would be to work on the commercials zones.. Garrison at Liberty Heights, Belverdere at Park Heights, Coldspring Lane at Park Heights, Liberty Heights at Gwynn Falls and to a lesser degree the commercial district at Walbrook Junction. If the neighborhoods residential stock improves that would put pressure to run off problem stores and tenants in these districts....I cant see anybody wanting to move back into Pimlico and portions of Central Park Heights without wholesale redevelopment occurring there.. The style of housing is not bad.. rowhomes with small yards and porches are appealing but there is some much poverty and crime you almost have to start from scratch.. it would be worth it though... and a boost to all of NW Baltimore