How to Revitalize Baltimore City

Urban Decay or blight is a significant and fast-growing problem in Baltimore, Maryland. The city deteriorates every day, losing people, money, and most notably, the upkeep of many of its residential and commercial neighborhoods. As a result, economic conditions for people living in these communities especially continue to worsen, leaving them living in conditions barely above the poverty line. Problems that further emanate from this include crime and teens dropping out of schools. There is a pressing need therefore to take drastic measures that not only tackle the increasing problem of urban blight but also improve economic conditions for the citizens, especially in the affected dis-invested neighborhoods.

The issue of blight facing the city motivated civic leadership to take action after the Freddie Gray uprising nearly three years ago. According to a January 2017 Baltimore Sun newspaper article, Maryland State and Baltimore City policymakers have committed more than 700 million dollars in a strategic plan and have identified almost 17,000 boarded up abandoned buildings in distressed neighborhoods that are targeted to be demolished. A commendable and much needed step given the circumstances in the city, but there are a few challenges.

To start with, the demolition, deconstruction, and then reconstruction on such a scale cannot go smoothly and without challenge owing to the labor shortages found in the construction arena. However, there’s also a solution. Unemployment and underemployment are quite high especially in the distressed neighborhoods in Baltimore city. Some Baltimore neighborhoods have unemployment rates as high as 55%. A February 2015 Justice Policy Institute Report shows that nearly 52% of the people from Freddie Gray’s neighborhood were unemployed from 2008 to 2012. The situation is indeed alarming, but this redevelopment plan for the distressed neighborhoods provides the ideal opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

The solution is quite simple and can be very useful in thoroughly revitalizing the city of Baltimore entirely over time. If resources were to be devoted explicitly for skill development training for employment in construction, deconstruction, and demolition, then it has the potential to create economic, environmental, and social vitality for distressed neighborhoods. Not only that but providing employment opportunities for Baltimore residents in this way can also match the labor shortages found in the construction arena. It would galvanize the entire community, and improve employment rates in the city, specifically in the affected regions we are talking about.

Unemployment and underemployment lie at the heart of the social problems that are affecting these struggling neighborhoods. Affording permanent career opportunities to re-entry, teen dropouts, and underemployed residents of the areas are one of the best ways to show our commitment to changing the equilibrium of social problems in Baltimore, particularly the distressed neighborhoods that are the focus of this whole plan. On the one hand, the newly trained city residents will serve as a viable response to addressing the much-needed construction labor pool shortfalls. On the other, it will also serve as a link that will bring in residents and encourage and allow them to take part in rebuilding their neighborhoods and strengthening the community.

Lack of economic stability has strained the vitality of more than just a few crimes dominated neighborhoods in the city and solving the problem of the vacant house will not fix these problems. Although the initiative is appreciable and essential in its regard as it aims to get rid of blight, it is only by expanding opportunities to allow for participation from the residents of the city, and most notably the distressed neighborhoods, can we sincerely hope to jump-start economic transformation. More specifically, by creating and designing a construction, deconstruction, and demolition social enterprise businesses that employ residents from the community, this endeavor will revise neighborhoods, enhance health, safety, and environmental considerations, and ultimately improve the economic vitality for our most vulnerable citizenry. Revitalized neighborhoods will decrease crime, blight and will provide more significant economic development opportunities and incentives for local entrepreneurial businesses.

Many may believe this is a far-fetched idea. Notably, there are a few local non-profits who have already initiated programming in this space. Charitable funding resources limit their opportunities to scale up and expand. By elevating our thinking and designing more creative, innovative solutions, it will invigorate drastic positive change to disrupt the equilibrium that now exists in Baltimore and other urban cities facing similar challenges.