Jobs and the cars you need to get to them.
If you live in the city of Baltimore, you may have noticed that getting to work can be a very time-consuming, somewhat uncertain process. Commuting by bus can take a while, particularly if you have change lines, and reliability can also be problem. The Governor says he has a plan to make your life better. We’ll see how that works out.
No guarantees, of course, but we can help qualified employers get $100,000 to $10 million for construction and operations in selected Baltimore Neighborhoods.
If you’re familiar with our work, you’ve heard us say or write the sentence, “Baltimore is a city in crisis.” We’re not kidding. We’re not just saying it for dramatic effect. It’s a fact. And why do we keep saying it? Because we’re concerned that our current city government and many candidates running for Mayor or Council don’t have an appropriate sense of urgency.
In Sandtown yesterday, Governor Hogan with Mayor Rawlings-Blake announced an impressive $700 million program called CORE. The acronym stands for Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise. The link will take you to the official press release.
The idea is that a good number of selected vacant and abandoned structures in the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods will be torn down over the next 4 years and turned into green spaces that will be developed, eventually, into to mixed use commercial and residential facilities.
Candidate for Mayor Nick Mosby has just today published a paper called “Connecting The Dots, A 15 Point plan for Baltimore’s Future.” It’s his platform statement.
Government By Throwing Everything Against The Wall
And Waiting To See What Sticks
Yesterday, Sheila Dixon released what she calls “A Four Point Plan for Making Baltimore Safer.” Her program is in the PDF at the bottom of this piece. You’re all invited to comment on the plan.
The screenshot above is the opening paragraph from a December 26, 2015 article in the Sun. It’s a good, highly informative piece by Doug Donovan.
If you’ve read our post entitled “Vacants-To-Jobs,” you know that Baltimore Rising is introducing legislation that gives employers who are willing to locate in the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods free property and no property taxes for 5 years. The simple, but nonetheless profound idea is that we’re going to make employers offers they can’t refuse to get them to do what too many businesses have avoided. We’re going to give them a compelling reason to set up shop in a neighborhood some of them don’t even want to drive through, much less park there, get out and spend the day. Heaven forbid, maybe go out to some local place for lunch.’
As you may already know, there’s a Baltimore city government program called “Vacants-To-Value.” It’s primary purpose is to encourage people to refurbish and move into vacant property around the city – properties, mostly residential, that the government has taken over. The objective is to turn the huge number of abandoned properties around the city into homes that are attractive and well-maintained by resident-owners, many of whom will be new to the neighborhood.
As you may have noticed, we have already posted a map of the 16,885 documented vacant structures in Baltimore. These structures – in addition to the thousands of vacant lots – are a potent tool for attracting desperately needed employers and new residents to the city.