BALTIMORE — In recent years, the area around Johns Hopkins Hospital in east Baltimore has been transformed by a gleaming mix of new development: an office/lab building with a Starbucks, Marriott Residence Inn hotel, Walgreens in 11,000 square feet of new retail space, the six-acre Eager Park, a $60 million graduate student high-rise building, 200+ new apartments and townhomes, public art, and more.
With the bold declaration "WE ARE ALL EAST BALTIMORE" etched into the concrete steps at Eager Park, the massive project has poured more than $1 billion into the Middle East neighborhood since 2003 - but has it produced any significant results for the long-struggling neighborhood?
That's what the D.C.-based Urban Institute set out to study. Today, the Institute released its comprehensive report on the East Baltimore Development Initiative.
Thrilled to release the first impact assessment of the nation's largest local place-based initiative--East Baltimore Development Initiative (EBDI). Important implications for the field of community economic development.https://t.co/wJZDxkuYTZ pic.twitter.com/yz16w0NWB2
— Brett Theodos (@BrettTheodos) November 2, 2022
The report noted some positive lessons learned from the initiative, but overall isn't very optimistic.
The East Baltimore Development Initiative did appear to stabilize the neighborhood's population (which initially dropped significantly due to the redevelopment and relocation), raised the average monthly rents, and seems to have caused a small uptick (so far) of residents with college degrees.
But the project may have contributed to drops in the homeownership rates, and it did not change the racial composition of the neighborhood, its average income, poverty rate or home values.
Brett Theodos, who authored the study, noted:
"...Can the positive aspects of the initiative’s model similarly be spread to other neighborhoods in Baltimore? Apart from a few distressed communities adjacent to areas of market strength, there are no strong grounds for optimism. Baltimore has not fixed its decades-long economic decline and has continued to lose population."
The study points out major challenges in seeing whether residents will return to a redeveloped neighborhood. The area's population had significantly dropped before the redevelopment got started; the population density in 2000 was half of what it was in 1970.
Theodos said: "Revitalization is further challenged by the reality that people are highly mobile... Residents may not remain to benefit from neighborhood improvements. Conversely, residents who see their economic standing improve because of the initiative may move away from a distressed neighborhood, meaning that even if services have their desired effect, it may not be possible to observe changes in neighborhood poverty or employment levels."
Other similar projects seem to be learning from the East Baltimore model, he said. The nearby Perkins Homes redevelopment is focusing on being more incremental in hopes of letting residents remain nearby. Theodos also pointed out that the government was not the main driver of the East Baltimore initiative (which was made possibly mostly by the backing of Johns Hopkins University), although it couldn't have moved forward without significant public funding.
