Tag Archives: and organizing

Redevelopment policies and implications for health

Excerpt from Introduction of ‘Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore’:

Health Outcomes
Socioeconomic and political oppression of African American people throughout the history of America has directly resulted in the creation of neighborhoods of urban decay and poverty in the 21st century, which in turn affects the health of individuals living in these neighborhoods. The unequal and discriminatory laws and policies resulted in disinvestment and marginalization of communities in which majority African American lived leading to unhealthy physical environments of unsanitary, abandoned, and run-down streets, schools, parks, health clinics, recreation centers, stores, and houses, and high crime. The consequences or effects of living in such disinvested neighborhood, help to determine exposure to different levels of stress faced daily by individuals living, playing, working and learning in these communities as well the internal and external resources available to address these stressors in a healthy way.
The effect of having a low-paying job or no job, being African American or part of a racial minority, and education below high school level independently and together affects the health of an individual. These socioeconomic factors or social determinants increase the likelihood of an individual having a variety of physical and mental illnesses and a shorter lifespan.
The neighborhood effects and social and economic characteristics of individuals living in East Baltimore, together and individually, resulted in East Baltimore being characterized as one of the least healthy communities in America.
Community rebuilding efforts must therefore assess the communities’ health history and assure that the processes of rebuilding are participatory and not hierarchical as has been the intention and practice of EBDI and its partners. Rebuilding with input and direction from those living in the community can begin to change the historic oppressions that have directly and indirectly contributed to creating unhealthy communities. Assessment of the health impact, as well as the economic, social, educational, environmental, and political impact, on the people affected by community rebuilding processes must be included in an analysis of “benefit for whom.”
For those who organize and challenge the powerful stakeholders for more equitable rebuilding processes, the consequent health impact of increased stress must be assessed in light of the already existent stress resulting from living in abandoned and disempowered communities. These types of analyses must be incorporated into the strategies for rebuilding communities like Middle East Baltimore in order to address the historic damage and narrow the gap of unequal benefit to the stakeholders involved today. Such comprehensive analyses will begin to address the power imbalances which serve to widen the growing disparity in health between communities with differing degree of resources and which are separated by race and class.

For more specific discussion of the effects of unfair development as a social determinant of health and potential mechanisms for poor health outcome see chapter 9, ‘Poverty of health’.

This link ( Development and health) provides a PDF of a presentation at Morgan State University on October 22, 2013 highlighting the health effects from the racist and classist development policies and practices that have shaped our cities in America.

Enjoy and organize!!

Effects of inequitable funding of neighborhood resources: disparity in accessing wealth and good health

Clifton Park Library Hours 2001 N. Wolfe Street

This week while attempting to deliver a book to the Clifton Park Library at 2001 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore I was struck by the hours posted on the window. Basically it was open 4.5 hours three days of the week and 4 hours on another day for a total of 17.5 hours each week (4 days/week). This seemed such a short amount of time for a community to access a resource: both for children and adults. Knowing the hours of at least 5 other libraries this seemed like much less so I called the library and asked if the sign was current. After this was confirmed-also confirmed was that there is only part-time staff employed- I printed out the hours of all the libraries in the city for comparison then checked the racial makeup, earnings, and high school biology passing rate of the neighborhoods of each library (Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance). The data is clear, Clifton Park is a community with some of the lowest socioeconomic indicators as well as a majority African American population.[Balt.Disparity.Library.Race.Income.Biol] [BNIA; Enoch Pratt Free Library] Unfortunately, besides this distinction of the library with the least hours of operation in the city of Baltimore, several other communities in Baltimore boast a similar SES as Clifton Park.

Disparity in education, employment, health

An editorial co-authored by a Johns Hopkins researcher at the School of Education stated nationwide only 70% of African Americans receive a high school diploma in 4 years, compared to 80% in the general population. In an economy where employment is dependent on knowledge-base, only 40% of jobs are open to those with a high school diploma suggesting a growing demand for a population with college-level education for average employment. Therefore a child in Clifton Park who is already challenged by the conditions and spaces of poverty (under-resourced schools and libraries, recreation centers, health centers, extra-curricular activities for learning) and being a racial minority is already at risk for lack of employment opportunity in the future.

According to a study from another Johns Hopkins University researcher, students typically loose one to two months of reading and math skills during summer break. This lost is reportedly greater in low-income children. Experts advise that reading during the summer is an important way to minimize this loss which is cumulative and results in greater risk of a low-income youth not graduating from high school or entering college. With the two risk factors of low-income and being African American, children living and growing up in Clifton Park face greater likelihood of an inequitable future. It seems that having the opportunity to access a library only between the hours of 1-5:30 pm 3 days each week and 1-5:00 pm 1 day each week is a neighborhood resource that we could begin to address to increase their likelihood of graduating from high school and accessing employment. This employment should be the kind that pays a living wage with benefits that allows a path toward equal opportunity and good health. Indeed the places where our children live and grow affects their daily functioning and their ability to thrive in the future.

It is not only the opportunity for employment which is affected by under-funding neighborhood resources. These same chronically abandoned and disinvested communities are the ones which show the greatest disparity in health in Baltimore-shorter life expectancy, increased mortality risk. [Equity Matters/Place Matters] This research shows that in comparison to neighborhoods with shorter life expectancy and increased mortality risk, neighborhoods with longer life expectancy tend to offer less exposure to pollution and violence, access to better health care and healthier food, and other neighborhood characteristics such as abandoned and vacant housing. [Afro Thomas-Lester, A. November 17 2012]

Disparity in government spending for neighborhood resources

Why do these disparities in neighborhood resources exist and what is the role of government in addressing such disparities? If the places in which we live and grow matters in affecting our access to equity in health and wealth how do we assure that our neighborhoods are rebuilt to address these resultant disparities? It is interesting and important research and commentary from the Johns Hopkins University down the street from Clifton Park which at this very moment is expanding itself through the benefit of excessive government investment-millions of tax incentives from the city and state government.

Johns Hopkins Graduate Student Tower (r) 929 N. Wolfe St.
Parking garage (l). Both constructed within the past year

These are the same governments which choose not to allocate funds and invest in the future of our historically disinvested neighborhoods- ie funding the library in Clifton Park. These communities which receive disparate resources from all levels of government in turn have a negative effect on the health of the place- underfunded housing, schools, transportation, stores, recreations, infrastructure- and therefore the ability of the place to nourish the mind and body of growing children.

Besides the example of an underfunded library in Clifton Park, other neighborhood resources and institutions are underfunded across Baltimore. There are un-funded and underfunded recreation centers in Baltimore city-some now closed- which help young minds grow after school and during the summer. Five recreation centers and four Police Athletic League (PAL) facilities were closed between 2011-2013 [Baltimore Brew Reutter M, Feb 8, 2013]. They were all in low-income communities. Only this year was a long-term plan adopted to address the history of disinvested schools which provide the basic skills for chances of accessing a college education and equal opportunities later in life. [Baltimore Brew Fern S, April 3, 2013] Disinvested upkeep in the safety and security of neighborhoods continue most recently with 20 reported shootings and 8 deaths over one weekend. [Baltimore Sun Fenton J, June 25 2013] Such insecurity results in fear of businesses and other retailers to locate in neighborhoods perceived as unsafe. These perceptions, some supported by evidence, result in lack of supermarkets with healthy nutrition, choice of amenities, and higher prices for fresh produce and vegetables. Lack of adequate funding for fire stations to prevent lost of life, home, and business and the subsequent stress resulting from fears and worry of such occurrences is also a sign and symptom of abandoned communities. [Baltimore Brew Reutter M, May 10 2012] People in neighborhoods resourced with adequate numbers of fire stations don’t have to think or worry about these things and therefore have one less stress on the mind and body-which affects health outcomes. We cannot forget the need for adequately resourced and safe housing for all citizens, whether young or old, white or of African descent, male or female, public or privately owned or rented. Currently seniors in Northwest Baltimore must picket the Housing Authority of Baltimore for safety and sanitation issues in their housing complex due to lack of response from this office and eventual responses of ‘budget limitations’. [Baltimore Brew Fern S, June 21 2013] The clear evidence is that the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland continues to under-fund and disinvest our basic amenities in our most vulnerable neighborhoods while offering up big incentives and investments for those already with great resources [Daily Record Simmons M, Jacobson J, Feb 1 2011].

Why do the public officials elected to represent the people ignore this continued disinvestment of our most vulnerable and the resultant growth in the health and wealth divide? Why does the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland continue to allocate resources to the communities who have the most while turning a blind eye on the historically disinvested communities-communities which have been victims of racist and classist policies and practices by a city and state which not only refuses to acknowledge this history and make repairs but insist on bulldozing through select neighborhoods to continue segregation and gentrification to serve the white and middle and upper classes. [Race, class, power, and organizing in East Baltimore] This growing process of gentrification continues unabated with rhetoric of ‘helping the existing community’ even while existing residents and businesses are displaced through eminent domain or eventual un-affordability. Evidence of more recent gentrification projects in Fells Points and the Inner Harbor reflecting this pattern in Baltimore is the increase in white student enrollment and white students living and decrease in African American student enrollment. [BNIA] [Houses rehabbed 01-09][BNIA] Of course association does not mean causation so continued tracking and evaluation must occur.

What will it take for us to recognize that continued subsidies to the wealthy developer builds the gap between those with means and those without. That unequal societies are unhealthy and result in greater separation and more violence. That unfair laws and policies continue to support public:private partnerships which maintain low-income communities and communities of color through displacement and separation while growing the wealth of developers and the market they serve through public subsidies-low-cost sale of public and private-land, interest-free loans, tax-free periods, PILOT (payment in lieu of financing), TIFs (Tax increment financing), Enterprise Zone tax-breaks. The likes of current and proposed benefactors of such corrupt anti-public practices include Johns Hopkins, EBDI, Forest City in East Baltimore, Paterakis and Beaty (H&S Bakery) and colleagues in Harbor East and Harbor Point, Lexington Square Partners and colleagues for the Lexington Street Superblock, CBAC Gaming and Caesar’s casino and colleagues in West Baltimore, Under Armour in Sourhwest Baltimore. We cannot forget the direct subsidies such as the recent state-approved 1.3 million contribution toward construction of a 7-acre park of the Hopkins-EBDI-Forest City gentrification project in East Baltimore community. Or the additional state funds for a new contract community school -Henderson-Hopkins- not welcoming to the existing community [Baltimore Sun June 22, 2013] Meanwhile, the Mayor of Baltimore proposes a water bill increase which challenges the budget of low-income and fixed-income people in the city while likely presents ittle challenge to the class of people her administration is welcoming to rebuild the city. This political corruption, cronyism, and public:private partnerships continue as government neglects the libraries, schools, recreation centers, infrastructure, security, and fire stations and other neighborhood resources which would help assure that everyone lives in a safe and healthy community which supports children ready to learn and access skills toward future equitable economic prosperity. Instead these big developments have proposed and produced little stimulation to the local economy-EBDI construction projects fails to meet their promises of local hiring in their first 10 years; Lexington Street Superblock project promises employment with approximately $20,000 annual wage. Still the past and current Mayor’s administration and city council in Baltimore continue to approve and propose public subsidies with no guarantee of public benefit. Why do so many think this is okay? Is it because we have become complacent to the inequality and inequity which has grown the city at the whims of those with power? Do we not see the glaring inequity because it has been around us for so long, perhaps even believing that at some level our social norms are okay though unjust?

Thinking, speaking, and acting to change the accepted norms of inequitable distribution of resources

We must all become more informed
– about the political corruption that has and currently exists
– of the effects of the history of such corruption and how it has grown the wealth and health gap in Baltimore and beyond with disproportionate effects on African American communities
– of alternative ways of rebuilding our communities toward equity and sustainability
– about the stories and lives of local communities directly impacted by inequality and their vision for change
– about building coalitions across diverse interests
– about challenging the accepted norms that race, class, and other systematic inequities are okay because they have been around for so long
and act for change in our individual communities and interest groups and across communities and coalitions through organizing.

We can be inspired to various forms of actions through old and new examples of organizing and resistance. Effective organizing can stop the abusive power of the wealthy and government to take back the offices of government for authentic representation of the people and build community-led initiatives to take back our communities. The current and historical mantra and practice of rebuilding communities through gentrification must end. We should ONLY gentrify a community if the majority of the gentrifiers are the existing residents. How do the existing residents and businesses become gentrifiers in their own neighborhoods? This can happen when existing residents are not displaced to allow a different race and class of people to take over the neighborhood; living-wage jobs with health and retirement benefits are created along with local business-ownership and investment opportunities; affordable housing and alternative models of rent control are instituted as part of development plans; recreational centers, parks and schools are co-created and advised by and serve the existing residents; transportation changes, entertainment and other retail amenities are advised and serve the existing community; mental and physical health services are created to meet the needs of the existing community after assessment for health needs; vocational and other types of training programs and schools which prepare existing residents to benefit from the rebuilding process and outcome are part of the development plan. This model of ‘community gentrification’ is a slower one and not the immediate change so typical for our culture of ‘instant gratification’: instant gentrification. Bringing in people who are already gentrified simply continues the history of serving the needs of those who have power while continuing the disinvestment in and hiding of those who have been neglected by historic and current racist and classist laws and policies resulting in our currently marginalized and exploited communities. In order for the existing residents to become the gentrifiers, they must be involved in the changes in their community and be co-planners. Such plans should include the rebuilding of the people and the place through economic, health, and educational gain-gentrification from the ground up. If community change does not support this type of ‘community gentrification’ it should not be supported by government subsidies.

A changing tide?

It is apparent that the continued outcry by affected residents and representatives, the media, and community activists and organizers in Baltimore over the past several years in light of the growing political cronyism, income and health inequality, and abuses of power is having some small impact on those elected to represent the people. One example is the recent legislation introduced into the Baltimore City Council in regard the proposed rebuilding of Harbor Point. The legislation proposed a concrete way to assure shared benefit for existing residents and developer from the $52 million enterprise zone tax-break through allocation of $16 million directly to the low-income community which qualified the project for this tax break [Daily Record Simmons, M June 24 2013]. If passed, this type of legislation along with critical planning, decision-making, and implementation by existing residents of the area begins to redistribute public benefits directly back to impacted residents and seed and grow an economic base. Similar legislation aimed at assuring public benefit from public subsidies was targeted in recent legislation approved by the same city council: local hiring law requires 51% of jobs go to city residents if the developer receives more than 5 million in public subsidy. [Baltimore Sun Broadwater, L June 4 2013] While public subsidies are often offered to developers due to the impoverished and under-resourced state of low-income communities in which they develop, a systematic evaluation of exactly how these subsidies benefit the historic people and place of the rebuilt area is missing in Baltimore. Evaluation of this local hiring legislation and the pending Harbor Point legislation will be necessary to assure implementation and intended outcome.

The systematic organizing by residents, organizers, and community partners in Middle East Baltimore to change the current $1.8 billion ‘negro removal’ and gentrification project of Johns Hopkins, EBDI, Forest City-generously supported by Annie E. Casey Foundation, and government/public subsidies- was effective. It resulted in 1) changes in the amount of money individuals were compensated for homes taken by eminent domain; 2) changes in the unhealthy demolition practices that were occurring and development of a new demolition protocol now adapted by the state of Maryland; 3) opportunity for some residents to remain in the rebuilt community. [Race, class, power, and organizing in East Baltimore] This organizing success showed Baltimore and beyond that when residents are organized they become powerful in their own right and can change the game plan of powerful developers and public: private-driven partnerships that do not equitably benefit communities.

Here are more hopeful examples of a changing tide:

– Grassroots citizens group in New Jersey boot entire city council after council attempted to use eminent domain to seize their land for private development http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/13/attempted-land-grab-ends-with-voters-boo
– New London, Connecticut’s ‘carefully considered plan’ justifying using eminent domain to demolish an entire community for private economic development has developed nothing in almost 10 years http://reason.com/blog/2012/04/27/connecticut-agency-seeks-to-whitewash-it
– House Judiciary Committee approves legislation to protect property from certain eminent domain transfers http://www.loansafe.org/bill-to-protect-private-property-rights
– Civil rights leader supported by comprehensive plan for community-led rebuilding elected mayor of Jackson, Mississippi http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/6/civil_rights_veteran_chokwe_lumumba_elected
– Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative’s John Barros runs for mayor of Boston https://vimeo.com/64914877 while DSNI practices a resident-driven planning process http://www.dsni.org/neighbors-begin-planning-city-owned-land-dudley-street
– Cleaveland model: worker-owned co-ops and their expansion in the future http://www.thenation.com/article/cleveland-model?page=0,1#axzz2XMzg8poa
– East Baltimore residents protest lack of employment opportunities at Hopkins/EBDI/Forest City development http://thedailyrecord.com/video/2012/03/29/protest-at-ebdi-lead-to-arrests/
– Poppleton residents organize and testify to save award-winning park from developer http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/04/05/poppleton-residents-rally-to-save-award-winning-neighborhood-park/
– Opponents of a proposed Royal Farms store in Hamilton gather evidence showing public:private power in deciding what happens in their community and rally against developer and mayor http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/05/28/opponents-of-hamilton-royal-farms-say-project-is-anointed-from-on-high/

Change is happening everywhere! and we can be inspired to act for change toward equity -in ourselves and our communities, right here in Baltimore and beyond. We can be part of the changing tide that assures a sustainable future for all through equitable distribution of resources in all neighborhoods today.

Clifton Park Library 2001 N. Wolfe Street

Local residents protest for jobs at the Johns Hopkins/EBDI/Forest City Development in 2012. In the background, Graduate Student Tower 929 N. Wolfe St (l), Hopkins Biotech Building 855 N. Wolfe St. (m) both constructed within the past 6 years with minimal local hire. Photo: Maximillian Franz

Chapters 8, 9 of Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore

Check them out in Book content!

Justice without community building from the ground up? Is it possible?

Recently a colleague attempted to convince me that the powerful stakeholders directing the process of redevelopment in East Baltimore ‘get it’. Later I thought, who ‘gets’ what justice is? We seem to all ‘get it’ differently. And even more deeper to understand is whether our understanding of justice involves community building from the ground up, without discrimination and violation of human rights.

Perhaps my difficulty in understanding what my colleague and his friends ‘get’ is based on my own experience with these stakeholders and the pattern of inconsistencies surrounding their words and actions: the leadership directing the current redevelopment project in East Baltimore. The past 12 years suggest that the collective understanding of justice and community building, by Baltimore’s Mayor in 2001 (now Governor of Maryland) and the past and current leadership of Johns Hopkins and the Annie E. Casey Foundation runs something like this: it is okay to repeat history from 50 years ago as long as we convince people that we really ‘get it’. Fifty years ago in the 1950‘s, Baltimore City Department of Planning and the Mayor assisted the Johns Hopkins Medical campus’s expansion by 59 acres through displacement of more than 1000 majority African American and low-income families during the Broadway Redevelopment Project. In 2001, the Mayor and the Department of Planning and Housing and Community Development again assisted the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus expansion into another 88 acres through displacement of another 1000 African American and low-income families. This time the Annie E. Casey foundation threw in its power to assure this could happen after erratic outcomes in their ‘Making Connections’ projects across the country. Both East Baltimore projects were sold to the public under the heading of urban renewal and public benefit. And yes, community building was hailed as the core; however it was not the existing community that was the interest of either of these development projects, it was the community of the powerful developer of Johns Hopkins and its partners. Certainly a different brand of ‘justice’ than those involved in social justice movements and most importantly community residents directly impacted by the development ‘get’.

The powerful stakeholders understanding of ‘justice’ in 2001 was to use eminent domain to take the land of residents for the Hopkins Science and Technology Park expansion project. However it met with unanticipated resistance when residents organized and challenged these outside stakeholders and their partners to declare their understanding of ‘justice’ – benefit to the existing community through a right of return to the rebuilt area and a ground-up approach to community rebuilding involving residents (see details in Chapter 5 of the Book page on this website). For 8 years they proceeded to show the powerful stakeholders what ‘justice’ meant for them, through organizing residents and demanding consistency in words and actions. And today, another growing community base continues to challenge the projects’ brand of ‘justice’ known for its inconsistency, non-transparency, and inequitable benefit to existing residents of East Baltimore (Daily Record Series in Resources page on this website). The different understanding of justice, by those with great power and little power -and all those in between- continues and this post will present some evidence of this and challenge us to reason how we can bridge the gap between the words and the actions across the divide of inconsistencies.

Table: EBDI Pattern of Inconsistencies

The inconsistencies come in many forms and suggest that we pay close attention to how each one intends or acts toward who the community is being rebuilt for. While the language used by the developers has been about ‘community building’ the social engineering experiment has consistently left the existing community out of the discussion and decision-making. For example, it has been more than one year since EBDI had a regular open meeting for community residents to learn about the status of the project. And as shown in the table insert, when ‘public’ events occur residents are hand-picked for attendance or informed after-the-fact.

Perhaps we must agree on what the term justice means to all stakeholders to begin to bridge the inconsistences in words and action-to meet on a path where everyone is moving toward a collective understanding of justice. Until then those with less power must organize to demand equity in benefit because the powerful stakeholders are currently running the show-creating a reality for the public consistent with their view of ‘justice’.

Finally, if we abide by the law defining what is ‘justice’ in regard to the use of eminent domain in community building, it is clear: ‘a taking of private land should be struck down if it is clearly intended to favor a particular private party over another, or if only an incidental public benefit exists’ (Supreme Court 2005). Because public:private partnerships have been the power behind this redevelopment project and substantial public funds have contributed to removal of residents, acquisition and demolition of property, preparation of land, update of infrastructure, tax incentives for developers, subsidies for developers, public:private status of development agency and new community school, ensuring equitable and sustainable benefit cannot be a side-effect but a major measurable outcome. Anything else would be an injustice-socially and legally.

Rebuilding for whom in East Baltimore?

New 7-11 in EBDI and Johns Hopkins Expansion area-Johns Hopkins Rangos Building- does not accept food stamps

Yesterday I distributed several books (Race, Class, Power and Organizing in East Baltimore, RCPOEB) to residents impacted by the ‘displacement and dispossession project’ in East Baltimore affecting more than 800 households for the expansion of Johns Hopkins. They were leaving St. Wenceslaus church on Ashland Avenue and each had a story to tell about how they were impacted. As I was driving away, I stopped by the new 7-11 in the only ‘Biotech Building’ built to date in the 88-acre project area at Wolfe Street and Madison Avenue. Called the ‘John G. Rangos Sr. Building’ it is leased primarily by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Harbor Bank occupies space in the downstairs- whose president was the first board chair of EBDI-the quasi public:private entity directing the 88-acre development. A 7-11 convenience store occupies space on the corner of the building facing existing Johns Hopkins’ buildings. The door of the 7-11 boasted two large signs: No food stamps. Several residents were told by the cashier that it was not their doing but the policy of the store.

 

In a community where the majority of residents live below the poverty line and the majority of students receive free lunches, it is difficult to understand why a 7-11 would not accept a means of currency normally used in the community. Two blocks down the street and one block south on Monument and Chester another convenient store does not discriminate against the local community in this way. The difference in the locations is that the new 7-11 is part of the 88-acre Johns Hopkins expansion project. As the book RCPOEB describes in detail, this development project’s intention was not about maintaining the historic community but displacing the people to make room for a different race and class of people. Still, current and past presidents of Johns Hopkins and EBDI, and current and past chairs of EBDI’s board have waxed on and on about how this rebuilding effort is about the people of East Baltimore. The most recent was at a public meeting in Middle East Baltimore on January 16, 2013 where the same dialogue between the powerful stakeholders and disenfranchised residents occurred. The politicians and EBDI officials reported how wonderful the project was while impacted residents continued to challenge them for transparency, consistency in words and actions, and evidence of equity for residents. Several days later they still await documentation promised that children of displaced historic residents will be guaranteed admission to the new community school in perpetuity (see below).

 

A 7-11 which does not welcome the local residents as a worthy and respectful consumer by discriminating against their means of purchase is evidence of the true intention of the rebuilding project. And it is typical of the inconsistency of words and actions in this 10-year old rebuilding project. Such discriminatory practices also continue to assure separation and marginalization of historic residents of East Baltimore from the new and welcomed residents of the rebuilt area. A history which the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus continues to assure will not end.

 

Another is the new community school that is being constructed on 7 acres of the project site. There has been much public relations about the community impact of this school. Lost in between the public and the private relations is the evidence of what similar attempts of using schools for gentrification has accomplished. Well, it has accomplished exactly that. The current plan for the new K-8 community school follows in the footsteps of one in a similarly disinvested neighborhood adjacent to the university of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia. A new public school in partnership with the University-Penn Alexander- was built to gentrify the community and attract a different race and class of people to buffer the university from surrounding neighborhoods. Ten years later, it has done just that and changed the community from a majority low-income to majority moderate and market-rate income dwellers with their community school as a magnet-in attendance at the school is 30.2% economically-disadvantaged – 69.8% economically-advantaged. As described by one parent attempting to send her child to Penn-Alexander: ‘Admit Penn Alexander was built and is funded by the U of Penn to create an “oasis” for the select few. It is not a an “urban school” any more than Masterman is an “urban school.” They serve the elite rather than the public.’

 

A similar tool for gentrification was initiated in Middle East Baltimore when the board of EBDI hired the executive director of the development project surrounding U of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia and the board of Johns Hopkins hired the vice provost of U of Pennsylvania who oversaw their new school development to become the new president of Hopkins. As president of the Johns Hopkins University he continues to assure the public and private stakeholders that the school will bring together community residents and Hopkins affiliates. But if segregation continues in the 7-11 housed in the building constructed as a partnership between Johns Hopkins and Forest City Development, why would we expect a true partnership to emerge in a school directed by similar partnerships?

Site where new school will be constructed after demolition of homes

 

This new community school-Henderson-Hopkins Partnership School- will be the first new public school in East Baltimore in more than 25 years and will be financed with a combination of New Market Tax Credits, Tax Increment Financing bonds, foundation and university grants, and state infrastructure funds and operated by Johns Hopkins and Morgan State University’s Schools of Education.The current principal of the new community school in Middle East Baltimore projects that out of the total 540 students for final enrollment, the majority will live in the rebuilt community or be affiliated with Johns Hopkins. With the majority of housing construction planned to attract moderate and market rate earners in the rebuilt community, a gentrification in school and housing will be the outcome-like its role model of Penn Alexandar. Research by Bloomfiled-Cucchiara and others on using schools as gentrification magnets confirms this pattern.

 

A 7-11 that excludes customers from the historic community and a school which plans to assure a minority of historic residents are in attendance continue to remind us that the ‘New East Baltimore’ is not about preserving a history but about displacement and dispossession. Still we hope that organizing in voice and person will continue to challenge this old way of rebuilding communities like Middle East Baltimore and pave a way for more equitable and sustainable development. Join us on March 9, 2013 and be part of the change!

Reflection of the surrounding ‘new East Baltimore’ from the 7-11 on the corner of Wolfe and Madison Ave.