Baltimore skyscrapers uscg.mil |
Before I get going on today's post, Blogger would like give a big shout out to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for the mention in your tweet this morning. Blogger would like to give a big shout to the City of Baltimore and let you all know that still have fond memories of my previous visits. This bring us to today's post on Baltimore.
Klaus Philipsen recently posted a wonderful article on his blog archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com, titled "Aspirations of the two Baltimores." The controversial death of Freddie Gray and similar deaths of African-American young men following encounters with police, has highlighted the fact that despite all the careful planning and policy measures, tensions between law enforcement and minority communities do exist. It seems that our cities are split into two.
Thames Street Fells Point, Baltimore, Maryland en.wikipedia.org |
East Baltimore weblogs.baltimoresun.com |
Klaus Philispen sat down with M. Watkins, an African-American writer and and host of WYPR's Midday show, to discuss the "two Baltimores." Mr. Watkins has expressed his dislike for the new Baltimore in an article for Salon, stating My city is gone, my history depleted, ruined and undocumented. I don't know this new Baltimore, it's alien to me. (http://www.salon.com/2015/03/23/black_history_bulldozed_for_another_starbuck-against_the_new_baltimore) Mr. Philipsen places himself in a third category, as someone who "likes the "'new Baltimore' but doesn't think that we have enough investment especially not in poor neighborhoods." In response to Mr. Watkins and making the argument for positive change and learning from each community, Mr. Philipsen wrote, "...And now in the de-industrialized city, depopulated and marred by abandonment, we see the bifurcation into places of glitz and others of abject poverty.[..] Though Watkins narrative is correct, it misses one important point: those deprived neighborhoods [..] are still without any of the investments that create rapid change elsewhere.
Baltimore Inner City 123rf.com |
The gentrified hell of The Next Baltimore is not a place I want to live. The Next Baltimore, owned and operated by Seawall, its poor driven to the counties in favor of "young professionals [..] in the municipal ethnic cleansing game sounds like a dystopian 80s science fiction film set in the present day.
[..] this nightmarish "Next Baltimore"...[..], built on the cleansed neighborhoods and on the backs and ruined corpses of black men and women[..]
Freddie Gray's Death protests nbcnews.com |
No doubt the linger after effects of riots or uprising (depending on your point of view) have created another endless round of handwringing, people groping for explanations, and opinions from every sector of society. Naturally, the social media has had and continues to have their say. Blogger supposes that the Marshall McCluhan aphorism, "The revolution will be televised," should be updated to "The revolution will be tweeted, posted, uploaded to YouTube, and blogged."
"Justice for Mike Brown" Ferguson, Missouri usatoday.com |
Post uprising clean up Baltimore, Maryland theatlantic.com |
middle class flight to the suburbs. Blogger James DeVinnie (http://www.occupydemocats.com/author/devinne/) had this to say,
Let me provide jus a small sampling (http://www.forbes.com/sites.dandiamong/2015/04/28/why-baltimore-burned) of the inequality and oppression (http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-baltimores-young-black-men-are-boxed-in/) that afflicts Baltimore's black population: The citywide poverty rate is 25%, but in parts of West Baltimore where the riots broke out it is almost 40%. The unemployment rate for young black men in the city is 37%; for young white men it is 10%. Baltimore city's notoriously pathetic public schools have a high-school graduation rate of 58%, one of the worst in the ountry. 10% of the city's Black adults have college degrees, while 50% of its White adults do. The infant mortality (http://urbanhealth.jhu.edu/media/reports.healthdis_baltimore.pdf) rate is 9 times higher for blacks than for whites. The median income for Blacks is about half that of whites. Wealthy white neighborhoods have a life expectancy (http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-baltimores-young-black-men-are-boxed-in/) that is about 20 years longer than poor black neighborhoods. The youth of Baltimore face a graver social and economic situation (http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/baltimore-poverty/)
Baltimore police officer playing with two boys darkroom.baltimoresun.com |
- Social capital in poor and disinvested communities has grown since the 1960ies. Baltimore showed communities who were vested in the progress that has been made coming together in repair and healing.
- Improvements and development in Baltimore as well as most other American cities is very unevenly distributed. What is needed is not less development overall but a better distribution of it with more focus on affordability, access and equity.
- Equating all developments to evil is silly. Destruction occurred predominantly in the disinvested areas where is so terribly hard to come by. Just about anybody who is in any way vested into community, progress is deeply troubled seeing the very things destroyed for which they have worked.
- Ignoring the eruption and going back to business is usual may not only prove, impossible, it will also an even bigger eruption in the future more likely.
- Bricks and mortar are not the only investment that is needed, instead there is a dire need of investment in people, social capital and a much broader social compact across all classes and races.
- Social eruptions are never pretty nor are revolutions of any kind. Whether throwing tea into the Boston Harbor in the fight against Colonial powers or picket lines during labor struggles, none of it has ever looked as heroic at the time when it happened as it did later in the history books. Instead, what happened was often ugly, messy, violent and full of senseless destruction. Only with centuries of distance do actions appear as glorious with right and wrong, good and bad neatly divided.
West Lafayette Street in West Baltimore flickr.com |
Whatever the reason, revolutionary aspirations are an anathema to most people who live in democracies around the globe. Yet, one of the questions that continues to linger is , "...how long it could go one with the disparities within our country which grow year after year and have reached dimensions where some parts of our own cities resemble Nicaragua or Nigeria more than the USA on many metric..." It almost seems like American cities, and cities around the world, are on the precipice revolution-when speeches give way to action. Mr. Philipsen writes, "An advanced society should not wait until a powder keg blows but build a social compact based on incremental but broad progress for all."
The lessons of Ferguson and Baltimore are still being parsed but one thing is quite clear, change will not come right away. More community policing and body cameras on police officers are a step, whether or not they are a good idea is for law enforcement experts to decide. What is key to easing tensions is a holistic approach to community development. It is not just about jobs, it is about access to those jobs-i.e affordable, reliable, safe transportation, vocational and academic training, child care for working parents, in short a more proactive approach to moving people off the unemployment rolls onto the payrolls. This will not happen without consensus from all sides. There are signs of consensus but only time will tell.
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