Baltimore Has Decided Some Neighborhoods Just Aren’t Worth Saving

Business Insider ^ | 02/24/2012 | Yepoka Yeebo

[SeekAndFind]

Yepoka Yeebo / Business Insider

In Baltimore the wrecks stretch for blocks in every direction. Shattered windows, buckling walls, sometimes just a façade, propped up by the houses on either side.

The vacant streets are punctuated by the odd meticulously-kept home; a living city slowly turning into a ghost town.

Click here to see some of the abandoned homes >

Baltimore has tried to deal with the tens of thousands of abandoned houses that mar the city. They’ve been refurbished. They’ve been raffled for $1. They’ve been demolished. But the number of vacant houses keeps growing.

There were radical efforts to seize abandoned homes and sell off city-owned property. In the nineties, $100 million was poured into some of the most troubled areas. Now the city is trying another approach: jump-starting the housing markets in healthier neighborhoods.

As Baltimore faces a $52 million budget shortfall, there is a more urgent need than ever to deal with the vacant homes, which still require public services like fire and police patrol.

47,000 vacant properties.

The numbers vary depending on who's counting, but the highest estimates suggest there are 46,800 vacant houses and lots in Baltimore — 

[PLMerite]

“Baltimore Has Decided Some Neighborhoods Just Aren’t Worth Saving”

The God’s honest truth is that some neighborhoods in Baltimore *aren’t* worth saving.

[In Maryland]

The people of Baltimore have gotten the city they deserve.

In blighted neighborhoods, there is no cooperation between the community and the police. The residents are afraid to report crime and don't trust the police (with some justification, given the number of witnesses who have disappeared or been murdered). The police don't trust the community because the jury nullification by black juries on behalf of black defendants is incredible. In one case a gang-banger who sped up to ram a cop car, and killed the officer driving the car, was let off scott-free because the jury felt sorry for him (the facts of the crime were not in serious doubt.)

And with nutso liberal judges, even when a conviction is obtained, sentences are light. The last state's attorney, Patricia Jessemy, had a public policy of not seeking the death penalty.

I do not travel into Baltimore City except when essential - given past history, I know that a black person assaulting or robbing me is unlikely to be convicted. Might as well have a target on my back. I know that's not PC, but it is the wide perception of many people who live near Baltimore.

[In Maryland]

"At least they have Dish Network in that first pic.

Well, to be fair, they have to do something for entertainment; and they don't dare leave their homes after dark if they have any common sense.

[Ernie Kaputnik]

I noticed that, too.

People can’t afford to maintain a home or pay their mortgages, but they can afford satellite tv.

That says everything I need to know about urban dwellers.

[gusty]

Those look some good properties that Stringer Bell could pick up cheep.

[gusty]

Makes you wonder how many dead bodies are lying behind those boarded up doors. Another Wire reference.

[rurgan]

Liberals still keep voting for democrats.

[bonfire]

“Hamsterdam”

(”The Wire”)

[GOPJ]

If social workers were giving away "Foamposite One Galaxy sneakers with a constellation-like print and glow-in-the-dark soles", rather than letting stores SELL them for a few hundred dollars, they'd be strewn all over inner city slums.

No one would want them.

People value what they have to work for... they didn't work for these houses and they didn't value them. Why can't liberals understand human nature?

[GOPJ]

If social workers were giving away "Foamposite One Galaxy sneakers with a constellation-like print and glow-in-the-dark soles", rather than letting stores SELL them for a few hundred dollars, they'd be strewn all over inner city slums.

No one would want them.

People value what they have to work for... they didn't work for these houses and they didn't value them.

Why can't liberals understand human nature?

[GOPJ]

...kids here in this bright red county can NOT READ or do simple arithmetic. The **only** children in this red state county that are learning to read and do simple math are those kids whose parents are doing a **ton** of afterschooling. All ( yes, **all**) of the kids spout Global Warming propaganda. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. In one generation our peaceful and bucolic county will look like the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

It should be against the law for 'teachers' to teach their political biases until the children can read. What an outrage.

[TASMANIANRED]

Another monument to socialism.

[Pining_4_TX]

Our daughter and SIL lived there for 2 years recently, and I was scared to death the whole time! When they voted, they were the only white folks in the place. Almost everyone else there, including the poll workers, had Obama buttons or shirts. I was so happy when they moved back here.

[Rummyfan]

I grew up in Baltimore, three blocks east of York Road. Now when I go back to visit - still have a lot of family in the immediate area, Timonium, Perry Hall, Columbia - trips into the city consist of either Little Italy or Camden Yards or Ravens Stadium. That’s it! It breaks my heart to see how the city has declined.

[Rummyfan]

The **white** kids here in this bright red county can NOT READ or do simple arithmetic.

All that money the Feds spend on education goes to the NEA and the kids get more and more poorly taught. If I had to do it over again with my children I would homeschool. Secondly, I think private schooling will become a growth industry in the very near future.

[Rummyfan]

That’s THE WIRE Season 3. Ironically, the former mayor of Baltimore Kurt Schmoke made a cameo in the season - and he had proposed legalizing drugs during his tenure as mayor.

[Rummyfan]

Stringer was more interested in the Inner Harbor area..... Then he chucked it all and went to work for Dunder-Mifflin.

[Rummyfan]

I have a former work colleague whom has lived all over the world - Belgium, Thailand, Germany, New Mexico, New Jersey. His wife wanted to go back to school and chose Hopkins. They live just off the Homewood campus and think B’More is the greatest place they’ve ever lived. I say to them ‘are we talking about Baltimore?’

[GOPJ]

.. they didn’t work for these houses and because of that they don’t value them. Why can’t liberals understand human nature? It’s why ‘sneakers’ are valued and taken care of - and ‘homes’ are trashed...

[Pining_4_TX]

Wow! Well, there’s a fine line between bravery and foolishness. ;-)