The Impact of Meds and Eds on Urban Redevelopment:

An East Baltimore Case Study

Karen Miller

Blight of the Inner City• Flee to the suburbs due to fear of the city and pull of

the charm of suburban life• Racial tensions and rising sense of danger• Disappearance of downtown industries and

employment added to the impending distress• Transition of the industry of “making things” to

“knowing things” resulted in confusion and failed economies in cities that were unable to change

• Cities with diversified economies fared better than economies revolving around one market

• Meds and eds have been recognized as key players in sustaining urban economies

• Cities like Baltimore, with high numbers of meds and eds employment, are now relying on the meds and eds to save the city

• As a result, the meds and eds are given prominence over the residents that remained in the city

Meds and Eds

Baltimore’s Population Loss

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 20100

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

Baltimore Population 1950-2010 (U.S. Census)

Popu

latio

n

% change 1950-2010

% change 2000-2010

Population (city) -34.60% -4.60%

Metropolitan Area +49.30% +6.20%

Excess Building Stock• Built to house 1,000,000 people, but now there is a

decreasing population around 620,000• Estimated 15,000-40,000 abandoned structures

throughout the city• In 1998, there were an estimated 22.22 abandoned

buildings per 1,000 inhabitants (2nd highest) (Bowman and Pagano, 212-215)

“Urban Renewal”• Baltimore Plan, late 1930s: enforce housing codes to

remediate unsafe or unsanitary conditions– Rehabilitation Commission– “Code enforcement and rehabilitation as a way to transform

blighted areas into gleaming safe communities” allowed it to become a nation-wide example. (von Hoffman, 287)

– Fell short of its goals, as city did not create agency and violators and white property owners were not held accountable for their actions

“Urban Renewal”• Urban renewal was intended to revamp the former slum

clearing “urban redevelopment”• Housing Act of 1954

– “stressed not clearance but enforcement of building codes and rehabilitation of substandard buildings. Instead of public housing, it emphasized privately built housing for low-income and displaced families.” (von Hoffman, 281)

– Failed, blight spread and thousands of homes were demolished– Slums became more polarized: either ignored by the city or

evacuated to make way for civic improvements and more profitable developments -- City gave little regard to residents

Economic Troubles… what can we rely on?• Eds and Meds have become anchors of urban

economies in the way that factories once did• “The bell towers of academic institutions have replaced

smokestacks as the drivers of the American urban economy." (Gurwitt)

• Eds and Meds make up 35% of employees in the top 10 firms in the 20 largest cities in America (Harkavy and Zuckerman, 2)

• Numbers have only magnified the importance of meds and eds in the past decade

Baltimore’s Meds and EdsNumber of Eds & Meds Among Largest 10 Firms

Total Number of Jobs in Largest

10 Firms

Number of Jobs in Higher Eds and Meds

Percent of Eds and Meds Jobs in Top 10 Firms

4 84,928 48,532 57.1%• The 57.1% factor is the 4th highest in the country

Why Cities Appreciate Them• “They have money to spend, and they stay put.” (Gurwitt)

• Interest in improving the living conditions surrounding their campuses

• Expand as role of developer into immediate environments

• Produce knowledge and innovation, increasing human capital in the region

Cities approach meds and eds for help• The relationships between city governments and the

meds and eds have been slow to develop, since each party has its own interests at heart

• Conflicting priorities and different speeds of action• Public universities look to state and federal

governments for support, as well as endowments from students and their parents: differs from a private company or industry

• While they would not be hurt by a more successful city, a university does not “rely on or require that continuing kind of growth in the economy to make [them] go." (Gurwitt)

Cities approach meds and eds for help

• Because most of the meds and eds are nonprofits, they operate for the benefit of the public at large

• Urban hospitals freely provide millions of dollars in uncompensated care, but “It's another [thing] to say we have rampant poverty, high homicide rates, breathtaking levels of illiteracy and other problems of urban blight that we ought to have a role in addressing.” (Gurwitt – Max Michael, University of Alabama-Birmingham’s Dean of the School of Public Health)

Baltimore• “If New York is the center of the financial world and

Detroit is forever linked with automobiles, Baltimore has its “meds and eds.” (Staff)

Groundbreaking Alliance: EBDI• Might pave the way for other cities who are wanting

to collaborate with meds and eds• East Baltimore Development, Inc. was founded in

2003 as a partnership between the city, state, and Johns Hopkins, and later the Annie E. Casey Foundation

• The mission of EBDI is to renovate an 88-acre site adjacent to Johns Hopkins Hospital that has been in distress for decades

The Middle East

The Middle East• The Middle East is a historic district, yet “the neighborhood

and its citizens have long been disinvested by the city government and neighboring private and nonprofit organizations.” (Gomez)

• East Baltimore has been in decline for decades with high crime rates, low educational achievement, rat infestation, high poverty rates, illegal dumping, and 40% of the housing units are abandoned (70-80% in the Middle East neighborhood). (Stoker, et. al., 23)

EBDI’s perspective• http://www.ebdi.org/about • What they see as positive:– Relocation of 584 families– Clearing 31 acres of neighborhoods– Give the residents more money to move somewhere else– Gaining $9.6 million in property taxes where the city was

formerly gaining $90,000 in the first 31-acre phase (Meyer)– Revitalizing the neighborhood into a mixed-use area

Alternative Perspective• What I see as negative:– Using eminent domain and paying off people to force them

out of their homes for a forced relocation of 584 families– Clearing 31 acres of neighborhoods and demolishing 1,200

homes without community support or involvement– Johns Hopkins is being able to drive this development

because of its importance to the city– Residents were not warned or included in the discussions

about the redevelopment of their neighboorhood

Residents’ Perspectives• The expansion has resulted in a sense of

powerlessness, exhibited by an interview with a 74-year-old lifetime resident of East Baltimore, Ms. Garner.

• “When I was a little girl in elementary school, they used to tell us that Hopkins was going to take over this neighborhood. Now I’m 74 years old and they really are taking it over. Ever since I was growing up, they always told us that. Guess it’s time now. I don’t know where I’m going go. What does Johns Hopkins want with all these buildings?” (Gomez and Muntaner, 96)

Residents’ Perspectives• “The local leaders don’t bring the information back to us. Maybe 20

or 30 years ago, that used to happen. But the local leaders don’t care anymore. They’ve been bought out. They won’t call meetings to tell us about what’s going on. We have to find out about our own community being developed from the television. We ask for meetings to find out from the city what’s going to happen, and they tell us to just sit and wait. Sit and wait for what? For them to put a ‘condemned’ sign on our doors. The longer we wait, the more boarded up houses come up. We have to find new leaders.” (Gomez and Muntaner, 96)

Residents’ Perspectives• “Johns Hopkins is going to take over this whole neighborhood

eventually. We have to start organizing the people and tell them that even if their house isn’t targeted today, they will be next. We have to be part of the plans they make to redevelop; I didn’t use to think that they would eventually want to develop on my block, but now we’re the next ones to be developed. They’re not going to stop till we’re all gone. They don’t want us; they want people with lighter skin. They want to build houses that we can’t afford and bring people to live here that work and go to school at Johns Hopkins. And the people on the city council do whatever Hopkins want.” (Gomez and Muntaner, 97)

Residents’ Perspectives• “City council and Johns Hopkins work together; when we go to the

city council hearings, Johns Hopkins tells us about some plan for a new building, and asks us what we think. The city council already told them they could develop there because the next day they vote for Johns Hopkins even if we stand up and say that we don’t want to move. Johns Hopkins is too powerful; the mayor want Hopkins to keep taking this neighborhood over. He’s gonna leave his mark that he redeveloped this poor black neighborhood.” (Gomez and Muntaner, 96)

Challenging EBDI• Originally the Annie E. Casey Foundation did not want

to help fund the project because they saw it as primarily an economic venture

• They reconsidered once they realized that families would be affected by the project, and they offered to “participate if there was a ‘paradigm shift’ from merely from merely economic development to a focus on the wellbeing of the current residents.” (Stoker, et. al., 26)

• Save Middle East Action Committee (SMEAC) was formed to help organize homeowners that had little

social capital remaining

Challenging EBDI• SMEAC achieved benefits that EBDI now gloats about:– Increase in the amount of money offered for relocation

increased for both homeowners and renters– geographical restrictions were lifted so that residents were

able to relocate anywhere– the number of low-income housing units in the scheme was

increased– safer practices for demolition were implemented. (Gomez)

Is that enough?• Though it was preferable for the residents to get more

money for their trouble, they were still being “deprived of both residence and community, [as] no cash award can qualify as ‘just compensation.’” (Kelly, 928)

• Demolition and construction lasted seven years, so many residents did not return

• The original displacement left former homeowners jaded, and over the 7 years, they became established somewhere else and had few ties to a completely changed neighborhood

Now what?• SMEAC convinced EBDI to agree to a “house for house”

development to keep residents within the community for the remaining phases

• However, “EBDI announced that due to insufficient funding, the plan for demolition and redevelopment of the remaining 60 acres would be different, but it did not elaborate. So residents whose homes are located in this area remain unaware of how the new plan will affect them.” (Gomez)

Now what?• This leaves residents unsure if they will be evicted from their homes,

if their homes will be rehabbed or demolished, or if they will be a part of the development at all

• “When I first heard they were going to take our homes I was upset – for my father, who purchased this house in 1948 and for my in-laws, who moved to [Middle East] in the early 1940s,” says Leslie Lewis, who lives in the area of the second redevelopment phase. “Now I’m angry. After all we have been put through, EBDI is telling us that there isn’t enough money to proceed further. So where does that leave us? Should we stay and wait with this sword over our heads, or just board up the house and leave…with no concern for those left behind?” (Gomez)

Is History Repeating?• EBDI is a clear example of a government and a medical

facility working together to redevelop the city, but the motive was interpreted as the “local government and the hospital teamed up not to save the neighborhood but to annex it.” (Meyer)

• “A neighborhood subjected to renewal is not a community reborn if its residents are forced out and all connection to the past is paved over.” (Kelly, 962)

• Being dependent on any industry can be dangerous for a city: are the meds and eds becoming the industrial

factories of the past?

Is History Repeating?• Should Baltimore continue to align with and pamper the

successful meds and eds, or should it consider that “the region’s heavy reliance on health care could have its downside… It makes the local economy particularly dependent on the impact of health care reforms signed into law … [whose] effects won’t be known for years.” (Staff)

• By placing too much emphasis on their expansion, cities are overlooking the residents of the distressed communities