One of Baltimore's oldest community advocacy groups (founded in 1941), CPHA has recently been without a leader after Mel Freeman resigned form his position as Executive Director.
As of yesterday, CPHA has tapped Rich Hall, Secretary of Planning under Governor O'Malley to lead CPHA. They released this notice to their members:
Former Planning Secretary Rich Hall now leads CPHA. He is an avid beer connoisseur and family man
The Citizens Planning and Housing Association Board of Directors is thrilled to announce that Richard E. Hall will serve as the next CPHA Executive Director.
Rich's outstanding experience as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Planning, with 25+ years of neighborhood planning and leadership, and as a passionate advocate of Baltimore communities and our region, will carry CPHA into the future. Rich is highly respected throughout our city and state and we are confident that under his leadership, we will determine Baltimore's future, together.
Please join us in welcoming Rich to CPHA. Rich is going to spend his first 30 days reaching out to you. In June CPHA will convene a community conversation with community leaders, elected officials, business leaders, and residents to discuss our needs in Baltimore, understand what you are doing, and what CPHA should prioritize. We are counting on your insight and knowledge to move our communities forward.
CPHA's mission has become more important in recent weeks and new leadership will hopefully allow the organization to gather strength and the funding needed to realize its mission:
CPHA brings about a healthy, inclusive Baltimore by:
Bringing together people and neighborhoods to create innovative solutions to challenging, community-wide problems
Empowering citizens with information and skills for advocacy and organizing, and
Championing solutions through legislative and policy reforms.
Richard Hall had been with the Maryland Department of Planning (later: department of Planning) since 1992. He became Secretary in January 2007 and served for eight years until he resigned after the election of Governor Hogan. The new Secretary is David R. Craig, as Hall coming to the State department from Harford County.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
I have served with Richard Hall on the 1000 Friends of Maryland Board and have enjoyed years of cordial collaboration.
The new Republican administration under Governor Hogan keeps pointing to the Red and Purple Line light rail projects as too expensive. How much too expensive? In a recent interview Hogan was heard responding "mucho mucho".
The projects with $2.9 billion and $2.4 billion each are certainly expensive, no doubt about it. What is too expensive depends on the return on the investment.
Various speakers at today's rally to support the Red Line pointed to the benefits they see, including now also the benefit that the Red connects the impoverished neighborhoods west of downtown with its much more affluent brethren to the east.
"We are on board with the Baltimore Red Line" says Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake. "Make sure we are not wasting this once in lifetime opportunity".
"Diversity is our promise", Congressman Elijah Cummings called out to the crowd. "We are all united about the Red Line". However, many were absent, especially Baltimore City Council representation was weak. "We are urging the Governor, we need you to approve the Red Line", Cummings exclaimed. "Don't let the sun go down on this wonderful opportunity".
Senator McFadden added: "don't through Baltimore off the train!" .
Delegate Brooke Lierman called the Red Line a "unity line" and added that "public transportation should act as an equalizer.
Don Fry of the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) who had just completed his annual meeting with over 800 participating business members in favor of the Red Line.
"The Red Line is one of only six projects approved by the federal government for funding. "This opportunity will not come again for a long time", Fry said.
Speakers included:
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Congressman Elijah Cummings
Maryland Senator Nathaniel McFadden
Maryland Delegate Brooke Lierman, District 46
Baltimore City Councilman William “Pete” Welch, District 9
Rev. Dr. Alvin Hathaway, Union Baptist Church
Donald Fry, Greater Baltimore Committee
William Johnson, Baltimore City Department of Transportation
The rally was organized by Baltimore City DOT. There will be two additional rallies at Patterson Park on May 15 and at the West Baltimore MARC Station on May 20, each between 5pm and7pm..
We were just scratching our heads about the uneven enforcement of the curfew during Baltimore's "State of Emergency" when the question now becomes: Was enacting a curfew even within the powers of the Mayor?
Imagine, all who were arrested and were released without charge ("the arrest was enough punishment", Baltimore City spokesperson) could now turn around and charge the City with "Unlawful Arrest"?
Another field of murky law is the National Guard, a federal force under state power. What can the Guard do in a state of emergency versus under Marshall Law? And what power does the Mayor have in that issue (Hogan: "When she finally called me").
Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters
Does the Guard protect or watch the Mayor? (In front of City Hall)
It is interesting how unclear the law is sometimes when it comes to who governs the cities.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
Baltimore SUN today about the Mayor's curfew power
Susan Reimer is probably clueless once she starts writing about urban issues instead of gardening or family life. Not that her comparison between Baltimore and Pittsburgh in today's column couldn't be interesting or valuable, but when written without any research of data and facts it is just airy blubber about "the Pittsburgh character". Oh, give me a break. Each politician gives us this thing about how (fill in the blank) are especially resilient, resourceful, coming together in a time of need. blah, blah, blah. An essentially genetic Darwinian explanation of clearly societal conditions.
Pittsburgh, home of a ketchup empire (photo: ArchPlan)
"And there is one more piece in the Pittsburgh puzzle, something Mr. King learned after a long conversation with historian David McCullough, who described his childhood in Pittsburgh as idyllic. It is the "Pittsburgh character." "The Scot-Irish, the Eastern Europeans, the Germans, the English, the blacks. Each successive wave of immigrants adopted this Pittsburgh character," said Mr. King, quoting Mr. McCullough. "No-nonsense, straight-forward, hard-working, committed to the idea of community and family".
To be fair, Reimer is basing her text on this article in the Wall Street Journal, which is hidden behind a paywall (I copied it below). One would expect Darwinian capitalism from WSJ, I suppose.
Pittsburgh’s Revival Lesson for Baltimore
If Charm City wants to address the hopelessness that fueled the riots, a blueprint already exists
A quick look at some basic demographic figures will reveal significant differences, some of which the WSJ recognizes. Without analyzing what they mean explanations are probable fruitless. But overall, the numbers don't show that Pittsburgh is really so much better off than Baltimore. With a 22% poverty rate its poor may look different, but they represent about the same stunning percentage as ours. And as far as manufacturing output? Given that Pittsburgh is less than half Baltimore's size, quite comparable. Foundations, universities, non profits? Not much difference. However, Pittsburgh is doing much better with conventions and much better with conveying an image of decisiveness and leadership.
The maybe most significant difference: Baltimore lies in the heart of a rapidly growing metro area, Pittsburgh does not. Instead it sits in a corner that Philadelphians deride as "Pennsyltucky". This means Baltimore should actually be doing much better than Pittsburgh.
Maybe some real Pittsburgh experts can shed more light on the matter.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
Pittsburgh Quick Facts from Census:
People QuickFacts
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Population, 2013 estimate
305,841
12,781,296
Population, 2010 (April 1) estimates base
305,702
12,702,884
Population, percent change - April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2013
Z
0.6%
Population, 2010
305,704
12,702,379
Persons under 5 years, percent, 2010
4.9%
5.7%
Persons under 18 years, percent, 2010
16.3%
22.0%
Persons 65 years and over, percent, 2010
13.8%
15.4%
Female persons, percent, 2010
51.6%
51.3%
White alone, percent, 2010 (a)
66.0%
81.9%
Black or African American alone, percent, 2010 (a)
26.1%
10.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent, 2010 (a)
0.2%
0.2%
Asian alone, percent, 2010 (a)
4.4%
2.7%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, percent, 2010 (a)
Z
0.0%
Two or More Races, percent, 2010
2.5%
1.9%
Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2010 (b)
2.3%
5.7%
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2010
64.8%
79.5%
Living in same house 1 year & over, percent, 2009-2013
79.0%
88.0%
Foreign born persons, percent, 2009-2013
7.4%
6.0%
Language other than English spoken at home, pct age 5+, 2009-2013
9.8%
10.3%
High school graduate or higher, percent of persons age 25+, 2009-2013
90.4%
88.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher, percent of persons age 25+, 2009-2013
35.5%
27.5%
Veterans, 2009-2013
19,404
943,417
Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16+, 2009-2013
22.8
25.9
Housing units, 2010
156,165
5,567,315
Homeownership rate, 2009-2013
48.8%
69.8%
Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent, 2009-2013
39.7%
20.5%
Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2009-2013
$89,400
$164,700
Households, 2009-2013
133,005
4,958,427
Persons per household, 2009-2013
2.12
2.48
Per capita money income in past 12 months (2013 dollars), 2009-2013
$26,892
$28,502
Median household income, 2009-2013
$39,195
$52,548
Persons below poverty level, percent, 2009-2013
22.6%
13.3%
Business QuickFacts
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Total number of firms, 2007
24,605
981,501
Black-owned firms, percent, 2007
9.1%
4.6%
American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned firms, percent, 2007
S
0.3%
Asian-owned firms, percent, 2007
4.1%
3.2%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms, percent, 2007
F
0.0%
Hispanic-owned firms, percent, 2007
S
2.3%
Women-owned firms, percent, 2007
28.2%
27.0%
Manufacturers shipments, 2007 ($1000)
2,535,019
234,840,418
Merchant wholesaler sales, 2007 ($1000)
7,097,194
142,859,202
Retail sales, 2007 ($1000)
3,412,987
166,842,778
Retail sales per capita, 2007
$10,928
$13,323
Accommodation and food services sales, 2007 ($1000)
If Charm City wants to address the hopelessness that fueled the riots, a blueprint already exists.
By
WILLIAM A. GALSTON
A few years ago, the distinguished political scientist Robert Putnam made what turned out to be a fateful visit to his hometown of Port Clinton, Ohio, to attend the 50th reunion of his high-school class. Despite their modest backgrounds, most of his classmates had enjoyed remarkable upward mobility. Not so for their children and grandchildren who had chosen to remain in Port Clinton. Instead, divorce, unwed parenthood, child poverty and juvenile delinquency soared.
What happened? Starting in the 1970s and continuing through the ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Putnam found, the foundation of Port Clinton’s economy collapsed, and nothing replaced it. Manufacturing employment as a share of total jobs fell to 25% in 1995 from 55% in 1965 and kept on falling. Real wages shrank from slightly above the national average in the 1970s to 25% below average in the current decade. Not surprisingly, many young people moved away in search of opportunity.
Port Clinton’s story is Baltimore’s story. In the 1950s and 1960s, Charm City was a thriving economic and financial center. Young people with high-school educations or less found good manufacturing jobs—at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrow Point mill and the General Motors plant, among many others. In 1960 the Port of Baltimore—another major source of good working-class jobs—ranked second in the country.
Then everything changed. By 1995 Baltimore had lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs. Today, the steel and auto factories are closed, the port has fallen to 11th place and manufacturing accounts for only 7% of Baltimore’s employment. People with a high-school education or less find jobs in lower-wage service occupations or fall prey to long-term unemployment. Median household income stands at $41,400, 44% lower than the state average. Twenty-four percent of Baltimore’s population lives below the poverty level, compared with 10% for Maryland. Since 1950, Baltimore’s population has fallen by 35%.
The situation in Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood—the epicenter of recent protests—is far worse. According to a recent analysis by ThinkProgress, 52% of the neighborhood’s inhabitants age 16 to 64 are out of work, and the unemployment rate is twice that of the city as a whole. At $24,000, the neighborhood’s median household income is lower than the federal poverty line for a family of four—and fully 54% below the national median. Thirty-three percent of Sandtown-Winchester’s homes stand vacant and decaying, despite a $130 million investment spearheaded in the 1990s by developerJames Rouse and Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore’s first African-American mayor.
In Baltimore as in Port Clinton, no effective substitute for the industrial-era economy has emerged. In both cities a tangle of social pathologies is the consequence—not cause—of vanishing opportunity. And when a community’s economic foundation crumbles, social programs—however intensive and well-intentioned—cannot fill the gap.
But deindustrialization need not condemn a city to permanent failure. Pittsburgh long symbolized the industrial era. When the U.S. steel industry withered in the second half of the 20th century under foreign competition, Pittsburgh’s unemployment surged to 17%, and its population declined even faster than Baltimore’s. Many observers wrote off the city, as they write off Detroit today.
Yet Pittsburgh found a way forward. The manufacturing sector diversified into advanced metal alloys and surgical implants. With a base in Carnegie Mellon University, entrepreneurs turned the city into a center for robotics. Even so, as late as 2002, Pittsburgh suffered from low levels of innovation and poor workforce retention.
It took a coordinated effort by the city’s political, economic and nonprofit leaders to link education and innovation, nurture new businesses and turn Pittsburgh into one of America’s most livable cities. The city now hosts two of the 15 largest law firms and more than 100 firms valued at more than $1 billion. By 2009 Pittsburgh was selected to host the annual G-20 summit, hailed by the group as “a model for economic, environmental, and quality-of-life transformation.”
Much work remains. Pittsburgh’s median household income is still 25% below Pennsylvania’s, and poverty exceeds 20%. Still, the unemployment rate is only 5.4%, slightly below the national average, and opportunity is on the rise.
There is of course a difference between Pittsburgh and Baltimore: African-Americans form 63% of Baltimore’s population, compared with 26% of Pittsburgh’s. Between 1970 and 2010, employment rates of prime working-age black males in large metropolitan areas declined by an average of more than 18 percentage points. The question is whether this difference is decisive. We won’t know the answer until Baltimore works as hard to leverage its educational and health-care assets into economic vitality as Pittsburgh has.
Government, nonprofits and the private sector must come together around a long-term blueprint for growth and job creation. Institutions such as Johns Hopkins University will have to do a better job of commercializing the fruits of their research and integrating their activities with the city. Only a vigorous, self-sustaining economy can offer the opportunity needed the break the cycle of hopelessness in neighborhoods like Sandtown.
