Comments on: A Blue-sky Baltimore Blueprint: for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

By: Editor

Editor — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:53:12 +0000

Thanks for the nice words, Baltimore Blockers. So pleased you found and enjoyed my rant! I am liking your site too. I’m with you, for instance, on the subject of the dearth of good Chinese restaurants in Baltimore, which is an enduring mystery and frustration to me. Right now, I must journey way down to Odenton to Grace Garden for the good stuff. True hole-in-the-wall, next to a tatto joint and liquor store. (Combine it with an airport drop-off, and the trip is not so bad.)

By: Satisfying newsprint, inky, virtual « A Baltimore Block

Satisfying newsprint, inky, virtual « A Baltimore Block — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:34:45 +0000

[...] a “sassy” blog style with lots of photos. Posts are tagged by subject and neighborhood. Gerald Neily has some tips about how the Red Line project can undo the damage done by 1960s highway construction by eliminating the forbidding cement [...]

By: geraldneily

geraldneily — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:49:16 +0000

Excellent comment, Phil. Yes, physical solutions shouldn’t be expected to solve socioeconomic problems, as has been demonstrated in the unrevitalized path of the existing subway. The MTA and the city have oversold their plans. But physical places need to attract new investment in order to thrive, so we need to create places that are capable of doing this. Baltimore has often “solved” the human problem by boarding up or tearing down the houses and moving on. That’s the point at which it most glaringly becomes a physical problem.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:03:38 +0000

The west side neighborhoods need far more than a transportation overhaul to bring them back to life. Getting rid of an overpass won’t change the drug-funded gang culture of death and underachievement.

Instead of trying to work with the city and MTA to improve the route and plans for the red line, west side community leaders have spent far more team crying “Racism!” over the current plans. Never mind that the city’s only existing subway line runs through predominantly black communities. The white communities in north and southeast Baltimore would love to have a fast, heavy rail subway line for public transit.

The focus needs to be on getting maximum ridership for the red line at the lowest possible cost to the city and the state. If the solution is as the article proposes, then that’s great. But trying to solve social problems with public transportation is misguided and a poor use of taxpayer dollars.