Urban Blight

Baltimore City, once fully worthy of its nickname (Charm city), has been dying from the inside out for decades. I have not lived here for decades--but the rotting buildings tell the story of years of neglect. I posit that the character of its politicians has much to do with this. Some of you may have heard that the city school district is upwards of 60 millions dollars in debt. The initial solution? To cut, substantively, already underpaid teachers' salaries. This was met with immediate rancor, so other options had to be unearthed. I'll be honest. I stopped paying attention after awhile, so I don't know what conclusion was reached--but I know board members were forced to resign, and that subsequent investigations are in the works.

60 million dollars missing. Every little hamlet blighted by graffiti, malevolent street urchins, boarded up homes, virtually the whole city unemployed. Where, exactly, is the money going? I know efforts have been made to revamp and preserve important buildings, to reopen centers of artistic and cultural expression (like the Hippodrome), but most of this city's residents--who are poor, disenfranchised, and undereducated do not have a paradigm that will allow them to even care about this. I think theatre and art are vital elements of a town's financial and psychological construct, but as conceptually explained by Maslow's triangle of self-actualization, when people live in ghettos where the pervasive fragrance is essence of urine and gun powder, and rats rule the roost, who in the hell gives a rip about the reopening of a place that their very life experience bars them from attending?

It is not enough to leave this city to itself. It is not enough to ride on the coattails of its former glory while looking squarely at its unraveling threads and say "This is still the best place to be."

I have never loved Baltimore because of what it is, for the most part, now; I love this city because I feel what it is supposed to be--what it once was. The essence is still there. But if we wait, pretty soon the 5 or so remaining excellent areas of the city will fall prey to the same fate. I am fiercely loyal to this town because I know what it's capable of; I see the vestiges of accessible grandeur; I see its heart, wholistically. I adore the wonderfully innovatively-themed bars, coffee shops, and eateries. I love this place....

Baltimore has a legacy of greatness in industry, in cultural development, in kitsch, in history. This city is like your favourite aunt, whose beauty in her youth was staggering, but after years of loving bad men and poor dental upkeep, is now perfumed with cheap liquor and tobacco--because she forgot who she is, because no one reminded her...

I believe it's not too late.