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baltimore
Baltimore, MD

Baltimore

Turning Neighborhoods Around

Baltimore was designated an Empowerment Zone in 1994, gaining a $100-million federal grant and $250 million in federal tax incentives. With these resources, CDCs built more than 3,000 homes for low-income residents. Neighborhood Transformation: Sandtown-Winchester Jazz great Cab Calloway performed in the clubs of Sandtown-Winchester, and the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was a native son. But by 1990 the neighborhood was one of the poorest in the nation, beset by crime, poverty, illiteracy, substance abuse, and unemployment. Rather than merely repairing buildings or performing other surface-level changes, the Enterprise Foundation embarked in 1990 on a full neighborhood transformation. The effort involved residents in a partnership to improve housing, education, health, employment, and public safety. Close to 300 houses were built or renovated, and 400 others are under construction today. The project employed more than160 adults and 500 teenagers and resulted in establishment of the Sandtown-Winchester Community Center, creation of a family advocacy program, and organization of over 100 neighborhood clubs to fight crime.

Heritage Crossing: Restoring a Sense of Neighborhood

A West Baltimore row house community found itself with housing projects overshadowing its streets: four high rises and 20 apartment buildings resembling army barracks. The Heritage Crossing project, which replaced the decaying Murphy Homes, opened new housing in 2003 and created through its human scale a true sense of neighborhood. This attractive, mixed-income, mixed-use housing development combines 185 semi-detached homes and 75 rental units dedicated to low-income residents.

A Communal Approach: Project Garrison

An affluent neighborhood in the early part of the 20th century, the area around the major thoroughfare of Garrison Boulevard long ago fell victim to crime, making it unsafe and unhealthy for its residents. But community groups are working through Project Garrison, Inc. to solve the community's problems, together with Enterprise, police, health and education outreach programs, and churches. Their joint effort is a so-called "weed and seed" initiative, one that integrates federal, state, and local criminal justice efforts to "weed" out crime and "seed" social and economic revitalization. Project Garrison also plans to expand meal programs, offer job placement and training, develop new housing options, and establish a substance-abuse counseling and referral service that capitalizes on agencies already in place.

Pilot Cities Initiative: the East Baltimore Revitalization Project

In recent years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has worked with the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the Enterprise Foundation, and city government to bring much-needed redevelopment to East Baltimore through a planned 30-block biotechnology center next to the Hospital. An ambitious effort that will cost nearly $1 billion, the project will add 6,000 jobs, 1,200 homes, and a mix of new schools, recreation facilities and retail to the neighborhood. To learn more about East Baltimore Revitalization and the Pilot Cities Initiative, visit [link] the PCI page.