Part I: The Inter-relationship of Baltimore City and Baltimore County
by Doni Glover
Northwest Voice publisher Kenny Brown and I have had many lengthy discussions on the inter-relationship and inter-dependence of the city and the county. Although I am a Sandtown resident and homeowner and have lived most of my life inside the beltway, I have plenty of family in the Randallstown and Owings Mills parts of Baltimore County.
For over 35 years, consequently, I have spent a many a night out Liberty Road. It is a getaway for me, although the nights are very quiet. Instead of the nuisances of people on the corner and the wildlife associated with the city, like rats, the county is plagued by bunny rabbits, foxes and deer – a welcome reprieve for an urbanite like me.
While the city certainly has its issues, so does the county. Further, it is no secret that many county residents too have city roots. The Liberty Road exodus has been witnessed ever since integration: people leaving the city and its challenges to move to higher ground with better neighborhoods and schools.
Who doesn’t want that for their child? No one can argue against such a move. However, in the process of blacks flooding Northwest Baltimore County primarily from West Baltimore for these improved living conditions, communities like mine suffer.
Some refer to it as “urban flight.” I see it as “brain drain” whereby the only black people left in these communities are those who cannot afford to leave and those of us who are just too in love with urban living.
One thing that becomes interesting to me is that while blacks are breaking their necks to pay county mortgages, a swarm of white folks are hovering over communities like Harlem Park and Washington Village, buying up vacant, and now calling these communities home.
So, my question becomes: Should Baltimore County care about what goes on in the city? Even more, do black folks in the county have any responsibility for what goes on in the city and should they even care?
I ask because on many occasions I have heard people in my circle speak ill of the city. There is this condescending perspective that reeks of a deep disdain for anything associated with the city. It’s as if the city is full of criminals – a sort of “den of ill repute.” The only ones impressed with city living are their children who have fleeting memories of visiting grandma’s house down in the city.
As for the adults, quite often the decision was made long ago to disassociate with the city – except maybe for the family church. Others have completely transitioned and want no dealings with the city at all – which I think is a very bad idea. Recently, Gov. Larry Hogan announced some $600 million coming to Baltimore City under the management of the Stadium Authority to deal with blight. When I shared the news on social media, there were a lot of comments about the blocks of vacant considered for razing. Black people were disgusted that these neighborhoods, like the 1000 block of North Stricker, are being demolished.
There is an innate fear, I might add, of gentrification. However, if county folks have no interest in buying these vacants and transforming them, then why, I figure, should they complain that the houses are being torn down or that white folks are working to develop these properties – maybe even into condos – condos that few blacks will buy?
How can we complain about what others are doing when we have no interest in preserving the communities out of which we come? (To be continued …)
Doni Glover is the publisher of bmorenews.com, host of The Doni Glover Show on Radio One Baltimore’s WOLB 1010 AM (Tuesdays, 10 to 11 a.m.), and a television political analyst. The founder of the ORIGINAL Black Wall Street SERIES *NYC *MD *DC *ATL *NOLA, Glover is also the author of “Unapologetically Black: Doni Glover Autobiography”.
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