Baltimore, Where’s the Recovery Money? Pin It!
The federal stimulus program has lavished nearly $1 billion on Baltimore City, and until a year ago, anyone could easily see where the money was being spent. But since February the city has been mum about where the money is going, according to a state watchdog group. “It’s a mystery to me,” says Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute. “I think not only is it a legal requirement for them to post that information on the internet, I believe it would seem to be good public relations and good politics, because I believe the city is accomplishing some pretty good stuff with that money.”
While in office, then Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon pledged to report the city’s spending of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act money (ARRA), and she was true to her word. Since then: nothing. Of that category, about $92 million went to housing, some $30 million of which went to the Baltimore Housing Authority. Higher costs, fewer stations on proposed Red Line. Artist’s sketch of Red Line station downtown.
Photo by: Mass Transit Administration The Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed 14-mile Red Line in Baltimore has just been released and it contains some important new information. Here are a few highlights: • The cost of the project has escalated from $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion (as The Brew first reported in October). • Daily ridership is down to 50,000 from 60,000, but up from 37,000 when the analysis of alternatives was originally performed. • The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is sticking to its highly optimistic schedule of construction beginning in 2015 and the line open in 2021.
. • There is no projected state revenue estimate – including any proposed tax increases – that would allow the MTA to meet this construction schedule. • The Red Line no longer meets the FTA’s cost effectiveness standard, since repealed. Proposed route of Red Line between downtown and Greektown. How to fit the proposed casino into Baltimore’s downtown landscape. The no man’s land south of M&T Bank Stadium needs to be reconnected to the city.
Photo by: Mark Reutter Anyone who has seen the Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills would have been prepared for the monstrosity submitted to the city’s Urban Design and Architectural Review Panel last week for the proposed Harrah’s Baltimore casino. In suburbia, a 5,000-space garage that makes its attached 4,750-slot casino look like a mere sidelight is to be expected. Unfortunately, the city’s site between Russell Street’s “gasoline alley” and Middle Branch’s “no man’s land” has bred the same kind of design mentality, dominated by an almost as humongous 4,000-car garage. The proposal by Caesars Entertainment makes even the largest of the existing downtown garages seem puny by comparison. No wonder UDARP had to reject the casino and send its designers back to the drawing board.
The Camden Yards Effect The Middle Branch casino design is reminiscent of what happened 20 years ago at Camden Yards. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. How to expertly design a casino $ The City That Breeds. It’s seemingly impossible to escape any kind of gambling / table gaming news these days, with a million print ads, TV ads, radio ads, carrier pigeon ads, apparently it’s the issue we’re all most sick of hearing about.
Be that as it may, one particular aspect of Baltimore City’s future probably going to be built casino along the Russell Street corridor caught my eye a few weeks ago and I thought I’d sit down and talk about it, possibly make a few suggestions of my own for the situation at hand. And so it goes: Locust Point based design firm Ayers Saint Gross was charged with coming up with a design for the Caesars / Harrah’s facility which would “focus on Baltimore’s cultural identity” or something – whatever that means, and this is what they came up with as presented in November of 2011: The design was rejected by panel for approval, citing an obtrusive parking garage design for 4,000 cars that would essentially warp and retard the Baltimore skyline (from space?
From where?).