Most of us have been appalled and disgusted by the racist
and derogatory comments concerning the city of Baltimore that have been
emanating from the White House in recent weeks. I only comment on this topic because it is connected to
transportation. How, you might
ask?
Those of us who know Baltimore are aware both of its many
charms (“Charm City”) and its many problems. A lot of these problems are related to concentrated poverty
and economic disadvantage in the city.
This poverty and economic disadvantage can and should be addressed by
targeted public investment, including upgrading the transportation network so
that it can support revitalization.
Has the state of Maryland been providing this targeted
investment to its central city? In
fact, the opposite is happening.
As David Alpert points out with great clarity on his Greater Great
Washington blog (here), the state has been systematically disinvesting in
transportation in the city and redistributing resources to suburban
counties. The cruelest
disinvestment has been the defunding of the Red Line light rail initiative,
which would link key city and suburban activity centers with a modern transit
line while tying together the various area transit lines into a real
network. The most blatant
redistribution is the plan to support colossal highway widening projects in the
wealthiest suburban counties.
Yes, racist and inappropriate language should be called
out. More importantly, we should
be using public investment as a tool to build infrastructure that supports
opportunity and equitable economic growth where it is most needed.
