Red Line: An Opportunity for West Baltimore

The western side of Baltimore has a golden opportunity.  An opportunity of a generation.  An opportunity that if missed, will likely not come again in a long time.  This opportunity is the Red Line.

The author grew up on the west side of Baltimore and wants it to flourish. The area is home to tight-knit neighborhoods, a great variety of historic architecture, and the city’s biggest park; Gwynns Falls Leakin Park.  That has not been enough. Unfortunately, West Baltimore (city) has few large employers and is not seeing enough private investment flow in its direction.  This has an impact on quality of life.  The west side has a dearth of sit down restaurants, no movie-plexes, no hotels, and few thriving retail districts.  Despite the city’s overall uptick in population, the west side continues to hemorrhage residents, which results in too much crumbling housing and falling employment opportunities.

If the west side remains isolated and it does not try something new, it is hard to envision change.  The opportunity is right in front of us.  In the short run, the Red Line will put thousands to work. When it opens, the west side neighborhoods will be connected within minutes to over 113,000 downtown jobs and thousands more in southeast Baltimore. The Red Line will make easy transfers to MARC trains at West Baltimore and Camden Station, opening up the Washington region in ways never before realized. The Red Line also will make it convenient to visit restaurants, shopping, and events. Most importantly, the Red Line greatly improves the prospects for attracting new employers, restaurants, retail, and potential residents that have been spurning the west side for other parts of the region. Rail transit does not guaranty new investment as those of us in Baltimore are all too aware. However, transit-oriented-development is happening in traffic clogged cities all over the world, especially right down the tracks in Washington.  Thirty-four MARC minutes from the West Baltimore Station, New Carrollton envisions 5500 new apartment units and 6.1 million square feet of office and retail around its station.  Development at transit stations will eventually catch on here in Baltimore too, hopefully sooner than later.

Transit Oriented Development opportunity at the W. Baltimore MARC Station

Development at this West Baltimore Station is a lot more likely with these train connection combinations: 45 minutes to Washington Union Station, 34 minutes to New Carrollton and the Purple Line, 10 minutes to downtown Baltimore, and 10 minutes to Baltimore Penn Station. Image Source: West Baltimore MARC Station Master Plan

Improved transit could make development in West Baltimore more likely

For households and businesses that need easy connections to Baltimore and Washington, development at the West Baltimore MARC would be ideal. Image source: West Baltimore MARC Station Master Plan

The residents and business owners of: Dickeyville, Franklintown, Rosemont, Allendale, Ten Hills, Hunting Ridge, Poppleton, Franklin Square, Union Square, Edmondson Village, Harlem Park, and other nearby neighborhoods will be the biggest beneficiaries. As it is often said “location, location, location….”  The Red Line  will again give West Baltimore a location advantage and the chance for new development that otherwise would not occur.

Maryland’s General Assembly is debating funding and the Red Line.  There are only so many times that your districts can be part of a $2.5 billion shot in the arm and the chance to transform the economic outlook for dozens of neighborhoods. It is time to seize the opportunity.

JL