What makes a good neighborhood?
If you talk with nonprofit agencies trying to rebuild blighted areas of the city, the answer includes a mix of families with different income levels who are willing to make the investment in the community.
Deborah Ford, director of the University of Baltimore?s new Real Estate and Economic Development undergraduate degree program, adds one more ingredient.
“It takes courage to move into a blighted area,” she said. “What it takes to have a neighborhood is people with common interests and common desires who are willing to work together … willing to fight zoning issues to keep their neighborhood as it is or improve the neighborhood.”
That?s one of the ideas behind the Baltimore Community Foundation, a grant-making organization that assists with funding in neighborhoods and community development programs, among other philanthropic endeavors. Founded in 1972, the foundation also aids in grassroots efforts that work to change neighborhoods.
Cheryl Casciani, community investments director for BCF, said a “good neighborhood” also takes people who have lived there for decades and who have refused to move, despite a decline in their community.
“It takes an equal investment in [new] people [coming to live] there who can participate in the revitalization and people still living in the neighborhood,” she said. “Public sector investment will bring money into the area, but if we go too far and gentrify an area, people can be priced out.”
Working with community foundations during the past several years in areas that were on the cusp of decline, Casciani said success is being built on marketing the positive aspects of a neighborhood.
“Couple that with incentive loans at below-market finance rates with no income restrictions and people of all income ranges are coming,” she said.
The Baltimore Community Foundation is working with 10 neighborhood groups and associations. The neighborhoods include Belair-Edison, Patterson Park, Ednor Gardens, Highlandtown, Reservoir Hill, Midtown, Mondawmin, the lower part of Charles Village, Lauraville and Garwyn Oaks. More groups will be added in the future, Casciani said.
While Ford agreed with the efforts under way, she said there is no guarantee when people invest in transitional neighborhoods.
“The problem will be for families with children ? unless the city has good schools ? because they can?t afford private schools,” she said.
