Mayor Dixon, we know you want the city to be “cleaner” and “greener.” But it also needs to be “bigger” to thrive.
Bigger means more people redeveloping abandoned property, more eyes on the street patrolling neighborhoods, more businesses, more jobs and more tax dollars filling the city treasury.
Bigger also means a cleaner, greener Maryland. It means fewer people developing land and building in rural communities, far from jobs, schools and existing roads.
Environmentalists want our legislators to make it more difficult to build in these far-flung areas when they return to session next year. But they know people need good reasons, not just laws, to make the right choice. As Alan Girard, senior land-use policy manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said, “Certainly the full range of incentives out there need to be looked at — there has to be an economic-based element that is part of the solution.”
You can help them to fulfill their wishes sooner — without top-down government mandates — and help to fill the city treasury with new tax dollars.
How? Lower property taxes, currently more than twice as high as the rest of the state.
You’re already the tough-on-crime mayor. Why not add “smart growth” mayor to your resume?
It makes sense. Thousands of vacant homes sit empty in Baltimore City with whole blocks boarded up, waiting to be redeveloped. Schools, roads and water supplies exist for these nonexistent residents, who vacated these homes in droves or trickles for the past half century. You’ve tried everything to attract new residents, including massive tax breaks for developers and free land and other perks for nonprofits — and still only a handful of residents.
Give the diaspora a real reason to come home. And give those relocating to Maryland because of the Base Relocation and Closure process, empty-nesters and everyone else in the state a real alternative to long, increasingly expensive commutes, mowing big lawns, and heating and cooling McMansions in the suburbs.
Planners will back you. Residents will. They are sick of shouldering the property tax burden by themselves.
Cleaner and greener are good. But bigger is the best outcome for the city, its treasury and Maryland’s natural resources.
