Not all cities are created equal.
And Baltimore may be one of the most unequally created cities in the United States.
I am referring to the physical area of the city and to its unusual legal status in Maryland. These factors may be causing many of Baltimore?s current problems.
Baltimore City is a small island in a sea of 23 Maryland counties. Officially, Baltimore is not in a county ? a rarity in the United States. Only two of the 50 largest cities in the 50 states are not in a county ? St. Louis and Baltimore. The result is that Baltimore cannot draw on the resources and support of a countywide governmental structure. It also loses the clout ? in the state legislature and in the minds of the public ? that it would have if the city were part of a larger entity.
In contrast, New York City is comprised of five boroughs. Brought together over time, they make New York the country?s largest city and the powerhouse it is.
Interestingly, in the early 1800s Baltimore reigned as third-most populated city in America. As recently as the 1960s, Baltimore, home to 960,000 people, ranked as America?s sixth-largest city. Since then, its population has been falling, with many residents and businesses moving just across its boundaries into surrounding counties. The 2000 U.S. Census showed Baltimore with 651,000 residents, ranking 17th in population. The estimated 2004 census reveals further population losses, with Baltimore slipping to 18th.
This fact underscores another inequity from which Baltimore suffers ? its small size as an urban area. Baltimore encompasses only 81 square miles, one of the smallest areas of any major American city. To reach even this size, Baltimore has been expanded three times. At one point, North Avenue was made the northern border. In 1918, the Maryland Legislature authorized the annexation of adjoining land in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties to create the city?s present borders.
Many U.S. cities have similarly been enlarged through annexation of surrounding areas. New York, with a population of 8 million, is the result of a series of annexations that today spans 309 square miles.
Other cities, especially in the South and West, have been laid out across large expanses.
Los Angeles, second-most populated city with 3.6 million people, sprawls across 469 square miles. America?s current sixth-largest city, Phoenix, has 1.3 million residents living in 475 square miles ? six times the area of Baltimore.
Yet, Baltimore?s image suffers ? unfairly ? from decades of continuously declining numbers, even though the areas just beyond its confined borders have been growing.
Consider the disparity in how Baltimore is viewed versus a city like Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville is seen as a growing, thriving area of the country. The 2000 Census lists Jacksonville the 14th-most populated city with 735,617 residents; the 2004 estimated census predicts that city will rise to 13th.
But Jacksonville, the result of annexations from 1970-90, covers 759 square miles. In fact, Jacksonville is the largest city area-wise in the 48 contiguous states. If Baltimore City and surrounding Baltimore County (population 754,000 in 589 square miles) were combined, the resulting 680-square-mile area would be home to1.4 million people.
Thus, even though covering a smaller area than Jacksonville?s, Baltimore City/Baltimore County would have twice the population and, if a city, would rank as America?s sixth-largest.
Instead, Baltimore must try to operate with a shrinking population within constrained borders. While great strides have been made in redeveloping downtown and certain neighborhoods, Baltimore may just be too small in area and too isolated politically to produce the tax revenues, sustain the businesses and garner the county and state support that big cities require to address today?s urban problems.
This could be why attempts to improve education and fight crime, plus meet other social needs, continue to plague this 81-square-mile city.
Nearly 100 years after doing so, the Maryland Legislature may need to consider, in the best interest of the state and its primary city, once again expanding the borders of Baltimore. At the very least, debate should be given to how to promote closer governmental and civic relationships in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
M. Hirsh Goldberg is president of M. Hirsh Goldberg & Associates LLC, a Baltimore-based public relations and marketing agency. He has served as press secretary to a governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore. He is the author of five books and numerous op-ed articles and columns. His e-mail address is [email protected]
