Nov
23
2009
Continual Urban Renewal in the City of Baltimore
Author: SamBaltimore is one of the American cities that has rebuilt itself time and again. This has not only created a visually beautiful and eclectic city, but it stands as testament to the spirit and the tenacity of the people of Baltimore. Plumbing companies, and electrical companies, construction workers and civil servants, farmers and fisherman, Baltimore is a city that was built by the working class for the the working class. In the years following the Civil War the city grew at a phenomenal rate.
Trade and commerce flourished, especially in the flour industry, and the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the completion of the Erie Canal served to cement Baltimore as one of the major manufacturing and shipping centers in the country. Architecture flourished, expanding on the Baltimore skyline and attaining the nickname for Baltimore, “Monument City”. The city had been booming following the rebuilding after the war, but in 1904, catastrophe struck once again.
A fire broke out in the downtown district and took with it more than fifteen hundred buildings in thirty short hours. But, just as the people of Chicago responded to the fire of 1871, the people of Baltimore saw it as a way to build a city that was better than before. In just two short years, the papers were saying that one of the most disastrous events in their modern time had actually been a blessing. The city rebuilt, but not soon after, the Great Depression led to mass exodus from the city. This dramatic decrease in population led to years of economic strife.
True to the characteristics of those who remained however, a massive urban renewal took place beginning in the late 1970′s. And now again, the Urban Village renewal project is underway. This will bring more than three hundred new apartments to the area of the Inner Harbor, and will involve a massive renovation of the country’s longest running farmers market, The Lexington Market. It is no wonder that so many people visit this city each year, and upon visiting, that so many people decide to make this wonderful city their hometown.