Baltimore 2000: A Year Later
Introduction

BALTIMORE 2000: A WORK IN PROGRESS

This Metropolitan Baltimore urban development review first appeared as Baltimore 2000: Colonial Seaport to Global Metropolis. It was unveiled in April of 2000 at a Baltimore meeting of the International Board of Governors of Lambda Alpha International, a land economics society.

The original Baltimore 2000 monograph presented an overview of then current and emerging urban development activities as a realistic expression of economic forces in a metropolitan context.

Baltimore 2000 also summarized an overview of urban-suburban problems as well as emerging ideas on metropolitan cooperation and regionalism with an eye to stimulating extended discussion of urban and metropolitan concerns.

But Baltimore 2000 was fixed in place on twenty-nine printed pages and wasn't readily available once the initial supply had been distributed. That led to the creation of this slightly changed web version of Baltimore 2000 located at http://www.lai.org/go/library/publications/Baltimore2000.html which can be used to:

Review the original monograph or just parts of it
Update the original monograph as metropolitan development changes
Link to Metropolitan Baltimore planning, development, governing organizations
Link to web sites dealing with urban and metropolitan issues in general
Communicate with concerned organizations and people

BALTIMORE 2001: THE CHANGING URBAN METROPOLIS

Metropolitan Baltimore was a single-centered urban complex well into the first half of the 20th Century. Since then, a markedly different multi-centered urban pattern characterized by sprawl, scattered employment centers, and diffuse traffic patterns has emerged. And now the region is on the edge, perhaps, of a more dispersed communications-oriented urban pattern which already shows faint signs that it might take definitive shape over the next twenty to fifty years. The fact of continual urban change is readily apparent just one year after the original presentation of Baltimore 2000. Consider just a few examples:

Announcements of still more housing, office, and hotel development for the booming Inner Harbor area
More "wired" adaptive reuse of buildings for technology activities clustered around Baltimore's "digital harbor"
Proposals for substantial additions to Baltimore's downtown housing stock
Changing emphasis of the much debated CBD West Side Plan from demolition for new buildings to adaptive preservation of existing buildings for a mix of housing, culture, and business
Explosive demolition of the last three of Baltimore's high rise public housing towers for families
Renewing a massive and long-vacant million square foot Montgomery Ward warehouse as a promising and environmentally sensitive job center
Plans for renovating historic Jones Falls Valley buildings for environmentally sound "new economy" uses, housing, waterside recreation, and biking trails
Scaled back plans for community renewal in Southeast Baltimore County following a referendum defeating use of eminent domain for renewal
Continued development of distribution and office space near I-95 in Harford and Baltimore counties, as well as near BWI airport in Anne Arundel County
Starting a Baltimore Metropolitan Council "Vision 2030" effort to define how the region wishes to grow physically, socially, and economically

The evidence is clear. Urban development continues apace in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area changing the urban pattern incrementally year-by-year and place-by-place as a reflection of new forces and changing concepts.

BALTIMORE 2000: INTERNET WEB LINKAGES

This web version of Baltimore 2000 can be read as a whole presentation of history, economic forces, urban development concepts, specific developments, regional challenges, and metropolitan initiatives by simply continuing through this web text.

Or it can be accessed and read section-by-section by going to any of the following:

Urban evolution and the regional economy focused on urban history, today's metropolitan land use pattern, population-employment-housing factors, and the metropolitan area economic base driving the regional economy
Urban development review stressing adaptive reuse and infill development style formats along with seventeen urban development project examples
Regional challenges and opportunities presenting an overview of present urban form and function, communities in distress, future urban form alternatives, urban growth boundaries, regional transportation and land use planning, other regional planning alternatives, and actions for a better region.
Source Bibliography, Sponsors, Dedication, and Acknowledgements

BALTIMORE ORGANIZATION LINKS

These links can be used to reach general metropolitan interest organizations in Metropolitan Baltimore. Those web pages, in turn, have links to other, more specific and local organizations at the county or city level.

www.baltometro.org ... Baltimore Metropolitan Council for access to extensive publication lists and data sources, plus links to state, county, and local web pages. Also linked to Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Library.
www.CPHARegionalCampaign.org ... Citizen's Planning and Housing Association, dealing witht regional housing and urban development issues since 1941
www.gbc.org ... Greater Baltimore Committee, active in regional economic development and metropolitan cooperation issues since the early 1950's
www.baltimoredevelopment.com ... Baltimore Development Corporation web site useful for wide-ranging economic development information

BROADER TOPICAL LINKS

Many web sites are devoted to urban, metropolitan, and regional issues. Web links to a few basic sites are identified here as ways to access information and opinion on specific topics. They, in turn, can provide links to other web sites of interest.

www.cyburbia.org ... operated by SUNY (Buffalo) as a planning resources directory with many links to web sites of urban and metropolitan interest
www.smartgrowth.org ... home page of the Smart Growth Network housed at International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in Washington DC
www.plannersweb.com ... planning commissioner orientation but lots of material on urban issues and numerous urban interest links
www.planning.org ... American Planning Association web site providing access to APA bookstore, some journal articles, and assorted ''links''
www.brookings.edu ... Brookings Institute source of information and publications on metropolitan concerns and regionalism

The web sites above can be helpful without being overwhelming. They provide a start for metropolitan searches. And they can be augmented by other web sites as well as by search engines like Google, Infoseek, Metacrawler, and Yahoo.