Jesse Walker writes about a large-scale Biotech Park project in Baltimore that’s an utter waste and wreck. Whitewater’s own experience with a so-called tech park, although far smaller, will prove no better. A projects like these depend on (1) dishonesty, and (2) flacking and covering for dishonesty.
The story doubles as a tour through some of the most common ways local governments screw their citizens, from eminent domain to TIFs to public-private partnerships. And then, of course, there’s good old fashioned neglect:
The Daily Record’s investigation found that The New East Baltimore’s public funding is so complex and poorly scrutinized that local elected officials, some of whom serve on EBDI’s board, said they had little grasp of the $108.5 million in city funds committed to the project at a time of tax increases, and furloughs and pay cuts for city workers, including firefighters and police.
[Sheila] Dixon told The Daily Record that she did not know the city sold $78 million in bonds to support the project when she was mayor.
Although a project like this depends on mediocrity and mendacity, that’s not where it leads — it leads to neglect of ordinary residents’ needs, all for an empty suit’s empty promises.
East Baltimore residents have every reason in the world to be disappointed and frustrated:
East Baltimore residents’ dreams derailed by EBDI project from Maryland Daily Record on Vimeo.
Via The Biotech Park That Never Was – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine.