The groundbreaking today of the $300 million University of Maryland, Baltimore's BioPark represents more than just economic development to the Poppleton community west of Martin Luther King Boulevard, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said today.
"It's not just biotechnology, it's also symbolism," Ehrlich said. "To have a project cross Martin Luther King -- it was not just a road, but a line.
"Today, there was an official erasing of that line," the governor continued. "The University of Maryland is an integral part of West Baltimore's development.
"I've seen the gradual deterioration of West Baltimore over a number of years, and now I am in a position to see this community excited," Ehrlich said.
But Dr. David J. Ramsay, UMB's president, was more direct.
"When I first arrived here, it seemed to me that Martin Luther King symbolically separated the community of West Baltimore from the rest of the city," said Dr. Ramsay, who's headed the university since 1994. "There is development of the west side, but it stopped at Martin Luther King.
"What we wanted to do was to bridge Martin Luther King, and this project serves this purpose," he said.
And Clarence Brown, vice chairman of the Village Center of Poppleton community group, was even more blunt.
"It was like an invisible wall," Brown said of the boulevard. "But in reality, Martin Luther King is nothing but a street. There's no wall there -- and we proved that today."
Ehrlich, Ramsay and Brown were among a host of community leaders -- including Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, City Council President Sheila Dixon and U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings -- and local business leaders who attended the groundbreaking in a heated tent on a vacant lot in the 800 block of W. Baltimore St.
The atmosphere ranged from celebratory -- a Dixieland jazz band played beforehand and afterward -- to tent revival -- Cummings' talk of the groundbreaking as a "faith event" to spur community hope -- to pep rally -- as O'Malley urged the enthusiastic audience to "chant with me, 'Here we go, here we go, here we go,' " in recognition of the city's continued economic growth.
Today's groundbreaking was for the first building in the seven-facility research center -- a six-story building with 120,000 square feet of office and laboratory space that is to be completed by early next year.
