SCORES OF CITIZENS who live north of the Johns Hopkins medical campus are about to lose out on the East Baltimore revitalization effort. About 100 households have been relocated and an additional 200 are to be moved by December.
That's part of the first phase of this $1 billion redevelopment project that will clear the way for five life science buildings, retail space and housing. The original plan called for relocating about 800 Phase 1 residents by the end of 2004 and an additional 1,600 people in Phases 2 and 3 over 10 years. But because Phase 1 cost more than originally anticipated, the later phases are in doubt, spelling trouble for vulnerable homeowners.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new for East Baltimore residents. The community has experienced a history of planned redevelopment without follow-through, leaving residents, churches and businesses up in the air.
FOR THE RECORD - In an article Thursday, "Frustration stewing in `Hopkinsville,'" it should have said that about 200 households have been relocated in the East Baltimore revitalization effort and another 100 will be moved by December. The Sun regrets the error.
Because of eminent domain, which allows property to be taken and used for "the public good," residents have been waiting since 2001 to hear the verdict about their futures at the hands of the city and the nonprofit organization that is overseeing the project, East Baltimore Development Inc. (EBDI).
Early this year, EBDI's CEO, Jack Shannon, announced that because of a lack of funding, a revised plan would be forthcoming with changes in the relocation and demolition of occupied housing in Phases 2 and 3. As residents continue to wait, with no control over whether their property will be taken, whether they will be forced to move or whether they will be provided grant assistance to ensure equitable treatment with Phase 1 residents, they watch the construction of a new community from their stoops.
Leslie Lewis, a Phase 3 resident, said, "When I first heard they were going to take our homes, I was upset - upset for my father, who purchased this house in 1948, and for my in-laws who moved to Wolfe Street in the early 1940s. But I was not surprised."
Ms. Lewis says her aunt had a similar experience in the 1970s when Johns Hopkins planned to expand its East Baltimore campus and never followed through, leaving people in limbo. Her frustration in the neighborhood that she calls East Hopkins, or Hopkinsville, is cresting.
Ms. Lewis says she has been watching her 87-year-old father's health decline from worry about investing his savings to upgrade a home that the city may demolish and whether he will be able to afford a new mortgage if forced to move.
