Mayor Sheila Dixon joined leaders of the West Baltimore Coalition on Thursday to learn more about community revitalization opportunities which could emerge near the proposed West Baltimore MARC/Red Line Station. Neighborhood leaders Joyce Smith and Zelda Robinson led Mayor Dixon and members of her Cabinet on the neighborhood tour, which focused on the opportunities for commercial revitalization along Edmondson Avenue, redevelopment of the historic Ice House property, and housing rehabilitation near the station. The group’s ideas are contained in the West Baltimore Transit-Centered Community Development Plan, created in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Transportation and several City agencies. The City has already committed $900,000 towards implementing the plan, which will be used for pedestrian safety and landscaping improvements along Pulaski Street and Edmondson Avenue.
More than 100 residents, business owners and advocacy group representatives have participated in meetings to draft the Mayor’s Red Line Community Compact over the past few weeks. Following the May 10th Red Line Summit, Mayor Dixon tasked members of her Cabinet with leading work groups on Red Line Station Design and Development, Managing Construction Impacts, Environmental and Public Health Issues, and Economic Empowerment Opportunities. These groups have drafted specific goals and strategies which can be used to make the Red Line project a success, no matter which alignment is chosen. A first draft of the Compact will be posted on the website next week. A Community Compact Steering Committee, including representatives of the Work Groups and members of the Mayor’s Cabinet, will meet with MTA Administrator in mid-July to discuss MTA’s support for the Compact.
The early-June release of the Red Line’s “cost-effectiveness” analysis brought much discussion in the local news media. It is clear that several alternatives are financially-viable and responsive to community concerns – and well within reach of the target set by the federal government. At this moment, alternatives which use tunnel segments along Cooks Lane and through downtown and Fells Point are well within reach. Baltimore City is committed to working with MTA and community leaders to make strategic decisions which advance this most important transportation, community and economic development project.
Before construction began on the Interstate MAX Yellow Line in Portland, Oregon, TriMet and prime contractors Stacy and Witbeck, Inc. and FE Ward worked to ensure that the line was built by people from the community, especially from North and Northeast Portland. As a result, local minority- and women-owned firms secured 19 percent of the contract dollars—valued at $35 million—and 35 percent of workforce hours were completed by minorities and women. The project has become a national model for minority- and women-owned business participation. Working with prime contractors and other agencies, TriMet developed creative ways to help minority- and women-owned firms build their business capacity, such as: breaking scopes of work into smaller bid packages to encourage small contractors to bid, rotating contracting opportunities created within a division of work, providing technical and business assistance to ensure firms are able to provide the contracted work. Click here to learn more about Tri-Met’s economic empowerment strategies.
