Tag Archives: port covington

ACLU protests city taxes supporting Port Covington and continued white wealth expansion in the midst of persistent financial racism in Black communities in Baltimore

Today Baltimore city’s Board of Estimate is deciding on a bond to support the controversial Port Covington Project owned by billionaire Kevin Plank of Under Armour. ACLU and other groups are protesting this continued white wealth expansion in Baltimore in the midst of continued financial racism-historic and persistent underfunding of Black communities. Today Wednesday June 17, 9am, the hearing at City Council will decide if City tax bonds should support this infrastructure development at Port Covington. Baltimore’s tax dollars would be part of the $660 million public support from the city for this development voted on in 2016. At that time the Port Covington plan did not show a racial equity analysis benefiting Baltimore’s historically disenfranchised Black communities. In the midst of the economic downturn from the COVID19 pandemic, public support of this gentrification project is even more questionable as nationwide calls for racial justice continue.

The pandemic has further revealed how racially fragmented and segregated our nation is, especially in majority Black cities like Baltimore. Because of the structural violence of segregation and underfunding of the infrastructure that supports these communities, health and economic disparity is severe. The pandemic has disproportionately affected Black and Brown and poor communities resulting in more cases and deaths than white and middle class communities. Public funding to address the necessary resources and infrastructure is necessary to begin to change this legacy of slavery, redlining, urban renewal, gentrification and mass incarceration that has left Black and communities of color with greater levels of unemployment, abandoned housing, health and income disparities.

https://www.mariselabgomez.com/port-covington-or-port-covet-a-ton/

This structural violence perpetuated through policies that continued and continues to segregate and under-resource Black and poor communities can be changed in re-investment into existing communities. The Port Covington Project targets a majority white and well-off population through its planned housing and amenities. Allocation of Baltimore city tax dollars can change this old game by directing funds for more even development, instead of continued gentrification.

Today’s Board of Estimates hearing: June 17 Wednesday at 9AM: Members of the public can call in to listen live at 1-408-418-9388 (Access code: 711 183 482) and/or stream it live using the following link: http://charmtvbaltimore.com/watch-live.

The meetings will be live on CharmTV (Channel 25) as normal.

City Council notice



Baltimore government must be accountable to the people of Baltimore, not the rich!

The time is now to act for change. The wealthy persist in owning government and most of us citizens are unaware of how this results in continued hyper-segregation and race and class inequities. Locally we have a billionaire (Kevin Plank of Sagamore LLC) asking the city, state, and federal government to subsidize and guarantee his wealth-building campaign that would continue to segregate our city- a development aimed at constructing 14,000 housing units and amenities for those making more than $100,000 per year, Port Covington. Nationally we see this trend in private ownership of government (neoliberalism) in the form of Republican’s nomination of Donald Trump for presidency of the United States of America. The behavior of both these career capitalists relies on government to support their asset-accumulating trajectory in development. And “we the people” vote for who will be the “government” choosing to subsidize the wealthy. So when government fails to be accountable to the people of the city we have no recourse but to challenge it. It’s important that we recognize that in ignoring our responsibility in monitoring government spending we are nodding our heads in the way they currently spend our tax dollars. I suppose if we are okay with such corporate-welfare activities, then we can vote for Trump and let our city government pay for the infrastructure that would allow Sagamore LLC to gain more wealth. We have a say in all this if we decide we want to change business as usual.
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Sagamore’s request for government funding toward the development of Port Covington will be before the sub-committee this week. Councilman Carl Stokes will Chair a hearing on City Council Ordinance #16-0669 – the Port Covington Development District on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 5 p.m. The televised hearing will be held in the War Memorial Assembly Hall 1 st floor, 101 N. Gay Street (Lexington Street Entrance). Come ask our city government to explain why continuing to fund segregated developments is a more equitable and sustainable path? How is this type of government subsidy for higher income, professional class, and majority white people in 2016 in a geographic region (redlining) any different from the FHA and VA loans to white people in the 1950s (redlining)? Show them the data and then ask how doing the same thing again and again will result in a different outcome. Ask them how these subsidies might be used to assure affordable housing is built and assure integration and not continued segregation, Ask them to do a racial, social, health, and environmental impact assessment/analysis before they vote on any amount of subsidies for this and any other development in our city.

On Tuesday July 26 join advocates at Red Emma’s to discuss strategies for the July 27 hearing and actions leading up to the city council vote, and after.

Contact your city council representative and president (Bernard Jack Young) to request that the date for the full council vote be delayed until the public is sufficiently knowledgeable about how government subsidies are being used for a hyper-segregated development. There should be a clear agreement on local hiring, living-wage compensation, small business entrepreneurship and micro-loans for small businesses, affordable housing (rental and ownership) and a range of amenities affordable to all. If our public dollars are subsidizing a private project then the public must advise and monitor the private project. Past development projects heavily subsidized by the government, such as the current Johns Hopkins/EBDI/Casey/Forest City in East Baltimore, promised affordable housing and local hiring. Fifteen years later neither city or state representatives of the area will respond to questions about the outcomes of these promises. Neither EBDI or the Annie E. Casey Foundation will respond to such questions. None of these parties who negotiated the development terms will assess the benefit to Hopkins and its powerful partners and the benefit to local residents. After development agreements are voted on by the government, in Baltimore city, there is no recourse to assure accountability and transparency of promised outcomes. Previously set for August 28 the city council meeting to vote on TIFs for Port Covington was moved up to August 8. Question: “why the rush”?