The Black Butterfly by Lawrence T. Brown

Author:Lawrence T. Brown [Brown, Lawrence T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Racial Equity in Public Works

A 2017 analysis of the public capital budget by the Baltimore City Department of Planning (BCDP) revealed that predominantly White communities received nearly twice the allocations of capital spending compared to predominantly Black neighborhoods over a five-year span.66 Reporter Ian Duncan explained the significance of Baltimore’s capital budget and how it is allocated for infrastructure: “Money in the capital budget shapes the city’s public spaces—helping to renovate schools, libraries and museums, upgrade community centers, pave streets and overhaul sewer lines. [In 2017], the city is budgeted to spend $1.1 billion on such projects.”67

According to data from the BCDP study, led by Stephanie Smith, Baltimore allocated an average of $15 million in community statistical areas (CSAs) that are 75% White in population, but only $8.3 million in 75% non-White CSAs (very likely Black neighborhoods). The study would likely have revealed even starker capital budget allocation disparities if BCDP employees had examined CSAs that were less than 10% Black compared to CSAs over 90% Black in population. Their analysis covers only a recent five-year span, so one can imagine how much the city has inequitably funded Black areas going back to the early 1900s, especially after 1910 when Baltimore passed the racial zoning law.68

The Department of Public Works (DPW) is the agency in charge of the capital budget of the city and has perpetuated apartheid in city infrastructure and operations, including water systems, sewer systems, and trash pickup. DPW apartheid is found not only in inequitable public capital budget spending but also in water billing, trash pickup, and alley cleanup. WBAL-TV investigators uncovered that residents of nearly 200 Ritz Carlton condominiums in Fells Point had not paid water bills in twelve years due to not receiving a bill from DPW.69 Baltimore Brew reporters found that a wealthy neighborhood—The Village of Cross Keys—continued receiving an extra day of DPW trash pickup every week for 10 years, at the same time when many redlined Black neighborhoods suffer from illegal dumping and would benefit from a second day of trash pickup.70 Baltimore Sun reporters found that the wealthier and whiter southeastern part of the city had quicker response and a higher completion rate of cleaning dirty alleys compared to the less wealthy southwestern part of the city.71

Given these racial and spatial inequities, Baltimore City desperately needs racial equity in public works.72 Racial equity in public capital spending means reversing CSA spending so that historically redlined Black CSAs receive significantly more dollars than CSAs in the White L. It is incumbent for DPW to do this given infrastructure in redlined Black neighborhoods. Many public facilities in Black neighborhoods have fallen into disrepair because of the city’s redlining of its own neighborhoods with respect to trash pickup, alley cleanup, and capital budget spending. It is likely that a sizable number of public schools and recreation centers would not have been condemned or permanently closed had DPW funded facilities in redlined Black neighborhoods equitably.

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