In Baltimore, reparations can start with COVID-19 relief funds

Cities across the country are exploring the idea of reparations for Black residents, not only for the time their ancestors were enslaved but also for the years after the Civil War, when they have been denied job opportunities and the ability to accumulate wealth. Mayors in states like California, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Texas have joined together to pledge “action and advocacy that points toward justice and healing the wounds of history.” Mayor Brandon Scott and others in our city government have made similar commitments.

With money flowing into city and state coffers in the form of COVID-19 relief and infrastructure funds, we are in a rare position to make good on those commitments.

My suggestion for using the available funds is, skip over affluent neighborhoods like the one where I live — we’re doing fine — and areas designed to attract tourists. Instead, plow the money into the city’s underserved Black neighborhoods. Rebuild and renovate as many of the 16,000-plus vacant buildings in those areas as possible. Train people in the communities to do the work so they can earn good wages while they participate in rebuilding their neighborhoods. Then sell the homes to legacy residents at prices they can afford so we don’t repeat the cycle of gentrification and relocation, which harms rather than helps the people living where the improvements are being made (“Five things to know about the billions coming to Maryland from the American Rescue Plan,” Sept. 23).

Some Baltimore nonprofits are already doing this kind of work, offering education and training to people so they become skilled in construction trades and buying vacant properties to fix up and sell to community residents. They are doing wonderful work, but they don’t have the money to meet the needs of a city with thousands of vacant houses to repair and renovate. A project of this magnitude demands the kind of funding only the government can provide.

I’ll leave it to others to decide whether this project is a form of reparations, civic revitalization or both. Either way, the money spent will pay dividends to the entire city for generations.