Baltimore needs to be steered in a new direction

The latest population numbers are in, and, once again, the news is bad (“Baltimore City and County lose population as Carroll’s growth paces area, estimates show,” March 14). Since the 2020 census the city has lost over 20,000 residents; net domestic out-migration last year alone was over 6,000, only partially offset by 2,000 international in-migrants.

We’re on a very dangerous path. Trying to pay for huge and fixed pension obligations or upgrades to decaying infrastructure — as well as expensive mandates for education under the “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” — with an ever-dwindling number of taxpayers is a prescription for economic disaster.

Remarkably, many city officials continue to live in denial about the depth of our problems. In his latest State of the City speech, for example, Mayor Brandon Scott averred that “Baltimore really is the best city in the world.” Boosterism might be in any politician’s DNA, but no healthy city loses over 500 residents monthly as Baltimore has throughout Mayor Scott’s term.

What’s surprising to many is that people are voting with their feet and fleeing the city’s surrounding county as well. After a century of steady growth, Baltimore County has lost almost 10,000 residents since the last census, over 250 per month. Suburbanites have long assumed that whatever ails the city will not affect them. In reality, when a metro area’s core city stalls, the effects are felt widely.

In this election year, such data should be a wake-up call to voters. Defenders of the status quo need their feet held to the fire. We are wedded to too many public policies — on crime, education and economic development — that simply aren’t working. Pretending otherwise encourages officials to roll further down the wrong track.

— Stephen J.K. Walters, Ph.D., Baltimore

The writer is chief economist for the Maryland Public Policy Institute.