Report: ‘Reimagining’ of downtown underway
Employment in the Baltimore business district is up in the third year of recovery after the start of the pandemic
Workers are returning to offices in downtown Baltimore, with employment in the business district higher last year than the previous year and foot traffic returning to pre-pandemic levels, a study released Tuesday shows.
But office occupancy lagged behind the national average in 2022, and the number of people living downtown fell.
A report by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore showed recovery remains underway in the city’s primary business district for a third year since the coronavirus pandemic first disrupted downtown life. Pandemic-related shutdowns initially emptied office buildings, closed shops and attractions, and dried up the flow of visitors and conventions.
The area is going through a “reimagining,” according to the annual State of Downtown Baltimore report, which tracked data in office, employment, residential, retail and hospitality sectors within a mile radius of Pratt and Light streets.
“It’s a future of mixed-use buildings, increased amenities, walkability, new ideas, and a new narrative,” the report’s executive summary said.
The partnership said its maintenance of downtown public space, programs and marketing services “are in more need than ever as we look to attract people back downtown.”
Number of people employed downtown 2021
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said city efforts to tackle gun violence, find more productive avenues for the street’s squeegee workers and attract major concerts, sporting events and other activities downtown are beginning to pay off.
“We can transform our city’s core into a thriving center for commerce, residential growth and tourism,” the Democratic mayor said Tuesday morning during the Downtown Partnership’s annual breakfast
Judiciary Committee if the Senate version passes.
There is the possibility a less-redacted version of the report could be released in the future. In a written ruling, Taylor said he would give those named in the report a chance to come forward and explain to him why their identities should not be publicly revealed. Any such proceedings would be confidential.
The redacted names include individuals who are living, are accused of abuse or of hiding, enabling, assisting in a cover-up of abuse or of protecting abusers from the consequences of their actions, and whose identities were revealed as a result of a grand jury subpoena, Brown said in a statement Monday.
The report, titled “Clergy Abuse in Maryland,” reveals the extent of child sexual abuse and the subsequent cover-up within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, with examples going back eight decades. The product of a four-year investigation, the report relies on diocesan documents that the
Attorney General Anthony Brown, pictured Nov. 7, said his office will complete the courtordered redactions and release the report as soon as possible.
attorney general’s office obtained by way of a grand jury. Grand jury proceedings, and the information obtained from them, are secret by law, and a judge’s permission is needed for public disclosure.
In addition to reviewing the grand jury documents, attorney general investigators interviewed scores of survivors. All told, they identified more than 600 victims, with the possibility of hundreds more, and 158 clergy and other church officials who abused and tortured children and young adults.
The attorney general’s office sent Taylor a list of 220 names Monday, with a breakdown of whether they needed to be shielded or not.
Of the 220, 91 are dead and do not need to be redacted. Another 21 names were of people whose identities weren’t obtained through grand jury proceedings, so they are not subject to being redacted, and another 13 names who are involved but did not meet the criteria of needing to be redacted. Of those 13, Taylor determined two should be contacted and will have their identities shielded prior to a hearing on whether to reveal them.
Archbishop William E. Lori has said he does not oppose the report’s release and that the Catholic Church would continue to cooperate with the attorney general’s office and the courts. The archdiocese also, however, paid the legal costs for an anonymous group of people named in the report but not accused of abuse who sought to keep all court proceedings in the matter secret.
The archdiocese has more than half a million Catholics and operates parishes, schools and other institutions in Baltimore City and nine counties across Central and Western Maryland.
With the General Assembly examining whether to repeal the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits, and to open a retroactive “lookback” window for victims to sue abusers regardless of when the abuse happened, Taylor wrote that part of his reason for ordering a swift release was to aid lawmakers.
Lori sent an email Sunday night to Catholics in which he urged them to contact their delegates and senators to voice their opposition to the Child Victims Act. Lori’s email also included a script for people to email lawmakers, or to read to them over the phone.
The script reads: “I am calling to ask that you vote against SB 686/HB 001 because it treats private and public entities differently by exposing private schools, churches and other entities to much higher monetary damages than their public counterparts. I don’t think that’s fair and it sends the wrong message, namely that if you were abused as a child in a publicly run institution you deserve less than someone abused in a private one. Please vote against this bill.”
The Child Victims Act sets a lower cap on monetary judgments against public entities because state law limits how much a governmental entity can pay out.