City Council wrong to approve Harborplace plan

In the letter to the editor I wrote last fall when P. David Bramble first announced his intention to tear down the Harborplace pavilions, I stated that doing that would be a waste of time, money and opportunity (“Jimmy Rouse: We need a new Harborplace vision in Baltimore, not destruction of my father’s legacy,” Oct. 3). Now that he has released his plans for Harborplace and the City Council has approved them, I feel even more strongly that this is the case.

It is a waste of time because even by Bramble’s own timetable, once torn down it is going to take at least three years to procure the permitting and financing for his new assemblage of buildings to move forward and then at least another four years for them to be built and operational. So what we are going to end up with is an empty hole where Harborplace once stood at the heart of our Inner Harbor for almost a decade. Whereas we could begin immediately remerchandising the pavilions as they stand, with some changes and improvements, and have a unique and exciting marketplace within a year.

The idea that people won’t come downtown without a major investment and project has already been proven false by the crowds that attended the German Christmas marketplace and filled the promenade recently on a warm Sunday when the only attraction was one tall ship. People are dying to see Harborplace revitalized now, not 10 years from now.

It is a waste of money because Bramble’s project is going to cost taxpayers between $300 million and $400 million at a time when both the city and state are strapped for funds and are having great difficulty balancing their budgets. The revitalization of Harborplace could happen now with a minimal outlay of public funding.

And it is a waste of opportunity because we could create at Harborplace a wonderful and unique marketplace that combines products made by local craftsmen, artisans and businesses with vendors of produce, seafood, meats, flowers, cheeses, dairy products and more from local farmers, along with restaurants and food outlets that could be a thrilling attraction at the heart of our city. It would serve both the new residential population that now lives downtown, as well as attract people from around the city and tourists from beyond. It could be an incubator for minorityand female-owned businesses. It could be combined with a revamping of the amphitheater, which already exists, to showcase local talent and performers.

All this could be done within the next year. We would need not wait a decade to create a revitalized Harborplace. It could be happening right now!