The striking contrast between Poe Homes and Port Covington this week provided a glaring example of what happens when Baltimore's elected leadership prioritizes corporate profits over basic human needs. The Poe Homes, a public housing community, and other neighborhoods in hyper-segregated West Baltimore were without running water for up to 6 days due to a burst water main. Decades of uninterrupted Democratic rule at the city and state level has resulted in deficient infrastructure across Baltimore, a consent decree on sewer infrastructure that backs up into people's homes, and hike after hike on water rates.
As residents of Poe Homes went without running water, news broke of cash raining down on Port Covington in the form of tax breaks through President Trump and congressional Republicans signature Opportunity Zones legislation. Governor Hogan had recommended the census tract owned by Kevin Plank’s development corporation. Already saturated with tax increment financing corporate welfare delivered by Democrats at the municipal level, the millionaires behind the future class- and racially-segregated city within a city at Port Covington went back to the well for federal funding.
The outcome of the shared vision of urban development held by local Democrats and federal Republicans is what we saw in Baltimore last week: the rich get tax breaks while the poor go without running water. To reverse policies that reinforce class and racial stratification, Baltimore must structurally redesign the underlying political system. The election of Anthony Williams as the Baltimore Green Party’s second HUD Resident Advisory Board Representative (Broadway East) is a signal that community members in public housing are fed up with politics as usual. The Baltimore City Green Party will continue to work with grassroots organizations to end corporate welfare and rebuild Baltimore’s infrastructure.
We believe water is a human right! We believe housing is a human right!
Join us in front of City Hall at 4:30 PM Wednesday June 26th to demand that everybody has access to housing and water and to tell the establishment politicans that no one should go without water or housing.