Exodus: Baltimore Residents Flee Collapsing City, Census Figures Warn
Baltimore City ranks somewhat high on the “shithole” list for its widespread death and destruction. After fifty years of failed democratically controlled leadership, the eastern and western districts of the inner-city have deteriorated into a complete and utter war-zone. This is not a new phenomenon but has been worsening for decades.
In 2017, the city’s population hit a 100-year low, as residents abandoned their neighborhoods to escape the opioid-infused violent crime that continues to ripple through the city streets. In fact, the violent crime is so severe in the region, that the homicide rate is now the highest in the entire country.
According to The Baltimore Sun, the U.S. Census Bureau recorded one of the most significant population declines for Baltimore City than any jurisdiction in the nation this past year. The city had the second-largest decline of any county for 2016 through 2017, second only to Cook County (Chicago), according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Last year, more than 5,300 people fled the collapsing and shrinking city, which continued its downward death spiral that accelerated after the 2015 Baltimore riots.
As of July 01, 2017, new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau announced Baltimore’s population stood at 611,648. The decline represents “a drop of less than 1 percent from the previous year,” said The Baltimore Sun.
The Census data shows a decline of 6,000 people from 2015 through 2016 that occurred shortly after the Baltimore riots. A baby boomer’s memory of ‘white flight’ occurred in 1968 after the riots, as families in the region escaped the turmoil of a new life in suburbia. Unfortunately, Baltimore has never been the same since the 1968 and 2015 riots.
Last year, Baltimore earned national recognition for its record number of homicides and a massive corruption scheme which involved rogue officers planting drugs on citizens.
City Councilman John Bullock, who represents West Baltimore, said he knows people who had left the city over fears about their safety.
“It’s clearly not the direction we want to be going in,” Bullock said of the population decline. “I don’t think it’s fatal. But it’s something we need to keep our eyes on.”
Baltimore’s population topped after World War II, reaching almost 950,000 in 1950. Now the population stands at 611,000, which represents around a -35 percent drop in residents, as the city continues to shrink.
According to JP Morgan Chase & CO., Baltimore has more than 30,000 vacant homes and a city that continues to contract. Baltimore’s vacant buildings stand as reminders that the city is nearing a collapsing point that cannot be ignored any longer.
Baltimore has 30,000 vacant homes and lots according to the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. These vacancies are concentrated in neighborhoods with low incomes and high proportions of households of color.
As Baltimore struggles to reverse a decades-long population decline, the city’s growing number of vacant buildings serves as a useful indicator. Since a peak in the 1950s, the population has dropped by nearly a third from 950,000 down to 622,000 in 2014. The population decline can be attributed in large part to the closings of the city’s factories and shipyards after World War II. Baltimore also became more racially homogenous as Whites left for the suburbs.
Today, Baltimore’s vacant buildings stand as reminders, both of the city that once was and of the economic insecurity that exists today. As illustrated in the adjacent map, the areas with the highest concentration of homicides correspond almost exactly with the city’s vacancies. These are the neighborhoods where most families live near or below the poverty line and where Black households are the overwhelming majority
JP Morgan Chase & CO. also reminds us that Baltimore’s violent crime is occurring in inner cities where vacancies are extremely high. This is merely the end result of a shrinking city.
The racial wealth divide in Baltimore is so wide that “one-third of households of color in Baltimore have zero net worth,” said JP Morgan Chase & CO.
Nevertheless, The Baltimore Sun said Baltimore’s metropolitan region did make it into the country’s 20th most populous metro area, as St. Louis dropped down a slot.
The Baltimore metropolitan area did rise one spot to the country’s 20th most populous metro area, as St. Louis dropped down a slot. Baltimore County gained about 1,442 people, rising to an estimated total of 832,468 in 2017, according to the Census. Howard County gained about 3,880 people; Harford gained 1,128 people; Anne Arundel grew by 4,889; and Carroll added 125.
Parts of the D.C. area were seen to keep growing in population. The metropolitan area of “Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria” jumped to 5th largest-gaining metro area, up from 11th place in 2016. That makes the D.C. area the sixth most populous in the country. Falls Church City, in northern Virginia, was the fastest-growing county among counties with a population of 10,000 or more; it grew by 5.2 percent.
Baltimore-area 2017 population estimates and changes:
Maryland 6,052,177 +27,425
Baltimore 611,648 -5,310
Anne Arundel County 573,235 +4,319
Baltimore County 832,468 +1,037
Carroll County 167,781 +641
Harford County 252,160 +1,721
Howard County 321,113 +4,147
America’s inner cities are in turmoil… Just look at the mass exodus of residents from Baltimore City, and you will start to gain the critical knowledge the worst has yet to come.
