Calendar
Amtrak Ventilation Facility Meeting: (Flyer)
COMPLETED - NEW DESIGNS - Images Here
40th District End-of Session Briefing: (Flyer)
COMPLETED - Documents Here
Inner Harbor 2024: A City Planning Conversation:
COMPLETED - Video Not Posted Yet
The Litany
of
AMTRAK and the Maryland Department of Transportation’s
Miscues in Midtown-Edmondson
“Demonstrating Near-Zero Meaningful Consideration of Community Input” (with one exception)
SOUTH VENT FACILITY: UPDATED DESIGNS SHOWING SOME PROGRESS; GREEN SPACES STILL FENCED OFF
Second Look (Updated) Design Image
Second Look (Updated) Design Image
CommunityMap —>
First look (60%) design image
Questions About Areas Fenced Off, But Possible Design Progress
Amtrak dropped it’s second-look designs of the South Ventilation Station, at the southern entrance to the tunnel, and the response in the community was better in this second version, but key questions still remain. The community liked the new residential front facade “house motif” covering part of the Payson side of the building, but had questions about the appropriateness of a planned 4-story mural in this historic district. Critically as well, Amtrak still plans to fence off all of the green spaces they’re creating, including next to and adjacent to this facility, instead of activating these valuable potential park-like areas as a true greenway all the way to Edmondson Avenue - and therefore to the MARC Station using ramps from Edmondson Avenue on to the platforms.
W BALT MARC STATION - DESPERATELY NEEDING BETTER DESIGN
Design Is Deficient, But Amtrak and MDOT Won’t Change a Thing
MDOT and Amtrak are nearing - if not at - completion of the design for a new federally-funded MARC Station in Midtown-Edmondson. Yet, the community has, for years now, been telling Amtrak and MDOT leaders that their design is deficient in multiple ways. Nothing has changed though - except one thing… they’ve now added outhouses to the design. In truth it’s the Maryland Department of Transportation that’s dropped the ball here. Even though Amtrak is paying for the station, MDOT has the right of sign-off on the design, so they’re in charge. And they’ve said nothing about any of the community concerns. Midtown-Edmondson is a poor, disinvested, African-American community, and has been for a very long time. Why should this community get the same considerations for their station as the one at Camden Yards downtown (a station with a third of the ridership of West Baltimore)? Why does the West Baltimore MARC Station remain the only station on the Penn Line between Baltimore and Washington that’s not ADA accessible? Take a guess.
COMMUNITY BRIDGE REBUILDS WITH ZERO HISTORIC SENSITIVITY
Environmental Justice? Hah! Let Them Eat Plain Concrete!
As part of the Douglass Tunnel rebuild project, Amtrak is tearing down and rebuilding two key bridges in the community - the entrances to Midtown-Edmondson from the west. And instead of using those federal dollars to leave this highly-disinvested, formerly-redlined supermajority African-American community with a shiningly new, thoughtfully-designed infrastructure showpiece, they’re instead doing the bare minimum they can get away with, and building what looks like a highway onramp - here, in an historic, African-American community. Despite all the talk about Environmental Justice and Justice 40, some things never change. The ECO has a signed contract with Amtrak saying the community is entitled to review and comment on the design at both 60% and 90% completion. Amtrak has honored neither of those requirements.
A PLAYGROUND CAPTURED AND MOVED WITHOUT COMMUNITY INPUT
They Don’t Even Cooperate on a Playground
The little green rectangle on the map is Midtown-Edmondson’s only facility of any kind for kids. Amtrak was locating their “muck bin” directly across the street, their truck routes all around it, and their construction staging area just next door. The ECO pressured them about moving the playground, so they’re planning to do so now - without consulting the community or the ECO about where. They’re just doing it. And they’re locating the playground not where the community wants it - at a new pre-K facility, but instead on another spot adjacent to the construction staging area. That’s Justice 40, Environmental Justice. Not.
A NEIGHBORHOOD TAKEN OVER AND A COMMUNITY SIDELINED
Talk of Community Partnerships Ring Hollow
From the beginning of Amtrak’s presence in West Baltimore, the ECO has sought to reach out to the federal entity and its contracted community consultants, to attempt to forge agreements, understanding, any sort of partnership with the federal entity. But at each turn Amtrak has listened politely, and then promptly ghosted us. Midtown-Edmondson is, and will be, experiencing the vast majority of all disruption from this decade-long project, yet Amtrak has sought no partnership at all with the community. One of our board members even signed a memorandum of understanding requiring Amtrak to seek consultation and input at certain benchmarks in the design process. None of that has happened though.
Highway to Nowhere Reality Setting In
Summer 2023:
Lots of Hopeful Talk and Press Conferences
Winter 2024:
Serious Questions About Whether The Mayor’s Team Can Actually Meet Key Deadlines for Capital Grant Applications.
(Fall 2025 is last chance for a shovel ready project to be funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Bill - so just 1.5 years away.)
US Senators Van Hollen and Cardin are joined at the podium in Midtown-Edmondson by Congressman Mfume, Congressman Ruppersburger, Mayor Scott, Councilman Bullock, MD Transportation Secretary Wiedefeld and others. There was great talk then of how Baltimore is going to use the federal 2021 Infrastructure Bill to make a Highway to Nowhere reimagine a reality. But now, six months later, we’re staring down the prospect of missing the deadline entirely for capital funds. Will any of these leaders lead us to a successful proposal and capital funding in time?
ECO President Joe Richardson with Maryland Senator Van Hollen - whose been a big supporter of community efforts in the Rt 40 West corridor. However, he would know that the window is nearly shut to get any capital funding from the program he specifically designed for the Highway to Nowhere, and got inserted into 2021 Federal Infrastructure Bill.
Your ECO is leading the way on a major transportation advocacy initiative…
Why shouldn’t Metro (subway) be the preferred mode for East-West rail?
It’s…
the cheapest
the fastest to build
by far the fastest across town (6 minutes to the Harbor, 16 minutes to Bayview)
and it’ll utilize the heavily-underutilized existing metro crosstown tunnel - so virtually NO downtown disruption, and NO street-life-killing surface light rail.
