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View submission: Why is this still undeveloped?
It's a consequence of the rate of improvement/gentrification/whatever in Baltimore happening at a crawl compared to other cities. These kinds of locations are rare to nearly non-existent in cities that have seen vibrant growth over the past 2 decades. Developers aren't seeing a payday and are holding out hope that maybe in the next few years it'll take off.
I went to a wedding in Austin just over a decade ago and got an Airbnb in an area of the city that was not quite run down but definitely in need of some TLC. This was somewhere around South Congress or maybe a bit north closer to the river. Anyways, there were a lot of sites like this in some fashion - a dilapidated house, an empty lot, some janky used car lot, whatever. Poor use of the land. I strolled through last year to go to same (or very similar) Gordough's location in the area. It's a completely different world.
This story is not unique to Austin. It's happening in quite a few cities. Large areas are being redeveloped at a rapid pace. And with that these underutilized sites get turned into something. But that story isn't playing out in Baltimore or when it does it's at a comparative snail's. Why? The Baltimore value proposition is poor and the city just isn't doing much to address it.
The fundamental things that people seem to care about are jobs (#1), schools, and QOL. In /r/baltimore fan fiction, the Red Line is a panacea to all woes and will magically make everything better. Other cities, with a much better track record for progress over the past two decades, tell a much different story, where people are willing to endure lengthy, grueling commutes for well paying jobs. Baltimore doesn't really have too much of that, at least not compared to Austin/DC/etc.
In related /r/baltimore fan fiction, the magical answer to these sites are punitive measures aimed at developers and other boogeymen du jour. I think that could be a minor part of the solution but just that - minor. Baltimore needs to address these fundamental issues and rapidly attract a solid tax base that they can leverage to pay for stuff. I realize that folks on here tend to demonize any sort of development targeting the solidly middle class and above, but the reality of the situation is that is how you get stuff paid for. Someone has to pay for things and attracting higher earners is a solid way. Building a bunch of "affordable"/subsidized housing just isn't going to achieve that impact. But these higher earners want those fundamentals and we often see how when there is success in bringing typically younger people here they often "age out" of the city when they want to start families. Or they just get sick of the lower QOL and want something different. Very, very common stories. If the city can't fix these types of things it's never going to fix the vacant issues.
There's nothing here!