Tough report on city government presages tougher decisions

The second was an idea supported by Ms. Rawlings-Blake to tax the owners of vacant city properties at a higher rate, the idea being that it would encourage their redevelopment and occupancy. But this month, the city told legislators in Annapolis who were considering the proposal that it might have unintended consequences of hindering the very redevelopment it was trying to spark. Legitimate for-profit and nonprofit developers often hold on to vacant properties until they can amass enough to complete a project, and in other cases they are delayed by circumstances beyond their control.

Ms. Dixon's land bank proposal was a generally good idea, provided it could be operated with more transparency than other quasi-public agencies, such as the Baltimore Development Corp. But it won't solve the problem by itself. Making it easier to buy vacant properties doesn't help if no one wants to buy them, or if the economics of redevelopment don't work. Red tape shouldn't hinder redevelopment, but we also shouldn't imagine that it's the only thing holding Baltimore back.

That's why the transition team report's comments about the lack of direction in Baltimore's housing and community development efforts need to be taken seriously. A mechanism like a land bank would only be effective if it operates in conjunction with targeted efforts to reverse the conditions that led to so many abandoned properties in the first place. The report criticized the housing department for an "out of balance" focus on housing projects instead of community redevelopment and suggested that its mission be more sharply focused by removing from its purview programs like Head Start. The report also said the department was slow with subsidies for redevelopment projects, which is potentially crippling given the tough economics of such work.