Mayor Schmoke is on pins and needles.
If he is lucky -- really lucky -- he will get a telephone call from the White House sometime next week, informing him that Baltimore has been awarded one of the Clinton administration's nine empowerment zones. The windfall: an extra $100 million to create jobs and to run social programs.
Baltimore is definitely in the running.
Two weeks ago, during a 45-minute conference call with top staff officials of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city was asked to update its application. Two days ago, another call asked for more information about implementation. As of yesterday, Baltimore was still a finalist.
"We are trying to touch base with as many people as we can," Mr. Schmoke said.
In its most recent application, Baltimore told the Clinton administration that if it gets the $100 million, the city will organize a ribbon cutting every month between now and the next 'D presidential election.
Such a Christmas present would also be manna from heaven for Mr. Schmoke's re-election campaign for a third term next year.
It would be a feather in his cap, a sign his administration is recognized. It would also counter criticism from the business community and this newspaper that the Schmoke administration not on the ball in its economic development efforts.
"It would blow Mary Pat out of the water," one Schmoke staffer said, referring to City Council President Mary Pat Clarke's challenge of the mayor.
Baltimore's empowerment-zone proposal lays out plans to revitalize sections of East, West and South Baltimore where two out of five residents live in poverty. Individual projects include an ecological-industrial park in Fairfield that would have a $30 million plant to convert solid wastes to oil, the creation of a number of "village centers" to speed revitalization, plus a variety of literacy and job-training programs.
While some of the money would be used to fund and extend existing uplifting projects in West Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester, the empowerment zone would also enable the city to jump-start its ambitious plans to rejuvenate the area near the Johns Hopkins medical institutions in East Baltimore.
"Instead of raising money, we would go to instant implementation," says Michael Seipp, who coordinated the city's application process and was recently named to head the Historic East Community Action Coalition.
That coalition of community groups and such institutions as Hopkins hope to start a major revitalization effort of an area bounded by North Avenue, Milton Avenue, Fayette Street and fTC Aisquith Street. They also hope to strengthen that target area's links to Fells Point, which has in recent decades transformed from an immigrant slum to something approximating Baltimore's Georgetown.
"We have the makings of an incredible partnership," says Mr. Seipp, who estimates the implementing the city's plans would cost $60 million.
Several financial institutions have made commitments to aid the East Baltimore plan. But more money is needed. In that respect, the empowerment-zone money would provide a crucial nest egg.
Under federal legislation, the six urban and three rural empowerment zones will each receive $50 million on the date of designation and another $50 million in July.
To encourage job creation, the cities selected may offer a 20 percent wage credit for the first $15,000 of qualified wages paid to each employee who is a zone resident. Businesses would also qualify for accelerated depreciation of real-estate properties used for economic development.
The Clinton administration's empowerment-zone idea is nothing new. Previous administrations have tried similar schemes. In the past decade, 37 states and the District of Columbia have established more than 3,000 "enterprise" zones, often with debatable results. Three states judged zones so worthless they terminated them.
With new money allocated for the Clinton zones, local governments throughout the nation are scrambling for the $100 million lotto prizes.
If Mr. Schmoke prays extra hard over the weekend, it's easy to understand why.
G; Antero Pietila writes editorials for The Baltimore Sun.