Never has Maryland witnessed such an internal population upheaval as it has in recent years. The state's overall increase in population this decade has been right in sync with the national average of roughly 5 percent. But what's most remarkable about the latest Maryland figures is how they reflect the movement of people from city to county, and county to county.
Baltimore City lost 80,000 residents from 1980 to 1992, as the black middle class moved west into Baltimore County and whites went north to Harford County. (Alarmingly, the outmigration from the city has picked up speed, from a loss of 2,000 residents in 1991 to 12,000 in 1994.)
Baltimore County lost 30,000 residents to Harford and Carroll counties in that span. Prince George's County, with some of the same urban ills afflicting Baltimore, lost 22,000 people to Anne Arundel County. Meanwhile, as Anne Arundel grew more urban, many of its people took flight to Howard and Carroll.
Speaking of flight, Maryland might have to change its nickname to "The Flee State," as residents abandon one jurisdiction for another. The price of this disposable homesteading is huge in light of environmental impact and infrastructure cost. A lot of empty housing has been left in the wake of people washing farther out. Baltimore City alone had a 30 percent jump in boarded-up housing the past four years. Moreover, the state allocated more for school construction in the suburbs last year than since the early '70s, and it barely made a dent in the demand.
Throughout the metro region and beyond, Maryland's population churn is a quality-of-life issue. And still our political leaders may have no more power to affect these seismic shifts in the landscape than a boy with his finger in the dike. Most disturbing is that unlike great population changes in the past driven by positive missions -- filling jobs created by the Industrial Revolution or to support the war effort -- this transformation seems more negative, more escapist.
Maryland has weathered immense population changes during its 3 1/2 centuries: From 1800, when it was the geographical center of U.S. population, to 1850, when Baltimore's 170,000 residents made it the nation's second largest city behind New York, to the middle 30 years of this century when Maryland's population doubled. But as the state enters the 21st century, we wonder whether roots of clay are strong enough to sustain real communities.