Baltimore's waterfront has become a veritable Gold Coast, with household incomes rising substantially in the past decade from Federal Hill to Canton, new census figures show.
The sharpest increase occurred in a section along the Inner Harbor that includes parts of Federal Hill and Key Highway, where the median household income grew by more than 80 percent, to $77,340, a number that rivals some of the traditionally wealthier neighborhoods in North Baltimore.
At the same time, household incomes in many lower- and middle-income neighborhoods in East and West Baltimore - including many of those north of the Johns Hopkins medical complex and along the Liberty Heights and Park Heights corridors - showed significant declines, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
"It's a real mixed bag," said Dunbar Brooks, director of metropolitan research for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.
The rise in incomes in communities near the water - which have experienced an explosion in residential building, including the rehabbing of individual rowhouses and the conversion of old factories to apartments - is largely the result of the "influx of young professionals," Brooks said.
Declines elsewhere can be attributed mostly to the exodus of middle-class families, which has left many communities increasingly populated by those who can't afford to move and by elderly residents on fixed incomes, he said.
"That's one of the effects of out-migration," he said.
The new numbers are compiled from the 2000 census "long-form" questionnaires that were filled out in April 2000 by one of every six households.
They provide the first look at trends in Baltimore City for the past decade at the tract, or neighborhood, level in income - as well as in commute times, housing costs and other subjects.
Previously, the Census Bureau released "long-form" data for the state, for the city and Maryland's 23 counties, and for dozens of "designated places" - general geographic areas such as Towson and Woodlawn.
Those figures showed that median household income in Maryland grew 3 percent after allowing for inflation, from $51,123 in 1990 to $52,868 in 2000.
In the city, median household income declined by $1,132, while it grew in each of the metro area's five suburban jurisdictions, from $257 in Baltimore County to $5,014 in Carroll County.
The data provide the first statewide breakdown of income by race, down to the tract level.
Statewide, the median household income for blacks was $41,652, or 72 percent of the median white household income of $57,831.
In the Baltimore area, median household income of blacks was $37,549, two-thirds that of whites - a fraction unchanged since 1990 as income for both races grew by about 7 percent, according to an analysis by the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at the State University of New York at Albany.
Median household figures mean that half the households have higher incomes and half have lower.
Median black household income was highest in Howard County - $57,476, compared with $78,976 for whites - but at 73 percent of white income, it was just slightly higher than the state average.
Black household income was closest to that of whites in Prince George's County, where the median black household earned $53,938 - 90 percent that of the median white household income of $59,937. Not far behind was Baltimore County, where black household income of $44,805 was 86 percent of whites' income of $52,011.
Comparisons between 1990 and 2000 using the new data are difficult for many suburban communities because many tracts have changed.
In Howard County, for example, half of the tracts of the 2000 census cannot be compared to 1990 because growth forced them to split.
Of the remaining 20 tracts, four communities lost ground, including Columbia's Thunder Hill neighborhood, where the median household income dropped 9 percent, to $82,064.
By comparison, the Scaggsville area in southern Howard saw a 22 percent increase, to $98,852.
In Carroll County, Sykesville, a town of 4,000 in the southern part of the county, showed the greatest increase in median household income, rising from $50,897 to $63,158.
"What the census numbers tell me is that we're a nice community that's close to those high-paying jobs in Baltimore, Columbia, and even Frederick and Washington," said Town Manager Matthew H. Candland.
In Baltimore County, with few exceptions, the inside-the-Beltway communities saw little significant income growth.
The prosperous Ruxton-Riderwood area had one of the largest gains in the county, nearly 25 percent, but the other big income gains were mostly confined to more newly developed areas such as White Marsh.
The census data showed a noticeable uptick in incomes for residents along the waterfront on the county's east side. Bowleys Quarters, for example, increased from $37,480 to $45,485, a change of 21 percent.
Those income gains, however, were not nearly as large as those experienced by many of the city's waterfront neighborhoods.
Jules "Sonny" Morstein, proprietor of a jewelry store in Federal Hill and president of the South Baltimore/Federal Hill Business Association, sees the effects of the rise in the area's upscale bars and restaurants - and in the preferences of his own customers.
"They want platinum," he said.
Although the parts of Federal Hill and South Baltimore along the harbor shore showed the largest increases, significant gains also occurred in other parts of the area, where income increased nearly 40 percent, to $53,917.
In Fells Point, median household income jumped from $30,106 in 1990 to $47,917, an increase of nearly 60 percent, while parts of Canton grew from $33,177 to $39,353, or nearly 20 percent.
Across the harbor in Locust Point, which is just beginning to develop the kind of cachet the other neighborhoods have had for a decade or more, median incomes rose 6 percent, to $38,224.
Gloria Griffin, manager of special projects for the city's planning department, said that in addition to benefiting from the waterfront's views and vitality, those areas also are relatively safe and close to downtown employers.
"I am hopeful that that growth will continue to spread throughout the city," she said.
The wealthiest neighborhood in the city is Guilford, with a median household income of $101,450, followed by Homeland, with $84,832. North Roland Park and Poplar Hill have median household incomes of $71,771; Roland Park, $67,107; and Mount Washington, $63,885.
Among the city neighborhoods showing substantial declines were Coppin Heights, Franklintown and West Forest Park on the west side, and a swath of East Baltimore extending from the Johns Hopkins medical complex to the southern end of Clifton Park. Median household incomes fell there by as much as 30 percent during the past decade, a drop that parallels declines in the areas' population.
The Rev. Milton E. Williams, pastor of the New Life Evangelical Baptist Church on North Avenue and an east-side community leader, pinned the declines on drugs and crime. Despite some statistical improvement, "It still feels the same" on the street, he said.
"I think middle-class families are saying, 'I need to move somewhere safer, be it Baltimore County or Hamilton'" in Northeast Baltimore, he said.
Neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates continued to be concentrated on the east and west sides of downtown below North Avenue, in Cherry Hill in southern Baltimore, and along Park Heights Avenue in the northwest.
But some traditionally impoverished neighborhoods, though still poor, nonetheless managed substantial increases in income. In the heart of Sandtown-Winchester on the west side, for example, the site of a decade-long revitalization effort, median household income rose 50 percent, to $16,702. And in Reservoir Hill, south of Druid Hill Park in West Baltimore, median household income was up 44 percent, to $19,448.
Sun Staff Writers Andrew A. Green, Jamie Smith Hopkins and Childs Walker and electronic news editor Mike Himowitz contributed to this article.