The Opportunity Collaborative, an entity created by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, claims to have developed a "first-ever" comprehensive regional plan to develop housing, transit and workforce training programs to reduce socio-economic disparities ("Leaders call for regional approach to disparities," June 8).
Sadly, the Opportunity Collaborative has misstated the facts. This plan is not the "first-ever" regional plan to address these issues. It is merely one more in a series of efforts to address the crucial challenges facing the region from a data driven perspective.
The Sun had it right when it cautioned there is a "catch" to all such efforts: It's not clear whether any of the proposals will ever come to fruition.
The predecessor to the BMC, the Regional Planning Council, adopted a regional housing strategy that was recognized as a national model for the distribution of affordable housing resources throughout the area.
This strategy was used by HUD to allocate housing production dollars in the region. In addition, RPC received a bonus award of regional Section 8 vouchers valid in all jurisdictions in the region, thereby promoting regional mobility.
RPC administered this program for several years, avoiding the controversies of later efforts to do this as epitomized by the Move to Opportunity Program.
In addition, RPC included its housing strategy as part of a comprehensive regional development plan that included strategies addressing economic development, land use, transportation, criminal justice and energy conservation.
An advisory committee of regional leaders from both the private and public sectors oversaw this effort. Members included elected officials as well as leaders in the private non-profit sector such as James W. Rouse, Abel Wolman and Mark Joseph.
What happened? Other than in the area of transportation, there are limited tools for implementing such strategies on a regional basis. Unless there are effective mechanisms for ensuring regional cooperation through the private and public sectors, such plans are doomed to remain on the shelf.
I served as the staff person for the preparation of both the regional housing plan (1974) and the regional General Development Plan (1977). I write to put this latest regional initiative in context. It is not the "first-ever" comprehensive plan. Instead, it is one of many efforts to address the challenges facing this region made newly evident by recent events in Baltimore City.
As Abel Wolman once said to me as we prepared the 1977 plan: When you work on the regional level, you measure your progress on the geological clock. I hope that his latest effort doesn't once again prove Abel Wolman's point.
Patricia J. Payne, Lutherville
The writer is a former Maryland secretary of housing and community development.