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Baltimore needs a revived Harborplace and big events like Artscape | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
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Much of the retail space at Harborplace on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is currently vacant. Baltimore-based developer P. David Bramble and his MCB Real Estate firm have struck a deal to acquire Harborplace, the struggling one-time centerpiece of waterfront redevelopment in the 1980s, out of receivership. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun).

Much of the retail space at Harborplace on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is currently vacant. Baltimore-based developer P. David Bramble and his MCB Real Estate firm have struck a deal to acquire Harborplace, the struggling one-time centerpiece of waterfront redevelopment in the 1980s, out of receivership. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun). (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

Two recent news items appear at first to be unrelated. The first is local developer MCB Real Estate’s pending takeover of Harborplace, which is overdue for an overhaul. The second is very disappointing news from the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts that a full-scale Artscape event will not take place this year (only a scaled back “preview” of a future event), and that neither the Baltimore Book Festival nor Light City will take place at all for the foreseeable future (”Baltimore has ‘10 times’ more opportunity than issues, likely Harborplace developer and native P. David Bramble says,” April 6).

In fact, these announcements are closely interrelated. In years past, Harborplace was either a direct anchor or spillover attraction for hundreds of thousands of locals and tourists who flocked to these celebratory events. However MCB ends up re-imagining the downtown waterfront (with community input), surely big, public art events will be key to enlivening and reactivating the Inner Harbor.

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Indeed, I can’t picture a reinvented Harborplace succeeding without large-scale cultural events that draw loads of foot traffic and put money into the coffers of local retailers, restaurants and artists. We absolutely need great, exciting infrastructure that shows off our waterways and big, bold public events that show off our homegrown talent and our ability to create enticing spectacles.

I hope we can do both really well. Baltimore deserves nothing less.

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— Amy L. Bernstein, Baltimore

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