Growing or Shrinking - The US "Legacy" City in the 21st Century

As co chair of the AIA Urban Design Committee I helped organize this year's urban design lecture during Architecture Month. The topic: "Shrinking/Growing, Baltimore's Future." The two speakers were David Dixon, FAIA from Boston and Tom Murphy, former Mayor of Pittsburgh and now senior ULI fellow in Washington DC. The event hit a nerve with the Baltimore community and was standing room only. Both speakers and I had participated in the WYPR Midday talk show with Dan Rodricks earlier the same day under the same topic. Download audio.

Tom Murphy, drawing heavily from his Pittsburgh experience but also from the research in his current position at the Urban Land Institute postulates that cities find themselves in a similar revolution as when the automobile became the prevalent mode of transportation. Now it is the knowledge revolution that changes cities just as radically as industrialization or the automobile has done it before. The most prominent representatives of the knowledge industry are "meds and eds", large hospital complexes and their associated research and the universities and colleges. Murphy pointed out that Johns Hopkins is the largest employer in the State and together with the University of Maryland at Baltimore bring about $2.4 billion into the city. He challenges the city to utilize this money to grow development and keep talent in the city and multiply it. Murphy pointed out that San Diego which used to be a sleepy Navy outpost now receives also $2.4 billion in research dollars at its universities but it also has about the same number of dollars as venture capital investments which  puts in in the #1 spot in the country in that category whereas Baltimore with only $225 million in venture capital puts it on a bottom rank.

David Dixon pointed out, population growth might not be a good measure for success. For one, it is rather a household that is the economic unit and in terms of households Baltimore today has almost as many as in its heydays due to the shrinking size of households and the ever increasing spatial needs per household. Dixon and Murphy both had assisted New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina and both pointed out that the matter of growth and shrinkage should not be measured quantitatively but qualitatively in response to the question of what creates value. Dixon showed how Baltimore stands in the growth of college educated 25-34 year olds living in or near the metro core (6th in growth and 8th in absolute numbers) and stated that the new features young people are looking for are not the cul de sacs and large yards their parents liked but walkability, transit and urbanity. As a result, "walk scores" result in lots of value added. Older cities such as Baltimore have good walks scores almost built into their DNA, although pedestrian safety, bike amenities and good connections to transit will require continuing investments.

Both agreed that cities like Baltimore have an enormous opportunity to capture the young generation currently looking for attractive knowledge city urbanity, especially when they are like Baltimore located in a growing region.

Dixon presentation: Baltimore in the age of the Walk Score
Murphy presentation: Building on innovation  (currently a ULI text by Murphy shows up, the actual presentation will be linked shortly).

Baltimore: From industrial port city to knowledge community with urban vibe