"The Road to Hell"

As the “Year of the City” came to a close, one of the last speakers was Kenneth Jackson, professor at Columbia University in New York, New York. Jackson spoke about urbanization in his lectured entitled “The Road to Hell.” Jackson spoke about Baltimore from its beginning of being a major city. As Baltimore rose as a major city, Jackson remarks, it was considered the “sin city” of the East Coast, or maybe even the U.S. This he said was due to the “sinful” Baltimore Street, with its bars, strip clubs, and other forms of indecency. Jackson exclaimed that the creation of such an indecent city was due to the lack of families and family-friendly businesses in an all-industrial city based on shipping and the use of the Chesapeake. The importance of Baltimore as a city decreased after the Civil War, Jackson says, but then increases due to the B & O Railroad, the first real railroad in the U.S. And all throughout Jackson’s summary of the history of Baltimore as a city, he kept adding the important point that what is happening to Baltimore, as far as urbanization is not sticking with human pattern, that is it is not similar to what has happened or is happening in other major cities such as New York and Boston. One of the major problems that occurred, Jackson points out, is that the growth of African American population coincided with the deindustrialization of Baltimore. African Americans moved to Baltimore when job opportunities in the shipping industry were decreasing. It was hard for African Americans to find jobs in Baltimore due to the strong presence of racism, and the few jobs in the shipping industry were being taking over by machinery that did the jobs of human beings efficiently. From there Jackson remarks, the decline of downtown increased hand and hand with the increase in poverty and home abandonment. Following the large increase in poverty was the 1967 riots, the rise of crime, and decrease of central businesses. This deterioration of Baltimore City, Jackson continues, is due to the strong sense of racism and the trend of race. The constant redlining of districts is based on the concentration of African Americans. This is a harsh reality for me to face. I find it funny how people create problems for themselves, or would allow their city to succumb to crime and poverty, because of racist views. This reality was not unknown to me prior to attending the lecture, because I have seen this existing problem in attending Loyola and partaking in various community service programs in the city. It obvious that the redlining of districts is based on the race of the population, with one side of Loyola consisting of a predominately white population in a neighborhood full of expensive homes, and further down the street closer to the city in a predominately African American neighborhood there exists a mix of abandoned houses and poverty stricken homes. It seems as if Baltimore City is trying to push away the poor and homeless, who happen to be predominately African American. When one drives away from Baltimore County and the suburbs, moving closer to the city there is an increase in percentage of African Americans. Just from volunteering in a Baltimore City soup kitchen, I see the large number of those who I have served were African Americans, and the neighborhood surrounding (which is the projects) was predominately African American as well. It seems it is the city government’s fault for creating this obvious redlining, making it hard for African Americans to rise out of poverty level, with little available middleclass, low-cost housing. The divide between the poor and the rich is a huge gap, one that will continue to exist due to the variable of racism. Yet hope exists because of those who are trying to lessen such a gap by helping the poor get out of such a confining place. The importance of Loyola, a Jesuit College advocating the idea of “service learning” comes into play with this problem. The locating for Loyola is key, being located between the two neighborhoods of the poor and wealthy, so that students can see the major injustices that exist, many due to racism. One can only hope that people remain aware of such social injustices, and work to try to eradicate them.