While Mayor Brandon Scott’s State of the City address tonight will laud his $3 billion “vision” to rehab 37,000 vacant and abandoned properties in Baltimore, one of the few concrete measures arising from the plan has come under fire.
Setting a fixed sale price for city-owned vacants – $3,000 for a developer, $1,000 for a nonprofit and $1 for a prospective homeowner or land trust – the arrangement was approved last week by the Board of Estimates over the objections of Councilwoman Odette Ramos and Council President Nick Mosby.
Ramos says the program favors speculators over city residents and has little buy-in by the community, while Mosby claims it could cause gentrification and displacement.
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