Will redeveloping Pimlico really make much of a difference for Baltimore/Park Heights?

(I just didn't get around to writing a piece about this year's Super Bowl in terms of urban revitalization issues in Greater Miami, the way I wrote similar pieces about Phoenix, San Francisco, New Jersey, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis in the past when they hosted the game.)

More than a year ago, I got permission to reprint a version of an op-ed that ran in the Baltimore Business Journal, where the author argued that redeveloping the Pimlico Race Track wasn't the right initiative to focus on for sparking urban revitalization in the Park Heights neighborhood, but I never ran it.  (It's reprinted below.)

It comes up because of this piece in the Baltimore Business Journal, "GBC's Fry calls on Maryland General Assembly to OK $375M Pimlico deal," about how the chair of the Greater Baltimore Committee (the Growth Machine/Urban Regime coordinating organization there) testified before the State Legislature in favor of a $375 million state-funded program for the improvement of the Pimlico Race Course, the storied racetrack that is now terribly dilapidated but still the home of the Preakness Race, which is one of the three races of the annual "Triple Crown" in horse racing.

Pimlico infield used for a concert.






Not unlike my typology on how to improve sports stadium and arena projects in ways that can better spur revitalization, spillover business development, and reduce traffic tie ups, we need a better typology of what kinds of urban revitalization projects have spillover benefits that are positive and better yet, wildly successful, versus projects where the benefits, the return on investment, are barely positive if not negative (what I call "value destruction").

-- a revised typology is presented here, "Stadiums and arenas redux: Mayor Bowser still wants the area NFL team to relocate to DC," 2019

Horse racing is a dying sport, and investing a lot in it seems like a waste and unlikely to have a lot of spillover benefit ("Horse Deaths Are Threatening the Racing Industry. Is the Sport Obsolete?," New York Times; "The Decline of America’s First Pastime: Horse Racing’s Descent into Irrelevance," Medium).  Especially when there is another course close by in Laurel.

Frankly, how much revitalization has spread beyond a couple blocks immediately adjacent to Camden Yards?  Definitely not much has transpired around the football stadium for the Baltimore Ravens.

And speaking of how to parse out money when you have to choose between projects because of limits and constraints, plans to expand Baltimore's Convention Center have been put on hold for lack of money ("Baltimore Convention Center expansion plans scaled back amid financial hurdles," Baltimore Business Journal).

While there is criticism of convention centers in urban planning circles as often being a boondoggle, the fact is that a convention center generates far more economic activity than a track for horse racing.

Plus, if facilities are poorly managed, which has been a key issue with Pimlico, and generally the local government partner has no recourse, it's not necessarily a good partnership and economic returns can be further stunted ("The Knicks' chronic woes are finally hurting the bottom line for their owner, MSG," Crain's New York Business; "Been to Largo lately? Sports teams often aren't very good partners," 2018).

Creating a transit network should be Baltimore's #1 economic development priority. I've been meaning to write about this.

I keep doing so, e.g., "Opinion: What Baltimore and D.C. can do to start working better together as a region (Baltimore Business Journal op-ed)" and "Social urbanism and Baltimore" -- and to me, the one best redevelopment initiative that Baltimore could undertake would be to expand rail transit within the city, along the lines of what is discussed in this entry from 2012, which is based on something I wrote for the Baltimore County Office of Planning when I worked there in 2009-2010.

-- "From the files: transit planning in Baltimore County"

Moving from a couple of somewhat connected but truncated lines to an actual rail transit network is key as it expanding it to places where people want to go -- major employment and activity centers like JHU's Harborview Hospital in Baltimore and direct connections to Towson and the White Marsh district in Baltimore County and to Columbia in Howard County -- is likely to be the single most important initiative that Baltimore City and the Baltimore Metropolitan area could take.

Transit would support residential in-migration to Baltimore, the same way it did in DC.

And better transit would help the Baltimore metropolitan region attract relocating businesses the same way that State Farm moved to Dallas and firms like Mercedes in Atlanta. Transit accessibility is an increasingly important deal breaker for corporate relocation decision making.

And it provides reasons for residential choice too.

And proximity to transit when it's a network then provides a multiplier/appreciation element for real estate development, which allows for the creation of denser projects, which in turn attract more residents and more business activity.

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Other solutions for Pimlico Tract
Michael Seipp, Executive Director, Southwest Partnership
November 2018

The Preakness is the key to saving the impoverished neighborhoods that surround Pimlico Race Track. This cry has been repeated so often it has come to be generally accepted as fact by so many deliberating the fate of the northwest Baltimore facility. It was again put forth in a column by Dan Rodricks in the Baltimore Sun on 10/25/18 ("Hogan or Jealous, the next governor needs to keep the Preakness in Baltimore").

I literally don’t have a horse in this race.

But on serious examination, the impassioned plea to save the Preakness is somewhat odd, given the fact that Baltimore has far more critical issues – disinvestment in too many neighborhoods, fighting crime and re-hauling our schools - that should be addressed first and foremost.

There is an understandable emotional attachment to a storied Baltimore tradition but there should be an even stronger emotional attachment to the storied neighborhoods of Baltimore: the rich history of the Hollins Market and its neighbors, the beauty of Franklin Square Park which predates the first Preakness, the B&O Museum which can and should be so much more.

Who could possibly think a huge tract of land that, even totally restored only operates a few days a year, would be the best solution to northwest Baltimore’s numerous challenges? Or even a solution to the woes of the broader community of Baltimore City?

Pimlico Race Track property occupies approximately 120 acres which is in use ten days per year.

Jobs, revenue and traffic to the area stemming from the track operation are, at best, limited to those few days each year. Meanwhile, the other 350 days a year, the track is non-productive, bringing in neither revenue, jobs nor visitors.  Even with a dramatically reimagined use of the property on non-racing days, all plans would have to work around preservation of a huge footprint, which in turn restricts the opportunity for additional development that could offer year-round employment opportunities and economic impact.

Mr. Rodricks used the example of State financed Stadiums as a way to save the Preakness. I would estimate that we would be talking in the 100 millions of dollars. How many homes could we create, how many start up businesses could be funded, how many schools air conditioned?

It’s highly unlikely that an urban planner looking at northwest Baltimore would recommend a race track as the best solution to revitalize the surrounding area. Instead, they would likely suggest some sort of mixed-use development that would positively affect the economy and area 365 days a year by offering jobs, housing, amenities and recreation to retain and attract residents and visitors.  But it would be very hard to somehow do that while also preserving the huge footprint required for the very specific use of a racetrack.

While the emotional tug and concern for tradition and civic pride attached to the Preakness are very real, supporting a one-day event in the hopes of saving a neighborhood just isn’t a smart bet.