Thread by @RectorSun

Talk about Baltimore and its persistent problems despite claims of huge federal investments here reminds me of this story I wrote in 2016 (baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-…) and particularly of this quote about "putting a Band-Aid on a cut that needs to be sutured."

In 1942, before either Trump or Cummings was born and in response to 2,000 black protesters going to Annapolis to demand an investigation into police abuses in black neighborhoods, Maryland's then governor formed a "Commission on Problems Affecting The Negro Population."

The commission, though hindered by racist assumptions of its own, ended up studying a range of issues - police, education, health, employment, housing - and issuing a 145-pg report outlining a large number of racial disparities leading to unfair conditions in black neighborhoods.

Among other findings, it found that newly arriving black residents, some 2,500 to 3,000 per month, were being forced into unacceptable living conditions in part because of segregation (and redlining a whole bunch of other racist policies).

"No new homes are being built for them. No vacant homes are available for them. They must share accommodations with those who already live in densely populated and segregated areas."

The report cited an article that found "only 113 dwellings in Baltimore for each 1,000 Negroes."

"The crowding of one-fifth of the city's population into one-fiftieth of the shelter space would be bad enough if the housing was up to standard."

"In the two major blighted areas lying east and west of the central district, a survey just completed of every fifth house showed 70% sub-standard in at least one respect. A quarter were unfit or needed major repairs, half had no private toilet, a sixth no toilet or bath."

The report found other segregated cities with black sections, black residents "have been permitted to fan outward from a 'V' the bottom of which is towards the center of the city," but that in Baltimore, "there is little undeveloped land available to Negroes."

"They live in ring districts. Neighborhood covenants by surrounding white owners prevent any expansion into surrounding areas."

"The effect of limited space and a large increase in population has resulted in soaring rents until space in Negro areas is more costly than that paid under leases for property located in our best districts," the report found.

The report recommended that "facilities for Negro families should at least be brought up to a minimum standard by strict enforcement of Health Department regulations."

But it also noted the city only had 3 inspectors who "at present cannot possibly enforce" the regulations.

Another recommendation was that the health commissioner "should have immediately available to him a revolving fund out of which minimum repairs can be made by him when the landlord either refuses or delays."

The reality is many of the report's recommendations never materialized. Racist policies persisted. East and west Baltimore remained redlined, disinvested, overcrowded in living quarters & empty in those that got so bad they were abandoned & left to sit by unscrupulous landlords.

Many of those same slums poisoned and are still poisoning kids with lead paint, messing with their brain chemistry and leaving them ill-equipped to handle life's pressures - and potentially, though not necessarily, more inclined to rely on crime to support themselves.

There hasn't been, to my knowledge, any wholesale effort since, at the local, state or federal levels, to turn these government- and segregation-created neighborhoods into healthy places for people to live, or even just places that don't *actively poison kids.*

Neither Trump nor Cummings created the poor conditions in Baltimore today. They have existed since before either was born. But the gov they both represent did, and one could easily argue it now has an obligation to help "fix it fast," as Trump once promised to do in Baltimore.