Kudos to Lorraine Mirabella for her excellent coverage of Baltimore’s downtown redevelopment follies. In particular, thanks are due for breaking the news about a possible referendum to slow the city’s roll on the controversial proposal for the Inner Harbor (“Opponents of Harborplace redevelopment in Baltimore form coalition to block plan,” Jan. 12).
 

Reasonable people can differ about the architectural aspects of the plan. But it’s important also to understand how it will affect the rest of downtown. Advocates promise it will kick-start a revival. They’re wrong.
 

As developer David Tufaro, one of the plan’s opponents, noted in that article, “Harborplace’s decline came about in part because of the city’s backing of waterfront redevelopment in Harbor East, Harbor Point and Baltimore Peninsula, formerly known as Port Covington, which shifted offices, apartments and shops outside the central business district.”
 

Spot on.
 

Owners of existing city properties face a punishing property tax rate (double Baltimore County’s) that repels new investment. City officials know this so have long subsidized new developments with special tax breaks (TIFs, PILOTs, etc.). This gives the new properties a cost advantage over older ones, and merely shifts activity (business and residential) around the city, rather than growing it.

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