Buildings Demolished To Help Baltimore Fight Crime

BALTIMORE, MD — They’re boarded up and crumbling down. Blocks of abandoned houses in Baltimore are being demolished as part of city and state’s joint Project C.O.R.E. (Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise).

Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh says the buildings being targeted often contribute to the sale and use of drugs and other criminal gang activity. She says that bringing those structures down and rebuilding those neighborhoods and communities will help to push the city forward.

Governor Larry Hogan announced on Tuesday a new phase in Project C.O.R.E, in which 500 properties that have been designated by Baltimore City as contributing factors to violent crime will be slated for priority demolition by the Maryland Stadium Authority.

Hogan and Pugh provided details on Project C.O.R.E.’s expanded focus to assist in crime reduction during a press conference in front of vacant properties in the 1000 block of North Stockton Street in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of west Baltimore.

After demolition of the Stockton Street properties and more vacant properties on neighboring Smithson Street, the area will be redeveloped to create Smithson Park as part of Baltimore’s Green Network Plan, an effort to foster community revitalization by creating an interconnected system of green spaces throughout the city.

Project C.O.R.E. is a multi-year city-state partnership established in 2016.

Still from YouTube/Capital News Service.

— By Steven Dilsizian of Capital News Service and Elizabeth Janney of Patch