"Mixed Use" in Peabody Heights: Using Original Development Principles to Resurrect a Baltimore Neighborhood

Abstract

Once strong, vibrant, primarily-residential neighborhoods, often interspersed with institutional, commercial, and industrial functions, many inner-city areas have been negatively transformed since WWII though substantive loss of urban fabric and change-of-use. These factors have had detrimental effects on the communities, including vacancy, reduction in the mix of uses and population, and the loss of property values and high-quality buildings, contributing to a depression in neighborhood morale, economics, and æsthetics. This is not an uncommon situation in urban communities throughout the nation. The PEABODY HEIGHTS section of Baltimore, Maryland, is an apt example of these urban conditions. This paper investigates these conditions and proposes recommendations for their amelioration that grow out of the area’s original development principles.