Defining opportunity in Baltimore

In the wake of Freddie Gray and the unrest in Baltimore, the recent release of the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development may mark an important step toward creating a more sustainable and equitable region. The plan makes clear that marked disparities in access to quality education, jobs, safety and environmental conditions persist across the region and offers recommendations for improving residents’ access to opportunity.

A central challenge in both the design and implementation of the plan is to understand what opportunity means to Baltimore residents. To answer this question, the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education teamed up with the Baltimore-based non-profit Citizens’ Planning and Housing Association to conduct a series of focus groups as the regional plan was being developed. At six locations across the metropolitan region, they convened 112 residents from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods to ask what it means to live in neighborhoods that provide opportunity.

To some extent, residents confirmed what many already suspected: Across diverse demographic and geographic lines, people want similar things from their neighborhoods. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, men, women, low-income and high-income residents of both the city and county, above all else, want to live in neighborhoods that are safe and secure and provide access to quality education for their children.
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