Charm City Shrinking: Baltimore Reaches 100-Year Population Low
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Baltimore City's population reached a 100-year low, according to new Census numbers out Thursday, but not all neighborhoods are feeling the impact of residents moving elsewhere.
Devin Bartolotta has more on what this means for the City.
Although there are fewer residents overall, places like the Inner Harbor are booming. When you look beyond the Census numbers, it's a tale of two Baltimores.
New federal estimates show the City continues to shrink. The population last July was 614,000, a 100-year low.
Kirby Fowler of the Downtown Partnership says despite these numbers, the downtown core is thriving. Making up 14 percent of the City's population.
"Downtown is growing, a lot of people are moving in from out of state. Well just have to keep them here," he said.
Census numbers show more people are moving into the counties surrounding Baltimore, because the City's chronic issues like underfunded schools, crime and crumbling infrastructure may deter new residents from coming in.
Not Mark Stephenson, who moved his small business into Locust Point.
"What you're seeing in Locust Point, and all the way around the Harbor, the so-called "Two Baltimores" - it doesn't have to be that way," Stephenson said.
Although signs of growth, like new apartment buildings, are popping up downtown, less than a mile away, boarded up homes speak to a much different way of life.
In communities like Sandtown, plagued by violence and a struggle for resources, there is little new development.
"The drugs, and you know, they empty houses. People leaving. They just don't want to deal with it no more," said Sandtown resident Naomi Carter.
"I am hoping that this was just an anomaly and we'll see growth again in the next couple years," Fowler said.
The one-mile radius around the Harbor here is considered "downtown." That's where most of Baltimore City's population lives right now, people the City hopes to hold onto.
The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore tells WJZ most people moving into the City are millennials or empty nesters without small children.
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