McCabe Avenue

McCabe Avenue highlights Baltimore’s housing crisis six months after demolition

A view of Alhambra Park in North Baltimore. The park, surrounded by vacant rowhomes, is littered with trash, shredded plywood and borken glass.

As potential homebuyers make the turn east onto narrow Glenwood Avenue from York Road they find themselves dodging the occasional slow-moving body that crosses the street from the block’s Life Counseling Center and heading down hill into an eerie part of town.

The sound of nails being hammered and shouting construction workers fills the air as various home rehab projects are ongoing.

One way streets like this one comprise most of Baltimore’s forgotten communities, where vacant rowhomes are becoming a serious issue, none more than the ones along McCabe Avenue.

“Up until this spring there had been zero progress despite repeated promises from Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano that improvements were coming,” said Adam Bednar, an editor at North Baltimore Patch who has been reporting on McCabe Avenue since 2006.

In May 2011 Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake visited the 700 block of McCabe to set into action the first demolition project under her now year-old Vacants to Value program.

Rawlings-Blake described the demolition of five blighted properties in the area on May 18, 2011 as “a comprehensive answer that is going to bring long-term growth to this community.”

More than six months later that growth is still absent. Two grass lots sit where the four McCabe rowhomes once stood on opposing sides of the street.

Empty windows and boarded-up doors are all too common along either side of McCabe Avenue.

“It’s been like this for years now, I have no idea when or if they’ll do anything about it,” said Marcus Edwards, a North Baltimore resident. “Hell, I don’t know about that playground either.”

Alhambra Park

Alhambra Park in the Woodbourne-McCabe community of North Baltimore is hardly the childhood attraction it once was.

Not only has grass grown over the one way street on Alhambra Avenue, but the throughway is completely closed off to traffic by the presence of several concrete jersey walls.

Instead of children swinging on the playground or running around the neighboring grass field, the park is filled with debris from decomposing vacant rowhomes and intimidated by the occasional fading police siren or neighborhood shout.

Financial Strains

Councilman Bill Henry represents the fourth district as well as the McCabe neighborhood and was on hand during the May 2011 demolition.

Henry admits that although he and his council are working hard, they have work left to do. “I’m enjoying helping people, but I haven’t finished doing everything that we need done,” said Henry.

Henry has been in office since 2007. Still, regardless of how hard city officials work to patch the problem, finances are a major roadblock.

A cat sits on the stoop of an abandoned home in the 700 block of McCabe Avenue in North Baltimore. A family of cats now lives in the patch of grass in front of the home.

According to Baltimore City Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano, the five demolitions in the Woodbourne-McCabe community back in May cost roughly $90,000 to complete.

“It will take a long time,” said Michael Barb, co-executive director at the Sandtown Habitat for Humanity. “Admittedly, they don’t have the money to do everything that needs to be done.”

The Baltimore Housing Authority claims that Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake will fix up an estimated 23 properties in Woodbourne-McCabe over the next two years.

But six months into the project little progress has been made.

“It’s Baltimore, not everything happens over night,” said Bednar.

Most of the abandoned homes along McCabe and Glenwood are nearly a century old, having been built in the 1920s and 1930s, so rehabbing will take lots of work.

“Many are dilapidated beyond repair and need to be demolished,” said Barb.

Race and Class Lines

Another hidden issue pertaining to North Baltimore’s housing crisis is that of contrasting race and class lines. York Road is a unique divider between upper middle-class whites and working-class blacks.

“I encourage people to learn the history of Baltimore’s housing issues, particularly as it relates to segregation and oppression,” said Barb. “Understand that there was once a time when communities did not have blocks of vacant houses.”

Baltimore’s crime issues and drug problems have no doubt taken a toll on many of the city’s once vibrant neighborhoods.

A mound of trash behind the row of abandoned homes on McCabe Avenue. This secluded area is commonly visited by the homeless and those involved with drugs.

Although violent crime has dropped off dramatically in the city over the past two decades, the presence of drugs and alcohol are still common.

Walking along McCabe Avenue at any given time of day a resident or visitor will likely be exposed to casual drug deals, use and its effects.

Abandoned rowhomes provide the perfect setting for the homeless, those dealing with mental or physical ailments that prevent them from working, or drug addicts with nowhere else to go.

“The police patrol here like everyday so not a lot goes on, but there are definitely people that are up to no good,” said Edwards.

However the neighborhood can still conclude 2011 with the small victory it received back in May.

“If things to start picking up pace again in a year it’ll be time to reassess things,” said Bednar. “For now though I think the community groups are thrilled with the first steps to demolish those buildings.”

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