Race was a major factor then, but is not the major factor today in their priorities. Treating class as a major factor and dumb thinking that sucks vitality from the city center are still in abundance.

R3=E3 sounds like a new dose of “give us your support for bait & switch” the like the version shoved down our throats in 1965. Thousands of homes in 16 linear blocks between Mulberry and Franklin Streets where torn down for the unfinished I-70 Freeway and a ghost subway line to run down the middle of it.

I first witnessed that debacle unfolding as a third grader when MTA officials presented their marketing plan to local school children. The West Baltimore freeway route model looked fantastic. They bragged about thousands of cars being able to quickly travel the route between downtown and the western suburbs of Catonsville & Woodlawn. Recognizing that they did not impress us, MTA officials next pointed out that the freeway would be built with enough median space for the subway line illustrated on the Baltimore Metrorail Subway map. That large impressive map had lines intersecting downtown in a star-pattern. Suddenly, we burst with pride to see our own West Baltimore subway line on such important map, whose lines I recall oriented as:

Northwest-Southeast
West-Northeast
North-South (Towson to BWI Airport, called Friendship Airport then)

Then my classmates and I reflected on the fact that some homes to be torn down were our own. Living one block over from the route, my block was spared. Nevertheless, we all gloomily asked ourselves, why do they want to tear down our homes for people who travel between downtown and the suburbs without stopping?

So I remember asking the MTA officials, “Why can’t you just build a subway under Franklin Street, then go out Edmondson Ave. People could travel the same route between downtown and the suburbs.”

First I got startled blank stares. Then the MTA folks quickly shifted to an exercise that asked us to draw shops we would like to see at our subway station. Refreshments ensued, so we 3rd graders just went along with the show. Working in a nearby barbershop, I heard a handful of adults complaining about the freeway route and home destruction. But there was no mass demonstration, in large part because construction plans printed in the newspaper included room for the subway line and the 1st subway line up Pennsylvania Avenue began construction. Thus our community was told we believed would get the subway just after the freeway was built. Little did we know the community disaster and deceit lying ahead.

The eminent domain evictions arrived a couple years later. Many friends and small businesses that stabilized our community were removed. Living in the 500 block of Brice Street, I could look down my street at the Freeway’s concrete wall that was never landscaped as promised. The freeway ended half a block further west at Pulaski Street.

Where’s the disaster? Perhaps you are aware that MTA planning imbeciles failed to secure Rights of Way through Western Cemetery and hence, could not connect the infamous I-70 Freeway segment to the current I-70 Freeway endpoint at I-695 beltway. Turns out powerful rich White folk would not let their ancestors be exhumed to enable freeway construction through the cemetery. In effect, that debacle said to our community, dead rich White folks were more valuable than alive middle class Black folks. So Yonah has a strong point about class and racism having a sordid history in Baltimoretransportation planning.

Even as a young adult I remember asking adults, when would the subway line begin construction. There were rumors of start dates, but each time Maryland DOT funds went to freeway construction. When the next traunches of transit funding came around, horrible stark answers were printed in the local newspaper.

Transit funding would instead go the “More important” Yellow Line connecting suburban job-rich Hunt Valley with downtown and BWI Airport and to Green Line extension to the “More important” deep suburbs of Owings Mills. Our community fumed but again, but with so much of decimated by Black middle class fleeing to the same suburbs, there were no major protests on behalf of inner city West Baltimore.

Years have passed and I live in California now, but every time I visit Baltimore, I muse about the missed opportunity that would have strengthened our West Baltimore community, while positively transforming land use patterns in Baltimore. If the MTA and Maryland DOT had simply weighed input from the rich white folks and listened to middleclass Black folks, Baltimore City would be in much better shape.

Instead of tearing down homes for an unfinished freeway, two subway lines (instead of one) could have intersected downtown and opened in 1983. Those 2 lines could have been extended to the near suburbs and the 3rd subway line completed by 2010. Baltimore would already have that complete star-pattern subway system. Given a much higher transit mode-share, Baltimore’s transit culture would have demanded more frequent MARC commuter train service traveling East-Southwest on the map as well.

Instead of moving 60,000 Metrorail, 35,000 Light Rail and 32,000 MARC patrons for 130,000 daily transit patrons today, Baltimore Metrorail and MARC could easily have be 300,000 daily patrons transforming business and residential location decisions for a more vital Baltimore. Today transit plans would more appropriately be extending Metrorail and MARC lines to the deep suburbs of Hunt Valley, White Marsh, Owings Mills, Glen Burnie and Columbia to boost those numbers past 400,000.

Though the MTA can never remedy that debacle, I am happy to see that the Red Line will fulfill finally East-West rail transit route promised to my community and the community of East-Southeast Baltimore. After the Red Line, prioritizing the northern Yellow Line from Towson down Charles Street to downtown Baltimore is a also smart move that fullfills an old promise. It may even be a make-good for the ill-concieved, under-performing throw-in LRT currently traversing low-density Jones Falls Expressway, while bypassing Towson.

My dose of historical reality also chastens the MTA’s rationale of prioritizing a new low density Southern Yellow Line extension to Columbia before the old high-density Northeastern Green Line extension to Morgan State University. The Southern Yellow Line extension with 11 stops after BWI Station has the earmarks of another underperforming Hunt Valley line (now colored Blue on the MTA map). This Southern Yellow Line was not promised. Nor can one rationalize significantly more patronage that it will deliver above frequency improvement to the planned MARC Orange Line to Dorsey. Thus, prioritizing Orange Line improvement before the Southern Yellow Line extension makes more sense.

Yes it will take longer and be more expensive to complete, but Green Line extension will transport far more patrons downtown and throughout the transit system. IT WAS PROMISED DECADES AGO. So the transit priority should be be Red -> Northern Yellow -> Green -> Orange -> Southern Yellow

Given Columbia has been a national model of racial integration and business opportunity, I’m pleased that racism need not be a prevailing factor in current Light Rail expansion decisions. But class remains a major issue. So I stand with my fellow citizens of Northeastern Baltimore who demand that the Green line continue its promised course 45 years ago before this newfangled R3=E3 marketing puffery calling for a southern Yellow Line extension.

So you can take those MTA “manufactured reasons” to low-pri the Green Line extension and shove them in a nice circular object emptied frequently. I plan to share my thoughts with the Baltimore mayor and Baltimore Sun newspaper.

But it was very interesting to look over their proposals for the Columbia town center, to add density and better public transportation over the next 30 years — or perhaps more. The whole plan may need some reworking in the light of the Great Recession. Retail may have maxed out around 2007 or 2008, and we will never again fill so many stores. Time will tell.

Meanwhile others here want the Yellow Line from the north through downtown Baltimore. That could make the stretch to Columbia a Phase 2, maybe allowing someone to figure out a way to make the connection between Baltimore and Columbia faster than the current proposal.

5,500 additional apartments and condominiums, 4.3 million square feet of new offices, 1.25 million square feet of retail space and over a 1000 hotel rooms is in legislation to be added over the next 30 years to Columbia. Legislation is also on the table to possibly add small amounts of housing to the village centers will create more urbanized residential dwelling. Columbia will keep its open space but there are major development plans from Blandair Park, to Symphony Woods, current location of the Mall, Merriweather for large concerts and events and expansion of Gateway office park make Columbia a wise choice.

I do agree an hour and 15 minutes to Baltimore is horrible and should try to be around 40-45 minutes. Though when BRAC is at its peak next decade bringing 600,000 to a million more people to Maryland rapidly and the development in Baltimore and Columbia continues, traffic will be a nightmare. Silver Spring and Bethesda have Metro Stops to help people get to and from work. Columbia will be more densely populated than those cities. With population and density of the time the Yellow line will be built this makes perfect sense.

Also as a Black man born and raised in Columbia to working middle-class parents the locations the stops will be are in Diverse demographic areas such as Guilford, Owen Brown, and by the Mall. Columbia is one of the most diverse cities in the state and residents who do live in public housing have trouble working in Baltimore or other locations even in Columbia due to lack of access to decent public transportation.

I would say look at the development plans of all the cities in the state and that is how transportation should be determined in a smart growth way. The proposed development for Columbia is attached of course subject to change could be less though there will be development. http://www.columbia-md.com/MasterPlan/draft.aspx

Now the Green line extension within the city is important. And the Yellow line extension up to Towson and even reconnecting with the Blue line would be nice. And the line to Columbia is a poor idea by light rail. But a Yellow line at least to the city border and an expanded Green line to serve East Baltimore and of course the completion of the Red line will finally give us a system that connects all general areas of the city. The Charles St. corridor (and neighboring Howard, St. Paul, Calvert, Maryland) has plenty of opportunity for infill and more importantly, a much greater potential for it than does North Broadway. A better connected Baltimore will help all areas of the city.

The WMATA system for Washington was not designed to improve DC neighborhoods, that was the fortunate unintended consequence of having neighborhoods near downtown that were also served by the transit system, a system that was designed for suburbanites to be able to get to their jobs in the city. (29 stations at the core of the city cover a roughly 15 mile square and serve both business districts and neighborhoods, and provide a relatively high density of station service.)

Baltimore needs its own transportation plan. It’s clear that the CMTA doesn’t have Baltimore’s interest as foremost. I understand their reasoning about connecting key jobs clusters. (But as some of these comments point out, maybe rail service could do that better. Similarly, I notice a CSX track that serves the White Marsh area, but isn’t used for passenger service.)

At the same time, only by massively improving connectivity within the city via fixed rail transit service can Baltimore seriously propel neighborhood revitalization forward.

E.g., Matthew mentions choice riders for transit, well we also have choice “riders” for residential location decisions. If there is more, better transit within the city, more residents will come in, more opportunities for infill development will exist, etc. Now, that may faze some people concerned primarily about transit and equity, because that will mean the influx of more residents with higher incomes and other differences, leading to clashes and use of the G (gentrification) word.

OTOH, it happens that I am taking a one year appointment for a planning job in Baltimore County (not on transit), and there is no question that better connections between the Towson corridor and central Baltimore are necessary. (The blue line followed an existing rail line and therefore bypasses Towson. I do wonder about the possibility of creating an infill station and a good Circulator bus service to provide Greater Towson with service.)

Even so, I think green line extensions should occur and Baltimore City should move them forward, by creating a massive urban renewal district, and selling bonds against future property tax revenue increases, just as how Portland funded the creation of the Yellow (Interstate) MAX line.

Additionally, the number of stops in Columbia is quite dense, and I don’t think is supportable. They are also better served locally by an express bus. Downtown Columbia to downtown Baltimore is also better served by a rapid transit bus. If you get the travel time from Baltimore to Columbia down to 45 minutes, I think you’d have something better.

I look forward to more transit options between Columbia and Baltimore.

it seems reasonable to me to build the yellow line to columbia for equity in that you want to cover all parts of the region and classes. most of the lines built so far have served inner city communities in Baltimore which is great. But the MTA needs the political support of the entire region which is paying into the system anyway through taxes. i agree about the need to serve inner city neighborhoods with better transit especially since they are largely transit dependent but i think it is reasonable to have some suburban lines to ensure that the transit system serves a range of people in the region and not just the poor. transit needs the political support of the middle and upper classes since it receives a lot of tax money from them and in a place like baltimore i understand transit is mostly seen as something for the poor, and that is unhealthy for the transit agency and regional commuters. yes theres less transit need for suburban communters but there is political need. and some of these lines will bring inner city residents out to suburban jobs.