All things being equal, American cities wouldn’t be selling off cash-generating assets to meet basic demands.
But all things almost never are equal – and that goes at least double these days for cities.
Consider this: you are the mayor. You’ve just pushed for a curfew to protect your young and not-so-young citizens on city streets. It’s all about safety, to be sure. But where are young people to go during the day or the evening?
Rec centers was one of the answers – but are they open and safe? Are they adequate? And if neither, what are we doing about it? You can’t politically -- responsibly -- raise taxes in a city where the rate is already way above surrounding counties.
So you propose selling 4 city garages for $60 million and using that money to refurbish or re-build the centers. You have to be careful, of course. You want to be sure the up-front money is sufficient to justify the sale.
And there are important questions.
Why use the money for rec centers? There are other needs: sprucing up the downtown, for example. Addressing the city’s corroding infrastructure – an enormously expensive requirement. Certainly there are other worthy projects crying out for financial support.
But, again, if you’re a mayor, you don’t have many good options. That doesn’t mean you can latch onto ideas before you’ve vetted them thoroughly. Some of that necessary checking is underway. City Council members are asking the right questions. But, they want the centers.
They know that Baltimore is financially strapped, but all politics is still local.
Your feedback is welcome at [email protected].