community

We recently worked with the Greater Baltimore Committee to explore how the Baltimore region stacks up against 19 of its peers around the country and how we’ve changed during the last two decades. This comparison included our neighbors to the north - Pittsburgh and Philadelphia - as well as to the south - the District of Columbia and Richmond. Educational attainment was among the 80 factors evaluated in the 2018 Greater Baltimore State of the Region Report.Experts often use the share of high school and college graduates in a particular geographic area as proxies for career readiness and workforce talent. Companies, especially high-tech firms, evaluate educational attainment when considering where to locate and grow their operations. Areas with highly educated populations are increasingly attracting these companies and entrepreneurs.So, how does Baltimore measure up on the education front today? How have we changed since 1998? Our report card demonstrates significant progress. Among the metropolitan regions studied, Baltimore ranked seventh among its peers in the share of the working age population (adults 25 years and older) holding a bachelor’s degree or higher credential, according to 2015 American Community Survey data. Today, 37.3 percent of the region has a four-year college degree. That’s a significant increase from less than 25 percent in 1998, when we ranked thirteenth.The Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, on the other hand, with its abundance of higher education institutions, federal agencies and vibrant business climate boasts a working age population (25+) with 49 percent holding college diplomas. This earned Washingtonians the No. 1 spot on our rankings. By comparison, Philadelphia (eleventh) and Richmond (twelfth) had 34.8 percent and 33.7 percent college educated populations, respectively. Pittsburghers, on the other hand, ranked seventeenth with 31.5 percent. However, the Steel City and its surrounding counties significantly improved their position from last place and 19.7 percent in 1998.Similarly, the share of working aged adults whose education stopped with a high school diploma also increased over the last 20 years. Between 1998 and 2017, the Baltimore region improved from 18 percent high school education to 26.3 percent, jumping from tenth to eighth among its peers. On this measure, Pittsburgh led the pack with 34.9 percent, followed by Philadelphia with 30.3 percent. Virginia’s capital (Richmond), too, edged out our region by just one tenth of a percent, landing in the number seven spot on our list.But what about your county, you ask? For a closer look at educational attainment by jurisdiction, we consulted 2016 American Community Survey data.In our region, Howard County residents of working age are the most likely to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher – in fact, 61 percent do. Anne Arundel County came in second place on this measure with 39.4 percent and Baltimore County followed with 37.2 percent - right around the average for the region. About 35 percent of Queen Anne’s residents are college graduates, while the number is 34.5 percent in Harford, 33.7 percent in Carroll and 29.7 percent in Baltimore City.If you’re looking for workers with a terminal education of a high school diploma or an equivalency, Carroll County tops the region with 30.6 percent of its residents. This is followed closely by Queen Anne’s with 29.8 percent and Baltimore City with 29.6 percent. A little more than one in four Harford residents (27.8 percent) and 27.2 percent of Baltimore County residents hold high school diplomas but no additional credentials. Anne Arundel and Howard were the only two counties to fall below the regional average of 26.3 percent with 24.5 percent and 14 percent, respectively.Perhaps not surprisingly, Howard County is also home to the largest share of working aged people with graduate or professional degrees. Nearly one-third of Howard residents (31 percent) hold a master’s or doctorate. Anne Arundel its neighbors to the west by almost half at 16.3 percent, followed by Baltimore County at 15.8 percent. A significant number of Baltimore City residents (14 percent) are graduate level educated, followed closely by Harford and Queen Anne’s, each with 13.8 percent and Carroll with 12.3 percent.While degree attainment may differ from one jurisdiction to another, these statistics demonstrate that the Baltimore region on the whole has become increasingly educated during the last two decades.So, graduation caps off to our region and to all the students walking across the stage this spring! May your studies continue to enrich the fabric of our community and make Baltimore an even more enticing place to start and grow a business.Source:State of the Region Report – Page 39

Twenty years ago, Remington faced more than a decade of population decline (8.97 percent), 2.52 percent higher than Baltimore City at the time, which the region’s stakeholders assessed negatively affected the neighborhood’s stability. On Saturday, May 12, hundreds of people milled about through a two-block area - between the newly developed and trendy mixed spaces of Remington Row and R. House - to eat, drink and listen to live music on a hot spring day. It wasn’t an event exclusively for Johns Hopkins University students, nor a give-away at Charm City Cakes. RemFest 2018, Remington’s inaugural outdoor festival, was the announcement that this is a neighborhood on the rise.On Saturday, May 12, hundreds of people milled about through a two-block area - between the newly developed and trendy mixed spaces of Remington Row and R. House - to eat, drink and listen to live music on a hot spring day. It wasn’t an event exclusively for Johns Hopkins University students, nor a give-away at Charm City Cakes. RemFest 2018, Remington’s inaugural outdoor festival, was the announcement that this is a neighborhood on the rise. But Remington’s revitalization story is a success because of its various public-private partnerships throughout the last 20 years. Residents, businesses, universities, nonprofits and the state have worked together to provide grant funding and mutually beneficial business deals to bolster these efforts and serve as a model for the Baltimore region. We dug into the Regional Information Center’s archives to read Remington’s 1998 Community Mini-Profile, one of a series that highlighted statistics in specific areas of Baltimore City, to compare it to the neighborhood’s recent renaissance. The report, prepared by the Community Development Resource Center at the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University, examines seven key aspects of the Remington community: population, households and families, housing, health, education, income and public assistance, and crime. The intent of the report was to assess the needs of the Remington community, but also to use it as a marketing tool to assist in the revitalization of blighted parts of the neighborhood. So let’s rewind.The demographic breakdown of Remington in 1998 was 81 percent white and 13 percent black, with 25.37 percent of residents less than 19 years old, and 22.39 percent seniors. The teen pregnancy rate (10.20 percent) was 2 percent higher than Baltimore City’s, and cancer and heart attack/stroke were the main causes of death at 35 and 31.67 percent, respectively.These demographics suggested the need for day care services, education and recreation programming, as well as medical services and alternative living arrangements. It’s encouraging to see some of these assets realized, specifically through the 2017 completion of Remington Row, one of several Central Baltimore projects by Seawall Development, includes both physicians’ offices (for children, women’s health and internal medicine), a drug store and more than 100 affordable apartments. Speaking of housing, the Remington of 1998 included 1,199 units, with 91.49 percent total occupancy and 55.52 percent owner-occupied properties, according to the report.In 1997, the Johns Hopkins University’s Live Near Your Work employer-assisted home-buying program partnered with the state to offer cash grants between $2,500 and $17,000, according to Baltimore City’s 2012 Maryland Sustainable Communities application. The intent was to help employees buy homes in targeted areas around JHU’s Homewood and medical campuses, which many have done since then, therefore increasing owner-occupancy in the neighborhood and providing it with greater stability.Finally, Remington’s 1998 household income was $22,981, with utilization of public assistance services 26 percent below Baltimore City’s at the time. Today, organizations such as the Central Baltimore Partnership, Remington Neighborhood Alliance, Greater Remington Improvement Association, Charles Village Community Benefits District, Historic Fawcett Community Association and Healthy Neighborhoods work together to advocate on behalf of the community, organize and plan, then apply for grants to improve workforce development and transportation access for residents.Twenty years ago, Remington, a neighborhood of row houses and old factories, was on the decline. But the community has come together to create a place where people want to live, work, shop and raise families.Remington is both an example of the type of transformative revitalization that can be replicated across Baltimore as well as a reminder that real community change takes time, planning and partnership. Sources:Community Mini-Profile Series 1998 No. 02 (Spring Edition): Remington, prepared by the Community Development Resource Center, Institute for Urban Research, Morgan State University, Spring 1998