South Baltimore: Environmental Injustice

“ Environmental justice is served when people can realize their
highest potential, without experiencing the “isms.” Environmental justice is supported by decent paying and safe jobs; quality schools and recreation; decent
housing and adequate health care; democratic decision-making and personal empowerment; and communities free of violence, drugs, and poverty. These are
communities where both cultural and biological diversity are respected and highly
revered and where distributive justice prevails.”

— Bunyan Bryant

South Baltimore Communities such as Curtis Bay, Brooklyn, and Cherry Hill are notorious for having some of the worst environmental health issues in the country; manifesting through having some of the highest rates of asthma, cancer, and poverty rates in the country. These environmental health issues all stem from various forms of industry that exist in the community; from oil refineries, trash incinerators, a landfill, and other polluters- South Baltimore has been denied the right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment to grow in.

Residents of South Baltimore are more than twice as likely to die from asthma at a rate of 25.6% compared to the state average of 11.7%. This issue is even more visible on racial lines, with Black people more than twice as likely to die from asthma at 20.2% compared to 8.9% for white people (Maryland Asthma Control Program, 2012). South Baltimore is actively being denied environmental justice be it severe government underfunding, the continued legislative support of polluters in the area, or high rates of unemployment and poverty.

Aerial view of Curtis Bay

It is clear that there is little separation between industry and residential neighborhoods in Curtis Bay. In this photo we can see train yards and a coal storage facility in the foreground, with oil refineries and a trash incinerator in the background. This has led to a number of environmental health issues in the community.

Curtis Avenue

Curtis Avenue is the street that separates industry from residence in Curtis Bay; On one side neighborhoods, the other side train-yards, coal, and other polluting industry.

Neighborhood blocks in Curtis Bay, Maryland

Ceddox St, Curtis Bay

Sunset over St. Athanasius Church in Curtis Bay, Maryland

Remnants of a booming industrial economy in 1950s-1960s Baltimore

The history of decline in South Baltimore starts in the 1950s, when the population of Baltimore was at its peak. In a planning report by the Baltimore Regional Planning Council, it was projected that the population of Baltimore would steadily increase from 950,000 to 1.2 million in three decades. However, during this same period, Baltimore witnessed a significant transformation as over 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost and the federally subsidized suburbanization of nearby areas led to even more emigration (Boone, Fragkias, Buckley, & Grove, 2014). Today, the population of Baltimore City continues to decline, currently at 602,496 (United States Census Bureau).

Train yards and coal storage facilities just a mile from residential neighborhoods in Curtis Bay, Maryland

Oil refineries of Curtis Bay with the Baltimore skyline in the background

Signs of a once thriving industrial center

An abandoned parking lot by Curtis Ave, Curtis Bay

Houses in Curtis Bay, Maryland

There is overwhelming evidence in the field of Environmental Justice that communities that have higher percentages of minorities have more pollutants, yet South Baltimore seems to be an exception to this rule, with majority-white communities being the most likely to have higher levels of pollutants. The reason for this, however, is rooted in discrimination towards people of color; more specifically, the answer lies in redlining. In the first few decades of the twentieth century, living close to one’s job was a privilege most afforded to white residents of Baltimore. Baltimore was the first city in America to pass a local ordinance limiting where blacks could live (Boone, 2014), though this was later abolished through a supreme court ruling in 1917. However, the practice of housing discrimination continued with homeowners’ associations in the city of Baltimore working together to keep minorities out through restrictive selling covenants, discriminatory mortgage practices, and redlining. Thus, once the industry left and these communities became subject to poverty, they were left living in toxic neighborhoods while Black communities were living elsewhere in the city due to the unjust discriminatory practices against them.

A bench at Curtis Bay Park, one of the few green spaces in the community, with the famous Baltimore slogan "The greatest city in America"

Masonville Cove, the only public water access site in Curtis Bay.

Masonville Cove, originally a suburban community, was abandoned due to job loss in the early 60s and replaced by industry. Following further economic decline, Masonville Cove is made a placement site for dredge material. In 2007, cleanup and restoration of the site began and in 2013 it was designated as the first Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership in America.

Filbert St. Gardens

Ran by the Baltimore Compost Collective, the Filbert St. Gardens is a community project that was birthed out of an abandoned parking lot. Today it serves as a community sanctuary, where organic food is grown, local youth are employed, and educational workshops are offered to local residents.

containing a variety of crops, livestock, beehives, and a small composting facility, the Filbert St. Gardens serve as a holistic community healing center where families can get organic produce in a food desert, gain access to an urban green space, and enjoy educational workshops in sustainability and the importance of composting.

In a joint partnership with The Well, a local nonprofit that aids local women and survivors of domestic abuse, the Filbert St. Gardens provide bee hives with which women from The Well use to make various skincare and hygienic products as part of Hon’s Honey, a program by The Well. These products provide a source of income and independence.

Community organizing

The trauma associated with the environmental health inequities in South Baltimore is not without healing. In a community that has been underserved by local, state, and federal governments through lack of funding, state-sanctioned pollution, and discriminatory housing, residents have come together to support one another through grass roots organizing to empower the most vulnerable members of the community and lobby for more political representation, taking matters into their own hands.

Golden Hour overlooking the Baltimore Skyline from the train yards of Curtis Bay

The residents of South Baltimore have been underserved, they have been discriminated against, and they have been denied the right to environmental justice through a complex multitude of discriminatory housing practices, zoning laws, lack of environmental regulation, and severe underfunding. One quickly starts to see that when examining the disenfranchisement of a community, they cannot isolate any one factor. Pollution ties into poverty which ties into race and many other factors, making this an issue that is incredibly difficult to identify and process and even more difficult to solve. In short, people who live in South Baltimore are more likely to suffer from chronic health issues, die younger, and have a lack of access to nature because of private and public discriminatory practices. We see these trends in cities across the country, from Detroit, Michigan to The Bronx, New York: people of color and the poor are more likely to suffer serious environmental health issues due to an increased incidence of polluters and a lack of government attention to the issue. This issue transcends borders and is seen across the globe, from Israeli settlements dumping waste on and setting fire to Palestinian farms, multinational corporations using poor countries as the dumping grounds for unwanted waste, and colonial powers such as France sending waste to former colonies for incineration. The question of environmental justice remains increasingly relevant across the globe.

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