Planning with justice in mind in a shrinking Baltimore

In our 2011 paper, “The Bounds of Smart Decline: A Foundational Theory for Planning Shrinking Cities,” we outline 5 propositions for just planning processes in cities losing population: inclusion, deliberation, recognition, transparency, and scale appropriateness. Each proposition addresses a perceived weakness of planning processes in shrinking cities, and with each we list a set of actions that planners can take in “moving the dial” toward more just outcomes. In this article, we test this theory on what we call Baltimore’s Abandoned Housing Strategy, a series of citywide policy interventions intended to facilitate the productive reuse of vacant and abandoned properties. Through a series of interviews, participant observation, and archival research, we find that although the city’s strategy has laudable goals, city officials manage it in a way that limits the potential for long-lasting community empowerment. We propose that this and similar efforts employ these 5 propositions in evaluating their own smart decline initiatives to help ensure that future processes include voices and concerns that need to be heard most.