Media Experiment: Gentrification of Hampton, Baltimore

The infographic above is a media experiment that illustrates my claim about about the displacement of the working class in my last two blogs entitled Is Increasing the Minimum Wage Worth It and Let’s Take an Oath to End Homelessness. Using the data collected from the US Census Bureau I have visually displayed the type of resident that currently live in the neighborhood of Hampton, Baltimore. I specifically chose Hampton, Baltimore because it has been cited multiple times in news reports, such as the Baltimore Sun, as a neighborhood that has been gentrified as a result of Johns Hopkins University expansion and the dramatic increase in residence between the years of 1990s and 2000s.

John Hopkins University expansion began in 2000 when Baltimore City Mayor Martin O’Malley asked the University and the Annie E. Casey foundation to be core investors in the revitalization project in East Baltimore. At the time, area had a “70 percent vacancy rate, high infant mortality, high crime, and a property rate nearly twice the average of the rest of the city” (2013). These rates have dramatically drop due to the $300 million construction projects completed in 2013. After the displacement of 584families, Johns Hopkins University has built residential towers for their students worth 60 million dollars. This revitalization project has attracted an educated and wealthier community at the sacrifice of the black community that once lived there.