Congratulations to Maryland’s new Governor. Wes Moore is replacing Larry Hogan. During the years 2019 to 2021, I taught at Johns Hopkins University and lived in the City of Baltimore from 2019-mid 2020. I want to share several thoughts related to my co-authored; Unlocking the Potential of Post Industrial Cities book. You can download and see plenty of free book content here.
When I was the Director of the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins, we tried to meet with Governor Larry Hogan’s staff. We had lunch with them and talked about our mutual interests. Recall that Larry Hogan is a Republican. I sensed that his staff was suspicious that they could work well with me because I was a representative of Hopkins. This disappointed me on several levels. My readers know that I aspire to be a scientist and that my intellectual leanings point to the Milton Friedman, Gary Becker tradition of fundamental support for the power of free markets to reduce poverty and to improve quality of life.
Given this preamble, here is my advice for Governor Wes Moore.
#1 Read our book! The videos we have posted here are informative about how to substantively improve the City of Baltimore’s quality of life.
#2 Nudge the Mayor of Baltimore to experiment with different pilot studies for policing the city, providing education, greening the city and allowing real estate interests to invest. I have been envious of the University of Chicago’s relationship with the City of Chicago. Great researchers at Uchicago Urban Lab work with the City of Chicago’s agencies to design, pilot and evaluate research studies that seek to create new knowledge about “what works”. I found the City of Baltimore’s leadership to be resistant to such experimentation. In truth, I would now be on the Hopkins faculty had I had this opportunity.
When we know that we do not know what is the right policy path, experimentation plays a key role. I found the workers at many Baltimore agencies to be too worried about bad publicity. The career concerns of such government insiders precluded experimentation. That’s ugly stuff. The Governor has the power and carrots to nudge such experimentation forward. Larry Hogan’s political base were suburban voters so his team preferred to under-invest in city of Baltimore innovation.
#3 The Governor should set statistical benchmarks for the City of Baltimore to meet. The Mayor of Baltimore shouldn’t receive a free $ check from Wes Moore. Wes Moore was a successful businessman. He knows how to incentivize effort.
The new Governor of Maryland will be running for President some time soon (2028?). The city of Baltimore’s dynamics should be used as one benchmark for whether he will be a great candidate. The City of Baltimore needs more capitalism to help it rebound. The rise of WFH/hybrid work offers a new opportunity for this city to rally. Read my recent blog post.
UPDATE:
During my time in Baltimore, I subscribed to the Baltimore Sun and would read every column by Dan Rodricks. To his credit, he take a human interest approach as he profiles different people in Baltimore who are doing the best they can to cope with the challenges they face. I was never able to meet with him to discuss my ideas about new “rules of the game” to break out of the under-investment challenge that Baltimore faces. During my brief time in Baltimore, I was amazed by the lack of interest even among people who love the City to think through new strategies to help the city to rally. This fear of experimentation raises key issues that urban economists are not currently analyzing. The political economy of liberal “conservatism” merits new work. One theory is that smart insiders such as Rodricks anticipate that a focus on City Government mismanagement will threaten public sector $ inflows and this will injure Baltimore’s middle class. This perpetuation of X-Inefficiency in government bureaucracy is an important idea that I am working on.
Outstanding!