The Mount Vernon neighborhood of this city was for many years a haven for prostitutes and crack dens. But its residents, intent on fending off the drug scourge and high homicide rate that had infected many areas of Baltimore, joined together to turn their neighborhood’s prospects around.
“Between 1990 and 2000, Baltimore went into free fall,” said Charles Duff, a developer whose nonprofit organization, Jubilee Baltimore, has spent more than two decades trying to revive the city’s ailing neighborhoods. “By the end of the 1990s, houses and other buildings in Mount Vernon on a per-square-foot basis were selling and renting at slum prices.”
One of the parks of Mount Vernon Place that flank the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon. After a restoration project, the monument reopened on July 4, 2015.CreditAndrew Mangum for The New York Times
The city’s struggles have been compounded in recent years by poorly maintained public schools, protests following the death of Freddie Grayand problems in the police department, including the recent firing of the police commissioner and the resignation of his successor.
