Three asset sales considered in Baltimore

In Baltimore this summer, three asset sale debates surfaced all at once. The Mayor has a longstanding plan to sell at least three city-run parking garages to finance recreation centers. Council President Young has countered it with a proposal to sell the Hilton, the city-funded hotel meant to support the Baltimore Convention Center. Then there is debate about a more hidden asset, a 740-mile long underground conduit system for electric and communication cables. Lastly, the biggest and maybe stealthiest deal involves selling the city’s public housing to private buyers.

Government versus free market?



The subject of debate is neither new nor original. Cities around the world, acting more and more like asset managers and less as advocates of public interest, experiment with selling what previous generations assembled in order to ensure that the public is served, recognizing that private profit-centered interest may not do so. The assets vary, but the debate is the same whether it is public works like water, infrastructure like roads, bridges, or rail, or even housing.

Flush with the quick cash, some cities declared themselves debt free this way. Those who always want to see less government and more free enterprise cheer, advocates for the poor or economists who warn about bad deals or long-term results are cast as socialists, who, as everyone knows, want government to run everything and whose endeavor clearly failed in a long....

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