After Baltimore's Gray Skies Cleared: A Look at West Baltimore Since the Death of Freddie Gray
- Kimberly Angle
- May 13, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: May 19, 2024
Mural of Freddie Gray, at the arrest site, located at the corner of Mount and Presbury Street (Photo: Kimberly Angle)
Little did Baltimore, Maryland's residents know that the date of April 12, 2015 would forever change the trajectory of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and judicial system, along with the economics and well being of many of the neighborhoods within in the city. This was the day Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of the Sandtown neighborhood of West Baltimore was arrested. When approached by police Gray fled on foot and was apprehended just a few blocks away at the intersection of Mount and Presbury Street at the Gilmor Homes, a public housing community created in 1941 for Black defense industry workers, and also where Gray lived.
Gilmor Homes (Photo: Kimberly Angle)
When put in the back of the police van the officers failed to secure him with the seatbelt. This was referred to as a “rough ride” due to the person being thrown around in the back of the van while in transport. The abusive treatment by police was hardly unusual, as documented in a 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Justice which led up to a consent decree with BPD, according to a 2018 periodical “Guild Notes."
The "rough ride" resulted in fatal injuries to his spine unbeknownst to the officers until they stopped at the Baltimore City Correctional Center. He was then transported to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, part of the University of Maryland Medical Center. Seven days later on April 19, 2015, he died in the hospital due to these injuries. There were six Baltimore police officers suspended while being investigated on the use of unnecessary force. Gray’s funeral was held on April 27, 2015. This is when the civil unrest really came to a boil. Up until this date the protests had remained peaceful for the most part, but everything changed after his funeral.
The riots occurred all throughout the city but here we look at where the riots started at Mondawmin Mall and Metro station, moving down Pennsylvania Avenue to the neighborhood of Penn-North where the CVS was burned and through Gray's hometown neighborhood of Sandtown. People’s lives were forever changed, and it took great strength, resilience and communities coming together to rebuild and persevere. These riots caused enormous economic loss and heartache, but the residents came together after the initial shock to rebuild their businesses, communities and lives.
Mondawmin Station, where the riots started. (Photo: Kimberly Angle)
Danielle Mills worked at the Mondawmin Mall. “It’s still surreal to think back to that day. I was wondering if I was going to have a job to come back to the next day. I was praying that the tension didn’t escalate for the sake of the city,” said Mills. She recounts the events and her feelings of what happened that day and the aftermath:
The mall struggled to regain what it was prior to the riots. In February of 2017 Target decided to close its store in Mondawmin Mall. According to the Baltimore Sun, back in 2008 Mondawmin’s Target was the retailer’s first location in the city and part of a larger, $70 million effort to redevelop the mall. It was a huge loss to the mall and residents for the Target to close.
In 2022 it was decided that the Target would be demolished to make way for The Village at Mondawmin. Construction professional and project superintendent Garry Conrad stated “Typically commercial demolition like this cost around eight dollars per square foot, but you have to factor in hazardous materials like asbestos to the cost. It can take 4 to 6 weeks to complete the demolition." Conrad added, ”The focus of the Village will be providing health care and jobs. It will consist of eight large spaces in the back, including care for the elderly and a primary care provider for families. Spread across the front will be eight to ten local businesses.” According to an article in the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment; Baltimore City has greater rates of obesity, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections, and preventable hospital stays. This highlights how important the healthcare aspect at the Village will be to community.
The uprising and heartbreak felt through these neighborhoods shattered the world as everyone watched it on their television sets, while others lived through it. There are as many as 17,000 vacant properties in Baltimore according to an article published in Chronicle of Higher Education. The same article shed a spotlight on the Sandtown area of Mosher Street as block after block of century-old row houses, most of them long without residents crumbling endless eyesores. Many of them burned out by fire, a potential for collapse, damage to occupied homes next door, and to be used by criminals or drug addicts. Sadly, many of the homes were abandoned to begin with so they still stand as a burned out as a reminder every day of the heartbreak and horror that the city felt.
Intersection of Pennsylvania and North Avenue, where the rebuilt CVS sits at 2509 Pennsylvania Avenue, along with the Penn North Station. (Photo: Kimberly Angle)
The CVS has been rebuilt at its original location and re-opened. Antonio Loffredo, construction cost consultant stated, "Regardless of the fact that the CVS was torched, ransacked, and destroyed reconstruction will require the same rules used as if originally building the store.” Loffredo went onto to say, “The whole idea of wanting to keep that store in that location is a business decision. A huge part of the decision is how well the store did financially, along with the importance to the community.” This CVS was integral to the community. It was pharmacy and market in an area that desperately needed both. This part of town has many elderly people and those that travel by foot or public transportation. Loffredo speaks on what it took to rebuild the CVS:
The areas of Penn-North and Sandtown are connected and within walking distance. Sometimes these smaller neighborhoods are lumped together and just referred to as West Baltimore. The CVS being rebuilt was of utmost importance as it is one of the very few commercial stores in the area that offers healthier food options. An article from the University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender, and Class shed light on the sad reality of the accessibility of unhealthy and racialized food and beverage spaces in Baltimore City and Sandtown-Winchester. Racialized food spaces refer to the race and racial sociohistorical context of food spaces, and the types of food accessible to the community residents. In addition to the racialized food and beverage spaces, Sandtown-Winchester community is a designated food desert due to its density of high-caloric food-beverages that have low nutritional value. Carry-out and corner store densities in Sandtown-Winchester are some of the highest in Baltimore City. This CVS was integral to the health of the community for its food choices and being a pharmacy.
Old Sandtown Market, Sandtown (Photo:Kimberly Angle)
Ta’Kiera Henderson was a Sandtown neighborhood resident and an employee of the CVS that was burned to the ground. Henderson recalled, “Watching CVS be rebuilt gave me a great sense of comfort and hope. I would walk up to the store daily to look at the progress.” Upon completion of the rebuild she went back to work. She said “Walking back into work for the first time when the store reopened brought me to tears. Everything that happened from the day of Freddie’s arrest to this moment was a true testament of how life can be changed in the blink of an eye, the challenges of, and triumphs we have during this journey of life. Most of all what a strong faith can contribute to overcoming struggles and bringing us together..”
Burned out rowhome on Druid Hill Avenue, Penn-North neighborhood (Photo: Kimberly Angle)
One particular property that had been burned out was examined by John McAuliffe, a structural engineer and row home investor. McAuliffe is also a Baltimore native who grew up in the neighborhood of Pigtown. McAuliffe recalls “It was unsettling entering the burned-out structure that not but a week before I had been in looking at to possibly purchase. Granted it had been abandoned for many years, but it was once a family’s home and now just charred remains. I have been in and hundreds of buildings that have been on fire, but this one hit different because of the reason the structure caught fire, and the pain still fresh from my hometown being in such heartache. I almost came to tears.” The structure was unsafe to go anywhere other than in the front door so McAuliffe stated, “Due to the unsafe state of the building most of the survey was done with laser scanners which allowed collection data from a safe location McAuliffe stated “The technology these days is astounding. The laser scanners measure one million points per second, resulting in a wealth of information for use by a drawing team.” McAuliffe produced a simple outline of the floor plan and of the standing walls from the viewable scan data, to weigh his options on if the property was still worth investing in. He ultimately decided against investing in the property because it was not an end unit so that damage to the adjacent rowhomes was not fully known, and the cost of redoing it was not worth it. He describes the process and costs of restoration, along with how fire spreads in a rowhome:
In the wake of protests turned riots that left neighborhoods scarred and spirits shaken, neighborhoods across Baltimore rallied together to rebuild what was lost. According to the Washington Post throughout the course of the protests at least twenty police officers injured, at least 250 people arrested, 285 to 350 businesses damaged, 150 vehicle fires, 60 structure fires, drugstores looted, thousands of police and Maryland National Guard troops deployed, and a state of emergency was declared in the city limits by Governor Larry Hogan. The state of emergency was lifted on May 6. According to the Baltimore Development Corporation approximately 93 percent of businesses that were damaged during the unrest have reopened. The Small Business Administration estimated that damage to businesses and homes amounted to roughly $9 million, The series of protests took place against a historical backdrop of racial and poverty issues in Baltimore leaving shattered looted storefronts to charred remnants of once-thriving businesses, the aftermath of the unrest left a gray sky hanging over the city and bleak hope. Not only were there physical structures needing to be rebuilt but also the hope and character of those in the communities faced with adversity. However, among the despair that was felt and debris scattered, a glimmer of hope emerged through the gray sky as residents, volunteers, and local authorities united to show what Baltimore was truly made of and showed the charm of Charm City. Baltimore faced adversity, they refused to be defeated. The gray skies cleared to brighter days.
As the sun sets on another day of hard work and dedication, the future looks brighter for these communities. Though the scars of the riots may linger, they serve as a reminder of the strength and resilience that lie not only in those of Baltimore but within us all. One thing remained certain: Hope prevails, even in the darkest of times. Every silver lining has a touch of Gray.
A mural in honor of Gray at the corner of North and Mount Ave, where Gray was first approached by police. (Photo: Kimberly Angle)
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