Partnerships in shrinking cities : making Baltimore ‘liveable’?

The governance imperative to increase the City of Baltimore’s population and thus alleviate its ‘fiscal squeeze’ has brought the liveability of this shrinking city to the fore. City government has long engaged in seeking partnership with private (corporate and non-profit) actors to develop and deliver a policy agenda to stabilise and grow the city. Drawing from empirical research into collaborative governance in Baltimore, this chapter focuses on neighbourhood policy to examine the range of (explicit and implicit) liveability policies and initiatives. By considering the challenge of making Baltimore ‘liveable’ in terms of for whom and where/which neighbourhoods, the research reveals the challenges posed by the city’s deep inequities and exclusionary governance to the realisation of ‘liveability’ for all. It thus challenges how the liveability concept elides the trade-offs regarding who (and where) is included and excluded from the policies which result.