> the taxes have to come from somewhere

Mostly from vacant and underutilized property (and there is a lot of it) now having greater outstanding tax burden. Most of the vacants in Bmore are actually paying their taxes, or they would go to tax sale. There are a lot of properties that have been tax delinquent for so long its not worth buying the tax lien anymore, but they are pretty rare. Basically any property that can be got for under its appraisal value gets its tax leans bought at the annual tax sales.

This happens because these properties represent perverse equity. The city habitually appraises everything below its market rate valuation, largely because the property tax rate is so high, and this means that property you obtain can be mortgaged in the private market for more than the city thinks its worth. Especially if you roll that mortgage, or just use the depreciation from the city against your purchase as a business loss, which a lot of the fake pseudo LLCs in Bmore do all the time with derelect vacants getting lower and lower city appraisals.

I only suggest LVT because 1. these properties would still pay their taxes, but there would be pressure on the owners to offload them to be developed for use rather than just hoarded for their depreciated improvement value. 2. there are a lot of them. 3. current home owners are protected by the homestead tax exemption. 4. the city is awful at actually enforcing fines, penalties, etc and state equity of taxation laws might prevent entirely the levying of fines against certain things (like say, vacant notices). They also put the pressure where you want it - vacants in downtown or well off areas should cost a fortune to keep derelict.

I think we want different things is part of the problem. Baltmore is poised to be a place for milennials seeking urbanism - there are entire blocks of downtown vacant that can be redeveloped, state center has to be replaced, the city should look to rip out 83 past Penn Station in the next decade, MLK needs to stop being a scar cutting off half the city, the road to nowhere needs to go away, etc. The red line should be built, hopefully the green extension and yellow lines too. All these things and more can make Baltimore desirable to live in for a generation that can't afford New York, LA, DC, etc prices but can still have a walkable, bikable, transit oriented city. The complete streets ordinance maybe gives me too much hope.

Does that mean 120 year old 2 story brick townhouses might get leveled for 5+ story apartment buildings? Probably. Does it displace people? Urban renewal has to, and if the city saw that kind of growth it would have the kind of incoming revenues to catch people before they get lost in the wave. The alternative is continued population decline, more vacancy, worse roads, more violence and poverty and desperation. The city got gutted by white flight and the state for a century and Wes Moore ain't great but hes the best shot Bmore has had in a while at turning things around.

But incentives matter. There are reasons Baltimore is unique in the Northeast Corridor for its degree of abandoned property. There are structural things the city can do like an LVT to both grow revenue and promote growth that have proven results around the world. I'm not suggesting an LVT like nobody has done it before. Places like Australia have had it for decades with proven results.