(BALTIMORE – May 17, 2026) – For years, residents of Edmondson Village have been told redevelopment was coming. We were told it would improve our quality of life, strengthen the corridor, and breathe new energy into West Baltimore. But increasingly, many longtime residents are asking a simple question:
Redevelopment for whom?
Let me be clear: no one is against redevelopment of the Edmondson Village Shopping Center. We understand the need for investment. We understand that communities evolve. What many of us oppose is a process that feels disconnected from the people who actually live here.
On May 14, 2026, during a quarterly Zoom meeting, many residents expressed deep concerns about what is being proposed and what appears to be ignored.
First, we were told for years that the 1947 covenant attached to the shopping center “could not be changed.” Suddenly, miraculously, it was changed. Residents signed away rights many barely understood. Some contributed financially toward legal and community efforts. Others simply trusted the process and the elected officials who encouraged it.
Now we are left asking whether that trust was misplaced.
Again, this is not about opposing progress. This is about asking whether the people making these decisions truly understand the daily realities of the community.
Three building pads with drive-thrus are being proposed on the front lot. Anyone who drives through Edmondson Avenue during rush hour already knows the corridor is overwhelmed in the morning and evening. Add additional drive-thru traffic, potential Red Line congestion, delivery vehicles, and commercial flow, and the situation becomes dangerous.
Meals on Wheels traffic is proposed to exit through a small alley near Popeyes. Residents are asking a fair question: has anyone seriously studied the impact this will have on safety and traffic circulation?
Meanwhile, the Edmondson Village Library could lose parking within the next five years. Families with children already struggle navigating traffic along Edmondson Avenue. Are we really creating a redevelopment plan that makes it harder for seniors, parents, and children to access one of the community’s most important public resources?
And then there is the church — an institution anchored in this community for years — now facing the possible loss of parking as well. Residents fear that one green space after another could eventually become parking lots just to accommodate poor planning decisions made without sufficient community input.
This is the deeper issue.
Too often, “gentrification” and “revitalization” in Black communities proceed with little regard for the people who built these neighborhoods in the first place. Communities are handed glossy presentations and promises while outside developers and consultants move forward with plans that may enrich investors more than residents.
Many of the people driving these conversations do not live here. They do not sit in Edmondson Avenue traffic every day. They do not walk children across dangerous intersections. They do not bear the long-term consequences of these decisions.
But we do.
And residents are tired.
Tired of political performances during election season. Tired of officials who suddenly become visible when votes are needed, only to disappear afterward. Tired of decisions being presented as “community progress” while longtime residents feel increasingly pushed aside in their own neighborhoods.
Revitalization should not feel like removal.
Development should improve quality of life for existing residents — not create conditions that make them feel expendable.
The people of Edmondson Village deserve more than ribbon cuttings and talking points. We deserve honest engagement, transparent planning, traffic solutions that make sense, and leaders willing to prioritize the people who already call this community home.
Otherwise, this is not redevelopment.
It is displacement disguised as progress.
