‘It’s a heavy lift’: How Baltimore will transform 244 acres of former public housing projects

It’s a bold Baltimore urban project — some 244 acres in East and Southeast Baltimore are being demolished and rebuilt throughout Oldtown and the former Somerset and Perkins homes public housing projects. “It’s a heavy lift,” said Chris Ryer, the Baltimore City planning director. “We have the city, state and federal government all aligned, but if there were more money involved, it would be easier.” To put it a different way, the 1904 Baltimore Fire consumed 140 acres. This is a landscape 100 acres larger. It’s a challenge transforming neighborhoods from McElderry Street on the north to Bank Street on the south. The planners, developers and builders are working on a blank canvas as blocks of 1940s housing projects fall to bulldozers.