Cities Eye Reversing Population Losses

BALTIMORE (AP) April 20, 2004 - Jose Ruiz's sales pitch to prospective home buyers starts with a pat on the back and a firm handshake. Next comes a brisk walk through "Spanish town'' and a bus ride around Baltimore to look at homes for sale.

Ruiz is not a Realtor. As the city's Hispanic liaison, he is trying to persuade Hispanics to move to the city.

"It's like a game show. People look at the prices and say 'Oh my!''' Ruiz said, covering his mouth for added effect. "There are some good deals here, amigo.''

It's part of Baltimore's attempts to reverse losses that have reduced its population by 31 percent since 1950.

Philadelphia, Cleveland and Washington -- all shrinking cities -- have initiatives to lure new residents. Schenectady, N.Y., has a more personal approach: Mayor Al Jurczynski travels to New York City to urge Guyanese immigrants to move to his depressed upstate city to buy and move into vacant houses.

In a time of tight budgets, new residents, even the less affluent, bring in more tax revenue and by moving into vacant houses put the brakes on neighborhood blight. A growing city is more likely to draw new investment than a shrinking one.

With suburbs competing with cities for jobs, "it is important that cities be perceived as vital, special and distinctive,'' said Bruce Katz, head of the Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Many older industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest lost population in the last half of the 20th century. Some people headed to the suburbs and others followed jobs to the South and West.

The immigration surge of the 1990s helped most places. New York City's population grew by 9 percent and Chicago's by 4 percent, due largely to an influx of Hispanics and Asians, demographers said.

But in places that missed the economic boom, or where the upturn was not as pronounced, even the immigrant boom could not overcome the loss of people.

Philadelphia, the third-largest city in 1950, lost 27 percent in the ensuing half-century, and has begun a $295 million effort to renovate neglected neighborhoods, attract 75,000 new residents and build 2,100 new apartments and homes.

"The issue for our oldest cities is that there has been a disinvestment in the last 50 years,'' said Bishop Kermit Newkirk, a Baptist minister in Philadelphia who supports the plan.

Cleveland's population fell 48 percent from 1950 to 2000. Mayor Jane Campbell has a "500,000+ Plan'' that she hopes will give the city 500,000 residents again by 2010.

In Washington, which saw a 29 percent population decline, Mayor Anthony Williams has a goal of adding 100,000 residents, in part by building more affordable housing, improving schools and expanding job training opportunities.

"We don't just want the people to work here, we want their incomes to stay here,'' said Williams' spokesman, Tony Bullock.

In Baltimore, Mayor Martin O'Malley has floated ideas ranging from reducing crime to building a high-speed rail link 40 miles to Washington with the hope of luring more residents.

Baltimore recently placed ads in Spanish-language publications in Washington urging Hispanics to relocate.

In Schenectady, immigrants from the South American country of Guyana have fixed up abandoned homes and filled entry-level jobs at nursing homes. Mayor Jurczynski hopes the Guyanese arrivals start a revival for the old General Electric factory city, whose population has declined by one-third since 1950.

"They view Schenectady not as a tired, worn-out industrial city, they view it as a beautiful city with tremendous potential,'' said Jurczynski, who personally leads periodic bus tours of the city to prospective Guyanese home buyers.