My Baltimore's Next: Mike Subelsky

I want Baltimore to become obsessed with creating and growing businesses the way other towns are passionate about their sports teams. It's obvious that many of the city's problems could be solved if every person who lived here had access to meaningful employment, so I want our city to be known as a place where 21st century ideas get turned into wealth-creating enterprises, where all kinds of people can find decent jobs.

Right now the city seems focused on short-term damage control, mitigating the symptoms of economic malaise (such as crime and homelessness) in order keep things pleasant for tourists and for affluent people living in a handful of neighborhoods. Of course we can't ignore these symptoms but the future of Baltimore depends on leaders who take a longer-term view.

To produce this 21st century city economy, here are some ideas for our leaders to focus on:

Manufacturing
Although this may change shortly, the US is still the world's largest manufacturer. It's true that we've lost a lot of market share at the low end of the market, but there's still plenty of things being made in this country, and more of them could be made in Baltimore. I'm not from this industry so I can't say for sure what they need but a good start would be to sit down with people like the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland.

New Education Paradigm
We need to move toward an education system focused around developing human potential and away from producing measurable but meaningless quantities. If we get a bunch of new manufacturing jobs in the city, they will probably be higher-end manufacturing jobs that require substantial cognitive skills. We need a way to prepare all Baltimoreans for those jobs, and obsessing about test scores is absolutely the wrong way to do that.

Urban Agriculture
There are a lot of foodies in Baltimore, a lot of people interested in growing food more sustainably, and a lot of vacant land. We should be doing everything we can to get to the forefront of the urban agriculture movement, because each one of these farms brings the kinds of jobs that can help unskilled people support their families and better their lot.
 
Space
Finding a building is one of the largest impediments to starting new enterprises in Baltimore. It's also the most straightforward to fix. There's a lot of idle property in the city, some of which is controlled by the city, which could be put into much more productive use. Why not institute something like the one dollar house program but for businesses? Why not make loans and grants or matching funds available for businesses willing to take over a vacant property and fix it up? Let's create incentives for the owners of vacant land to lease their property to someone like Big City Farms until a more permanent tenant comes along. The Downtown Partnership's Operation Storefront is a great example of this kind of thinking.

Microfinance
There are a lot of people in this town who want to start a traditional business (e.g. not the kind that needs angel investment). They just need a small loan to get things started. But we don't have the kinds of banks and loan officers who are integrated into the community, who can use personal knowledge to assess risk. Banking has become an integrated, sexy industry out of touch with communities like ours. As a result, many potential entrepreneurs can never get started because a big bank sees them on paper as a credit risk. I'd like to see a microfinance institution setup in Baltimore, similar to what is being done in the developing world, backed by investors who expect a good return on their investment but who also want to help make the city a more prosperous place for all.

Diversity of Industries
Given my background you might think I'm only interested in high tech or "creative class" industries, but that's not the case. Those kinds of businesses are important right now to help attract and retain a middle-class tax base, but since they tend to employ a relatively small number of people, they aren't going to make a great difference to the unemployment problem. Let us tech people figure it out: just don't pass obviously onerous things like the "tech tax".

I realize these are all easier said than done. This might not be the exact right agenda for Baltimore, but it's the sort of agenda I wish we spent more energy developing.


Mike Subelsky is an entrepreneur and web programmer based in Baltimore, Maryland. He co-founded OtherInbox.com, Ignite Baltimore, the Baltimore Hackathon, and the Baltimore Improv Group, and is an advisor to local tech companies like Common Curriculum. He also served as a U.S. Navy cryptologic officer for seven years.


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Photos by Arianne Teeple