ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Baltimore's decision to focus its post-World War II downtown economic development, in considerable part, on tourism, leisure, and, more recently, major league sports. It addresses the some questions: why Baltimore chose this particular downtown economic development trajectory, whether this strategy has been successful as measured by its impact on physical redevelopment, employment, and tax revenues, and whether the overall city has benefited from this downtown development strategy. The initiation of Baltimore's downtown redevelopment can be dated to 1954, when the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), a representative organization of the 100 largest businesses in the metropolitan area, was formed. The chapter explains the city's downtown tourism-based economic development strategy to ascertain, as far as possible, its impacts on physical development, tourism especially tourist utilization and spending, jobs, and tax base in the downtown and its overall benefits to the city.
