Inner Harbor Coalition

Dedicated to Revitalizing the Inner Harbor and Harborplace for the People of Baltimore

Election Day Statement

The members of the Inner Harbor Coalition and its supporters are optimistic that Question F will be defeated. For the last 12 months, and for those who have supported our Inner Harbor Park, it has been a David and Goliath battle, an army of passionate City residents who care deeply about the future of our City, weighed against the forces of a well-heeled and connected developer, the City government and establishment types who stand to gain financially from MCB’s planned development. Our objections can be summarized as follows: giving away our precious Inner Harbor parkland to a private developer; building 350 foot high (or taller) luxury apartment towers in the Inner Harbor Park; and using $400 million in taxpayer funding and handouts to implement this horrendous plan. The MCB plan will involve tearing down the previously wildly successful Harborplace that attracted 20 million visitors a year. Our group calls for a public process, rather than a secretive back room deal and process, to arrive at a creative reinvention of Harborplace to serve all residents of our City and beyond. Even if we were lose this specific battle on Question F, we will have sent an important message by virtue of the thousands of votes cast against Question F. We will not be discouraged or dismayed or beaten. We will continue to wage war on this terrible plan and fight for a better future for our City.

Harborplace Visions

Anirban Basu on why the MCB plan is not good for Baltimore.

Architect, urban planner and lawyer Chip Place on alternative concepts for Harborplace.


The Inner Harbor Coalition is taking the show on the road.  

If your neighborhood or community organization would like to have the Inner Harbor Coalition present the facts about the Harborplace plan, please send us an email to schedule a presentation.  

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To download the one pager click here!


Below is our Inner Harbor Coalition Info Sheet.  

Print, share and post this with your neighbors, coffee shop, community center, collegues, or hand out anywhere you think of.

Help stop the privatization of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor!

Over 50 years ago, Baltimore citizens recognized the Inner Harbor’s uniqueness, gifting it as a “public park for uses and benefit for this and future generations.” They made a promise to keep the space open for all “in perpetuity.”

Now, MCB’s scheme breaks that promise. MCB’s plan will:

  • Destroy openness of the Inner Harbor we love: the gentle step-back from water to promenade to two-story pavilions to taller buildings framing the harbor.
  • Permanently disrupt downtown with the removal of the Light-to-Calvert Street spur, cutting Light Street’s lanes in half (from 8 to 4) and Pratt’s from 4 to 2.
  • Turn the Inner Harbor Park into a construction site for years.
  • Require $400-$500 million of taxpayer money (says the city’s finance dept).

Mayor Brandon Scott is jettisoning the 1970s guardrails put in place to keep our park land out of the hands of politicians & developers.

The Inner Harbor will go from being the city’s most protected planning area to one with no zoning limits.

Even worse, MCB is not even bound to this plan! They may (in their own words) choose to build higher and with more apartments if the financials make sense to them.

We deserve a publicly-led plan, not a developer-led one.

We can stop this!


Want to help? Support the Inner Harbor Coalition!

“The problem is we’re trading public park space for "the developer's" revenue certainty…on a public park in which economic activity will be relocated from other parts of the city. No. That’s not a win-win proposition. That’s a zero-sum. And we should stop playing zero-sum games in Baltimore.”

Anirban Basu, Economist, Sage Policy Group

John Waters weighs in about Harborplace; Mayor Brandon Scott signs bills enabling the area’s redevelopment

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Proposed commercial buildings in Inner Harbor Park

Economist Anirban Basu

Sage Policy Group CEO, Anirban Basu

Maryland Matters Commentary: Economist offers advice to Gov. Wes Moore on Inner Harbor development

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Harborplace in the News

Statement of M.J. (Jay) Brodie to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore

M.J. (Jay) Brodie is the former president of the Baltimore Development Corporation and former commisioner of the Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development. (Photo: Baltimore Sun)



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Critics denounce Harborplace bills as a "blank check" giveaway to the developer

Above: Baltimore architect David Benn shows the implications of completely removing Harborplace area height restrictions under bills the council committee went on to advance. (Fern Shen)


Thiru Vignarajah’s Press Conference on the Future of Harborplace with Anirban Basu and Rebeccca Hoffberger

Thiru Vignarajah, candidate for Baltimore City mayor, speaks out against MCB’s plans for Harborplace and the Inner Harbor at a press conference on Feb. 5.
Sage Policy Group Economist Anirban Basu explains his opposition to MCB’s plans for Harborplace at a press conference for Thiru Vignarajah.
The American Visionary Art Museum’s Rebecca Hoffberger backs Thiru Vignarajah’s alternative vision for Harborplace at a press conference on February 5, 2024.

Shadow Studies


These video shadow studies were created by Baltimore architect Jerome Gray. Each one reflects the shadows cast by the proposed residential towers on the seasonal solstice or equinox.

Follow the discussion about Harborplace and Baltimore's Inner Harbor Park on Harborplace Forum.

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