Sign this petition to call on the City of Baltimore to save the Eaddy & Sarah Ann Street Homes and hold La Cite developers accountable to the Land Disposition and Development Agreement (LDDA) and community needs. In Poppleton, the City of Baltimore is exploiting eminent domain laws and failing to protect Black families. We demand that the City of Baltimore stop enabling La Cité Development’s displacement of longtime residents in the name of a wasteful redevelopment project. 

The Eaddy family, who have roots going back three generations in Poppleton, are fighting to save their home as they wait on an appeal for a condemnation case with Baltimore City. We are in danger of losing protected historic properties, such as the Sarah Ann Street alley houses. These houses have been occupied by Black people since their construction around the 1860s. Alley houses are an endangered building type, and should be preserved as part of West Baltimore’s Black history. These spaces are not artifacts. These are people’s homes. Long-time resident Carolyn Shoemaker, who worked with her neighbors in 2000 to build a playground in the park for local children, lives here. Parcha McFadden, who has lived in Poppleton since she was five, and hoped to pass on her home to her children, is being displaced from her home on the 1100 block of Saratoga Street. The historic Boss Kelly rowhouses have demolition notices posted on their buildings dated April 21, 2021. We need to preserve and invest in Black families, culture, and generational wealth.

The City of Baltimore is taking the Eaddy home for a fraught development plan begun in 2004 when the City decided to acquire the 169 privately-owned parcels by eminent domain. 134 of those properties were occupied, including the Eaddy home at 319 N. Carrollton Street. Back in 2004, the City gave the right to develop the Poppleton parcel to La Cité Development. Dan Bythewood, Jr. is founding partner and president of La Cité, which includes a group of wealthy and well-connected African American business people from New York looking to profit from urban revitalization here in Baltimore. Why is an outdated urban renewal plan still being used to displace residents using eminent domain? The long history of urban renewal and the use of public funds is fraught and complex, but saving the Eaddy & Sarah Ann Street homes is not. 

Poppleton’s revitalization must include the voices of and resources for all remaining residents who have persevered through neighborhood segregation, destructive highway construction, and systemic disinvestment. This is the only way for inclusive development to build a more equitable city and to show that Black neighborhoods matter in Poppleton, in the Southwest, and in Baltimore.

Follow along on our fight at @organizepoppleton on all social media. Note: Donations will not go towards our cause but to change.org as they help promote the petition.