Mayor Young Selects the Baltimore Development Corporation and Neighborhood Design Center to Lead Design for Distancing: Reopening Baltimore Together, a Tactical Public Health and Business Recovery Initiative Throughout Baltimore City Districts

BALTIMORE, MD. — With a $1.5 million investment from Baltimore City’s COVID-19 Small Business Assistance Initiative, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has announced that Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) and Neighborhood Design Center (NDC) will lead Design for Distancing: Reopening Baltimore Together, a tactical urban design initiative intended to help small businesses reopen without compromising public health.

Working in partnership with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) experts and local stakeholders, the BDC and NDC will:

Launch a design RFP that seeks tactical concepts for innovative urban public space configurations for safe, socially distancing and patronizing businesses using JHSPH proposed guidelines.

“BDC’s goal is to support small businesses by assisting them to adapt to these social distancing guidelines by reconfiguring public spaces to maximize outdoor seating and waiting areas as they begin to reopen.”

Baltimore has the opportunity to not only support its own incredible small business community, but also be a leader in creating new urban models for social distancing,” said Jennifer Goold, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Design Center.

With offices in the Station North area of Baltimore and in Hyattsville, Maryland, NDC’s assistance strengthens civic participation in development initiatives, educates the public about the value of good design, planning and preservation as community revitalization tools, and increases investment in the responsive rebuilding of neighborhoods.