The University’s recent construction project, the forthcoming Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute (DSAI), promises to bring together experts and students “develop data science and AI” and “accelerate breakthroughs.” However, the project has faced significant pushback from community members and students who worry it will heighten the University’s community influence, raise housing costs and harm the environment. While the construction of DSAI has potential benefits for the University and the city at large, Hopkins should not disregard the needs of the surrounding Baltimore community to realize these.
The construction is widely criticized by the Baltimore community, which is calling for transparency. For more than a year, residents have voiced concerns that construction will create problems for them both during and after construction, citing parking shortages, noise and loss of wildlife along Stony Run Creek, a Chesapeake Bay tributary. In a recent The News-Letter article, several Hopkins students agreed with such concerns and called on the University to listen to feedback from Baltimore residents.
Baltimore has launched an erosion control project using $10 million for the restoration of Stony Run, and residents are apprehensive that further development may jeopardize these ongoing initiatives. According to residents, the University has requested a waiver which absolves them from any responsibility to provide adequate stormwater management during and after construction. The ongoing flooding issues reported in the neighborhood further amplify concerns, highlighting the potential risks associated with stormwater runoff.
Hopkins already struggles with runoff management, as seen during the construction of the SNF Agora Institute, where repeated flooding and sediment overflow followed major storms. Community members worry that the DSAI, which will sit even closer to Stony Run Creek, will worsen these conditions and undermine years of environmental repair.
While Hopkins has promised improved infrastructure, such as a 500,000-gallon rainwater cistern, new high-capacity stormwater lines and soil-stabilizing landscaping, many residents remain skeptical given the University’s past failures to uphold similar commitments during the Agora construction. The DSAI project underscores broader issues of environmental accountability and equity in Baltimore, raising questions about how institutions like Hopkins can be held responsible for mitigating harm to both the environment and the communities that border their expanding developments.
Hopkins is one of the largest tax-exempt property owners in Baltimore. Consequently, what the University chooses to build, and where, has immense power to shape local resident life. Yet, it is unclear how much consideration Hopkins places on the feedback of the residents regarding DSAI. Although research into the constantly growing frontier of AI is important and solidifies the University’s position as a top research institution, it should not be at the cost of the welfare and security of local residents. Building DSAI without extensive community feedback or engagement undermines the University’s mission of “[aligning] with the communities that [its] technologies are intended to serve.”
These large-scale construction projects may create jobs and benefit local businesses; however, the immense financial role that Hopkins holds implies an obligation to meaningfully serve its neighbors and greater community. Currently, it is difficult to measure the positive impacts of these projects on the community while the negative ramifications have been abundantly clear.
The University should not make decisions solely based on its own interests, especially when its activities directly interfere with the lives of Baltimore residents.
Ultimately, this is an issue that has existed for as long as the phrase “the Hopkins bubble,” which refers to the University’s perceived distance from its surrounding community. The construction of DSAI only widens the gap between the University and the surrounding communities of Baltimore.
This is not to say that the University is not a helpful actor in the city. While we commend the University for recently increasing its investments in the city and AI research, Hopkins will be much less successful in building a positive legacy surrounding DSAI if the surrounding residents are disregarded and its negative effects are left unacknowledged.
Even if Hopkins has new — albeit unclear — plans to improve upon the shortcomings observed in how it has conducted past construction projects, its current efforts are not enough to recover the trust between the Baltimore community and the University. DSAI presents an opportunity to rebuild this relationship. Hopkins should not only consider what the surrounding communities are feeling about its massive-scale construction projects, but also actually deliver on its promises.
