Eric Costello is out of office now – looking back mostly fondly on a decade as the city council member representing Bolton Hill. He’s looking to start a new phase of professional development that doesn’t involve city government.
“My time on the council was extraordinary, lots of fun, and I’m surely going to miss it. But it was time for me to go,” the former 11th district council member said over lunch. He lost the Democratic Primary in May to Zac Blanchard, who was sworn into office this month. “In those 10 years I probably knocked on 100,000 doors, made and received thousands of phone calls, visited countless neighborhood meetings. Now I’m hoping to go back to a 40- or 50-hour work week.”
Costello was a frequent presence at BHCA monthly meetings from his earliest days on the council in 2014. He was sponsored for the council seat by then-Council President Jack Young to succeed Bill Cole IV, who resigned. Costello was easily re-elected in 2016 and 2020, but fell short this year to Blanchard, a neighborhood activist who lives a block from Costello in Federal Hill. After redistricting, the 11th district stretches from the harbor north through downtown, Mt. Vernon and Belvedere, stops at McMechen Street in Bolton Hill and goes west toward Upton.
There was no one “big win” that he celebrates but he is proud of his emphasis on constituent service, from getting the trash picked up properly to advocating for safer streets, cleaner parks and new development, including the controversial Inner Harbor rebuild. “It wasn’t the only possible solution, the one we came up with, but I’m satisfied that it will make a big, positive difference.” Empty buildings and dropping property values downtown make recovery a big challenge, he said. “You can’t have a healthy city without a healthy downtown.”
In Bolton Hill Costello played an early role in the redevelopment of long-empty Strawbridge Church, which is just now re-opening as elegant new apartments on Park Ave. He has mediated between homeowners and CHAP to preserve the neighborhood’s architectural integrity. He has been an advocate for residents demanding traffic-calming by the city’s transportation department, finally leading this month to some baby-step improvements on West Lafayette Ave., at the I-83-Mt. Royal Ave exit and around Sumpter Park.
He helped line up funding for the restoration of the Linden Ave gazebo, pushed Recreation and Parks to pay better attention to park maintenance and fountains and nudged city departments to deal more efficiently with potholes, bumpy streets and risky old sidewalks. When a Boston developer bought aging and crumbling Pedestal Gardens apartments a few years ago, Costello set up regular calls to keep the developers and residents of Madison Park and Bolton Hill in touch with each other. (The developers recently sold the buildings without following through on announced renovation plans, however.)
As for his defeat, Costello is philosophical: “The voters decided to go in a different direction. You have to respect the voters,” he said. Offsetting his disappointment: his girlfriend of two years, State Sen. Sarah Elfreth, was elected to Congress, one of two new women members of the Maryland delegation in DC.
He’s hopeful the new city council president will take seriously the council’s need to work with the mayor but also provide oversight and criticism when city agencies fail to perform. Although he once saw the city’s “strong mayor” dominance as a good thing that allowed a mayor to move decisively, he is now convinced that the mayor’s control of spending through the Board of Estimates needs to be modified. Costello has chaired the council’s budget committee.
“My big accomplishment? I hope I convinced a few people that government can work when you push it.” He plans to remain a south Baltimore resident. “I‘ll be around to support the city. I love this city,” he said.
–Bill Hamilton
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