'Social engineering' in the suburbs By ANDREW RATNEB N 22 19% A CRITICISM of the transfer of a fraction of public housing from Bal- timore to the counties is that it's "social engi- neering;" That broadside dis- counts the immense role govern- ment has played in shaping the suburbs, as if they were settled by rugged homesteaders on wagon trains. Without the $2.5 billion in- vested in highway expansion in this region alone the past 15years, plus billions more for water and sewer systems and other infra- structure, the bedroom communi- ties that have mushroomed-in— places like Bel Air and Westmin- ster and Odenton would not exist. If highway building isn't "social engineering" —the term Rep. Bob Ehrlich and others use to attack the shift of subsidized rental units from city to suburb — it is as- suredly engineering with a pro- found social impact. President Dwight Eisenhower launched the U.S. interstate sys- tem in the mid-1950s to speed commerce and travel. Unwitting- ly, it also eroded the cities, some- times by plowing through urban neighborhoods, but also by exac- erbating a society of haves and have-nots. If you reside in the suburbs, take the long way home from work one evening —when not forced to do so by an overturned 18-wheel- er. After your slow (if picturesque) ride on country roads, you may come to realize that government is as responsible for the places we live as any individual's "work eth- ic." You'll also get a good history lesson, because old roads, like age rings on a tree, tell the story of growth in Central Maryland. One such journey might follow Route 7, also known as Philadel- phia Road, from the city to Bel Air. It was the old colonial post road, later superseded by U.S. 40, which itself became outmoded by 1-95, the superhighway President Ken- nedy inaugurated in Maryland a week before he was assassinated. The long way home Out of East Baltimore, you'll pick up Route 7 heading east. Mile 1: Over there on your left is Hollander Ridge, the public-hous- ing towers that loom over the con- fluence of 1-95 and 1-895. Some claim former Mayor William Don- ald Schaefer had it built at the city line to tweak county officials who refused to build public housing. The complex was again a source of friction recently when city housing officials left a gap in a fence around the property, which resU dents in Rosedale blamed for in- creased crime. Mile 3: On your right is Golden Ring, among the early suburban malls. Just as it undid downtown retailing, the glitzier White Marsh Mall clobbered it after opening in 1981just up the interstate. Mile 6: A "power center" of huge warehouse stores is a-build- ing—a new Bigfoot that'.s come to compete in the suburban market. Mile 7: You begin seeing road signs of villages that now barely exist, whistle-stops hopscotched by superhighways and sprawl: Nottingham, Loreley, Van Bibber. Mile 14: We come to -r- Ted Kac- zynski's cabin? No, but a ram- , shackle hovel with gingham cur- tains and a big sign out front, "Get US out of the United Nations," seems a reminder of how far we've traveled from the city. No, we're not in Baltimore anymore, Toto. Yet the highways and dense sub- urban housing seem to have nar-.. I rowed thegap., . Mile 17: Welcome to Abingdon, ground-zero for Harford County's double-digit growth the past dec- ade. Could thousands of families make a home here if they had to travel a Route 7 daily? Not likely. Government created this place, as much as it made public housing. And, not coincidentally, gov- ernment is rethinking both those decisions: U.S. Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros wants more liva- ble subsidized housing, while Gov. Parris Glendening wants to invest in older communities to discour- age continued sprawl,. So when someone next decries 'isocial engi- neering," the criticismjmay strike closer to home thahyoii think, i Andrew Ratner is ''director of zoned editorials for The Sun.