'Social engineering' in the suburbsBy ANDREW RATNEB

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ACRITICISM of thetransfer of a fraction ofpublic housing from Bal-timore to the counties isthat it's "social engi-neering;"

That broadside dis-counts the immense role govern-ment has played in shaping thesuburbs, as if they were settled byrugged homesteaders on wagontrains. Without the $2.5 billion in-vested in highway expansion inthis region alone the past 15 years,plus billions more for water andsewer 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 "socialengineering" — the term Rep. BobEhrlich and others use to attackthe shift of subsidized rental unitsfrom city to suburb — it is as-suredly engineering with a pro-found social impact.

President Dwight Eisenhowerlaunched the U.S. interstate sys-tem in the mid-1950s to speedcommerce and travel. Unwitting-ly, it also eroded the cities, some-times by plowing through urbanneighborhoods, but also by exac-erbating a society of haves andhave-nots.

If you reside in the suburbs,take the long way home from workone evening — when not forced todo so by an overturned 18-wheel-

er. After your slow (if picturesque)ride on country roads, you maycome to realize that government isas responsible for the places welive as any individual's "work eth-ic." You'll also get a good historylesson, because old roads, like agerings on a tree, tell the story ofgrowth in Central Maryland.

One such journey might followRoute 7, also known as Philadel-phia Road, from the city to Bel Air.It was the old colonial post road,later superseded by U.S. 40, whichitself became outmoded by 1-95,the superhighway President Ken-nedy inaugurated in Maryland aweek before he was assassinated.

The long way homeOut 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. Someclaim former Mayor William Don-ald Schaefer had it built at the cityline to tweak county officials whorefused to build public housing.The complex was again a source offriction recently when city housingofficials left a gap in a fencearound the property, which resUdents in Rosedale blamed for in-creased crime.

Mile 3: On your right is GoldenRing, among the early suburbanmalls. Just as it undid downtownretailing, the glitzier White MarshMall clobbered it after opening in1981 just up the interstate.

Mile 6: A "power center" ofhuge warehouse stores is a-build-ing—a new Bigfoot that'.s come tocompete in the suburban market.

Mile 7: You begin seeing roadsigns of villages that now barelyexist, whistle-stops hopscotchedby 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, "GetUS out of the United Nations,"seems a reminder of how far we'vetraveled from the city. No, we'renot 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'sdouble-digit growth the past dec-ade. Could thousands of familiesmake a home here if they had totravel a Route 7 daily? Not likely.Government created this place, asmuch as it made public housing.

And, not coincidentally, gov-ernment is rethinking both thosedecisions: U.S. Housing SecretaryHenry Cisneros wants more liva-ble subsidized housing, while Gov.Parris Glendening wants to investin older communities to discour-age continued sprawl,. So whensomeone next decries 'isocial engi-neering," the criticismjmay strikecloser to home thahyoii think,

iAndrew Ratner is ''director of

zoned editorials for The Sun.