July 2008 Issue by Urbanite LLC

In Defense Of Family Dinner • Unprotected Landmarks • The End Is Nigh! july 2008 issue no. 49

The Animal Issue

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Hip, Independent, Authentic Baltimore Get to the point.

Check out all the award winning toys from around the world. Baltimore’s most unique toy store.

TC’s was created to provide the surrounding community and its visitors a place founded on serving one purpose THE GUESTS!

It’s a perfect place for a traditional afternoon tea, a dinner featuring Bertha’s mussels, or a night of jazz or blues.

700 S. Broadway 410-537-5005 www.toddconners.com

734 S. Broadway 410-327-5795 www.berthas.com

Baltimore’s hottest boutique is celebrating its second sweet year of outfitting the City’s most fashionable women.

We offer a killer, slightly off-the-wall menu with fun and inventive specials that are completely different day by day just to keep you on your toes.

813 S. Broadway 410-522-0941 www.cupcake-shop.com

710 S. Broadway 410-522-0000 www.alexanderstavern.com

Organized with a mission to bring today’s leading art, fashion and cultural movements into greater public awareness by establishing a network of product distribution outlets and social epicenters.

p ppy stella

The Blarney Stone

Everything but the clothes. Come visit the newest addition to Fells Point. Selling women’s shoes, accessories, handbags, and gifts!

Hometown Baltimore with a shot of Bailey’s. A great low-key place to hang out and have fun with plenty of atmosphere to keep it lively.

728 S. Broadway 410-522-1970 www.poppyandstella.com

704 S. Broadway 410-342-3947

1623 Thames Street 410-342-5000 www.amusetoys.com

Cupcake

and

everything but the clothes

An emporium of household art. Pick up anything from a drink stirrer to an ornate fountain in, as the name implies, an eclectic style. 723 S. Broadway 410-675-5105

732 S. Broadway 443-538-5748 www.TAGgalleries.com

Combines the best of sports bar and casual restaurant, into a different kind of neighborhood gathering place, where friends and family can gather to grab a bite, watch the game, or just enjoy a beer together in a lively atmosphere. 718 S. Broadway 410-342-4222 www.greeneturtle.com

Fells Point Main Street. Over 50 independently owned businesses. Local owners, local flavor. Be somewhere, not just anywhere. Shop, dine, play in Fells Point.

Live Green at Overlook Clipper Mill.

Defining a new perspective on urban living. Priced from the upper $400,000’s. $25,000 in free options through July 31!

»LEED Silver Certified »Expansive 10’ceilings on main level »Custom Italian Kitchens »Light drenched sun rooms »Stunning community pool

»Easy access Light Rail and I-83 »Wind Current credits for 1 year »Woodberry Kitchen »Up to 35% energy reduction »Custom landscape package included

www.clippermillhomes.com | 410.243.1292 | 3429 woodberry avenue

Sales Center is open daily between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. or call to schedule an appointment.

From Downtown Baltimore:

Jones Falls Expressway (I-83) north to Falls Road, exit 8. Make a left onto Union Avenue, a right onto Clipper Road and a left onto Clipper Park Road.

From north oF Baltimore:

Jones Falls Expressway (I-83) south to Cold Spring Lane, exit 9A. Make a left onto Cold Spring Lane, a right onto Falls Road, a right at Union Avenue, a right onto Clipper Road and a left onto Clipper Park Road.

No matter where you are ... you’re always connected.

Wireless Internet from Verizon Wireless starting at $39.99.*

Visit your Wireless Home store for –Broadband, Phones, PDAs, Bluetooth Headsets and more...

Wireless email for your Blackberry starting at $29.99.*

We are locally owned & support our communities!

*Our Surcharges (incl. Fed. Univ. Svc. of 11.3% of interstate & int’l telecom charges (varies quarterly), 7c Regulatory & 85c Administrative/line/mo., & others by area) are not taxes (details: 1-888-684-1888); gov’t taxes & our surcharges could add 5% - 36% to your bill. Activation fee/line: $35 ($25 for secondary Family SharePlan lines w/ 2 yr Agmts) IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Subject to Customer Agmt, Calling Plan, & credit approval. Up to $175 early termination fee, [up to] 45c/min after allowance & $1.99/MB (incl. Mobile Web ads). [Add’l $20 upgrade fee may apply.] [Device capabilities: Add’l charges & conditions apply.] Offers & coverage, varying by service, not available everywhere. Network details & coverage maps at vzw.com. Nights 9:01 pm 5:59 am M-F. [Limited time offer.][Rebate takes up to 6 wks.]. ©2008 Verizon Wireless

urbanite july 08

Middle River 105C Carroll Island Rd (410) 344-0008

Highlandtown 3520 Eastern Ave (410) 522-1555

Hampden 915 W. 36th Street (410) 662-4090

Bel Air 699 Baltimore Pike (410) 420-7370

Clarksville 12345 Wake Forest Rd (410) 531-3005

Reisterstown 17708 Suite C Reisterstown Rd (410) 833-3345

Urbana 8925 Fingerboard Rd (240) 699-0161

Ellicott City 9050 Baltimore National Pike (410) 480-2280

contents

july 2008 issue no. 49

f e a t u r e s 38

keynote: through animal eyes by greg hanscom

when humans try to communicate across species, our speech-wired brains get in the way. professor, author, and animal expert temple grandin explains how her autism helps her see eye-to-eye with other creatures.

year of the horse by charles cohen

for more than 150 years, the horse-and-cart produce sellers called arabbers have tramped through city neighborhoods. but now their largest stable is closed, and the future of these local icons has never looked dimmer.

the beast within by richard o’mara

a cat named bingo inspires reflections on our animals’ uncanny ability to understand our needs.

where the wild things are by greg hanscom

we don’t think of buildings, backyards, and paved streets as animal habitat, but a groundbreaking study in baltimore suggests we should.

46 54

must love dogs by marianne amoss

should you immoralize fido on canvas? inside the hairy world of pet portraiture.

d e p a r t m e n t s

on the cover:

editor’s note

what you’re saying

what you’re writing

corkboard

the goods

cover illustration by laurent hrybyk

creature features

juggle this

theft: broken trust, confessions, and reunion

this month: cycle-rama, fluid movement, and salsapolkalooza

just a sprinkle. plus: body butters, sparkling gems, and serious grilling

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

N O W

L E A S I N G

LUXU RY T HIS G R A N D I S N ’ T

F O R

E V E R Y O N E

A complimentary chauffeur-driven limousine. A dramatic skylounge. 24-hour concierge services to make your busy life easier. Are you ready for a life of unparalleled convenience and cosmopolitan services? At 39 West Lexington, your expectations will be exceeded. You’ll know you’ve arrived— from the moment you enter the grand lobby. Visit us today to be among the select few who will be able to call this Baltimore landmark home.

39 WEST LEXINGTON STREET, BALTIMORE, MD 21201 FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT, CALL 888.761.3055. 39WESTLEX.COM

july 2008 issue no. 49

contents 31

baltimore observed battle lines another epic struggle at gettysburg, this time over architecture by brennen jensen

clay court justice when a tennis match in druid hill park made civil rights history by lionel foster

a woman’s place a drug treatment facility that takes care of the caretakers by donna m. owens

space landmark decision your favorite building may not be safe from the wrecking ball by mike dominelli

progress report an old library’s second edition by marianne amoss

the drawing board a better arena idea?

eat/drink slow, cooking rediscovering family dinner by rafael alvarez

reviewed: the wine market and baltimore pho

wine & spirits: poppin’ bottles

the feed: this month in eating

art/culture i will survive notes on the golden age of apocalypse culture by david dudley

plus: summertime crime novels, welcome home, jenny sutter, a wild pony, and more

71 98

eye to eye urbanite’s creative director, alex castro, goes nose to nose with our staff’s pets

this month online at www.urbanitebaltimore.com:

video: scenes from an arabbing life photos: visit a pet portrait gallery and see an unsung public art masterpiece in west baltimore resources: a guide to local animal rescue organizations

83 w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Issue 49: July 2008 Publisher Tracy Ward Durkin Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com Creative Director Alex Castro Editor-in-Chief David Dudley David@urbanitebaltimore.com Managing Editor Marianne Amoss Marianne@urbanitebaltimore.com Senior Editor Greg Hanscom Greg@urbanitebaltimore.com Staff Writer Lionel Foster Lionel@urbanitebaltimore.com Literary Editor Susan McCallum-Smith literaryeditor@urbanitebaltimore.com Contributing Writers Michael Anft, Charles Cohen, Mat Edelson, Richard Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Mara, Martha Thomas, Sharon Tregaskis, Mary K. Zajac Editorial Interns Sheena Gebhardt, Charles A. Hohman, Rebecca Messner, Lara Streyle Design/Production Manager Lisa Macfarlane Lisa@urbanitebaltimore.com Traffic/Production Coordinator Bellee Gossett Bellee@urbanitebaltimore.com Designer Jason Okutake Staff Photographers La Kaye Mbah, Jason Okutake Production Intern Megan Brohawn Web Coordinator/Videographer Chris Rebbert website@urbanitebaltimore.com

urbanite july 08

Issue 49: July 2008 Publisher Tracy Ward Durkin Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com

fine dining

local denizens

Tempted? the most spacious new apartment homes on the water.

General Manager Jean Meconi Jean@urbanitebaltimore.com Chief Financial Officer Carol Coughlin Senior Account Executives Catherine Bowen Catherine@urbanitebaltimore.com Susan R. Levy Susan@urbanitebaltimore.com Account Executive Jackie Wezwick Jackie@urbanitebaltimore.com Advertising Sales Assistant Carol Longdon Carol@urbanitebaltimore.com

rooftop pool overlooking the baltimore harbor.

Sales/Accounting Assistant Iris Goldstein Iris@urbanitebaltimore.com

tempted yet?

866.596.9405 EdenApts.com

Advertising Intern Mallory Varvaris

luxury apartment living thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fells point to the core.

Marketing Kathleen Dragovich Kathleen@urbanitebaltimore.com Marketing/Administrative Assistant La Kaye Mbah LaKaye@urbanitebaltimore.com Marketing Intern Ally Oshinsky Founder Laurel Harris Durenberger Advertising/Editorial/Business Offices P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 Phone: 410-243-2050; Fax: 410-243-2115 www.urbanitebaltimore.com Editorial inquiries: Send queries to editor@urbanitebaltimore.com (no phone calls, please). The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Urbanite does not necessarily support the opinions of its authors. To subscribe or obtain assistance with a current subscription, call 410-243-2050. Subscription price: $18 per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission by Urbanite is prohibited. Copyright 2008, Urbanite LLC. All rights reserved.

Managed by Legend Management Group

urbanite july 08

Urbanite (ISSN 1556-8105) is a free publication distributed widely in the Baltimore metropolitan area. If you know of a location that urbanites frequent and would recommend placing the magazine there, please contact us at 410-243-2050. Postmaster: Send address changes to Urbanite Subscriptions, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211.

6192_5.25x10_Bal_clr:Layout 1

4/25/08

10:48 AM

Page 1

The 2008 BMW F800 S and F800 ST …

Fast.FUN. &

(don’t forget Fuel efficient!)

more AFFORDABLE than you thought.

Visit Bob's

BMW today for a TEST RIDE.

10720 Guilford Road Columbia-Jessup, MD

BMW Motorrad USA

bobsbmw.com 877-RIDE BMW

Authorized Dealer

Providing your favorite women with fabulous shoes, handbags and accessories

GET A BIGGER HOUSE. WITHOUT GETTING A BIGGER HOUSE. Custom storage solutions for every room in your house. • Closets • Offices • Garages • Pantries • Laundry Rooms • Entertainment Centers

Fells Point 728 S. Broadway 410.522.1970 (Next to Bertha’s)

$400 OFF Plus FREE INSTALLATION

Leaders in Leather

hand bags Matt & Nat

Hobo

Minimum order of $3000. For a limited time only. Prior purchases excluded. Must be presented at time of consultation. Cannot be combined with any other offers.

Pour La Victoire Frye

Call for a FREE design consultation

410.247.4400 877.925.6738

Faryl Robin

shoes

Jeffrey Campbell

Oh Deer!

Poetic License

www.closetfactory.com

107

www.poppyandstella.com w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Are you for real? Coming Next Month True Stories: fact, fiction, and everything in between S U M M E R

M E M B E R S H I P S

* ONLY $99 FOR THREE MONTHS

* c e r t a i n

r e s t r i c t i o n s

a p p l y

www.meadowmill.com â&#x20AC;˘ 410.235.7000

urbanite july 08

www.urbanitebaltimore.com

courtesy of Brennen Jensen

courtesy of Laurent Hrybyk

photo by Jason Okutake

courtesy of Jim Burger

contributors Jim Burger has come a long way since commandeering his parents’ bathroom to develop his first pictures. In 1982, he became a staff photographer for Baltimore’s City Paper, then signed on with the Baltimore Sun in 1988. A freelancer since 1999, his clients have included the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Los Angeles Times. He photographed the Krastel family enjoying a home-cooked meal together for this month’s “Eat/Drink” department (p. 71). “They invited me to sit down and eat with them, but I couldn’t,” says Burger. “My wife and I were going out to dinner.” Fulton, Maryland, native Megan Brohawn is Urbanite’s summer production intern. A senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2007 Brohawn worked as a production assistant at The Weekly Retriever, UMBC’s student newspaper. Her poster art and photographs have appeared in several venues on the UMBC campus. After earning her B.A. in visual arts next May, she hopes to work as a graphic designer. Laurent Hrybyk is a Baltimore-based artist, illustrator, and designer. In 2000, he graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art with a B.F.A. in illustration. Since then, his work has appeared in galleries and art-friendly spaces like the Velocipede Bike Project, as well as in publications like City Paper and Utne Reader. Hrybyk says his contributions to this month’s Urbanite required a “split personality”: from the whimsical cover image to the bleak post-apocalyptic scene that opens the “Art/Culture” department (p. 83). Charles Villager Brennen Jensen is a senior reporter for the Chronicle of Philanthropy in Washington, D.C. A former senior writer at the City Paper, he co-authored (with Charles Cohen and Tom Chalkley) the “Charmed Life” column for several years. In his first Urbanite story, Jensen journeyed to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to cover the planned demolition of Modernist architect Richard Neutra’s Cyclorama Center (“Battle Lines,” p. 31). “I’d forgotten just how close Gettysburg is to Baltimore—and how thorny preservation battles can be,” he says. “In a way, it’s a fight over whose history is more important.”

editor’s note

A 124-pound mountain lion wandered into the north side of Chicago this spring, an extraordinary incident that triggered some equally extraordinary reactions from humans. Police cornered the big cat in an alley and shot it in an old-school Dillinger-esque hail of bullets. There’s a haunting photograph of the animal laid out behind police tape in a cracked concrete alleyway—the classic urban crime scene, with a twist. The shooting inspired a nationwide storm of outrage from animal rights activists, including one who is now suspected of trying to burn down the mayor’s summer home in retribution. Almost lost in all the flying fur was the sheer strangeness of the animal’s very presence: As the Chicago Tribute noted, no one in Chicago had seen a mountain lion “since the city’s founding in the 19th century.” But the Great Plains have been getting wilder: In the last few years, panthers have been spotted in Illinois and Wisconsin; this one might have walked a thousand miles from South Dakota’s Black Hills in a futile search for another of his kind. Animals don’t honor human borders, which is why their presence among us can inspire such wonder and consternation. Urbanite contributing writer Charles Cohen, who wrote this month’s in-depth look inside the struggling Baltimore arabber community (“Year of the Horse,” p. 42), recalls seeing the horse-drawn produce wagons in his Mount Washington neighborhood as a child in the 1970s and feeling like a witness to a wonder: horses in the city. “That blew my mind,” he says. A decade ago, arabbers and their supporters were regularly entangled in battles with animal welfare activists over the treatment of workhorses. It was a fight that often came down to a fundamental philosophical difference over whether the concrete jungle could ever be a humane place for animals to live and work. It’s a curious argument to make in a city that was largely built on horse power, and a reflection of how divorced modern urbanites now are from the beasts who once lived and labored at our sides. It also begs a question: If American cities are considered unlivable for such creatures now, what does that say about the rest of us here? And, instead of barring animals, might we think about what it would take to make the urban habitat more fit for man and beast alike? As folks in Chicago learned, sometimes the wild will make its determined way back into our human spaces anyway. This month we do indeed invite the animals back into the city, or at least into the city magazine. Senior editor Greg Hanscom reports from the thickets of Baltimore’s urban ecosystem in “Where the Wild Things Are” (p. 48), his critterfilled look at the emerging discipline of patch dynamics. In this month’s “Keynote” interview, Greg also speaks with Temple Grandin, the celebrated animal science professor and writer whose insights into how non-humans think and behave come from her own experiences with autism (“Through Animal Eyes,” p. 38). Managing editor Marianne Amoss’ “Must Love Dogs” (p. 54) takes the other perspective, talking with local pet portraitists to discover how we perceive our animal companions. (Answer: adoringly.) And frequent contributor Richard O’Mara uses a resourceful cat to reflect on the strange intimacy between humankind and the creatures among us (“The Beast Within,” p. 46). This month we also debut “The Drawing Board” (p. 69), a monthly experiment in virtual urban renewal. If you are an architect, an urban planner, or just a civilian with a bold idea and a pencil, here’s your chance to remake the city for the better. This month, architects Klaus Philipsen and Matthew Fitzsimmons offer “Arena Metamorphosis,” their idea for the downtown 1st Mariner Arena site. If you are seized with a Eureka moment about what to do with other examples of that all-toofamiliar urban species, the municipal white elephant, let us know: E-mail editor@ urbanitebaltimore.com. —David Dudley

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

WESTMINSTER,

MARYLAND

SENSE ThE DIffERENcE T wo College Hill, wesTminsTer, mD 21157 • www.mCDaniel.eDu/aDmissions • 800-638-5005

Things to do.

F O R

B A LT I M O R E ’ S

C U R I O U S

People to meet.

Problems to solve.

Come Together. As Urbanite readers, you are active in your community. Now you can collaborate more effectively with your peers online. Create a free group website today. Visit www.collectivex.com/x/urbanite

urbanite july 08

what you’re saying

photo montage by Chris Rebbert

Balls in the Air I so enjoyed the “Fun Factor” (June) guide to sports for regular folks, but you missed one of the most fun sports of all—juggling! The Baltimore Jugglers Club juggles just about anything you can think of every Thursday evening, 7 p.m.–9 p.m., at the Hampden Rec Center off Falls Road and the Avenue. No dues, no fees, no experience required—just bring a few balls and throw them in the air. Great fun, marvelous exercise, and you will see some amazing juggling. And, of course, we’ll teach you for free. —Tony Buechner lives in the Tuscany-Canterbury neighborhood of Baltimore City. A Pitch for Straw Excellent article by Scott Carlson on the straw bale tasting room at Black Ankle Vineyards (“Making Hay,” June). Bill Steen, who is quoted in the article, is one of the pioneers of the straw bale movement. (Your readers might be interested to know that the United States is the world leader in straw bale construction, though many countries have now adopted the technology.) Bill and Athena Steen were in Washington, D.C., in June helping to complete a wonderful straw bale building that is now open to the public on the Mall at the U.S. Botanic Gardens as part of the One Planet—Ours! exhibit that runs through October 13. The exhibit is co-sponsored by Builders without Borders and includes straw bale, cob, earth and lime plasters, bamboo, and other beautiful and interesting materials. This is a great place to see and touch straw bale construction; there are also four family day workshops planned during the summer where parents and kids can try their hand at some of the work described in the Urbanite article. (For more information on the exhibit,

go to www.usbg.gov/education/events/OnePlanet-Ours.cfm.) I would also like to note that green building, even straw bale, can be undertaken very well in small steps. Straw bale is striking and beautiful when used as an accent or building component. The hand plaster gives you a wall unlike any other. Because the material has such outstanding insulating qualities—for temperature and, particularly, sound—straw bale can be used for the walls of a small library addition on a busy street, or to protect a second-floor addition on a deck, which otherwise would be very cold. Provided that there is sufficient space for thick walls, and not too much moisture, straw bale construction works well for an addition for an urbanite. —Polly Bart, a straw bale builder and LEED consultant, built the first two straw bale projects in Baltimore City (see April 2005 Urban-

ite). Her firm, Greenbuilders, Inc., specializes in renovations and additions.

Behind the Mask In her article “Gotham vs. Metropolis” (June), Violet Glaze correctly states that Baltimore is at a crossroads, but her description of the choices is not correct. Metropolis is described as “peaches-and-cream” bland while Gotham City is described as a place with diversity and excitement. In my opinion, Gotham City is a place where an unconscious and repetitive way of life is perpetuated. Metropolis, on the other hand, is a quiet place disturbed occasionally by the megalomaniac villains who are the exception, not the rule. The teenagers might consider it dull and drab, but they’re not being killed by gunfire.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

3921 Juniper Road Baltimore, Md 21218

Gracious and Spacious five bedroom, three and a half bath, brick center hall colonial on almost a half acre landscaped lot. Attractively priced at $745,000, a great value for the Guilford neighborhood, Central air, updated kitchen and baths, detached two car garage. Call and make an appointment to see how much house and how easy it is to just move in. Owner/Agent Roland Park at 312 Wyndhurst Ave. Baltimore, MD 21210

c: 410-218-2566 d: 410-900-1404 kbatterton@cbmove.com www.kbatterton.com

F I N E H O M E S , T H E F O U N D AT I O N O F Y O U R P O RT F O L I O

Enjoyable People â&#x20AC;˘ Happy Faces Good Times

THINK BIG... BIG VIEWS URBANITE READERS: Mention this ad and receive $1000 off!

BIG LUXURY

No monthly pet rent!

Ultimate Urban Waterfront Address

951 Fell Street â&#x20AC;˘ Baltimore, MD 21231 16

urbanite july 08

BIG APARTMENTS

| CrescentFellsPoint.com |

* * Breed restrictions do apply

P 410.534.8439

update

Metropolis and Gotham City are two different places residing in the same place—they exist inside our minds. They are not places where we live but concepts of how to live. Baltimore is at a crossroads. Will we choose Metropolis or Gotham City? The future will show which was chosen. —Clifton Bunin lives in Mount Vernon.

I am an avid reader of Urbanite magazine, primarily because it presents hope through its articles exploring human creativity, commitment, and problem solving. Secondarily, it explores issues in depth that are not mentioned in other local magazines. I often wish for follow-up articles to those presented—how have things turned out six months or a year later? The May issue really left me hungry to learn more, especially after reading “Murder, Interrupted” and “Man of Conviction.” —Betsy Wadsworth is retired and a resident of Butcher’s Hill. From the editors: Each month we run a department called “Update,” in which we fill readers in on new developments with past stories (see column to the right). Watch that space in future issues for updates on the stories in our May “Crime and Violence” issue. This month, we follow up with the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative (‘The Tao of Transit,” September 2007) and the city’s blue-light police camera program (“The Watchman,” April 2008).

Correction In the May story “Raising Oliver,” we incorrectly stated that Maryland college basketball legend Keith Booth attended UMBC. He actually played for the University of Maryland, College Park. Go Terps!

We want to hear what you’re saying. Email us at mail@urbanitebaltimore.com or send your letter to Mail, Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211. Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. You can also comment on our website (www.urbanitebaltimore. com/forum).

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) threw a meeting—several of them, actually—and hardly anyone came. By several accounts, it was a success. Three years ago, when the MTA gathered public comments on then-governor Robert Ehrlich’s dramatic restructuring of the city’s bus routes, known as the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative, hundreds of irate riders packed the meetings to decry the changes. In the end, the initiative was scaled back, and the MTA instead made a series of smaller, more calculated route changes, the latest of which went into effect in late June. Only a handful of people attended lunchtime meetings to comment, and some brought only misunderstandings or unrelated concerns. “If the only comments you’re getting are comments like those, you’ve done your job,” says Edward Cohen, president of the Transit Riders Action Council of Metropolitan Baltimore (TRAC), a pro-transit citizen’s advocacy group. (See “The Tao of Transit,” Urbanite, September ’07.) TRAC gave all the changes positive or neutral reviews. “These are sensible changes in terms of the system’s structure,” says Cohen. “They’re not dramatic. They are incremental improvements.” The bus route changes go into effect as more people are shunning their gas guzzlers in favor of mass transit. Ridership on commuter buses and rail is up as much as 12 to 15 percent, according to Jawauna Greene, MTA’s director of communications and marketing. Local buses are shouldering more riders, too, she says. “We’re seeing a shift in demographics. The people who ride the local buses tend to be a captive audience: They need those buses to get to school or to work. But now we’re seeing young professionals—people who have a car and a house in Charles Village—who say, ‘I’m not going to move my car,’ and they’re riding the bus instead.” To make life easier for newbies, the MTA has launched a new website featuring a Google-powered trip planner. Type in your start and end points, and your computer spits out a route and a few possible itineraries. The planner is still in the testing phase, but it seems to function fairly well. Go to www.mtamary land.com/transit.

Baltimore’s notorious “ blue-light” crime-fighting cameras are on the way out. Sterling Clifford, spokesman for the Baltimore City Police Department, says the department has decided to phase out the 102 “PODSS” (Portable Overt Digital Surveillance System) cameras. Some neighborhoods say these first-generation cameras have been effective crime-fighting tools, but prosecutors complain that the cameras infrequently produce reliable evidence, and ne’er-do-wells on the street know that there is rarely anyone monitoring them. (See “The Watchman,” Urbanite, April ’08.) First installed in 2005 at $30,000 apiece, the cameras can only be watched by officers sitting nearby with a laptop-type system, and they store just a few days of video; nonetheless, Clifford says they were considered state-of-the-art at the time: “We consistently purchase the newest and best technology available.” The blue-light cameras will be replaced with a sleeker, closed-circuit system that can be monitored from afar. The new cameras send live video back to a police monitoring center, where officers can maneuver the cameras, watch events in real time, and dispatch police to the scene if needed. Clifford says that more than four hundred closed-circuit cameras already scan the city; the police department bought twenty-five more this year at about $50,000 apiece.

—Greg Hanscom

—Lara Streyle

photo by Gail Burton

Where the Story Ends

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

SUMMER EVENTS Sidewalk Sale July 12 & 13 Enjoy a free concert by blues favorite, the

2400 BOSTON STREET IN HISTORIC CANTON

Kelly Bell Band

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Friday, August 1 6-9pm

Shops And Restaurants

FRESH FUN DAILY Situated in the heart of Canton, there’s something for everyone at The Can Company. Stocked with Baltimore’s lively dining and nightlife, stylish shopping, plus, services and essentials, The Can Company offers variety everyday.

thecancompany.com Developed and Managed by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

urbanite july 08

2400 Boston Street, Baltimore, MD 21224 410.558.CANC (2262) | www.thecancompany.com

Austin Grill Babylon Nails Boston Street Dentistry Brocato’s Studio of Hair Design CakeLove Chesapeake Wine Company Cloud 9 Clothing Cold Stone Creamery Downs Stationers Electric Rays Tanning Salon GNC Kiss Café Lenscrafters Long and Foster Realtors Outback Steakhouse Pasticcio Ristorante Italiano Radio Shack Ray Lewis’ Full Moon BBQ Ritz Camera Starbucks Subway SunTrust Bank Vircity

Offices Alexander & Tom Benexx Community Analytics Computer Career Institute at Johns Hopkins University DAP Design Purchase Link Emerging Technology Center Francis Cauffman Notemarks LLC RPI Consultants Safe Harbors Travel

illustration by Harry Campbell

what you’re writing

My neighbor sheepishly poked his head around the side of the house before I’d even ﬁnished unloading groceries from the trunk. “A boy took Kristina’s bike out of your yard,” he told me. “I was afraid to stop him in case it was a classmate and he was allowed.” But he wasn’t a friend, and Kristina’s beloved hot-pink bike with the glitter and Day-Glo streamers was gone. The neighbor gave me a detailed description of the young man. I had no idea what I’d do if I actually found him, but because I was a mom, I started walking. I walked past Hamilton Middle in the direction he’d seen boy and bike heading. I must have been walking for forty minutes when my heart started to pound. Coming toward me, though minus the bike, was a young man exactly ﬁtting the description my neighbor had given me: white polo, blue pants, red backpack, right age and race. He was just a little boy, and since he didn’t have the bike, I felt I couldn’t accuse him. I explained about the theft, especially about the

Theft great description my neighbor gave of the culprit, and asked if he could keep his eye out for any friend who perhaps had a bike that didn’t belong to him. Walking home, my eyes stung. I felt unsatisﬁed by the non-confrontation, inadequate as a mom, furious at myself for being too nice. When I picked up my daughter from St. Dominic’s that day, I gave her the sad news. I didn’t tell her I’d already looked for the bike because I wanted to give her a chance to feel she was doing something. We retraced the route I’d already walked. She was optimistic; I tried to be positive on what I knew was a fool’s errand. Then, miraculously, in the rear of a vacant lot, almost directly across the street from where I’d encountered the young man, was the bike. Perhaps my words hadn’t been so ineffective after all. Ten years later I can still see how proud and happy my little girl was, pedaling home that day. Ten years later, Kristina went to school to ﬁnd that a classmate had allegedly murdered

his entire family. Once again, I have no idea what to do. Once again, I feel inadequate as a mom. Sometimes innocence stolen is not so easily restored. —Sue Walsh lives in Phoenix, Maryland, with her daughter, her disabled brother, John, and two dogs and four cats.

I stole Betty Jo Serio’s dictionary from the coatroom at P.S. 51 in Baltimore City in 1934, and this is the ﬁrst time I’ve admitted it. When she brought it to school to show it off, I discovered the meaning of covetousness. It was a small black book, about three inches by ﬁve inches, with a cover textured like my grandmother’s Bible, and I never wanted anything as much as I wanted that book. It was the middle of the Depression, and even though I was a spoiled only child there was no way my parents would spend money on something like

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

dm n as fro ks L r ork Boo u O rtw en’s

World Class Beauty

Illu st 80 ra t

snal A ildre i s rigi f Ch i h O rs o o

World Class Medicine

Central Library 400 Cathedral St June 16 - August 2 prattlibrary.org

Your face matters – Trust it to Dr. Byrne • Practice devoted exclusively to plastic surgery of the face and neck • Rhinoplasty specialist, including revision cases • Facelift, eyelid and brow surgery • Lip, chin and cheek augmentation • Botox®, Juvéderm™, Restylane®, Radiesse® and other minimally invasive treatments • Two convenient locations: Johns Hopkins downtown and Green Spring Station

410-583-7180 / www.hopkinsfacialplastics.com

Patrick J. Byrne, M.D. FACS Director, Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Voted best doctor by Baltimore Magazine Board Certified, American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

urbanite july 08

what you’re writing this. In those years we went home for lunch, and that day I was the last one out of the classroom. When I saw the dictionary lying on a shelf just above the coatrack, I couldn’t resist quickly tucking it into my pocket. When we returned from lunch, the loss was discovered, and the usual suspects—the school bad boys—were interrogated. Our teacher, Miss Scally, would never have imagined that I, Peggy, could have done such a deed. The thrill of owning that dictionary faded when I discovered that I couldn’t enjoy it because my mother would have asked where I had gotten it, and soon its presence began to haunt me. I wasn’t brave enough to return it to school and admit that I was the thief, and I think I ended up throwing it away. My ill-gotten book brought me no pleasure. I’m sure the statute of limitations has run out, and the teacher is long dead, but if Betty Jo reads this, she now knows who did the dirty deed, and that my punishment has been a guilty conscience for seventy-four years. —Peg McAllen is a freelance writer living in Towson.

As I run down the hallway of my ofﬁce, my cell phone tickles my hip. I glance at it: It’s ADT, my burglar alarm company. I immediately start to think of creative ways to kill my roommate for screwing up the alarm. I answer. The alarm is going off; no one is answering at the house; should they send the police? Yes. I turn on my heel, head to the elevator, and off I go, hoping to meet the police at the door, hoping to ﬁnd my roommate apologizing for all the commotion, hoping that all of this is some terrible mistake. Instead, when I arrive at the house, there are no police, no roommate, and the alarm continues to scream. I silence the alarm and open the front door, waving my high-heeled shoe like some sort of weapon. Someone has been here. Things are amiss, money is gone, and the back door is ajar. I call the alarm company. I am here, someone else was here, the police are not here. I ask them if they know where the police are—“The police were there,” I am told. “They said the front door was locked and they left.” I am here, someone else was here, and the police are gone. —Name withheld

On a snappy Boston winter

day in 1959, I was a fourth-grader at St. Leonard’s parochial school. I was playing tag at recess with my neighbors and classmates, proudly

wearing my new L.L. Bean red moose-plaid fleece-lined ear-flapped hunting cap that I’d received for Christmas. I bragged a bit about my new cap, as my friends wore navy-blue watch caps or homemade stocking caps. This hunting cap must have cost my folks $6. The bell rang and we lined up to return to class. Standing behind me was a sixth grade boy I knew only as the Tough Polish Bully. He commented on my L.L. Bean cap and tried to snatch it from my head, but the chinstrap held it secure. I ran to the front of the line and through the double doors to the fourth grade cloakroom, where I hung my cap above my coat after sticking my mittens into the sleeves. During lunch, I kept thinking, “I should have elbowed that bully right in the gut.” Then came geography, history, Latin, religion. Suddenly, the dismissal bell—3 p.m. Then Sister said, “Jimmy, clean the boards for me, please.” Everyone was gone and I was in the cloakroom looking at my jacket. No L.L. Bean hunting cap, and also no mittens inside my sleeves. I walked home alone with my ears and fingers pink and freezing with no explanation to give my mom cooking in the kitchen. I saw my L.L. Bean cap once more in late March 1959 at a playground not far from St. Leonard’s, on an upside-down head dangling from the monkey bars—on the head of that Tough Polish Bully, who appeared to have grown even larger and meaner since that early January day in line after recess. —James Finnochiaro lives in Homeland with his wife and two Jack Russell terriers. He is working on his first children’s book.

I’d been Rafi’s English teacher for a year and a half when he stole my iPod. Seventeen in tenth grade, reading level three years behind, with a collection of learning and emotional disorders, he towered above my fivefoot-two frame and had a good eighty pounds on me. His outbursts were legendary—regularly disrupting classes, especially when he wasn’t taking his ADHD medications. In ninth grade, my first year teaching him, I’d written him a character reference letter to take to juvenile court, where he was to be tried for stealing headphones from a store. His goal was to earn all 85s before his second court date, so we worked out a system: If he yelled at another student, gave me attitude, or missed assignments, I’d whisper, “85.” It worked. He began to check himself, nodding, repeating my “85,” turning his eyes from the other students to his work. I gave Rafi more attention than I thought fair to the other thirty rambunctious students.

I’d left my $150 iPod unattended in the classroom after school. One of my students, trustworthy to the bone, saw Raﬁ take it. Over my six years teaching in New York City, students have come to me about abortions, suicide attempts, running away from home, getting jumped walking to school, and raising younger siblings because of parental absence. I’ve come to value my role as a stable adult in their lives. Raﬁ might not have hurt a more cynical teacher’s armor, but he dented mine. I know he needs many more pressing things than I can offer as his teacher. At court, the store representative didn’t show, and the charges were dropped. They never asked about his character letter, or his improved GPA. I see him at school now, but I walk on. And I always lock up my valuables. —Melanie Smolev grew up in Baltimore and now lives in Brooklyn. She teaches on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, reliving the pleasures and pains of high school 186 instructional days each year. She is working on a young-adult novel.

“What You’re Writing” is the place for creative nonﬁction from our readers. Each month, we pick a topic. Use the topic as a springboard into your own life and send us a true story inspired by that month’s theme. Only nonﬁction submissions that include contact information can be considered. We reserve the right to edit heavily for space and clarity, but we will give you the opportunity to review the edits. You may submit under “name withheld” to keep your essay anonymous, but you do need to let us know how to contact you. If you’ve already changed the names of the people involved, please let us know. Due to libel and invasion-of-privacy issues, we reserve the right to print the piece under your initials. Submissions should be typed (and if you cannot type, please print clearly). Only one submission per topic, please. Send your essay to Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 or e-mail it to WhatYoureWriting@urbanitebaltimore. com. Please keep submissions under four hundred words; longer submissions may not be read due to time constraints. Because of the number of essays we receive, we cannot respond individually to each writer. Please do not send originals; submissions cannot be returned.

Topic

Deadline

Publication

Authority Figure Blood Weight

July 4, 2008 Aug 6, 2008 Sept 8, 2008

Sept 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

1104 Kenilworth Drive, Suite 500 Towson, MD 21204 p: 410-337-2886 f: 410-337-2974

ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN

135 West Patrick Street, Suite 200 Frederick, MD 21701 p: 301-668-8677 f: 301-668-8664

MASTER PLANNING HISTORIC ARCHITECTURE

www.rubeling.com Career Opportunities Available

INTEGRITY. CREATIVITY. RELIABILITY. INNOVATION.

Babalu Grill is introducing a new, fun and exciting menu! Combining the best traditional Babalu dishes with some bold new Latin specialties, Babalu Grill is sure to be more exciting than ever!

“One of the Top 50 Best Hispanic Restaurants in the United States.” Hispanic Magazine, 2002 - 2005

“Best Cuban Cuisine in Baltimore” Where the Locals Eat: The 100 Best Restaurants in the Top 50 Cities; 2007

Restaurant Row at Market Place 32 Market Place, Baltimore BabaluGrill.com 410.234.9898 Complimentary Valet Parking �

�

Krieger Eye Institute and the Optical Shop at

LifeBridge Health is pleased to be the exclusive medical provider at Quarry Lake at Greenspring, one of Baltimore County’s premier new developments. We are proud to announce that Krieger Eye Institute and the Optical Shop are offering services at the LifeBridge Health Pavilion at Quarry Lake. The Krieger Eye Institute at Quarry Lake offers complete comprehensive ophthalmology services including glaucoma testing, cornea services, LASIK evaluation and visual field testing. Located just 3 miles from the Krieger Eye Institute at Sinai Hospital, this satellite office also offers aesthetic procedures. In addition, a wide selection of high-quality, fashionable eyewear is available in the Institute’s Optical Shop. To contact the Krieger Eye Institute at Quarry Lake, call 410-601-2020. Quarry Lake at Greenspring is located minutes away from I-695 at Exit 22, with close proximity to Sinai Hospital and Northwest Hospital.

www.lifebridgehealth.org

uLBH r bQuarry a n i t Lake e j uKEI-UrbaniteJuly1 ly 08

Quarry Lake

Krieger Eye Institute Physicians Donald Abrams, M.D. Anthony Castelbuono, M.D. Gilbert Feinberg, M.D. Michelle Gelkin, M.D. Laura Green, M.D. Colleen Halfpenny, M.D. Marc Hirschbein, M.D. James Karesh, M.D. Irvin Pollack, M.D. Eric Singman, M.D. Optical Shop Opticians Karen Cohn Gwen Shive Krieger Eye Institute at Quarry Lake 2700 Quarry Lake Drive Suite 180 (located right off the Beltway at Greenspring Avenue) 410-601-2020 Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday Other times by appointment

5/27/08 1:58:45 PM

corkboard

Civil Rights: Taking a Stand

July 5–15

The Maryland Humanities Council is literally pitching its tent at colleges throughout the state for its Chautauqua 2008, titled Civil Rights: Taking A Stand. In this series of outdoor performances, actors portraying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and former Alabama Governor George Wallace will speak and answer questions about their roles in the civil rights movement. See website for a full list of locations.

Free 410-685-4185 www.mdhc.org

Artscape

July 18–20

Every year, Artscape, the largest free public arts festival in the country, attracts hundreds of thousands of people with a savvy mix of internationally acclaimed performers and an army of local artisans, vendors, and performers. Don’t miss Rockville’s own Joan Jett and the Blackhearts on Friday at 8:30 p.m., or the 19th annual Billie Holiday Vocal Competition, starting Sunday at noon.

Mt. Royal Ave. and Cathedral St. Free 1-877-BALTIMORE www.artscape.org

Cycle Across Maryland

July 24–27

It’s not a point-to-point trek across the state, but One Less Car’s Cycle Across Maryland offers plenty of long and short scenic routes through Gettysburg National Military Park and over some of Maryland’s few remaining covered bridges in the hills and mountains near Mount St. Mary’s University in Frederick County. The four-day event also includes swimming, canoeing, rock climbing, and hiking activities.

Mount St. Mary’s, Emmitsburg $195 adults, $100 volunteers, $100 children 13–17, $60 children under 13; some activities cost extra 410-235-3678 www.onelesscar.org/CAM/2008

SalsaPolkaLooza

July 26, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

The mash-up of a title reﬂects the eclectic mix of cultural activities at this annual community party near Patterson Park. Enjoy international food; art projects for kids; the sounds of merengue, polka, and steel drum bands; and more.

Creative Alliance at the Patterson 3134 Eastern Ave. Free 410-276-1651 www.creativealliance.org

July 26, 5:30 p.m.; July 27, 5 and 7 p.m.

Mother Goosed Don’t mix politics with synchronized swimming, Mom always warned. Nevertheless, the intrepid community performance artists of Fluid Movement confront the American electoral process with Mother Goosed: The Nurseryland Campaign Tales, a “politically charged water ballet extravaganza” performed by a cast of elaborately costumed volunteer swimmers in municipal pools. FM celebrates its tenth anniversary this year; expect zaniness.

Riverside Park Pool 1800 Covington St. $20 for July 26 beneﬁt show, $9 all other shows www.ﬂuidmovement.org

Baltimore Improv Festival

July 31–Aug 3

The Baltimore Improv Group hosts several days of performances by improv troupes from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and as far away as Texas. Audience suggestions drive the characters and plots, but if being a spectator feels too hands-off, sign up for one of several workshops.

Creative Alliance at the Patterson 3134 Eastern Ave. Go to www.baltimoreimprovfestival. org for tickets to workshops and performances

Photo credits from top to bottom: illustration by Tom Chalkley; courtesy of Middleton Evans for the Baltimore Ofﬁ ce of Promotion and the Arts; photo by Ralph Bucca; photo by Alan Partlow; photo by Steve Bruno; photo by Megan Wills

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

I can’t predict the future. But I’ll help you prepare for it.

TURN A NEW PAGE WITH THE PRATT CONTEMPORARIES

Call me to help you get the best coverage to fit your needs.

Jack Schwartz, III

One North Park Drive, Suite 208 Hunt Valley

785-1123

©2008 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies. Nationwide Life Insurance Company. Home office: Columbus, Ohio 43215-2220. Nationwide, the Nationwide Framemark and On Your Side are federally registered service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Not available in all states. We offer non-Nationwide homeowners insurance products only in FL.

AD SPECS

The Pratt Contemporaries is a new group of young and dynamic cosmopolitans who support and seek awareness of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

File Name Headline Ad Size Publication 1st Insertion

NWP-MD-08-2364-2A PTF-REV 1/4 pg (5.25” x 4.875”) Urbanite 7/08

Members receive exclusive access to Baltimore’s lively literary and social scene.

COME CHECK US OUT! For more information about membership and events contact Sharon Connell at (410) 396-5282 or sconnell@prattlibrary.org

You treat them like family – that’s obvious. As fellow pet owners, we get it. As your neighborhood veterinarians, we practice it everyday. CityPets promises you’ll feel better here with quality medical and dental care that keeps your best friend healthy and happy. Plus, we offer convenient lab and pharmacy services right on site. Give us a call. We’ll make a place for you. 827 E. Fort Avenue Baltimore MD 21230 410-752-7122 citypetsvet.com

CityPets is moving to 1212 S. Charles Street in late summer 2008!

urbanite july 08

compiLed by LioneL Foster

the goods

Residents of Howard County can now do all their green shopping in one trip: The Conscious Corner (5805 Clarksville Square Dr.; 443-535-9321) is a four-store extravaganza of environmentally friendly food and gifts in one strip mall. The anchor of the corner is Roots Market, a cross between Trader Joe’s and a hippie health food co-op that opened in 2000. When Roots expanded its meat and seafood departments, the displaced housewares section became Nest, a place for fair-trade and eco-friendly clothing and gifts. Next door is Great Sage restaurant, specializing in organic beers and vegetarian fare. Finally, the pet store Bark was added to the strip, with natural and organic chow and supplies for the four-legged and feathered population. Baltimoreans may resist making the trek due to gas prices, but those who ﬁnd themselves in the area would do well to stop by and ﬁll up on goodfor-you, good-for-the-earth stuff. Go to www.rootsmkt.com for information on events, like the bookswap taking place July 5 and 6 at Nest. —Marianne Amoss

courtesy of Nest Graphic

The Fantastic Four

Firestarter

photo by

Ben Eisend

rath

In his travels, former Baltimore Evening Sun and Time correspondent Charles Eisendrath learned a few things about how to cook. So much so that, in 1980, he invented The Grillery, his own ultra-luxe wood-ﬁred barbecue rig. Last year, Eisendrath handed the boutique grill business to his son Ben, a former AOL exec who lives in Adams Morgan. Ben has tweaked the design with an electric rotisserie option and partnered with retailers Hammacher Schlemmer and Williams-Sonoma, but Dad’s original design endures. Dubbed “The Maserati of grills” by The Atlantic, the Grillery is a gorgeous piece of industrial design, built to order with heavy-gauge stainless steel and full of ingenious features, such as an adjustable cooking deck and clever channeled grill surfaces. “We guarantee that it will outlast anything out there,” Eisendrath says. Should you balk at the $2,375 price tag (a double-sized model goes for $3,675), remember that you’ll be passing it on to your kids someday. And the planet will thank you: Burning hardwood instead of briquettes or gas is carbon-neutral. To purchase or for more information, call 202-758-7425 or go to www.grillery.com. —David Dudley

Baltimore native Michelle Lee-King always knew she wanted to own her own business. The only question was what kind. She earned a B.S. in fashion merchandising, a cosmetology license, then a management position with Wal-Mart. Finally, in 2005 she launched bnurtured (410-598-6581; www.bnurtured.com), a line of moisturizing body butters available exclusively online. The twenty fragrances offer something for everyone, from “Sangria White Peach” and “Brown Sugar Fig” to “Tuscany,” “Ocean,” and the unscented “Bare Man.” There’s a large assortment for children, too. All the products are made with natural ingredients (except for synthetic fragrances) and fair-trade shea butter, and they strike an impressive balance of durability and wearability. “Orange Satsuma,” for example, is thick and redolent out of the jar, but while it holds up against a good hand washing, you don’t spend the entire day smelling like an orange grove. —Lionel Foster

courtesy of bnurtured

Skin Deep

city Living...

Get Schooled the original Friends School is now

Visit our new ROLL WAREHOUSE stocked with quality rolls of upscale broadloom all offered at special value prices! 1714 Park Avenue - on the Parks Bolton Hill 18 Unique condos remain offered from $184 - $399K BoltonParkCondos.com

To the Trade Flooring Showroom • Full-Service Workroom Binding • Serging • Taping • Sewing

410.561.9200 2147 Greenspring Drive • Timonium, MD 21093 • www.greenspringcarpetsource.com

the original Calvert School is now

TEN W CHASE at Charles Street, Mount Vernon 10 hip & historic condos just introduced offered from $187 -$499K LiveAt10WChase.com Both benefit from Historic Tax Credits with taxes from just $598 a year for TEN YEARS!

410.669.0001 410.675.5500

DMartz@LNF.com DavidMartz.com

urbanite july 08

5 lung cancer treatments over one week. The rest of your life is all yours. The CyberKnife Center at Franklin Square. CyberKnife does what was once considered impossible. Treats lung cancer without surgery, without pain, and without the side effects of chemotherapy or traditional radiation therapy. Actual treatment usually involves five brief outpatient visits over a week’s time, instead of thirty treatments over six weeks for conventional radiation therapy. To find out if you’re a candidate, contact Linda Stark at 1-877-CYBER-01 (1- 877-292-3701) or learn more, at LookInsideTheSquare.org.

the goods

photo by Randy Cooper

Using Your Noodle Picture yourself on a freewheeling sunny-day stroll. You’re gazing at the sky when—bam!—you’re soaked, thanks to a rotating lawn sprinkler. With the Noodlehead Sprinkler, accidental sprayings—plus the accompanying water wastage—are ancient history. The Noodlehead’s twelve adjustable nozzles can be bent to accurately reach their targets from twenty feet away. You water only what needs to be watered—not the driveway, the sidewalk, or your neighbor. “My lawn was littered with sprinklers that just didn’t do the job,” recalls Oregon-based Noodlehead inventor Randy Cooper. “One night, I was watching my wife put benders in her hair. That’s when the lightbulb went on.” Lightweight and maneuverable, the sprinkler can be attached to any standard garden hose, mounted onto a wall or fence, or elevated with “Extend-a-Risers.” It retails for $16.95 through www.noodleheadsprinkler.com, where accompanying accessories can also be purchased. —Charles A. Hohman

Pimp My Mini Our love affair with the automobile may be on the wane, but a tryst with a toy car might take the edge off. The build-your-own toy car franchise Ridemakerz has recently motored into The Avenue at White Marsh (8157A Honeygo Blvd.; 410-933-4866; www.ridemakerz.com). In about a half hour, you can piece together your own little hot rod, for roughly the price of a single tank of gas. Your ﬁrst mission is to “chooze” (the letter “s” has largely been banished from Ridemakerz) a car body—options range from Ford Mustangs to Scion xB’s—and put it on either a street or a “monster” chassis, both of which come in freewheel or battery-powered remote-control versions. Then you pick a soundtrack (a mini “sonicpod” blasts generic hip-hop or butt rock, depending on your taste) and a set of tires and sick silver wheels. Put all the pieces together at one of the do-it-yourself workstations, then customize your ride with spoilers, lights, and decals. For the outdoorsy set, there’s even a mini roof rack with surf-, boogie-, and snowboards. Sorry, no Subarus, but you can trick out a Mini Cooper; jack it up and you’ve got a mini monster Mini. —Greg Hanscom

photo by La Kaye Mbah

Like a Rock Baltimore native Constance Scott has been making jewelry that she calls “Vibrant Earth Jewels” for nearly twenty years, but until mid-February of this year, her creations were only available online. Her new bricks-andmortar store, Studio C Jewelry and Gifts (4337 Harford Rd., on the second ﬂoor of the Red Canoe children’s bookstore), offers her vintage-inspired necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, as well as crocheted items and decorative tassels made out of antique salt and pepper shakers. She says what inspires her most are the gemstones themselves. “The colors that come from inside the earth just blow me away,” she says. Scott is also chair of the fundraising committee for Baltimore’s City Neighbors Charter School, and the proceeds from sales of her strings of origami Christmas lights go to help the organization. Her jewelry can still be found on her Etsy site, vibrantearthjewels.etsy. com. All shipping within the U.S. is free. —Rebecca Messner w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

urbanite july 08

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Where can you pick up Urbanite for free?

solar EnErgy systEms • EnErgy saving products • cErtifiEd EnErgy audits

Catonsville, Columbia, Downtown, Dundalk , Ellicott City, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Harbor East, Mount Vernon, Pikesville, Towson

Visit our website for a complete list of locations. www.urbanitebaltimore.com

Loo

ur ener gy bills? king to reduce yo GreensprinG enerGy LLC Towson, MD

443-322-7000

www.greenspringenergy.com Solar Energy Industries Association • American Solar Energy Society • Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) • Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce

Authorized Retailer for:

urbanite july 08

Call about neW MD state solar rebates!

photo by Brennen Jensen

Blue and gray: Modernist architect Richard Neutra’s Cyclorama Center awaits its fate at Gettysburg. The building could be demolished as soon as next year.

Battle Lines Union General Alexander Hays had two horses shot out from under him as he repelled the epic Confederate assault called Pickett’s Charge. The date was July 3, 1863. The place: the fields and woodlands outside sleepy Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. And the outcome: the Civil War’s momentum inexorably tilted from gray to blue. The irascible Hays still stands on this battlefield. His bronze statue resides on the northern edge of a copse called Ziegler’s Grove. Sword drawn, the general stares northwestward, toward his Southern counterpart in the near distance—Colonel Sanders, whose visage crowns the KFC outlet across Emmitsburg Road. Such is Gettysburg National Military Park today, six thousand federally owned acres where the drama of America’s three bloodiest days bump up against the burgeoning bedroom communities of Adams County, about fifty miles from Baltimore, which has seen its population grow by more than thirty thousand since 1980. For about a decade, the National Park Service has waged a new war here, a battle to turn back the clock—visually, at least—to that fateful July in 1863. Unsightly power lines along Emmitsburg Road have been buried underground, and in 2000, the Park Service demolished a three-hundredfoot-tall observation tower that had loomed over the battlefield since the 1970s. Future plans call for razing dozens of acres of woods within the park to remake the meadows that soldiers slogged across. But this crusade to remake the 19th century has a 35,000-square-foot sticking point, a building called the Cyclorama Center, located

behind General Hays on the other side of Ziegler’s Grove. Opened in 1962, the building was designed to display a huge, circular painting of Pickett’s Charge that French artist Paul Philippoteaux created in 1884. The architect was Richard Neutra, an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright and one of the last century’s greatest Modernists.

“There are other Neutra buildings; there is only one Gettysburg Battlefield,” the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation concluded. Cue the wrecking ball. The Center is vacant now. The painting was pulled out for restoration three years ago, and since 1999 Park Service plans have called for bulldozing the building—perhaps as soon as next year—despite the pleas of a scrappy cadre of architects. “This might be the longest running preservation campaign for a modern building that’s ever been waged,” says Christine Madrid French, an architectural historian and president of the Recent Past Preservation Network, a nonprofit in Burlington, Vermont, dedicated to saving just such mid-century buildings. The Center was born out of the Park Service’s ten-year “Mission 66” program, a billion-dollar effort launched in the mid-1950s to build more than one hundred visitor’s centers in national parks. These were heady times, and the government often tapped lead-

ing architects. Neutra delivered a structure dominated by a stout cement cylinder (where the cyclorama hung) bisected by a low-slung rectangular arm of offices. The east side of this wing sports windows behind an array of vertical metal louvers that were designed to rotate automatically as the sun’s rays played across the facade. The American Institute of Architects declared it “one of the most important buildings constructed by the National Park Service during the 20th century,” and in a 2000 letter to the Park Service, starchitect Frank Gehry said that the building “embodies the transcendent qualities of fine art.” Over the years, the building picked up a more colloquial descriptor: “Starship Enterprise.” The Cyclorama Center was deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. But a year later, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency that reviews preservation matters involving government buildings, sided with the Park Service’s position that restoration of the historic battlefield took precedent over the preservation of the building. “There are other Neutra buildings; there is only one Gettysburg Battlefield,” the agency concluded. Cue the wrecking ball. Neutra boosters, however, got busy— decrying the decision in the media, on dedicated websites, and with an online petition that now boasts more than 1,700 signatures. Last year, the dispute wound up in court. French’s group, along with Richard Neutra’s 81-year-old architect son, Dion Neutra, are plaintiffs in a suit filed in D.C.’s U.S. District Court alleging that the Park Service didn’t consider the possibility of moving the building (an admittedly problematic proposition, given its size and concrete construction). The court will hear the case in September. A visit to the shuttered Neutra building on a dank spring day reveals the boldness of its hipster-’60s design still very much in evidence. But the place is also tired—surfaces stained by water and mildew, vintage signage and fixtures atrophying in the elements. A KEEP OUT sign hangs over the ramp strung along the western side, where visitors could once ascend to the top of the building and view the battlefield from much the same vantage point as Philippoteaux’s painting. And therein lies the rub: The building sits atop former Union battle lines. Planting dramatic structures in the center of the action might have been the approach forty years ago, but today, park planners want to keep to the sidelines. In April, the nonprofit Gettysburg Foundation cut the ribbon on a new $103-million, 139,000-square-foot visitor’s center, built and managed for the Park Service. It’s located on the periphery of the park w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

p r e s e r vat i o n

baltimore observed

“I have a Ph.D., but I never made much money until I attended Investors United.”

Steve Payne, Ph.D. has a generous smile and now, an income to match.

verybody tells me how happy and prosperous I look these days, but, believe me, I’ve only been this way since I learned about real estate investing at Investors United School of Real Estate. They said you’ll “Earn while you learn,” and I began earning almost immediately. Within months, I controlled a commercial property and earned a $140,000 profit. Before I graduated, I completed several more transactions which launched my earnings into the stratosphere.

E!50% off! L A S y 30-

onL EkS E 2w

If you aren’t happy with your income, do what I did. Sit in on a introductory class at Investors United Tuesday evening at 6:30, and discover how real estate investing can improve your income and literally change your life. A few months from now you can look as happy and prosperous as I do.

Register to sit in on a class. Call 410.426.6000 for scheduling! 6721 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21234 410.426.6000 InvestorsUnited.com

Gian Marco Menswear 517 North Charles Street | Baltimore, MD | 410.347.7974 Mon - Sat. 10-6 pm | www.gianmarcomenswear.com

urbanite july 08

Established in 1980 in Baltimore, Investors United School of Real Estate is America’s 1st professional school dedicated exclusively to real estate investing.

—Brennen Jensen

history

baltimore observed

photo by Jason Okutake

(where no blood was spilled) and is designed to blend into the rural surroundings. The restored cyclorama painting will debut there this fall, in a round structure that is supposed to resemble a historic red barn. The Modernists decry the new facility’s “theme park architecture” while positing that Neutra’s starship could still play a role in teaching tourists about the battle. Their chief nemesis has been John Latschar, superintendent of the Gettysburg Battlefield since 1994, who has dismissed the Neutra design as the “world’s largest air filter.” (Pending the outcome of the court case, a park spokesperson said that officials would not comment on the subject.) The Park Service did provide official statements that describe the 1960s building as a “discordant note” on the 1860s battlefield. French, however, scoffs at the “myth” of battlefield restoration, noting that the site has long been home to hundreds of monuments and statues, some several stories tall. “There are more than 1,400 objects on the battlefield that weren’t there when the battle took place,” French says, “so the Park Service’s assertion that we can bring the battlefield back to 1863 is ridiculous.” French also sees the Cyclorama situation as part of a pattern where recent architectural styles become déclassé. In the 1930s, she notes, Victorian buildings fell out of favor and were often demolished; when Victoriana came to be appreciated and preserved in the 1960s, Art Deco buildings were deemed destroyable. (An example closer to home: the 1967 Morris Mechanic Theatre, whose Brutalist stylings folks now love to hate.) The party with the most personal stake in the conflict would be Dion Neutra, who served as the project architect for his father’s building. “I oversaw construction drawings and visited the site several times,” he says over the phone from the Los Angeles offices of the Neutra architectural firm he took over upon his father’s death in 1970. “We designed it to last forever.” While Neutra awaits his day in court, he has also set his sights higher: trying (in vain, so far) to reach out to President Bush to have him “pardon” the building. “Politically, this could be a wonderful thing for him as he leaves the presidency,” Neutra says. “His pardon powers are pretty broad.” Barring a legal stay of execution, Neutra is poised to take matters into his own hands: He’s announced plans to chain himself to the building on demolition day. “If they ever move to tear it down, they’ll have to take me with it,” he says. “I’m going to die with the building if that’s what they want to do. You can quote me on that.” ■

Match point: Mitzi Swan recalls her role in the tennis game that made civil rights history.

Clay Court Justice Every year, more than 10,000 people enjoy the plant life on display at the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens in Druid Hill Park, but as they make their way into the iconic glass enclosure, it’s likely that very few know how close they are to the site of an important early battle against Jim Crow segregation. Less than one hundred feet from the conservatory’s entrance, shaded by a small, untrimmed hedge, a two-and-a-half-foot-wide pediment marks the site where the park’s white-only tennis courts once lay. It reads: BREAKING THE BACK OF SEGREGATION SEPARATE BUT EQUAL POLICY July 11, 1948

The marker lists the names of twentythree men and women, plus two young people identified only as “juveniles,” who were arrested that day sixty years ago this month. Their offense: supporting a mixed-race tennis match. Fifty-two years before the match, in May 1896, the United States Supreme Court legitimized the practice of mandating so-called “separate but equal” public accommodations with its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. Throughout the country, Plessy buttressed local laws, policies, and attitudes that defined where blacks could live, work, and play. Yet while the first part of the ruling’s three-word maxim was successfully instituted, the equality mandate was not as vigorously enforced. In Baltimore, blacks were confined to the balconies of major white-owned theaters and barred from the finest hotels well into the

1950s. Meanwhile, the Baltimore City Parks Board tried its best to segregate sports in public places. So at 2 p.m. on July 11, when eight black, white, and Jewish players walked onto Druid Hill Park’s white-only clay courts (blacks were relegated to asphalt courts in a “colored” section of the park), they knew that they were breaking park rules. Their peaceful protest— six years before the Supreme Court declared such separation inherently unequal in Brown v. Board of Education and seven years before the Montgomery bus boycotts that propelled Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to national attention—made Baltimore a stage for a pioneering act of civil disobedience. “It was against the norm at that time,” says Mitzi Swan, née Freishtat, then an 18year-old sophomore at the University of Maryland. Swan, who lived directly across from the park on Whittier Avenue, credits her involvement in the civil rights movement to her mother, Hannah Freishtat, who told her about the religious persecution her Jewish family faced in Russia. Swan was a member of the Young Progressives of Maryland, a group of activists within the state Progressive Party, who staged the match with the black Baltimore Tennis Club. In the run-up to the 1948 general election, Maryland progressives sought opportunities to challenge segregationist policies in an effort to draw attention to Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, who advocated for ending segregation and giving blacks full voting rights. That Sunday at 8 a.m., Swan and a partner walked to the park’s tennis office to get the permits needed to secure time on the courts. The organizers had made no secret of their plans. “We handed out flyers and sent out press rew w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

urbanite july 08

—Lionel Foster

Web extras: Watch a video about Mitzi Swan and H.L. Mencken at http://schaublog.com/Video.html. Learn about the mosaic at Martha’s Place that Johns Hopkins professor emeritus Neil Hertz calls “the best piece of public art in Baltimore” at www.urbanitebaltimore.com.

Martha’s Place founder C.W. Harris (left) and pro gram director Todd Marcus met in the early 1990s, when Marcus was a student at Loyola College, vol unterring for Habitat for Humanity.

A Woman’s Place A walk down Pennsylvania Avenue on any given day reveals a multihued portrait of urban life: Dealers peddle heroin paces from a post office; street vendors hawk pirated DVDs near a chain drugstore. Teenage girls push baby carriages past young men shooting dice on the sidewalk. Old-timers swap tales about the now-demolished Royal Theatre and the era when “The Avenue” was the thriving hub of black Baltimore. Amid this stands a graceful rowhouse trimmed in white that since 2000 has housed Martha’s Place, a drug treatment facility for women who have completed detox programs but need help transitioning to a more stable lifestyle. The brick doublewide at 1928 Pennsylvania Avenue has become an oasis for both recovering addicts and for its surrounding neighborhoods: Sandtown-Winchester, Upton, and Harlem Park. “I have lived in Sandtown all of my life— fifty-eight years—and I have a grand fondness for this community,” says “Elder” C.W. Harris, a service engineer and lay minister who founded Martha’s Place. The name was inspired both by his late mother and by the New Testament’s Martha, sister of Lazarus and symbol of hospitality and service. It’s not his first foray into community activism. In 1996, Harris and his wife, Amelia, co-founded the nonprofit Newborn Holistic Ministries to meet the needs of this struggling community. Despite $60 million in revitalization funds pumped into Sandtown in the 1990s, the area continues to grapple with poverty, substance abuse, crime, and broken families; 2006 figures from the Baltimore City Data Collaborative show that 77.9 percent of Sandtown/Harlem Park households are headed by single parents with children under 18. Martha’s Place grew out of a community meeting. “A young lady stood up and said, ‘We need a place for women. There aren’t any,’” says Amelia Harris, former executive director of the facility and now chair of the board of Newborn Holistic Ministries, parent organization to Martha’s Place. “And when we began to do research, [we found] there were

no in-house, inpatient places for women in recovery in the area. There were loads of houses for men, but none for women.” According to 2007 figures from Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc., nearly 40 percent of the more than 21,000 people treated for addiction last year at publicly funded facilities were women. Dr. Tony Tomasello, director of the Office of Substance Abuse Studies at the University of Maryland, says women have unique challenges that can hinder their long-term treatment success: “For instance, who will care for a woman’s children or family while she is undergoing care?” Elder Harris acquired the dilapidated rowhouse—a former bagging house for drug dealers—in 1995. Staff and volunteers restored it with $100,000 from private donors and various in-kind support, and today its tidy rooms and serene backyard meditation garden welcome up to forty clients a year. Most are African American; many bring a history of physical or sexual abuse or other issues, such as homelessness. A staff of seven offers addiction and spiritual counseling, plus employment and life skills training. “I learned to love and embrace myself here,” says Angela Long, a 2004 graduate who was named executive director of the facility earlier this year. “And it’s not easy because the enemy sometimes whispers in your ear, saying you can’t do it. But my journey brought me here for a reason, and that’s to help other women.” The national completion rate for such programs is about 30 percent; at Martha’s Place it’s 50 percent. “Some programs define their success as someone who leaves and has one relapse,” says program director Todd Marcus. “Here, we say our ladies are successful when they leave clean and sober, with a job and housing.” Harris envisions a future facility that can serve both women and their kids, and the organization is growing in other ways: Newborn Holistic Ministries now owns four rowhouses on Presstman Street where program graduates can transition into affordable, long-term housing. It is also past the halfway mark in raising $1 million to create the multipurpose Harris Market Center in a former Pennsylvania Avenue antiques store; the space will host a new program called Jubilee Arts, offering dance, music, and arts classes for children and adults. “They don’t just work behind the walls of the facility,” says State Senator Verna Jones, who helped shepherd a bond bill through the recent legislative session in Annapolis that will help build the community center. “They’re transforming lives.” ■

community

baltimore observed

photo by La Kaye Mbah

leases to newspapers, the mayor’s office, and the police department,” she remembers. As the time of the match neared, a crowd of several hundred people gathered, including park police, who assembled a full hour before the 2 p.m. start. As the players warmed up, the officers repeatedly ordered them to disperse. Quietly defiant, the four sets of doubles partners—four men and four women—simply sat down on or near the courts. The police arrested them, along with about a dozen of their supporters. They picked up four more for protesting outside the police station. The arrests set up what organizers hoped would be a test case against the Parks Board’s prohibition on interracial sports. But in a tacit admission that the rule might not withstand judicial scrutiny, prosecutors sidestepped the park rule itself by filing much vaguer charges of disorderly conduct with intention to incite a riot. Most of the defendants were acquitted. The seven who were convicted lost their appeal in a state appellate court and were refused a hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court. Commenting on the prevailing racist attitudes a few days after the verdict, in what would be his final column for the Baltimore Evening Sun, H.L. Mencken wrote, “Certainly it is astounding to find so much of the spirit of the Georgia Cracker surviving in the Maryland Free State …” Still, the match and its aftermath increased pressure on a Parks Board bombarded by complaints of racism, and helped lead to the desegregation, six years later, of all of Baltimore’s public recreational facilities. This month, the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, Friends of Druid Hill Park, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, and alumni of Western High School will host a free reception commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the match at the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory on July 11 at 6 p.m. “The purpose is to commemorate this historic, integrated event in Druid Hill Park,” says Anne Draddy, Jones Falls Trail manager for the Department of Recreation and Parks and one of the event organizers. “It brought together blacks and whites.” She hopes this year’s commemoration will do the same. ■

—Donna M. Owens w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

The Neighborhood Corradetti Glass Cynthia Padgett Gutierrez Studios InfoCulture, LLC Linda Bills MudPies Studio | Madonna Hitchcock Mandala Creations | Chris Gavin Marketing Initiative, LLC Norma Wallis Gallery G @ The Beveled Edge Artisan Interiors Harry Campbell Lisa Egeli Patrick Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien Paul Daniel Amaranthine Museum Woodberry Kitchen Artifact Coffee 4Thought, Inc. Urbanite People Encouraging People Havens by Hessen Williams Jackson Ewing The Law Offices of Arnold M. Weiner Fisher & Winner, LLP Gabrielli Design Studio, LLC Benchmark Asset Managers Castro/Arts Art on Purpose THE HOT LIST Âť Biohabitats JRS Architects G1440

Developed and Managed by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

urbanite july 08

Gutierrez Studios is a company of dedicated artisans specializing in the design and fabrication of contemporary furniture, lighting and architectural metalwork.

Visitors are welcome by appointment. This working studio showcases oil paintings and pastels of the Baltimore artist. Represented in NY and London. Commissions accepted.

2010 Clipper Park Road, Suite 119 410.889.5341 www.gutierrezstudios.com info@gutierrezstudios.com

2010 Clipper Park Road, Suite 118 410.662.4405 www.cynthiastudio.com

WHERE CLIPPER PARK MEETS UNION AVENUE

Tucked away between Hampden and Woodberry in the Jones Falls Valley, Clipper Mill is truly an urban oasis. Here, you can live, work and play within a woodland neighborhood and yet be close to everything you love and need in the city, including great shopping and dining, cultural attractions and easy access to the Light Rail and I-83. This vibrant community is home to a dozen amazing artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s studios and the most spectacular swimming pool in Baltimore.

Artistry and industry merge before your eyes. Watch glassblowing from our showroom overlooking the studio. Classes and group glassblowing events available.

Scores of masterworks, architectural, sculptural, or paintings juxtaposed with one another in one painting sets up a subliminal action in the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind that works magic.

2010 Clipper Park Road, Suite 129 410.243.2010 www.corradetti.com studio@corradetti.com

2010 Clipper Park Road, Suite 120 Les Harris 410.523.2574 / 410.456.1343 mailto:inscape@nexet.net

2002 Clipper Park Road, Suite 102, Baltimore, MD 21211 443.573.4460

www.clippermill.net 37 w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Through Animal Eyes Professor and author Temple Grandin on how animals think, and what we have in common In te r v i ew

b y

P h o t o g r a ph

ome on, admit it: You think you can read Mr. Pooky’s mind. And not only do you talk to your furry pet, but you probably respond for him, too, jabbering away in make-believe conversation with your favorite member of the Animal Kingdom. Don’t feel bad. Alan Beck, director of Purdue University’s Center for the Human-Animal Bond, says that in studies he conducted in the early 1980s, 97 percent of people confessed to talking to their pets. (“And the other 3 percent lied,” he jokes.) But how well do we really understand the animals with which we share our lives? Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, has been offering uncommon insights into animal minds for thirty-five years. Her advice: “If you want to understand your dog, get away from language.” Grandin has autism, a neurological condition that affects the way a person interacts with other people and the world. Some autistic people have an uncanny ability to solve mathematical puzzles; others are hyper-sensitive to sound or touch. Grandin’s gift is sight. She says she sees the world the way animals do. And she has purveyed this talent into a business working with the livestock industry, helping meatpackers streamline slaughterhouse operations by creating chutes and corridors that don’t frighten cows and pigs. She often gets down on hands and knees to view the mazes from the animals’ perspective, picking out minute details—a shadow, a piece of metal that catches the light—that can alarm animals, but are invisible to their human handlers. Grandin has written five books, including Thinking In Pictures (1995), which described what it is like to live with autism. Her 2005 book, Animals In Translation, co-authored with Catherine Johnson, is an in-depth exploration of the animal mind as revealed by neuroscience, animal behavior research, and Grandin’s personal experiences with the critters we claim to comprehend.

Q A

Explain how your mind works differently than mine.

As a person with autism, I think in pictures. I don’t think in language. Words for me narrate the pictures in my mind. My mind works like Google for images. Say a word and I get pictures in my mind. If I say to you, “Think about a church steeple,” you probably get a generic outline of one, right? I get a series of slides. I get pictures of specific steeples I’ve seen. When I was little, I didn’t know I was different. I thought everybody thought in pictures. It wasn’t until my mid-30s that I started to think about it. I started interviewing people. I was shocked to find out that people didn’t get the photo-realistic images that I do.

urbanite july 08

G r eg by

H a n s c o m Th o m a s

It’s not just that you think differently. You actually see the world differently. In Animals In Translation, you write that most people miss a lot of what is going on around them—they tune it out.

As soon as you start thinking in words, you lose details. It’s the price we pay for abstract thought. I call it abstractification. There’s the famous video, Gorillas In Our Midst. [The video, put together by University of Illinois psychologist Daniel Simons, shows a group of people passing a ball. Midway through it, a person in a gorilla suit walks into the picture and beats on his chest, then leaves.] They [the researchers] ask people to keep track of passes. Fifty percent of the people who watch the video don’t see the gorilla, because people see what they’re paying attention to. When I watched the video, I saw the basketball players, and I saw somebody in a gorilla costume walk right through the middle of them. I’m tuned in to sensory details.

Q A

What makes you believe that animals’ minds work the same way? They have to. If you look at the neuroscience, you see that animals have a visual cortex, an auditory cortex, and a tactile cortex. People also have those same parts of the brain. The thing that’s different [in humans] is the massive prefrontal cortex. It connects everything in the brain with everything else. It’s where information is processed. That’s what makes abstract, language-based thought possible. If you don’t have language, how else do you store memories? Animals think in pictures, sounds, smells, touch sensations. They sort that sensory-based information into categories—we’re talking about sensory memories.

Q A

And yet you say animals and people have a lot in common.

There are certain basic emotions that all mammals and birds have. One of them is fear—it motivates animals to get away from things that are going to kill them. Another is seeking—it motivates animals to find food, to find mates, and to play. There’s separation anxiety—the young cries when Mom is taken away. And the other thing is anger. The basic brain emotion centers [in humans] are the same. More proof that animals have emotions is that psychiatric drugs work on animals. If your dog is always nervous and neurotic, you can

keynote

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Starting at $349,900 With $30,000 Cash Back at Closing* Beautiful 3-Story Brick Townhome • 2-Car Garages and Rear Deck Move in this Summer

CamdenCrossing.com

Sales Center Open Daily from 11am - 6pm 300 Scott Street • Baltimore, MD 21230 • 410.837.3711 *Cash back towards down payment, closing costs or upgrades. Offer is subject to certain terms, conditions and restrictions and are available only to qualified buyers financing through Seller’s preferred Mortgage Lender and closing with designated closing agents. Seller reserves the right to change or withdraw any offer at any time. Prices are subject to change without notice.

We put faces first.

pr act ice l i mi te d e xc lusi v e ly to the fa ce .

Facial Rejuvenation and Rhinoplasty Expert Neck & Eyelid Surgery Injectables Skin Care Peels and Photofacials Laser Hair Removal

Randolph B. Capone, MD, FACS, Director Board certified • Johns Hopkins trained

6535 North Charles Street Pavilion North, Suite 250 Baltimore,MD 21204

BaltimoreFaces.com

410-828-4123 • 877-828-4123 (toll free)

urbanite july 08

give him Prozac and it calms him down. They actually test psychiatric drugs on rats. If their emotions were from Mars, that wouldn’t work. The difference between us and an animal is pure computer processor power. Our emotions are more complex because we have more processing power. Their emotions are much simpler than ours. A dog is either angry or he’s wagging his tail.

Q A

You’re not a big fan of leash laws.

No, I’m not. There are more dog bites now than there ever have been. When I was a little kid, the dogs ran loose. There were a lot more dogs that were hit by cars, but we didn’t have all these attacks. Dogs have to have time off the leash in the dog park. Playing helps animals learn social relations. One thing about animals that are reared by themselves: They are often vicious fighters. They don’t know when to stop. A dog has to learn the “inhibited bite.” When a puppy is playfighting and the other puppy yelps, he learns to stop. If you raise a dog without contact with other dogs, he doesn’t learn that. [People] are always saying, ‘Don’t let the kids climb all over the dog.’ Well, when I was a kid there were just a few simple rules: Don’t bother a dog when he’s eating or sleeping, and don’t go up to a dog you don’t know. The thing is that a dog is a visual thinker. The brain sets up file folders. The adults are in a different folder than toddlers. They’ve got to learn that toddlers are people too. Take the puppy over to the day care center. The other problem is that there are undesirable people training dogs to be vicious toward other dogs. Breeding dogs deliberately for aggressive traits is a really dangerous thing to do.

But you also point out in your book that animals can be violent without any encouragement from us. There’s one section where you talk about dolphins killing baby dolphins and porpoises.

Animals can be very, very violent. The scary thing is that the animals with the big brains are the ones that are capable of the worst behavior. Jane Goodall was really upset when she saw some of this really atrocious behavior from her chimpanzees. She describes a bunch of males ganging up and beating up an old grandpa chimp. Animals have to learn social rules just like people. If boys grow up without a father figure to keep their behavior in line, they just go wild. Same thing with animals. There are studies on orphan elephants that were raised up without any male role models around. They were raping rhinos and killing them. But when [the researchers] put them in with socialized males, they stopped. If animals are brought up in proper social groups, you just about eliminate this kind of behavior.

There’s some research that has used animals’ social nature and visual learning abilities to teach them some remarkable things—even some basic language. Tell me about Alex, the parrot that Dr. Irene Pepperberg says had the cognitive level of a 4- to 6-year-old child.

Alex could count, Alex could do categories. He could pick out round objects or squares, or tell the difference between metal objects versus wood. If you just try to teach a parrot to talk using operant conditioning, that doesn’t work. With operant conditioning, you would repeat the word “nut,” and the parrot would say the word “nut,” and you would give him a reward. But you would give him the same reward for “nut,” “apple,” whatever. He doesn’t realize that using the word will get him exactly what he wants.

Social modeling was a giant breakthrough. You have two people stand in front of the parrot, and they’re talking back and forth about the nut. They’re talking in baby talk. One person says, “I have a nut.” The other person says, “Will you give me the nut?” Then there’s a transfer. One day the parrot will say “ut,” or something close, and you’ll give him the nut—you use a little operant conditioning there. Alex understood that he could use words to request things that he wanted. He would even ask his own questions. He learned language. It’s the same thing with teaching autistic children: They need to learn that if they say “juice,” they get the juice.

Q A

You have this uncommon insight into animals and the way they think, and yet you work in slaughterhouses. Why? You have to remember that that’s where I first started out, not working on animal emotions. I’ve worked in the livestock industry for thirty-five years. I’m trying to get slaughterhouses to stop abusing animals. These cattle would have never been born if we had never put the bull and the cow together. We’ve got to give them a decent life.

Q A

And a decent death?

I want to make sure that those pigs and cattle, when they walk up the ramp [to be slaughtered], are not scared.

The thing is that everything dies. People think that everything is nice out in nature. Animals starve to death out in nature and they get killed. I want to make sure that those pigs and cattle, when they walk up the ramp [to be slaughtered], are not scared. Slaughtering can be done right. A lot of the big [meatpacking] plants are really good. When Michael Pollan [in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma] talks about putting glass walls on slaughterhouses so the public can see what goes on in there, I think that’s right. I’ve proposed putting up video cameras—broadcast it on the Internet. There’s all this horrible stuff up on YouTube. We need to get some examples of things being done right. I take people out to the slaughterhouse and watch the animals go up the chute. [The cattle] are absolutely quiet. They watch them stun the animal—kill it—and then say, “That’s not as bad as I thought it was.” Let’s look at a lot of animal issues: More and more people are separated from the reality of what’s happening out in the field.

Q A

What do you make of the “ local food” movement?

What I think is going to happen is that maybe 25 percent of the market is going to get into local and organic. But we still need to make food for all the poor people. It would be nice to have all the chickens free range, but that’s not going to happen. There need to be great improvements in the way chickens are being treated, but I don’t think we can get away from intensive livestock raising. I eat meat, and I always will. To be totally vegan is just not natural. Michael Pollan, in his chapter on the ethics of eating meat in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that’s almost exactly the way I think about it: I think people need to understand where all their food comes from. I don’t think everybody needs to go out and slaughter animals, but we’ve gotten too removed from our food. ■

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

photo by Charles Cohen

photo by Nancy Froehlich

Year of

urbanite july 08

top row photos by Mitro Hood

the Horse Going on the wagon with the last of the arabbers B y

Ch a r l e s

C o h en

Circling the wagons: It’s been a hard year for Baltimore’s arabber community, which is struggling to find new stables. Top: Keith Brooks hits the streets of West Baltimore with his horse, Rose. Left: Tony Todd, stablehand and prospective arabber

he women sat on hard lobby seats against cinderblock walls, wondering what happened to their man with the horse and cart. For years, he came every Friday. He made his way on Mount Street—he and the pony with the little red feather propped on top of her head. Then one afternoon in February, he didn’t show up at Franklin Square School Apartments on Mount and Saratoga streets. One Friday came and went, then the next, then another. The women would gather on Saturdays, hoping that maybe he switched days. But … nothing. Just like that, Keith Brooks and his horse, Rose, were gone. Brooks is an arabber—he sells fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn cart. Just about every Friday and Saturday, Brooks runs his wagon out of a small stable on Carlton and Lemmon streets, a crossroads of alleys in the shadows of the B&O roundhouse. He’s been doing this more than forty years—his father, James Brock, who was also an arabber, remembers him at 7 years old, running up ahead of the wagon, dropping off orders for regular customers. Only in Baltimore is this business known by an anachronistic bit of 19thcentury English slang (pronounced “ay-rabber”), and only here does it linger on among a handful of working practitioners. Among this rare breed, Brooks is the most dependable, especially lately: Often, he’s got the only rig on the streets, living up to his old nickname—“Superstar.” But this winter, the Health Department issued new license requirements, and Brooks was told that the city would take his horse if they caught him on the street without the new license. Compiled by Rebecca Messner and Greg Hanscom If and when the last arabber disappears, that’s how it will go—at some point, the country’s only remaining horse-and-wagon produce peddlers will just vanish, w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

photo by Mitro Hood

photo by Mitro Hood photo by Charles Cohen

Refuge: Since December, most arabbing horses have been living in temporary tent stables underneath Monroe Street, on B&O Railroad Museum land, while the city weighs plans to build a new stable.

without fanfare or ceremony, after some 150 years. But not yet; not today. It took weeks dealing with all the various city agencies, but finally, on April 11, Brooks, a quiet man of 48 with expressive eyes and an ever-present toothpick behind one ear, has his new cityissued ID swinging around his neck as he hustles to get his wagon on the street. Brooks, his father, and Donald “China” Waugh, another retired arabber, work up something special in the back of the stable with the boxes of produce they buy from the wholesale market in Jessup. To see these three lay out a wagon is to witness an unsung craft. The way they tilt the cardboard boxes off the sideboards of the wagon; the way they build a foundation of oranges, lemons, limes, apples, cabbage, potatoes, yams, ’lopes—any fruit that isn’t fragile— laid snug as brickwork to withstand the jolts of the wagon ride. One of Brock’s signature display moves is to stuff the greens on the leeward side, to fan up high along the back. Then come the pineapples, mangos, strawberries, kiwi, string beans, garlic, corn, okra, Romaine lettuce, three kinds of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers. Father and son

urbanite july 08

bungee-cord baskets and crates on the back. It takes two hours of work, sharing Newports and jokes. Finally, Brooks leads Rose clopping out of the stable, and the heavy wagon rolls. After a month-long absence, Brooks knows what’s coming—a long day of where-you-been complaints. “A lot of people depend on me,” says Brooks, not a man who likes to pause for conversation. “They’re saying, ‘When you coming?’ Because they can’t get out—and the gas prices are high. I can bring it right to their door.” The 17-year-old mare sets a brisk jogging pace, and at times Brooks has to put his shoulder to her to get Rose to pull up curbside. Then she stands, as if that’s what she wanted to do the whole time. A loaded arabber makes a big impression on the boarded-up streets of West Baltimore. No exaggeration: You can smell the citrus wafting under the sunglow of the wagon’s yellow canopy, bopping along tall and gawky. No need to let loose one of those famous arabber howls that catches the fancy of feature writers and folklorists— strawwwbeeerrrriiiiiees, wata-melllooon, canteeeeelooouuupe, booming out the wares. Brooks says nothing. People look for him. Up steps a big woman, taking a shine to the brown pears. “Sweet as honey,” she says. A man contemplates the pears: “Hell yeah, Mr. Yo. Those brown ones was the stuff. They was ripe. They was booty sweet.” Along comes an old man: “You can eat them with no teeth—I got a few, but I ain’t got what I need.” Teenage boys step off corners. A little girl reaches for her dad’s hands. Kids swish up on coaster bikes. A beautician takes a break from her clients to sneak a peek. An old lady, her voice quivering, crushes dollar bills against the railing. Block by block, step by step, Brooks is catching hell from some of his regulars. “Where you been?” says a woman. “I thought you cut me out of your route.” Another customer digs into him good about the price of fruit. Brooks takes out the photo ID card he wears around his neck. “This picture cost me $150,” Brooks says. A few blocks later, Brooks finds himself yielding to a tough haggle from a woman with a broken-tooth smile. “Come on, Keith. I need some grapes,” she says. “I got high pressure.” “High blood pressure?” “Keith, don’t you know that fruit helps with the high blood pressure?” He snips her off a quarter bunch, no charge.

photo by Mitro Hood

Right: Donald “China” Waugh, retired arabber and an unofficial historian of the profession, at the Carlton Street stable Bottom right: Walter “Teeth” Kelly, who learned how to build and repair arabber wagons in the 1950s, with some of his handiwork Below: The next generation? Ten-year-old Dante Bradford, one of the few kids who hangs around the stables today

For me, the question of arabbing’s future has always been bound up in the mystery of its continued existence: Why here? Is there some latent personality trait in this town—something in the city’s slow-paced almost-Southernness, or in the influx of rural immigrants that migrated here in the last century—that etched a niche for a horse-powered trade? “It’s a tradition, man,” Charles West told me. He is a 72-year-old former arabber, now one of Brooks’ faithful customers. “It’s something they have been doing since before I was born. I did it.” “But what if someone says, ‘Hey, it’s a horse and cart. We’re living in the modern world?’” I asked. “I tell them it was horse and cart before cars. Let’s deal with that end of it.”

survey of the recent history of arabbing traces the ebb and flow of Baltimore’s love-hate relationship with this beloved but troublesome icon. Arabbers have long been celebrated as unique local color, their images filling tourist brochures, newspaper features, and documentaries (the most recent, We are Arabbers, was released in 2004). But the arabbers’ working relationship with the city has often been thorny, especially since the mid-1960s, when continued on page 92

photo by Mitro Hood

first went out with a wagon in 1996, tape recorder and notebook in hand. Back then, as it was decades before, the story was how long arabbers, these curious men plying an antique trade on the streets of a late-20th-century American city, can ride the thinning crease of extinction. The death knell for arabbing has been sounded in local papers since at least the 1960s, but the end has never seemed as close as it does now. In August 2007, the largest of the city’s three last stables, a facility on Retreat Street in West Baltimore, was condemned by the city. Displaced horses were trucked off to temporary quarters at racetracks in Bowie and then Pimlico. The city minted new regulations, and twenty-three horses were sold off; many of the rest were quartered in temporary stables—tents under the Monroe Street Bridge in West Baltimore, where, at this writing, most of them remain, idle. Meanwhile, over in the Carlton Street stable, Keith Brooks has been the only arabber to maintain his regular route (except for his one-month hiatus) during this troubled year. “It’s closer to being on its last legs than it’s ever been,” says Roland Freeman, a D.C.-based photographer who grew up in an arabbing family in Baltimore and in 1989 published the book The Arabbers of Baltimore. “When this generation of men die, that will be the end of this. It is economically unfeasible to be an arabber today.” Freeman has followed arabbing, he says, for forty years; during the 1980s, he was instrumental in connecting the wagon owners with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Now, he says, he’s largely given up hope. “The reason this tradition is dying in Baltimore is largely because of politics and money—and the arabbers themselves,” Freeman says. Indeed, arabbers are an independent-minded clan, and the very self-sufficiency that has helped them endure into the modern age may contribute to their present travails: They disdain the bureaucracy of the city’s ever-more-labyrinthine licensing procedures, and don’t always cooperate well with each other, either. As many wellwishers have learned, dragging this 19th century horse-and-cart business into the modern age is a complex challenge.

photo by Mitro Hood

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

B y

The Beast

R ic h a rd

p h oto g r a p h

O ’ M a r a

b y

ja n

g roo v e r

here I grew up there were lots of dogs and cats, mainly the latter. Between them, dogs were favored as pets. Most of the cats didn’t have homes: These we called outside cats, and they lived in rough freedom within the maze of yards and alleys behind our house, out of which surged a thick forest of ill-scented ailanthus trees. House cats also prowled around out there, but they had homes with people in them to go to every night, or now and then, or whenever they felt like it. Cats are like that. Nobody kept a cat in the house all the time. I don’t know why dogs were favored over cats as pets: Possibly because dogs scared away burglars, while cats only caught mice. But, then, we had few burglars in our neighborhood, and plenty of mice. Then, as now, I preferred cats to dogs. I often wondered why so many of my neighbors felt the other way about it. I suspected resentment because deep in their hearts they knew that cats were smarter than they were, and that when Rover sat down on command or offered his paw, he wasn’t breaking new ground in the evolutionary grind. Whereas when the cat declined to follow orders, it was expressing the independence and aloofness of the species as a whole. The cat is an animal not all people are comfortable with, probably because of feline inscrutability and hauteur—what the late essayist Agnes Repplier once called “the evil knowledge of uncanny things which is the dark inheritance of cathood.” This expression of superiority is hard for humans to accept, being the dominant mammal and all. We gave our cat a joyful appellation: Bingo. It was a vehement announcement of something positive; every day his name was shouted out from coast to coast at those familiar eponymous gaming sessions: “BINGO!” Our Bingo spent his day sleeping, climbing trees, visiting the local butcher for scraps, or sniffing out mice. He would come home at night, but only if you shouted his name into the darkness in capital letters: It wasn’t pride, I think, and cats can be prideful. No, BINGO! was half deaf. He was also not very big, although that didn’t keep him from hanging around with the larger outside cats. I think that was one of the reasons my mother fed the two outside cats, one gray and one yellow, who regularly visited our back fence—to discourage them from picking on Bingo. These cats were veterans of a hundred battles, with dogs, fellow cats, and who knows what else; they had scars visible through their fur, little pieces of their ears ripped away to attest to the precarious dynamic of their lives. They were enormous, double the size of our cat, but they balanced on the fence with inexplicable agility and poise; they argued and fought up there on that thin stage, and sang their high-pitched songs through the night. My mother once told me of the day she was carrying the wash down to the cellar, where she dried it during cold days, and saw two

urbanite july 08

Photographer Jan Groover states, “I have known fifteen cats: Livia, Tiberius, Manon, Tricoleur, Isabelle, Johnny-hock-a-day, Bruno, Calvin, Willa, Clovisetta, Louis-Deux, Henri-Quatre, Charlot, Louis, Charlotte.” She lives and works in Montpon-Menesterol, France.

Within

Are our pets like us, or the other way around? large rats huddled by the coal stove that heated the house. Frightened, she backed up and closed the door. What to do? Her attention turned to Bingo. He was, after all, the cat. So she slipped him through the door, then closed it. It took only a few minutes of his screaming and scratching for her to let him out. When she did, Bingo bolted to the back door, and emitted such a shrill whine she was forced to let him go, no doubt sending an epithet after him: “Slacker!” After ten minutes at the kitchen table fretting over what to do about the unwelcome visitors in the cellar, my mother heard that whine again at the door. Bingo was back, with his two pals. The thought that came to my mother’s mind seemed improbable. Still, she admitted all three to the house and saw them speed right to the cellar door. She opened it and they entered like hungry mongeese animated by the smell of a snake. Their work was quickly done and afterward all three heroes were allowed to stuff themselves with fresh raw hamburger. I’m not prepared to assert that those cats knew what to do the instant my mother opened the back door, or knew that they were serving her in some specific way. But if someone else cared to assert it, I wouldn’t disagree. Cats and dogs have lived with humans for millennia, and as we have learned some things about them by that closeness, they have learned something of us as well. I lived with a cat once who arrived at the foot of my bed the moment I woke every day, and if I didn’t awaken at the usual time she would gently paw my face to get me started. I lived with a dog who learned how to open a door, but never how to close it. Both responded to my voice and more or less did what I asked of them. How did they learn these skills, which made our relationships so companionable? By watching, observing. Joseph Wood Krutch, the late naturalist of some fame, believed that pets, owing to their intimacy with humans, have more opportunities to learn about us than other animals, wild or otherwise, and that they use this knowledge to their benefit, and ours. Krutch was an observer with an anthropomorphic bias. That is, he believed animals think and feel about things much the way people do—that they know melancholy, they know love, and its absence. Being “humanized,” as Henry David Thoreau put it, they are capable of change and even intellectual growth. Krutch even urged a new category for the study of animal behavior, a cohort richer in potential than the two dominant ones, wild and domesticated. He named it “the civilized animal,” by which he meant, I think, creatures like Bingo. ■ —Richard O’Mara owned a dog named Trevor Weathervane III, which was also the longtime Baltimore Sun reporter’s pseudonym when he freelanced for supermarket tabloids. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

courtesy of Mary Cadenasso

Where the Wild

urbanite july 08

Things Are Scientists explore the urban ecosystem, and our edgy relationship with wild animals B y

G r eg

H a n s c o m

P h o t o g r a ph y

b y

j ef f er s o n

s t eel e

On the hunt: Using infrared satellite imagery and the results of hours of on-the-ground observation, ecologist Chrissa Carlson found that neighborhood trees made forest patches more hospitable to birdlife.

e humans are choosy about the company we keep, particularly when it comes to animals. Dogs and cats and guppies and gerbils can share our space, but the rest of the Animal Kingdom belongs Out There, in Nature. Nature, however, has a habit of jumping fences, and when it does, Tom Scollins’ phone rings. Scollins, a compact 34-year-old who wears wraparound sunglasses, khaki fatigues, and black, police-style boots, grew up a stone’s throw from the Bronx Zoo. As a youngster, he was known to spend snowy days in the warm reptile house, watching the frogs and salamanders. (“I was kind of a strange kid,” he allows.) He went on to become a zookeeper, and worked in the Baltimore Zoo’s reptile house for a few years. He now runs TS Wildlife Control, a one-man business based out of his house in Govans. When starlings nest in the dryer vent, Scollins gets the call. When a squirrel slides down the chimney and ping-pongs around in the basement, he gets the call. When a black rat snake emerges from the shadows in the laundry room, the panicked homeowner calls Scollins—no matter the hour, no matter the weather—and asks him to come put the beast back Outside, where it belongs. Scollins has plucked a couple of wayward raccoons from the cliff face at the National Aquarium’s still-under-construction Australia exhibit. He has descended into the

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Mary Cadenasso and others have championed a new way of thinking about terrestrial ecosystems—one that takes into account the complex hodgepodge of habitat and human development that spatters a growing share of the landscape. They call the new approach “patch dynamics.” bowels of the downtown post office to flush a Cooper’s hawk out of the sorting rooms. He was once summoned to trap a groundhog that was nibbling the flowers outside a “massage parlor” on Eastern Avenue. “This woman comes to the door wearing nothing but a bra and panties,” says Scollins. “I’m standing there with my clipboard— ‘Um, did you call about a groundhog?’” Wild animals travel through our alleys and storm drains. They feed on our scraps, and nest in the overlooked corners of our at-

tics, yards, and parks. (In May, a mallard hatched eleven ducklings in a sidewalk planter on Pratt Street.) They are here in spite of, and sometimes because of, us, and they stubbornly refuse to go away. Tom Scollins understands this in-between world of urban wildlife by instinct and experience. But Baltimore has also become a

urbanite july 08

laboratory for a cadre of researchers who are trying to make sense of the “urban ecosystem.” These researchers, who hail from universities across the country, operate under the federally funded Baltimore Ecosystem Study. They are breaking scientific ground, and in the process, shining some light on our often troubled relationship with wildlife. Their research suggests that, while Baltimore’s human residents may always rule over its wild ones, this town may well be big enough for the both of us.

ntil recently, urban ecology was at best an obscure sub-discipline in a field focused on more pristine places. Mary Cadenasso, an ecologist at the University of California Davis and one of the principal researchers with the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, remembers an ecology conference in the mid-1990s. When a woman asked about her work, Cadenasso mentioned that she was researching forest patches in the Bronx. The response: “Well, that’s not ecology.” Cities, it seems, were just too messy for mainstream ecologists. The ideal study site was an island of wildlife habitat unaffected by the world around it. And in fact, islands were the inspiration for a field of ecological thinking, which was crystallized in the 1967 book The Theory of Island Biogeography by ecologist Robert MacArthur and biologist Edward O. Wilson. Here’s the Cliff ’s Notes version: Big islands closer to the mainland tend to harbor a greater diversity of wildlife than smaller, more isolated ones. It makes sense: A small isolated island is hard to get to, and even if a small population of birds, say, managed to gain a foothold, inbreeding or the inevitable tsunami or a hurricane would eventually wipe them out. These principles laid the groundwork for how people thought for decades about protecting wildlife, both on islands and off. To stave off a growing wave of extinctions, conservationists have advocated for creating large wildlife reserves across continents—the equivalent of large islands in the ocean—and then connecting them with corridors to allow animals to migrate and interbreed. But islands have proven to be imperfect metaphors. “Island biogeography theory is binary,” says Cadenasso. “It’s islands versus water, good versus bad habitat.” Most terrestrial ecosystems resist such simple divisions, she says, because the “sea” surrounding most habitat “islands” is often dotted with shrubs, trees, or other features that can be of use to wildlife. Cadenasso and others have championed a new way of thinking about terrestrial ecosystems—one that takes into account the complex hodgepodge of habitat and human development that spatters a growing share of the landscape. They call the new approach “patch dynamics,” and it’s a perfect fit for ecological studies in cities, with their ever-evolving landscapes of houses and parks, development and decay.

met Chrissa Carlson on the stoop of her Waverly rowhouse on a sunny May morning, her kinky blond hair pulled into pigtails. “I have something to show you,” said the animated 29-year-old. She disappeared inside for a moment, and returned with a small bundle folded into a brown paper bag. She carefully unwrapped a marshmallow-sized lump of black, white, gray, and yellow. “It’s a magnolia warbler,” she said. “I found it in my backyard yesterday.” We admired the dead bird, which was likely passing through when it died, headed north from its wintering grounds in Central

In Living Color

courtesy of Mary Cadenasso

teward Pickett, an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, did the pioneering work in patch dynamics in the 1970s and ’80s, working in forests in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When he moved to New York, he began to look at forests in a more urban context. (He was Cadenasso’s advisor when she was working in the Bronx.) “The more we studied these [urban] forests, the more we thought, we ecologists need to understand people. We need to work with social scientists, historians, and economists,” he says. They found those people in Baltimore. Sometime in 1993 or ’94, Pickett received an e-mail from Morgan Grove, then a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Grove had come to Baltimore in 1989 as a master’s student, and had helped set up a partnership between Yale, the nonprofit Parks & People Foundation, and what was then called the Baltimore City Department of Parks and Recreation: Called the Urban Resources Initiative, it broke new ground in natural resource management, and put Baltimore residents of all ages to work planting trees and restoring streams. For his dissertation, Grove was studying neighborhoods in the Gwynns Falls watershed, to see if class and race had any bearing on the distribution of vegetation, which slows and filters stormwater runoff. While his research was more sociology than ecology, he asked Pickett if the principles of patch dynamics still applied. “Steward was really excited. He’d finally met a social scientist who understood ecology,” says Grove. Not long thereafter, Pickett and a handful of his colleagues accepted Grove’s invitation to come to Baltimore. In addition to the Urban Resources Initiative, they found an engaged group of local, state, and federal agencies, and a city with a rich history and distinct neighborhoods that lent themselves nicely to the patch dynamics approach. “I just thought, this is the perfect place to build a new kind of ecology,” says Pickett. In 1996, Pickett, Grove, and Parks & People President Jacqueline Carrera went to the federally funded National Science Foundation, which was in the process of setting up a nationwide network of long-term ecological research sites. The following year, the foundation selected Baltimore and Phoenix, Arizona, for six-year research grants (since extended for another six years), giving urban areas a little street cred in nature-lovers’ circles, and urban ecology a significant financial boost. With Pickett as project director, Grove leading the social science, and Parks & People building local partnerships, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study has pulled together researchers from disciplines ranging from soil science to forestry and urban design. Much of the research has focused on broad systems—stormwater runoff, nitrogen cycling, socioeconomic factors shaping the urban ecosystem—but it has also looked at urban wildlife, and the results are intriguing.

“Patch dynamics” looks at the landscape as a mosaic of habitat, vegetation, and humanity, all in a state of flux. It allows scientists to examine the complex relationship between wild areas, such as this forest patch in the Gwynns Falls watershed, and the neighborhoods and developed areas around them. The approach, particularly well suited to urban areas, is giving researchers new insights into the ebb and flow of nutrients, vegetation, and wildlife—insights that could inspire a more ecologically friendly city.

Baltimore was the nexus for something that the nation—and the world—could learn from, says Steward Pickett. “I just thought, this is the perfect place to build a new kind of ecology.” America or the Caribbean. Then she took it back inside and put it in her freezer for safekeeping. (When I inquired about the bird a week later, she told me that it was in a Mason jar, embalmed in diluted vodka: “I want to display him with some of my other curiosity-shopesque objects, but he is floating at the top of the jar.”) Next, Carlson grabbed her binoculars, jammed a worn copy of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America into the back of her capris, and started down the sidewalk. As she walked, she pointed out the neighborhood’s feathery residents, which she recognized by their songs—the more reliable identification method when working in the woods, where you’d otherwise have to spot a bird the size of a fingerling potato flitting about a tangle of leaves forty feet up. “There’s a robin over there, and cardinals,” she said. “That’s a mockingbird.” She pointed toward the source of twittering over our heads: “Those are chimney swifts—the ones that look like cigars with wings.” w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Carlson was trying to show me that birds, like people, are picky when it comes to real estate. Her block, where there were a few ample yards and a scattering of trees and shrubs, seemed to suit robins, mockingbirds, and the ubiquitous lipstick-red cardinals. Just to the south, on a nearly treeless block of rowhouses, we found only house sparrows and starlings, both European imports that have made themselves all-too-comfortable in American cities. Then we walked west across Greenmount Avenue and stepped into the shady, tree-lined confines of Guilford. The air lit up with

birdsong. “There’s a Carolina wren over there,” said Carlson, pointing to a hedge across the street. We spent a few minutes ogling a chestnut-sided warbler, then walked on, Carlson pointing out a redeyed vireo, a bronze-headed cowbird, a song sparrow, and a northern parula. Our final stop was a patch of woods adjacent to Druid Hill Park, where we watched a veritable Mardi Gras parade of birdlife, including an orchard oriole, a cousin of Baltimore’s flamboyant avian icon. This tour of the town’s bird neighborhoods served as the background for Carlson’s master’s research with the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, which she told me about as we walked. In the spring and summer of 2005, Carlson frequented fifteen forest patches among the houses along the tributaries of the Gwynns Falls. Her goal was to learn something about what made the woods in these neighborhoods attractive—or not—to birds looking to hunker down and raise kids. The work was not always pleasant. She described bushwhacking through “trashy little snags of woods, practically in people’s backyards, cursing nature.” The poison ivy didn’t bother her too much, she said, “but multiflora rose and other thornies were the bane of my existence”—not to mention Lyme disease, which she fortunately discovered early enough to avoid any lasting health issues.

urbanite july 08

In the end, though, it all paid off. Carlson summed up her findings thusly: “Birds like trees.” After months of number crunching, a more nuanced picture began to emerge from her data. As island biogeography theory would dictate, the bigger forest patches harbored a richer array of bird species. But when she factored in the landscape within a 100meter buffer surrounding the woods, she saw that there was more to it. Using a land-use classification system called HERCULES (short for High Ecological Resolution Classification of Urban Landscape and Environmental Systems) developed by Mary Cadenasso, Carlson broke the buffers into seventy-two different kinds of patches, based on vegetation, buildings, and surface materials. Her results showed that forest patches in neighborhoods with lots of mature trees harbored more species than those in neighborhoods with fewer trees. In fact, contrary to popular ecological thinking, the surrounding neighborhood had a stronger bearing on the birdlife in forest patches than did the structure of the forest itself. A paper based on the study, co-authored by Carlson, Mary Cadenasso, and Gary Barrett at the University of Georgia, is being considered for publication in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. It was a single, small study, and Carlson cautions that it is difficult to draw any hard conclusions. But if her findings hold up, they have some interesting implications: What we plant in our yards can have a substantial impact on the birdlife in neighboring green spaces. In other words, all the nature-magazine admonishments about decorating your yard with wildlife-friendly native plants may be more than just hype. Baltimore is peppered with parks—six thousand acres worth. With a little work from the neighbors, those parks might be stretched to accommodate a greater diversity of wild creatures.

ll this begs the question: Is it wise to encourage wildlife to live in cities, where encounters with the dominant species often end in disaster? One need look no farther than the sides of our roads to see what happens when wild animals get too close. Exploding deer populations, which cause car crashes and spread Lyme disease, have long bedeviled Maryland suburbanites. Tom Scollins, the wildlife control expert, says that the root cause of most negative encounters with wildlife is laziness: A contractor doesn’t spend the extra few bucks to screen off a bathroom vent, creating an attractive nest hole; a motorist tosses food out the window, attracting scavengers to the roadside; a restaurant leaves its dumpster open, creating a ready-made feast. With a little more care, he says, we can learn to live together more peaceably. “We’re never going to exclude wildlife from urban areas,” he says. “We just have to learn to coexist.” Chrissa Carlson and others are quick to point out that cities will never be havens for whole, healthy wild animal communities. Where humans reign, “generalist species” that can make use of a variety of habitat and food often thrive—think raccoons and star-

lings. But there are plenty of other, more specialized creatures that will never hunker down in a little forest patch in the city. There are songbirds that would fall prey to our fluffy, subsidized predators— and then there are nature’s large predators, like bears and wolves, that need more room than even an animal-friendly city can provide; only large nature reserves will work for them. But if Baltimore can make itself more wildlife- and ecosystemfriendly, it will provide a valuable lesson for the world, says Steward Pickett. Eighty percent of Americans live in cities, and this year, the world population as a whole will pass the halfway mark: According to the United Nations, for the first time in history, more people will live in cities than out. In China, Latin America, and Africa, cities are rising almost overnight. “The bad news is that in much of the world, this urbanization is badly planned,” says Pickett. “A lot of the people moving into cities are living in shantytowns and horrible slums. Twenty-first century urbanism is showing some of the horrors of 19th century urbanism.” Unless we learn to better integrate cities into the natural world, we’re bound to repeat the mistakes of the past—on a much larger scale, says Pickett. We leave cities out of our ecological equations at our own, and the planet’s, peril.

nd cities do harbor more than just raccoons, rat snakes, and starlings. Baltimore, for its part, is a waypoint on the aerial superhighway traveled by millions of migrating birds each spring and fall—birds, like Chrissa Carlson’s magnolia warbler, that winter in the tropics, but breed up north. During migration in Patterson Park, “it can sound like you’re in the middle of Canada someplace,” says ecologist David Curson, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society’s Maryland-D.C. office. “The trees come alive with the sounds of rose-breasted grosbeaks, blackpoll warblers, and Swainson’s thrushes.” There’s another bird that makes a surprising showing here— and not just for a refueling stop. The least tern, a robin-sized seabird with knife blades for wings, flies all the way from the Caribbean to nest around Baltimore. Curson, a soft-spoken 44-year-old who got his start watching birds as a kid in London, is charged with keeping an eye on them. Curson and I load into his persnickety Toyota Matrix one early June morning and head east from his office across the street from the Patterson Perk coffee shop. Just outside the Beltway, we stop at a low, brick building emblazoned with the words “Patapsco Patriots Achieve With Integrity.” This is Patapsco High School, and the birds we’re looking for immediately show themselves, rising above the rooftop with a din of piercing cries. There was a time when least terns nested on rocky beaches and islands on the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coast. Many of those places now crawl with beachcombers or sprout houses, turf grass, and lawn sculpture, but the terns have discovered that the flat, gravel-covered roofs of schools, shopping malls, and warehouses make good surrogates. Today, there are only about 600 breeding pairs of least terns left in Maryland, where they are protected as a “threatened” species. Well over half of them nest on rooftops. In short order, Curson talks his way past the school secretary (a feat he has to repeat several times throughout the day) and into the school’s inner workings. We climb a staircase behind the stage and scale a ladder to the roof, where we huddle with binoculars and

“We’re never going to exclude wildlife from urban areas,” says Tom Scollins of TS Wildlife Control. “We just have to learn to coexist.” notepads—and the school’s building manager, who sits with quiet bemusement as we glass the birds sitting on another roof section a hundred yards away. Beneath us, the building echoes with the voices of nine hundred high school kids. Around us are rowhouses, and over the rooftops to the south, we can see the former Bethlehem Steel plant and the Sparrows Point Shipyard. But here, on this gritty rooftop island, there is a nesting colony of a rare and sensitive species. We count seventy birds in all, forty-four of them sitting with their breasts pressed down against the gravel, tails cocked up. Curson says these birds are likely incubating tiny, speckled eggs, though I can’t pick them out amid the rocks. I do spot a fuzzy, gray chick, however, that emerges from beneath one of the birds to gobble up a small fish delivered by another parent from a nearby creek. From time to time, the colony sends up a squadron of birds that circles and dives—an effective defense against crows or hawks. But up here, they don’t have to worry about cats or raccoons—or people, with the exception of an occasional maintenance worker or Curson, who is careful to disturb them as little as possible. There are those who would use the tern’s feat of adaptive re-use to argue that wild animals are capable of adjusting to a humandominated world—that they should be left to evolve or die. But the least terns on the Atlantic coast, I discover, are the exception to the rule. The country’s two other least tern populations—one that nests on the California coast, the other along the Mississippi River—sit on the brink of extinction. And there are many other examples of species that are blinking out as we carve across the landscape. Still, the tern’s story suggests that an urban world does not have to be an ecologically impoverished one. By choice or by accident, we create niches, patches, and opportunities for wild creatures. They’ll be with us as long as we’re around, doing their thing as we do ours—and with a little thought, we can make their lives easier, and our lives richer. Curson and I visit three schools and two warehouses over the course of the day, and each time, we are greeted with skepticism. Told of the birds, one janitor jokes, “Are they good to eat?” A woman working the desk at a warehouse says sure, she’s seen the birds: “They’ve been pooping all over our cars.” Curson politely answers questions, hands out literature, and tells the story of the indomitable bird on the rooftop. His enthusiasm is infectious. One employee, intrigued by Curson’s tale, asks, “Where are the birds from?” “Well,” Curson says thoughtfully, “they’re from here.” ■ —Greg Hanscom is Urbanite’s senior editor. He has a 10-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever named Finnegan. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

urbanite july 08

For some pet owners, the family animal deserves the artistic treatment

Must Love Dogs B y

M a r i a n n e

P h o t o g r a ph y

A m o s s

Jason

Okutake

n a warm Saturday in May, Ellen and Steven Gilman stood in their Greenspring Valley yard, proudly showing off their Shetland Sheepdogs, 8-year-old Annie and 5-year-old Luke. Fresh from a bath in Kiehl’s new dog shampoo, Annie reclined on the sidewalk, her black fur warming in the late-morning sun, while Luke patrolled the garden border. Like a man on safari, Robert McClintock trailed the creatures with a Nikon D200, snapping photos and trying to get their attention. It’s all in the face for McClintock, who calls himself a hybrid photographer/digital painter. The walls of his studio/shop in Fells Point are packed with images of dogs and cats, most of them looking straight into the camera. He takes photos, downloads them into his Mac, then uses a pen tool to “paint” over them in Photoshop, enhancing colors and adding shading. He then prints out an image on canvas or cotton rag paper using one of two enormous Epson pigment printers, and finally paints over it with clear acrylic, to give the finished piece some texture. The whole process takes two days. Paintings from his collection run between $12 and $1,200; commissions such as the one he’s working on today cost between $1,800 and $2,000, regardless of dimension, because McClintock can resize an image for any size canvas. McClintock grew up with dogs (although now he has just four cats at home), and some of his earliest photos were of canines. “I like things that are funny,” he says. “The art part is almost secondary to the feeling.” McClintock says he won’t do a painting of a rare or unusual breed for his collection (although he will do one on commission), because it won’t sell—one of his bestsellers these days is an image of a chocolate lab puppy. His work is successful,

Man’s best friend: Pet painter Gil Jawetz with his favorite model, Pete w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

urbanite july 08

he says, partly because of the composition of his photographs. “I like these sort of in-your-face looks.” That signature McClintock shot is not always easy to get, even with relatively well-behaved dogs like Annie and Luke. On that day, McClintock suggested a few positions and locations, but the dogs preferred to sit together on a chair in the bedroom. “They like to sit together,” said Ellen. “They love to sit together,” said Steven. The animals were hyper-alert to their owners’ movements; when Ellen left the room to fetch some dog cookies, Luke jumped off the chair and ran to the door, ruining the shot. When one dog looked into the camera, the other would look away; when one sat down, the other would stand up. Finally, the pups quieted enough for McClintock to snap a few good pictures (Annie lying down, Luke sitting). “Oh, wow,” said Ellen. “Lukey’s got such expression.” The portrait that McClintock will do is a gift from Steven for her birthday, she said. The couple has rescued a number of Shelties over the years. Ellen even wrote a children’s book with her daughter-in-law about Molly, their first rescue, and is shopping around for an agent. “What I love about [McClintock’s] pictures is that they truly show the personality of the dog,” said Ellen, who first saw his work two years ago in a show at the Rotunda. “He really captures it.” McClintock packed the camera away and headed out to his car. Annie and Luke ran out onto the deck, poked their heads under the railing, and sat down next to each other— motionless, alert, and perfectly posed. “Of course,” McClintock said, as he started unpacking his equipment again.

says. “[Paintings that focused on dogs] are a 19th century phenomenon.” Secord has written three books about canine portraiture, including Dog Painting, 1840–1940, a Social History of the Dog in Art. His interest in the field was sparked in the 1980s, when he was

named the founding director of the Dog Museum of America, now called the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. When the museum relocated to St. Louis, Secord stayed behind in New York City and, in 1990, opened his gallery full of dog paintings, bronzes, and works on paper. “Once I got started I couldn’t stop,” he says. “I have a collection of 2,500 books on dogs, starting from 1802 up to the present.” ccording to the most recent National Pet Owners Survey, 71.1 What’s the appeal? “I like dogs, number one, but it’s not just million American households include a companion animal about liking dogs,” he says. “It’s a fascination with the history and (44.8 million contain dogs, 38.4 million boast cats). Our affection for development of the breeds, but also the relationship people have our domesticated friends compels us to spend upwards of $40 bilwith their dogs.” lion as a country on pet care, food, supplies, and services. That figure Secord says that while dog portraits were considered maindoesn’t include the cost of immortalizing our animals on canvas. stream in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, academic painting Pet portraiture isn’t for the shallow-pocketed: Depending on is no longer in vogue; modern-day dog portraitists who work in this the medium and size, paintings can cost anywhere from a few hun- traditional formal style are on the fringes of the art world. Secord dred dollars to the tens of thousands. But for a number of pet lovrepresents three living artists, among them Baltimorean Christine ers, a lovingly done, true-to-life portrait is an investment—a tribute Merrill, with whom he’s worked for twenty years. to the animals that are our friends, our confidantes, our roommates, The interior of the Homeland house Merrill shares with her our life partners. husband and three rescues—a twenty-pound Pomeranian named Painting animals isn’t new—the animal form has fascinated Rudy, a Chihuahua named Brady, and a Norwegian elkhound humans since the Stone Age—and William Secord, an authority on dubbed Misty of Homeland—is packed with paintings of dogs: 19th century dog painting, dates formal dog portraiture to as early meticulously rendered basset hounds, Pomeranians, and Papillionas the Renaissance. Secord is the owner of an eponymous gallery spaniel mixes against serene landscapes, each in a heavy gilt frame in New York’s Upper East Side that, he says, is the only one in the affixed with a brass nameplate. Like her mother, Louise, Merrill country to specialize in fine-art renderings of dogs. According to attended the arch-traditional Schuler Art School, a mid-town acadhim, the real heyday of dog painting began in the middle of the 19th emy that teaches classic oil painting techniques. Her father, Walter, century, when an emerging British middle class began to devote who was the real estate editor of the Baltimore News American for some of its leisure time to dog shows and field trials. Proud ownmore than thirty years, was a great dog lover, she says. “The dog ers often wanted their champions captured in portraits. “Up until thing came from my dad.” the 18th century, 99 percent of the time the dog was adjunct to the Merrill’s clients include Oprah Winfrey, Bob Schieffer, and principal subject matter of the painting—in a people portrait,” he Malcom Forbes; she’s painted former First Dog Millie, George and

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

LAKEFRONT LIVING HAS NEVER BEEN SO AFFORDABLE SO WHY WAIT? BEAZER.COM

QUARRY LAKE AT GREENSPRING The Highlands from the low $300s – garage condominiums with panoramic views If the remarkable setting beside a 42-acre lake isn’t enough, how about an inside-the-Beltway location? Or the wealth of amenities and conveniences such as The Lakeshore Club with clubhouse, game room, fitness center, pool and more? There’s also tennis courts and walking paths. And it’s an easy stroll to The Shops for dining, shopping and conveniences. The Beltway is 1 mile away and you can be on I-83 to downtown in 5 minutes.

If you think the outside is impressive, just wait until you see what’s inside. Spacious 2-bedroom/2-bath floor plans with optional sitting room • Superior ﬁnishes including hardwood foyers, dramatic 9-ft. ceilings, tray ceilings and crown & chair moldings • Deluxe kitchens with GE® appliances and pantries • Private patios and decks (per plan) • 4 decorated models open to tour From I-695, take exit 22, Greenspring Ave. Go south approx. 1 mile and make a right onto Quarry Lake Drive. Follow Quarry Lake Dr. past retail buildings to a right on Travertine Drive. Models and New Home Information Center are located in the first building. Open Mon. 2 – 6 pm, Tues. – Sun. 11 am – 6 pm. 410-415-5357

Beazer Realty, Inc. u r b a n i t e 410.539.9295 july 08

Brokers Welcome. Prices, availability and features are subject to change without notice. MHBR #93

Barbara Bush’s spaniel, as well as a pack of family dogs from lessfamous households, a few champion show dogs, and a menagerie of other companion animals, like parrots and horses. Her commissions cost between $3,000 and $45,000, depending on the size of the canvas and the number of animals portrayed. “I love to fulfill a purpose, like tailor-making a suit or dress,” she says. “I’d rather make the haute couture of pet painting.” Larger oil paintings can take months to complete, she says, and preparing for a show can take her upwards of two years. Like most animal portraitists, she doesn’t attempt to get her subjects to hold a pose for a live sitting. She photographs her subjects first, then works up a sketch, then moves to paint. In the classical style, Merrill usually poses her subjects sideways, or so that they show threequarters of their body—“You want a good view of the body,” she says—and sometimes includes a significant landmark in the background. “Christine not only depicts the dog’s anatomy, coat texture, and expression, but also puts them in a context of either a landscape or a person’s home and captures the unique, individual expression and character of that particular dog,” says Secord. “It’s not a generic portrait of a dog. It’s that dog.” Many of her non-celebrity clients are empty nesters or childless couples who want a trueto-life portrait to hang over their mantle—and, sometimes, over their bed. “It’s the purest relationship,” says Merrill of the owner-dog bond. She makes an effort to personally meet all her clients, most of which are from outside of Baltimore, and quizzes the owners about where the pet sleeps and what it eats. “[All of that] goes into a holistic portrait,” she says. “What can I put into those eyes to say, ‘I am this’?”

n 2004, Gil Jawetz and his girlfriend were living in New York; he was working at a new media company, while she was working as a freelance writer. Inspired by her research into Norman Rockwell, he took a figure oil painting class at the Art Students League. He’d been drawing his whole life, secretly filling sketchbooks with drawings of people riding the subway. But that year, he began painting in earnest—often depicting his and his friends’ pets. In 2005, Jawetz and his girlfriend moved back to Baltimore, where he’d attended Hopkins as an undergraduate. Now he works in a small studio off York Road in Homeland, not far from Christine Merrill’s house. (They met while, yes, walking their dogs). His canvases are hung on the walls and propped up on easels, and a few art books—Lucian Freud, Egon Schiele—sit on a bookshelf. Jawetz, who paints with oils, often references their work, and that of others like Rembrandt and Degas, for their well-rendered paintings of dogs. “It’s awesome for me to look at that tradition,” he says. “How did Rembrandt paint a dog? Why did he put it in there? It’s exciting to look at the history of art and not think this is a cheesy, kitschy thing.” He often paints his own pets—Pete, a white shepherd lab mix he found in a park, and three cats: the Count, Mr. Darcy, and Pepe. Jawetz also does commissioned paintings of other people’s animals. “The techniques [of portraiture] haven’t changed for centuries,” he says. “To some, figurative work is so old-fashioned. But there is

an endless amount of figurative imagery to create and explore.” He tries to get to know his subjects before painting them, then communicate their personalities through his technique. His loose brushstrokes impart a sense of motion—an overall idea of the animal, rather than a detailed picture. “It’s the impression rather than the accuracy of form,” he says. “It’s more true to the subject.” It takes Jawetz four to five weeks to do a commission. He first photographs the pet and meets the family, then does sketches be-

fore moving on to canvas—all the while coordinating with the client to make sure the “soul” of the painting is right. “When someone says my dog died or I just adopted [one], I feel it,” he says. “I want to get a sense of where they’re coming from and use that.” Jawetz’s prices, based on size, range from several hundred dollars to about $2,000. Jawetz also works with area rescue organizations, often donating a painting to their fundraising events. “I’m a pet person,” he says. “I wouldn’t do this if I weren’t.” In 2007, he hung a solo show of dog paintings for the grand opening of the Yellow Dog Tavern in Canton. This month, to celebrate the bar’s one-year anniversary, he’s exhibiting a new series of pet paintings there. Called Human(e) Beings, the show will depict animals with their humans—an attempt to explore that easy-to-feel but hard-to-express pet-owner relationship. “It’s very hard to talk about,” he says. “It’s very intimate. They know you in ways that we probably can’t understand. They would know the most miniscule inflection in your voice or some gesture that you make that you’re not even aware that you do. Trying to capture that relationship is a pretty cool challenge.” ■ —Marianne Amoss is Urbanite’s managing editor. She has a 10month-old cat named Milla that she found on St. Paul Street. Web extra: For images of the artists’ work, and resources on where to adopt a rescued animal or what to do if you find a stray, go to www. urbanitebaltimore.com. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

GREAT FAUCETS Choosing the right faucet for your bathroom or kitchen can be a daunting decision. We have a wide variety to choose from in our showroom. For dependable, stylish faucets that will last many years, it’s time to Step Up to KOHLER. Durable construction and rigorous testing ensure a lifetime of exceptional performance. The only problem may be choosing from the extraordinary range of exclusive styles, colors and finishes - there is something for every decor. Step Up to KOHLER today by visiting The Somerville Showroom near you.

KOHLER Touchless™ Faucet with Tripoint™ Technology.

Purist® Single-Control Lavatory Faucet on a Yin Yang™ Wading Pool® Lavatory

KOHLER Touchless™ Faucet with Tripoint™ Technology.

www.tsomerville.com

KOHLER Simplice™ Pullout Kitchen Faucet with Contemporary Soap-Lotion Dispenser

Maryland | Virginia | Pennsylvania | Washington, D.C. | West Virginia

space

A L S O I N S PA C E : 65 Progress Report Inside Federal Hill’s new “library”

69 The Drawing Board Architects Klaus Philipsen and Matthew Fitzsimmons propose a bold transformation of the 1st Mariner Arena site

Landmark Decision Don’t look now, but that famous building in your neighborhood might not be protected BY MIKE DOMINELLI

PHO TO GRA PH Y BY JA S ON OKU TA K E

Built in the streamlined, austere classical style popular in the 1930s, the Scottish Rite Masonic Center on North Charles Street looks more like a library or a museum than the event space it now is. Monumental marble stairs lead from the street up to a double-height portico. Its strict symmetry and neoclassical facade stand in stark contrast with its Tuscany-Canterbury neighbors, the Modernist-style Highfield House and other apartment high-rises. And about a year ago, the building was in danger of being destroyed. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Previous Page: Not a Landmark: The baroque-Italian-style St. Mary’s Seminary (5400 Roland Ave.) is the oldest seminary in the United States; it moved to its current location from the west side in 1927 and was completed in 1954. The site comprises almost fifty-nine acres of developable land in Roland Park and is valued at more than $32 million.

Protected: The classical-style Scottish Rite Masonic Center (3800 N. Charles St.) was almost sold to developers. At the community’s request, CHAP has voted to add the building to the landmark rolls, which would likely prevent demolition or inaccurate alteration of the building. It should be officially added to the roster by fall.

Not a Landmark: School 33 Art Center (1427 Light St.) has provided artist exhibition and education space for more than twenty years at the southern end of Federal Hill. The city doesn’t have many 19th century schoolhouses left, but they all seem to have similar imposing, turreted facades. The programs here are funded by the city, which also owns the building. It is valued at about $700,000, and Baltimore is facing budget deficits.

The ornate building sits on a large piece of densely developable land in an affluent residential neighborhood. When rumors that the Masons were planning to sell began to circulate, neighbors feared possible demolition and redevelopment. Preservationists and neighborhood activists spent the summer of 2007 lobbying the owners and the city, and they were able to save the building through a process called landmarking. Landmarking is meant to preserve buildings of historical and cultural significance by protecting them from demolition or historically inaccurate alteration. Although more than 8,000 buildings are within Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural

urbanite july 08

Preservation (CHAP) historic districts or are individual landmarks, a surprising number of significant buildings and neighborhoods are not protected. Roland Park, for instance, has only the very limited protection of National Register designation, which can prevent buildings inside its boundaries from being knocked down by the government, but doesn’t necessarily keep a homeowner from painting his grand English Tudor-style house pink, or tearing it down completely. Landmarking is a quietly bureaucratic process that doesn’t possess the drama or the pageantry of waving protest signs at advancing bulldozers. But many city neighborhoods are learning that it can be the best way to pre-

serve their history. And it’s becoming easier to achieve. Until about four years ago, landmarks were only designated with the property owner’s consent, and usually at the owner’s request. But in recent years there have been more landmark designations made at the behest of the surrounding community—occasionally over the protest of property owners. The increase in community-inspired landmarking is partly due to the changes at CHAP. In 2004, CHAP merged with the city planning department, providing the commission with more staff people with experience in the field; in 2006, a new troupe of commissioners—including Tyler Gearhart, executive director of Preservation Maryland,

space

Not a Landmark: Atomic Books (1100 W. 36th St.) is a rare bit of highstyle Georgian Revival in the middle of Hampden. Built in the early 1900s as a bank, its multi-paned windows, cupola, and thick brick walls contrast with its diminutive size. Zoning allows additional stories to be built on top of it as-of-right, with no public input. Landmark status would most likely prevent this.

Not a Landmark: The former Patterson Park Junior High School (101 S. Ellwood Ave.), just east of Patterson Park, might be the best Art Deco building in the city. It was built in 1933 and takes up a full city block. Its seven stories of Bauhaus-inspired industrialism tower over the surrounding two-story rowhouses, but its bulk feels more monumental than overwhelming, and its size is softened by the warm, multicolored brick banding and large steel windows that stripe its facade. Used until 2006 as Highlandtown Middle School, the now-vacant structure is valued at $23 million and has been offered up to developers.

and historian Philip J. Merrill, who specializes in African American history—was installed. “Our current commissioners have been more proactive on designation,” says Edward Leon, a city planner in the preservation division. The increase in community-based landmarking also reflects changes in public attitude, both in Baltimore and elsewhere. “Now is an exciting time for preservation. It’s becoming more mainstream, and more embraced by the public,” says local preservationist Eric L. Holcomb, author of the 2005 book The City as Suburb: A History of Northeast Baltimore Since 1660. Citizens need to discuss which structures need protection, before demolition or

redevelopment becomes an issue. If a group or neighborhood association feels a building is significant enough to preserve, it has to write letters to the mayor, the district’s City Council representative, and to CHAP requesting landmark designation. CHAP will then research the building, hold a public hearing, and vote on the suggestion. Finally, the planning commission, the city council, and the mayor have to sign off on the bill. The whole process takes several months, but it can be effective: “In all but the most unusual of circumstances, local landmark designation prevents demolition,” says Leon. Should the main Pratt Library on Cathedral Street be a landmark? It’s not. How about

the domed Johns Hopkins Hospital on Broadway? It’s not. These are obvious candidates, though. What about the buildings that may be under the radar of the city as a whole, but are essential features of their communities? What about that great old building with the odd history or beautiful architecture right around the corner from your house? Now’s the time to ask. ■ —Mike Dominelli, an engineer for the Baltimore firm Kennedy, Porter & Associates, wrote about the architectural value of pre-war public housing in the March issue.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

The Residences at Oella Mill—Unique Apartment Homes on the Patapsco River.

The Genuine Article. Within walking distance of historic Ellicott City.

Incredible views of the wooded hillsides are framed by huge, factory-style windows. Classic exposed-brick walls complement state-of-the-art appliances. At Oella Mill, the beautifully preserved historic industrial structure stands in sharp contrast to run-of-the-mill apartment buildings. And it’s your one-of-a-kind opportunity to live in modern luxury with genuine historic ambiance. Studios, 1- & 2-bedroom apartments & lofts and 2-level apartment homes from $1,369.

BY MARIANNE AMOSS

Reading room: A small foyer conducts visitors into the large main room of the former library, which once housed the circulation desk. The back of the building, separated from the main space by glass doors, contained the stacks. Some of the original moldings and wainscoting remain, plus the original hardwood ﬂoor. The sculptures are by Virginia artist R.L. Croft.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE GUMMERSON

Progress Report

space

Inside Federal Hill’s new “library”

ast year, Jason Hughes, an artist and independent curator who founded Gallery Four in the H&H building, and his girlfriend, Franciska Farkas, a yoga instructor/video production artist, felt that they might have reached the limits of what Baltimore could offer them. Hughes had spent twelve years living and working in the H&H building on the west side, where he worked with a crew of six to put on exhibits; now, he was ready to strike out on his own. Hughes began comparing rental rates for spaces that would accommodate an exhibition space in Baltimore and New York, where his artist friends seemed to be thriving. Browsing Craigslist.com one night, he found a notice placed by Mimi Roeder Vaughan, the founder and president of several travel agencies in Baltimore, for a small church on Falls Road and 38th Street that she had been using for her Falls Road Travel agency. He and Far-

kas were interested in the space, but Vaughan, who owns twenty-seven properties in the area, was uncomfortable with the way Hughes wanted to divide up the interior, so the deal fell through. A few months later, Vaughan called back and suggested that the couple look at one of her other properties, a former Pratt library branch at 1401 Light Street in South Baltimore. One of four original main Pratt branches (it was built in 1886), the 2,500-square-foot building is deceptively small: forty feet wide and seventy feet long. The structure functioned as a library until 1971, when the new Light Street branch was built and the city declared it a surplus. Architect Peter Doo (a 2008 Urbanite Project participant) purchased it from the city in 1988 for $20,000 and converted it into a dwelling, restoring the hardwood pine floors, installing a kitchen, and dividing the interior space with glass doors.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

RESIDENCES AT

Park Avenue I & II

Residences at Park Avenue II 2204 Park Avenue Baltimore, MD 21217 443-791-PARK (7275)

This summer, look at bugs in a whole new way. Liven-up your walls with art from PHEROMONE by Chris Marley. Select from a vast collection of beetles, butterflies, shells and sea creatures beautifully arranged and framed. To see them up-close and personal, visit Baltimore’s exclusive dealer...

www.residencesatparkavenue.com

1 BRs at $149k 2 BRs starting at $179k OPEN EVERY Sunday 11:00 am–1:00 pm

Amenities include:

Gourmet kitchens with stainless steel appliances, maple cabinets & granite countertops, Washer & Dryer, Large tiled balconies, hardwood floors, luxury bathrooms with ceramic tile, and Electronic entry/Security system Walking distance to Druid Hill Park, MICA and Bolton Hill Easy access to I83, Light Rail, MARC and Amtrak

Team Maryland/ Long & Foster Realtors James DiGirolamo Associate Broker 443-506-2598

space

Owner Mimi Roeder Vaughan calls the building one of her “jewels,” and also a “money pit”— especially the slate roof, in which she’s invested more than $20,000. She’s been offered $1 million for the space, but says she’d be willing to sell it to current tenants Jason Hughes and Fran Farkas for slightly less. “Money isn’t everything,” she says.

After living there with his family, Doo sold the building to Vaughan in 1992. She has since rented it out to a string of “quirky artists”— including a photographer who so stuffed the main room with stacks of his photographs that he couldn’t live in it, and, more recently, a group of musicians who christened the space “the Library of Progress,” decorating the foyer floor in a mosaic emblazoned with that name. “I had admired the building from the outside for years but had never been inside,” says Hughes. “As soon as we walked in, we knew the potential of what we were being offered.” They plan to just call the building “The Library,” evoking the building’s original purpose by teaming up with politically and socially conscious artists to do lectures, exhibitions, artists residencies, and more. Hughes wants to curate three or four gallery shows a year, focusing on sculptural works, while maintaining flat files of other artists’ works. “The space attracts energy,” says Hughes. “It’s the idea of the library—there are ideas coming in, incubating, and going back out.” Hughes and Farkas will also coordinate projects with their sub-tenant, video producer and director Maureen Martin. If Far-

kas and Martin do a video project (they are tentatively calling their collaborations Work in Progress), Hughes may put up a show or schedule programming that relates to their work. And when Farkas holds yoga classes, she says, they just do the poses around the sculptures. The April 12 grand opening attracted some familiar faces, but also many people Hughes had never met. “Hopefully we can entice the Federal Hill locals enough to become interested in contemporary art,” he says. “This is greatly important—a new collector base needs to emerge in Baltimore, because there is so much great work out there.” ■ —Marianne Amoss is Urbanite’s managing editor. The Library’s latest exhibit, a group show titled Passage, runs through August 9, with an Artscape reception July 12, 3–6 p.m. The gallery is open Thurs–Sat noon–5 p.m., or by appointment for groups. For more information about the exhibit, yoga classes, and other upcoming events, go to www.thelibraryproject.net or call 443-708-0282. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Will the Internet ever really replace paper?

Read articles, link to advertisers, view Urbanite videos, and sign up to receive our biweekly e-blast. www.urbanitebaltimore.com

urbanite july 08

The Drawing Board

space

Got an idea about how to build a better city? Draw us a picture.

well NSIT c ove onnecte The W rcom e d e th , partic st Side is la u ck o larly th district h f int er-m e majo as an a r fix oda bun e l co nne d trans dance o ctivi i ty a t ser vic f transi nd b e t eco s like th ser vice me a ke e light s availa ra y no b de i il, Met le to re ro s n th side u e ci ty w bway, nts, wo rk an here mult d the f ers, and u iple mod ture Red visitors . es o f pu Line. Th Howev e blic e mas arena r, trans it s tra nsit site has ser vice con nect the pot s are no enti . al to t

Each month, Urbanite will give architects, planners, and everybody else a place to sketch their innovative solutions to urban design problems. This month, architects Klaus Philipsen and Matthew Fitzsimmons of the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) propose an alternative vision for 1st Mariner Arena. The two are members of AIA’s Urban Design Committee, a volunteer group that issued a position paper arguing for redeveloping the site in April. If you have a big idea for Baltimore—wild, practical, or in between—let us know: E-mail us at editor@urbanitebaltimore.com.

ARENA

METAMORPHOSIS The Baltimore Development Corporation is presently considering options for replacing 1st Mariner Arena. Before that decision is made, AIABaltimore’s Urban Design Committee wants to discuss the future of the current site. That discussion should address unlocking the site’s enormous potential.

THE PROBLEM

TRA

The 11,000-seat arena was built in 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center and has hosted many events over the last forty-six years. The arena is centrally located in the West Side district, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor, University Center, Camden Yards, and Mount Vernon. The site is rooted in history: Liberty Street, which borders the arena to the northwest, was once the western edge of the city, which accounts for its unique diagonal character. Today, the historic street grid no longer exists. The arena’s massive scale disrupts Liberty and Redwood streets, truncating Liberty Street at Baltimore Street and disabling direct circulation to Howard Street and Camden Yards. It blocks connections between the vital University Center THE IDEA district and the Charles Street corridor. And it does not We propose restoring the arena site’s original street grid, utilizing respond architecturally to the demanding street grid: the various angles of the grid to create an instantly recognizable Where Liberty Street terminates, the arena fails to heart of the revitalized West Side. become a focal, landmark structure. Successful urban neighborhoods require a hierarchy and a variety of street types. Lombard Guiding Principles for Redevelopment Street, Baltimore Street, and Hopkins Place carry high volumes of traffic, but none accommo• Create blocks framed by the historic street grid dates the needs of the pedestrian. Conversely, Hopkins Plaza redevelopment, just east of • Seek intense, mixed-use development with ﬁrst-ﬂoor retail to encourage the arena, changed Redwood Street from a active streetscapes fully functioning street to a pedestrian walk. In addition, limited vehicular access and • Improve circulation and connectivity, especially along Redwood Street, parking on nearby Howard Street has reLiberty Street, and toward the Convention Center and stadiums duced the appeal of this formerly vibrant retail corridor. • Create an inter-modal transit center with a clearly understood space where Overall, the current building condowntown bus, light rail, and metro transit services converge (including the fufiguration, appearance, and land use ture Red Line) of the arena site present a serious impediment to the West Side Strategic Plan. Matthew J. Fitzsimmons, LEED AP & Klaus Philipsen, AIA, LEED AP w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

DINING OUT Baltimore Restaurant Week JULY 26-AUGUST 3 www.baltimorerestaurantweek.com

Da Mimmo Finest Italian Cuisine

Voted 2008’s Favorite Restaurant Award by the Restaurant Association of Maryland

Come Celebrate Restaurant Week with Us & Receive a Surprise Gift to Use at a Future Date! 217 South High St, Little Italy 410.727.6867 www.damimmo.com

“Best Crabs in Baltimore”

- Everyday with Rachel Ray

At Mo’s, We have a Extensive Menu & Generous Portions. Featuring Chesapeake Bay Regional Specialities. Mo’s has the Best & Freshest Seafood Baltimore has to offer. 410.837.1600 Open 7 Days a Week 11am to 1am Little Italy/Inner Harbor

Urbanite reaches more than 160,000 readers each month, 20 percent of which dine out four or more times per week. Advertise your restaurant specials and promotions in Urbanite’s “Eat/Drink” section and see results.

For more information, contact us at 410-243-2050

urbanite july 08

photo by Jim Burger

eat/drink Dinner, American style: Rafael Alvarez defends the endangered family meal (p. 73).

73 Slow, Cooking

On taking time out for dinner by Ra f a e l A l v a r e z

75 Recipe

Meatloaf for a crowd

77 Reviewed

The Wine Market and Baltimore Pho

Wine & Spirits

The Feed

Champagne dreams

This month in eating

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Two New DiNiNg DesTiNaTioNs iN

The holland Tack FacTory 1300 BaNk sTreeT, BalTimore, marylaND 21231

t s u n a m i

Relaxed, Savvy Service ... Flavorful, Healthy and Authentic Cuisine Ranging from Mild to “Thai Hot” ... Inspired, Exotic Cocktails ... A Loft Bar with a Scene as

Harbor East 1001 Fleet St. 410-528-1640

Spicy as the Crispy Duck ...

410.327.1370

Urban Chic in

Reservations

The World’s leading natural & organic foods supermarket

Baltimore City.

asian fusion . sushi steak . martini

Culinary masterpieces from a menu that pairs common ingredients with uncommon combinations!

Mt. Washington 1330 Smith Ave. 410-532-6700

“The Most Wildly Imaginative Chef in Baltimore”

www.wholefoods.com

Baltimore Sun

Dinner: Wed - Sun 5pm -10pm Unique bar fare til 1am - Open til 2am Happy Hour: 5pm - 7pm and 11pm - 1am $2 off appetizers, beer, wine & speciality cocktails Closed Monday and Tuesday Canton at 3123 Elliott Street | 410.878.6542 | jacksbistro.net

• Brunch on Sundays (11:00-4:00) • Lunch, Tuesday-Friday • Dinner 7 days a week

Patio Now Open! Baltimore’s Best Restaurants 2006, 2007, 2008, Top 25 Brunches 2007 Best Wine List 2008

- Baltimore Magazine

921 East Fort Ave., Baltimore, MD 21230 at the Foundry on Fort Phone: 410.244.6166 • www.the-wine-market.com

urbanite july 08

Feature of the Month Taste the Pie in July Nothing says “America” like a good old apple pie! Throughout the month of July we will be offering our delicious Apple, Cherry Lattice, Blueberry and Strawberry Rhubarb pies at a deep-dish discount. So be sure to relax this summer and taste the pies in July.

Free Parking! at both locations

F e at u r e

EAT/DRINK

Bring the family: The Krastel clan assembles for dinner. Social scientists say eating meals together is an essential—and increasingly neglected—part of raising healthy kids.

Slow, Cooking

The time-bending power of the family meal by rafael alvarez photography by Jim burger

Patience attains all … —St. Teresa of Avila

nd now we come to Zen and the Art of Mary Krastel’s homemade meatloaf. For years, the Krastel family gathered ’round Mary’s succulent sculpture of ground beef and ketchup in a tiny kitchen on Louise Avenue in Hamilton. Comfort food tended to rule the menu in this household: casseroles made with Campbell’s soup, spaghetti, fish on Friday, pork chops when they were on sale, all as familiar as the checks on the tablecloth. It may have looked like dinner, but it was much more. “We made a conscious effort to have good meals in a relaxed atmosphere,” says Bill Krastel, 68, whose German-American parents bought the house near Old Harford Road in 1940 and served up many a sauerbraten there. “It was a time to enjoy each other’s company,

and that’s what we wanted. Not just leaning over the table and gobbling it down. But waiting until everyone is seated, saying grace, and having our meal … talking about whatever happened that day.” In an America seventy years removed from William Livens’ invention of the home dishwasher—an incessantly beeping 21st century in which the technology that promised all the time in the world has stolen every spare moment—sitting down to family dinner makes life move a little more slowly. (I leave it to you to define family. Anyone you care about will do.) The idea that regular family meals keep our time in this world from hurtling by can’t be proven, any more than the belief that prayer changes things, but those who practice the discipline know it to be true, as sure as they know that every now and then the potatoes will be overcooked. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

baltimore’s newest "It's all kind of sexy, really..."

most exciting restaurant

Richard Gorelick, City Paper

Baltimore Pho serves traditional Vietnamese and fusion cuisine in a fully renovated space complete with a welcoming bar and friendly staff

Happy Hour ~ Monday–Friday 4-7pm. $2.00 Off All Drinks $1.00 Off Most Beers (Complimentary Appetizers - Chef's Choice)

Monday Night ~ SIN Night (Service Industry Night) 2 for 1 Rail Drinks, $1.00 Off any beer.

Tuesday Night ~ 1/2 Price Wine Night. (Glass or Bottle) Wednesday Night ~ Scheduled Guest Bartender Night. *Inquire* (Help support your favorite charitable organization, 10% of proceeds during your shift donated)

Thursday Night ~ Absolutely Girls Night Out !!! $4.00 Absolute Vodka Drinks, Also Other Drink Specials.

'Baltimore Pho is a bright oasis." Elizabeth Large, Sun Restaurant Critic

1116 hollins street baltimore, md 21223 410.752.4746 hours: 11am –10 pm, bar: stays open ’til sunday closed across the street from historic hollins market former location of the cultured pearl

No uParking r b a n i t e Worries j u l y 0 8 Here! 74

www.baltimorepho.com

A zen postulate, at odds with the assurance that machines will provide us peace and leisure, holds that effort put into spiritual pursuits (and certainly breaking bread with kin qualifies) makes time instead of taking time. “Eating dinner together slows us down,” says Cathy Krastel Goucher, 35, an art therapist living in Charles Village with husband Jason, a city firefighter, son Angus, and daughter Thea. Cathy plans menus two weeks ahead of time in coordination with Jason’s firehouse schedule. “My son asks a lot of big

Kids who have more than three meals a week with family tend to do better in school, postpone losing their virginity, and improve their vocabulary. questions, like how does food get digested. The dinner table is the time and place for him to learn how to make conversation.” This process is critical, according to social scientists. “[Children] learn who they are through ritual, and family dinner is an activity that feeds the mind, body, and soul,” says Dr. Fred H. Strieder, director of Family Connections, an outreach program for West Baltimore families based at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “But it’s not magic. You have to work at it. To the degree that there is family cohesion—and it doesn’t just fall into place by itself—families tend to be healthier.” In April, the Baltimore-based nonprofit The Family Tree, which works to prevent child abuse, distributed posters around town urging folks to sit down and eat together. The group cites statistics from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, which published a 2005 study on American family eating patterns. According to the study, children who eat less than three meals a week with their family are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, suffer depression, develop eating disorders, and consider suicide. Kids who do have more than three meals a week with family tend to do better in school, postpone losing their vir-

ginity, and improve their vocabulary. The research says that the quality of the food isn’t as important as whether we listen and speak to one another while dining (not, of course, with your mouth full). Bill and Mary Krastel began their family—Cathy was followed a few years later by daughter Karen—in the early 1970s. It was a time of Watergate burglars and Orioles in the World Series, when mothers across the nation were going to work and outside-of-school activities were becoming as important as doing homework in your room until Mom called out that dinner was ready. The combined efforts of Bill (he was the home-right-after-work insurance man who washed the dishes) and Mary (a teacher who did the cooking and didn’t return to the classroom until her kids were in school) rippled through their children: When Karen went away to college in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, she was surprised to find out that a lot of the other kids came from “fend for yourself ” families. It was one of those lessons they can’t teach in school—that moment when you realize that not everybody grew up the way you did. “Most of them were excited to be away from their families,” she says. “I missed mine.” And that, say people who study the ever-changing organism called the American family, is because she actually knew her family better than kids who grew up grabbing a sandwich on their way out the door. “We always waited for one another before we ate,” says Bill. The magic wasn’t to be found on the plate: It didn’t matter if it was meatloaf or leftovers or the old Krastel recipe for sour beef and dumplings. The magic was platters of food being passed around the table, like the hands of a clock. These days, Karen is an actress living in Merchantville, New Jersey. She and husband Ian are expecting their first child this summer—a boy—and Karen is already envisioning the family dinners to come. She’s not sure what the menu will be—betting money says it won’t be fish sticks—only that they will sit together, eat, and talk. “It’s going to be tricky,” she says. “But I can’t see it not happening.” ■

recipe

EAT/DRINK

Mary Krastel’s “Enough for a Crowd” Meatloaf 4 lbs ground beef 1 large onion 3 tbs chopped fresh parsley 4–5 slices white bread, either broken into pieces or cubed 1 tbs yellow mustard 1 ⁄³ cup ketchup 3 eggs Salt and pepper to taste ½ tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all ingredients together with a large fork, or with your hands. If it doesn’t seem moist enough, just add another egg or a little milk. Shape into 2 or 3 loaves and place in casserole dish or large oiled baking pan. Squirt the tops of the loaves with more ketchup (optional). Bake for 1 to 1½ hours.

—Rafael Alvarez is a writer based in Highlandtown and Hollywood. His e-mail address is dumpling@alvarezfiction.com.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

TREMONT GRAND 225 NORTH CHARLES ST. SUNDAY, JULY 13, 2008 NOON– 6PM

HOSTED BY SANDRA PINCKNEY of Food Finds on the Food Network

Enjoy cooking demos, wine tastings, food sampling, and more!

TED ALLEN

TV PERSONALITY AND COOKBOOK AUTHOR Cooking expert on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy;; Judge on Food Network’s Iron Chef America and Bravo’s Top Chef

FIN

FEATURED CHEFS

WARREN BROWN Host of Sugar Rush on The Food Network; owner of CakeLove and Love Café

MARTHA HALL FOOSE Executive Chef of the Viking Cooking School; author of Screen Doors and Sweet Tea

JERRY EDWARDS, CPCE Corporate Chef and Owner, Chef’s Expressions

MICHAEL COSTA—PAZO Restaurant

WILL KOCH—Baltimore’s Tremonts

BENJAMIN ERJAVEC —The Oceanaire Seafood Room

KEVIN MILLER—Ixia Restaurant

GARRETT GOOCH —Watertable Restaurant

FABIO MURA—Blue Sea Grill

Also Featuring: MICHAELE WEISSMAN—Food Journalist, author of God in a Cup.

WINE SEMINARS TIM HANNI—Master of Wine, creator of Vignon Flavor Balancing Seasoning and the BUDOMETER PAUL LUKACS—Wine Editor, Saveur; Columnist, The Washington Times; Contributor, Wine Review Online MONYKA BERROCOSA—Journalist, Author & Educator, Founder of The Women’s Wine & Dine® RITA BLACKWELL —Wine Express SHARON CHARNY—CBP, CTC, Charmer Sunbelt Group JERRY EDWARDS—Chef’s Expressions

TICKETS $55 VIP TICKETS $100 INCLUDES GRAND TASTING Limited number of VIP tickets available

FOR TICKETS VISIT:

www.BaltimoreChefsandWine.org

GoDowntownBaltimore.com urbanite july 08

photo by Jason Okutake

The Wine Market

Top chef: Jason Lear takes the toque at the Wine Market.

The changing of the guard at the Wine Market was noteworthy only for its seamlessness: Executive chef Christian deLutis announced his plan to leave for a job in Ireland in April, and sous chef Jason Lear set to work designing a spring menu. The occasional diner probably won’t notice the passing of the toque, as the restaurant has always been more about the concept—a wine shop attached to a restaurant—than the chef. The idea was a novelty in Baltimore when owner Chris Spann, a onetime sales rep for a wine distributor, staked out space in the Foundry on Fort Avenue in 2004. The layout presents a chicken-andegg dilemma: Do you wander the shop until you find a bottle, or do you wait and choose wine to match the food? All bottles get a flat $9 corkage fee (even on the wine list), so if you splurge on a Peter Michael L’Après-Midi 2006 Sauvignon Blanc ($60 in the shop), you avoid the typical double or triple markup. The bigger the Cab, the bigger the bang for your buck, and oenophiles seem to appreciate the bargains. The menu has consistently emphasized eclectic, seasonal flavors, ripe for wine

pairings. Rare duck nestled in fresh wilted pea shoots with a drizzle of strawberry horseradish and caviar-like beluga lentils sends one searching for a light red or rosé, while a recent special of amberjack, a fleshy oceangoing fish, was prepared with pea and watercress puree, gnocchi, and fiddleheads, a combination that might lean toward a crisp Sauvignon Blanc. Appetizers range from standard (Caesar salad) to the not-so (crispy pork belly in rhubarb molasses with pickled hominy). New on the summer menu are ahi tuna with panzanella salad and grilled Idahoraised Wagyu beef. The dessert menu oozes temptation, with each offering proposing alcoholic accompaniment: Black Muscat with the hazelnut mascarpone crepe, a glass of sweet Lillypilly Noble Blend with an amaretto-cream-slathered lavender fig bread pudding. (Dinner nightly, lunch Tue–Fri, brunch Sun. 921 E. Fort Ave.; 410-2446166; www.the-wine-market.com.)

reviewed

EAT/DRINK

—Martha Thomas

If eating out is ever a moral imperative, a visit to Baltimore Pho is practically a civic duty. The space is the tastefully rehabbed former home of Mencken’s Cultured Pearl, the beloved Tex-Mex joint across from Hollins Market, once ground zero for the 1980s SoWeBo revival. When gentrification sputtered, the district’s eateries shuttered, so the opening of a new sit-down restaurant in these parts is freighted with significance—a victory against the forces of chaos. And, as Baltimore Pho owner Jim Collins explains at length on the menu, there’s a symbolic dimension to his choice of cuisine: Collins served as a civilian advisor in Vietnam during the war, and he proclaims his intent to bring “the spirit of diversity, understanding, and unity” to this new endeavor, soothing a troubled ’hood with the warming soup of another war-weary people. So, enough of the moralizing—how’s the pho? Critics are hotly divided over Baltimore Pho’s version of the traditional rice-noodle soup (pronounced, as the sign out front instructs, “fuh”): The beef broth

is pale, sweet, and subtle rather than dark, bold, and funky with fermented fish sauce. But the flavor—whispers of star anise and charred ginger—has that haunting, existentially comforting quality one associates with pho. And the accompanying herbal garnishes—basil, coriander leaves, the sawtoothed herb called culantro, along with sprouts, scallions, lime wedges, chiles, and ample supplies of red-hot Sriracha and sweetish hoisin sauces—let you customize your steaming bowl of noodles and slices of rare beef to whatever specs you prefer. (Non-meatheads can try chicken, seafood, and tofu iterations.) Green papaya salad for two makes a bracing opener—noodly threads of fruit in a minty fresh dressing—and there’s an intriguing roster of Vietnamese claypot dishes to explore once you’ve exhausted the mysteries of pho. (Lunch and dinner daily. 1114–16 Hollins St.; 410-752-4746; www.baltimorepho.com.)

photo by La Kaye Mbah

Baltimore Pho

Soup’s on: Baltimore Pho’s tasty but non-traditional seafood pho

—David Dudley

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Home Run Studio

CLIENT: Vision Multimedia Technology • DESCRIPTION: Ad • FILE NAME: !F VMT-08-Ad-Urbanite-June-V03-HR • DATE, ARTIST’S INITIALS: 05/08/08, DEI • DATE RE HOME RUN STUDIO • 206 E. Chatsworth Ave. • Reisterstown, MD 21136 • m 410-903-4847 • e Donald@HomeRunStudio.com PROOF IS NOT COLOR ACCURATE. DO NOT PRINT CYAN LINES - THESE ARE CUT LINES/DIELINES ONLY. INK COLORS SPECIFIED MAY NOT BE CORRECT - CONFIRM INK COLO

FOR RESERVATIONS, CALL 410.522.2195

fin

STEAK & SEAFOOD LOWER LEVEL OF ADMIRAL FELL INN 888 S. BROADWAY FELLS POINT, MARYLAND VALET SERVICES AVAILABLE.

www.fin-restaurant.com fin OFFERS A SOPHISTICATED APPROACHABLE

MENU FEATURING CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF AND THE FRESHEST SEAFOOD IN A CONTEMPORARY ATMOSPHERE. ENJOY DINING AL FRESCO DURING THE LAZY SUMMER MONTHS OR RELAX IN LOUNGE

Fix the old one or GET A NEW ONE?

fin.

THE fin WINE CELLAR OFFERS A PRIVATE DINING EXPERIENCE, PERFECT FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS OR GROUPS OF UP TO 15.

fin IS LOCATED IN THE HEART OF FELLS POINT

IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE BEAUTIFUL ADMIRAL FELL INN.

IT’S THE SAME WITH WEBSITES. Do you wish your old website could do more? VMT can help. Instead of trying to modify your old site to add one or two things, you can get a brand new website with tons of new features, including blogs, forums, calendars, content management, and much more -- usually for about the same price. Give us a call for a free consultation and estimate.

vmt Web Application Development Managed Linux Services Internet Business Solutions Business Process Consulting 410.889.7770 www.vmtllc.com

urbanite july 08

Tiny Bubbles

courtesy of Richard Graham

The fizzy logic behind sparkling wine

Pop star: Champagne marketers tout Dom Pierre Pérignon as the inventor of bubbly, but the famous monk actually tried to fight the fizz.

nless you want to spark an international incident, be careful what you call your bubbly. Just ask the folks at E. & J. Gallo Winery. In January, customs officials in Belgium seized more than 3,200 bottles of Gallo’s André, labeled “California Champagne” in violation of European Union trade law. The authorities posted video of the bottles’ subsequent destruction online (www.flow-films. com/materials/champagne.wmv), which doesn’t look nearly as fun as it sounds. Internet wine wags promptly criticized the U.S. for not doing its part to prevent André “shampagne” from hitting the market here at home. Yuk it up, but the champenoise mean business. Don’t think of calling your sparkling wine the C-word unless it hails from the 133square-mile region in north-central France that goes by the same name. Trade agreements that aim to protect wine appellations like Champagne and Chablis (as well as place names associated with other agricultural products like ham and cheese) date back to the 1880s. Current arrangements allow some U.S. wineries to use the disputed terms for the domestic market, but that’s a sore point for the French—and subject to ongoing trade negotiations. Europeans think of place as sacrosanct. A wine’s origin says more to most Continental consumers than the grape varieties used, or often even the producer. For them, a jug of California red calling itself “Hearty Burgundy” is an abomination. For producers and marketers, it’s tantamount to trademark infringement. Champagne producers have been marketing their bubbly for some time. Legends surrounding Dom Pierre Pérignon (1639– 1715) popped up in the late 18th century, ap-

By Clinton Macsherry

parently from Benedictine monks promoting the abbey near Épernay where he served as winemaker. Pérignon figured significantly in the development of Champagne, but was not, as myth would have it, its inventor. On the contrary, he spent much of his career trying to curtail the secondary fermentation that generates carbon dioxide in the region’s wines. Cold weather would often halt fermentation in fall, while the wine still had unfermented sugars. When the wine warmed up in spring, fermentation resumed and pressure built—until corks blew or bottles exploded, destroying as much as half the year’s production. Perignon made considerable progress improving the base wines used in Champagne, but indispensable advances in bottles, corks, and wine chemistry fell to later innovators. Not until the 1830s did winemakers gain sufficient mastery over secondary fermentation to make bubbles an unmixed blessing. Nonetheless, the wine trade found it hard to resist the notion of Dom Pérignon as the “inventor” of Champagne. An ad from the late 1800s attributed to Pérignon the fanciful quote, “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!” Most enduringly, his name was affixed to Moët et Chandon’s luxury cuvée in 1937. The current Champagne consternation seems pretty nervy, given that sparkling wine was made at an abbey in Limoux, France, four hundred miles away, as far back as 1531— more than a century before the Dom was an altar boy. Saint-Hilaire Blanquette de Limoux Brut 2004 ($12, 12.5 percent alcohol) touts this history on its back label. It opens with a resounding pop, one of bubbly’s joys. In the glass, the wine’s foamy head (“mousse,” in sparkler-speak) recedes quickly, but a lively stream of bubbles (or “bead”) remains, adding a tingle to the aromas of dried apple and rain-washed gravel. Spritzy apple flavors, characteristic of Limoux’s Mauzac grape, carry a lemony tang and a touch of chalk on the finish. Like other producers of sparkling wine, Saint-Hilaire oxymoronically labels a sweeter version “extra dry.” Oenological correctness compels me to state the following: Bubbly’s cost relative to still wines of comparable quality makes it a bargain; its versatility as a food wine is vastly underrated (nothing goes better with sushi, for example); and a chilled flute-ful (sparkling wine is best served at 46 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit) is refreshing in hot weather. Most important—bubbly should not be reserved solely for weddings, graduations, New Year’s Eve glugging, and other special occasions. In other words, we should make more occasions special. Pop. ■ w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

wine & Spirits

EAT/DRINK

urbanite july 08

the Feed

EAT/DRINK

Festive Catch up with your favorite blokes at Red Brick Station Restaurant and Brew Pub. Our handcrafted brews and hearty pub fare make every gathering an event to remember.

FARE & FRIENDS

This Month in Eating

REDBRICKSTATION.COM 410 931 PUBS

JAZZ IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN Eat, drink, and get your toes tapping to live jazz in the Baltimore Museum of Art’s sculpture garden. Tickets ($63 for BMA members, $70 for general public) include a three-course dinner out on the veranda at Gertrude’s.

JULY 5, 19, 26

CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL FESTIVAL The region’s premier celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture is also an opportunity to feast on jerk chicken, fried plantains, curry goat, and other traditional island fare. There will be a traditional costumed parade, live soca and reggae music, and other entertainment. Fri 5 p.m.–10 p.m., Sat and Sun noon–9 p.m.

JULY 11 –13

THE BALTIMORE CHEFS AND WINE EXPERIENCE Prepare for six hours of cooking demos, tastings, and presentations from a cast of food experts, cooking personalities, winemakers, and chefs. (Urbanite is a sponsor of this event.) General admission $55; VIP $100.

JULY 13

33RD ANNUAL J. MILLARD TAWES CRAB AND CLAM BAKE State politicos ﬂock to the Eastern shore town of Crisfield every summer to press the ﬂesh and crack crabs at this all-you-can-eat feed honoring former governor and native son J. Millard Tawes. For $40, you get all the steamed hardshells, clams, fried fish, corn on the cob, watermelon, and beer you can put away.

J ULY 1 6

BALTIMORE SLOW FOOD’S “EAT IN SEASON CHALLENGE” The folks behind the Baltimore Slow Food Convivium continue their efforts to support locally sourced eats by pairing with Joe Squared in Station North, which will devise a week-long menu of specials focusing on seasonal, regional ingredients.

J ULY 1 8–24

B A LT I M O RE RE S TA URA N T W E E K Stay out of the kitchen all week by sampling three-course prix fixe meals from more than eighty area restaurants. Look for special wine pairings, cooking classes, and cheap downtown parking deals, too. Lunch: $20.08. Dinner: $30.08.

J ULY 26–AUG 3

10 Art Museum Dr. 410-889-3399 www.artbma.org

located on the avenue at white marsh across from loews theatre

Fresh and creative thinking tastes better! Featuring gourmet pizza, pasta, salads, and middle eastern entrees BYOB 900 Cathedral Street Baltimore, MD 21201 410.962.8859 www.kyropizza.com 11am – 11pm

Druid Hill Park 410-230-2969 www.bmorecarnival.com

Noon–6 p.m. Tremont Grand 225 N. Charles St. www.chefsandwine.org

12:30 p.m.–4 p.m. Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield 1-800-782-3913 www.crisfieldchamber.com/ clambake.htm

Joe Squared 133 W. North Ave. 410-545-0444 www.joesquared.com

www.baltimore restaurantweek.com

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Increases volume.

Increases intelligence.

Listen. And learn. Our smart, insightful news programs don’t just keep you informed, they keep you thinking. And we have lots of other mind-stimulating programming, too. Like great music and personal interest stories. What’s more, our online broadcasts and podcasts let you listen whenever and wherever you like. Oh, by the way, we’re actively involved with all kinds of cultural and academic organizations throughout the state. Which means, by supporting WYPR you’re supporting the community. How’s that sound?

88.1 (Baltimore/Frederick) 106.9 (Ocean City/Salisbury) WYPR.org (streaming online 24/7)

urbanite july 08

85 THEATER

Martha Thomas on Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter and The Lion King

art/culture

87 MUSIC

Charles A. Hohman on Ponytail

89 bookS

David Dudley on The Beautiful Struggle Plus: Literary editor Susan McCallum-Smith heats up

I Will Survive Notes on the new culture of the end On the last day of my Apocalypse Weekend—a 72-hour immersion (it was a holiday weekend) in recent end-of-the-world books and movies—I emerged from the bunker of my home to take my daughter to the playground. It was a staggeringly beautiful late-spring afternoon, and at the swings a neighbor and I fell into conversation with a chatty boy of perhaps 8. “You know what happens when the bombs go off?” he asked suddenly. “When the bombs go off the city blows up and then we all have to go live in the wilderness.” I asked where he’d heard this crazy notion, which also happened to be the plot summary of several books I’d been reading. It was hard to tell; the boy seemed to understand it as a foregone conclusion. The encounter was made more uncanny by other, deeper weirdnesses. (The kid was wearing a Peter Pan costume, for one.) But I shook off the coincidence. Why shouldn’t a child wonder about the end of the world? The scenario he sketched is as familiar as a fairy tale. Generations have grown up in the shadow of the Bomb; we all know how this story ends. If you are in the end-of-the-world business, these are good times. Name your portent: The disaster-movie destruction of the World Trade Center, wars in the Middle East, the flooding of a major American city, and a chorus of environmental doomsaying. In June, the New York Times reported that cars were starting to litter the roadsides in

by david dudley

illustration by laurent hrybyk

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re seeking a candidate for the following position ...

Advertising Sales Executive Urbanite is seeking a dynamic, self-motivated sales professional to join our team. We are a fastpaced selling environment in which you will prospect to establish an active account list, develop sales proposals, and successfully manage the entire sales process. Urbanite is a customer-focused and forward-thinking company that rewards hard work, innovation, and teamwork. EOE. Send cover letter with salary requirements and resume to: Tracy W. Durkin, Publisher Urbanite 2002 Clipper Park Road, 4th Flr. Baltimore, MD 21211 Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com

www.urbanitebaltimore.com No phone calls, please

urbanite july 08

art/culture

2002, Disney. photo by Joan Marcus

Mississippi, abandoned because their drivers were too poor to buy gas. The world is starting to look more plausibly apocalyptic all the time. Apocalypse culture tends to oscillate between tragedy and farce; earnest alarmism (The Day After) giving way to hammy fantasias (The Day After Tomorrow). Like the films and movies produced in the wake of the early 1970s oil embargo, the new visions of the end are fueled not by atomic nightmares but by environmental anxiety: the specter of climate freakout, civilization-ending resource depletion, and perhaps a growing unease with urbanization itself. A more-crowded world dreams—with awe, terror, and longing—of the emptying of cities. “Things will be better when everyone’s gone,” says an old man wandering the wastes in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. The book’s literary cred doesn’t disguise its sturdy genre roots: The lean plot is Mad Max with shopping carts, the same shaggy lone-survivor odyssey of many a lesser pulp artifact. A father and his young son walk an empty road, trekking south years after some nameless cataclysm has blackened the world. The pair shares this world with a few other scavengers—ghastly loners scrabbling for the planet’s last cans of food, or cannibalistic bands trundling along in wheezing trucks. Tellingly, the only way the residents of The Road can articulate their plight is by referencing other cultural artifacts. “We’re not survivors,” the man’s wife says in a flashback, before she wanders off to die alone. “We’re the walking dead in a horror film.” (The inevitable Road movie, due this fall, is being shot in the post-industrial wastes of Pittsburgh—site also of Night of the Living Dead.) It’s perhaps the bleakest imaginable bestseller: The exchanges between father and child are almost unendurably sad, and their journey is a pitiless exercise in human suffering. McCarthy isn’t too concerned about the whys and what-ifs of this world; the ecological scenario he presents doesn’t make much more sense than an early Cold War chestnut like On the Beach, in which fallout from a global nuclear exchange somehow defies meteorology and spares Australia for months. Like many fellow new apocalyptics, McCarthy is more entranced by the philosophical and aesthetic possibilities offered by the unraveling of civilization—“the ponderous counterspectacle of things ceasing to be.” Journalist Alan Weisman struck paydirt last year by conjuring that spectacle in World Without Us, a book-length expansion of a 2005 Discover magazine story called “Earth Without People.” The conceit for his “thought experiment,” due in paperback next month, was to remove causality. “Any conjecture gets muddled by our obstinate reluctance

Cat power: The Tree of Life from The Lion King

t h e at e r

Battle Scars

Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, July 19–27, and The Lion King, June 26–Aug 24, at the Kennedy Center The irony of the title of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is apparent from the play’s first scene: The title character, a Marine who has lost a leg in action, is stranded in a bus station, ambivalent about returning home. Her welcoming committee, it turns out, is a drifter named Lou, who takes her to an abandoned military base in the California desert called Slab City, populated by similar directionless souls. Playwright Julie Marie Myatt has said that she wanted to call attention to returning soldiers—especially those wounded in combat, and especially women. Myatt’s play is filled with eccentric characters in a surreal setting, woven through with humor and realism. The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater production has been transplanted from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where it premiered last spring, with the help of the Fund for New American Plays. Director Jessica Thebus, who hails from Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company, says she was charmed by the play’s treatment of a very difficult subject—the plight of injured veterans. “As a nation, we’re having a hard time talking about the return of so many injured people” from the war in Iraq, she says. “The play takes it on in a way that makes it personal.” Jenny Sutter is “the unkown soldier” who represents “so many Jenny Sutters,” says Thebus. Jenny’s visit to Slab City—a place that

really exists—and the people she encounters there help her to move forward. “She finds just enough to go on,” says Thebus. “And that’s enough for the moment.” The Kennedy Center’s vast Opera House stage will host a very different kind of war story this summer. The Broadway production of The Lion King, in which the lion Simba battles for the crown usurped by his uncle, the evil Scar, landed in late June for a nine-week run. (It was sold out by early May, but tickets are released throughout the run, so it never hurts to try.) The show, which broke new ground when it opened in New York a decade ago, has staying power, due in part to an ensemble that survives without a big-name star, plus the innovative and aweinspiring sets and costumes of play creator Julie Taymor. A large and fantastical pride of puppets inhabited by actors fill the stage, accompanied by the beloved Elton John/Tim Rice score. —Martha Thomas

For tickets for both shows, call 800-4441324 or go to www.kennedy-center.org.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

I filmed my own sex tape and â&#x20AC;&#x153;accidentallyâ&#x20AC;? sent it to everyone.

William knows all too well what pop music can do to your life. If you or someone you know is dealing with a pop addiction, there is hope. WTMD 89.7. STOP THE POP INSANITY.

urbanite july 08

LIstener supported radIo from toWson unIversIty

The pop made me do it.

art/culture

photo by Frank Hamilton

to accept that the worst might actually occur,” he observes in the preface. “We may be undermined by our survival instincts, honed over eons to help us deny, defy, or ignore catastrophic portents lest they paralyze us with fright.” So: Humanity has vanished. What happens to our stuff? The answer proved interesting enough to inspire a pair of recent cable documentaries, Life After People (History Channel) and Aftermath: Population Zero (National Geographic Channel), full of mesmerizing CGI renderings of skyscrapers devoured by vegetation. As Weisman explains, time and organic processes will eventually reduce the age of man to a vein of rust-colored minerals. In the interim, however, the planet will have to deal with all manner of irritants: toxic clouds from unattended refineries and reactors, a carbon-laden atmosphere, and vast indigestible heaps of plastic. He describes the erasure of New York City in great detail. Flooded subway tunnels will carve rivers through the canyons of Manhattan while an ailanthus forest sunders the sidewalk. The Statue of Liberty, icon of so many disaster flicks, will oxidize beneath the rising sea: “In the end, Liberty’s sea green patina will thicken until she turns to stone, but the sculptor’s aesthetic intention will still be preserved for the fish to ponder.” Images of the empty metropolis reconquered by nature—“a world relieved of our burden,” as Weisman says—are obligatory stops on the Armageddon highway: The last-man-on-Earth blockbuster I Am Legend drew its greatest power from its visions of a weedy Manhattan overrun by deer. James Howard Kunstler’s new novel World Made By Hand (blurbed by Weisman on the cover) takes the post-apocalypse pastoral to another level entirely. Kunstler is best known for The Geography of Nowhere, his 1993 attack on the excesses of suburbia, but he’s also written several novels; this one is a fictional companion to 2005’s The Long Emergency, which foretold social upheaval caused by a global gas crisis. Kunstler is a devotee of the “peak oil” theory, which holds that the impending decline in oil production will topple governments and return the industrialized world to something like the mid-19th century. This, Kunstler can’t help but observe, will be kind of great. In World Made By Hand, the United States has been isolated and unplugged after some ill-considered foreign policy moves. Washington and Los Angeles have been nuked, and the “Mexican Flu” has culled the population, but some hardy agrarian survivors carry on in the upstate New York town of Union Grove, a stand-in for the author’s present hometown of Saratoga Springs. Kunstler seems to see post-peak-oil societal collapse as an opportunity for enforced application of New Urbanist planning prin-

Horsing around: Ken Seeno, Molly Siegel, Jeremy Hyman, and Dustin Wong (from left to right) of the Baltimore noise-pop band Ponytail

music

Pony Up!

Ponytail, Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free, 2008) There are few discernible words in Ponytail’s music, and even fewer words to accurately capture it. The Baltimore-based foursome formed in 2005 in a MICA class under the tutelage of professor/svengali Jeremy Sigler, who picked the band members. Since this unorthodox beginning, the band’s frenetic live shows have become a hot ticket. Music blog Idolator praised the band’s 2006 debut album Kamehameha and Ponytail’s South by Southwest set in March 2008 earned raves from Internet tastemakers Pitchfork. It’s an unlikely fate for a somewhat arbitrarily assembled class project. “It’s a pleasant surprise, that’s for sure,” says guitarist Dustin Wong. Ponytail released its sophomore album, Ice Cream Spiritual, on June 17 through Baltimore upstart label We Are Free. Discordant and cacophonous, Ponytail erects wailing walls of guitar against ADD time signatures while androgynous pixie Molly Siegel screeches and sputters like a possessed child. Her primal eruptions enliven the music but seldom overtake it. “When people think of a vocalist, they focus on a more literal substance,” says Wong. “So with Molly, it’s not actually focusing on the subject. It’s more of a textural existence.” There’s something purposefully foreign and inaccessible about the music—some

times exotic, sometimes self-consciously difficult. The first single from Ice Cream, the seven-minute “Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came from an Angel),” spurns monotony with countless twists and knots, while “Die Allman Bruder” funnels Allman-style licks through visceral art-school abstraction. Like the fashion plate whose wardrobe is tattered in all the right spots, Ponytail’s seemingly shambolic ruckus is actually tightly structured and practiced to a T. It’s a well-honed mind-bending rush, though listeners who prize radio-ready pop hooks may want to look elsewhere. “We know a lot of very strict noise musicians, and to them, we look like a pop band,” says drummer Jeremy Hyman. “And people who are coming from a more traditional, lyrical sort of music, they think we are a mess. So it’s all about point of view.” Ponytail is slated to play underground music fest Whartscape (held during Artscape weekend, July 17–20; check www.whamcity. com for dates and locations), and at Floristree with Joan of Arc (the Chicago band, not the virgin saint) on July 24. —Charles A. Hohman

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

www.artonpurpose.org

Using art to bring people together around issues and ideas.

In our 2007-2008 season, we created 15 gallery and museum exhibitions featuring works and words from hundreds of Baltimoreans, held dozens of art workshops serving more than 500 youth and adults, and organized multiple events involving thousands of participants. Thank you to our patrons, partners, and participants who made it all possible.

Stay tuned for 2008-2009...

Brought to you by:

urbanite july 08

ciples. In Union Grove, suburbs have been abandoned, and the remaining community is an eminently walkable burg of sturdy Arts & Crafts bungalows with yards full of vegetable gardens. The men labor in the organic fields, hold hootenannies, go fishing (giant sturgeon have returned to the Hudson River), and exact frontier justice on threatening mobs downstream in Albany; the women cook, take in laundry, and offer sexual comfort to the menfolk. Much attention is paid to the mechanics of off-the-grid life: The town dentist brews his own laudanum from poppies; one enterprising landowner rigs up a hydropower generator and figures out how to make hot dogs. Kunstler is particularly taken with the foodways of the post-oil future: plenty of eggs, butter, and cream, plus artisanal beer and home-grown marijuana. “Everything was local now,” says the narrator, Robert Earle. For a former software exec, Earle takes a little too much Kunstlerian glee at the defeat of modernity’s awfulness. A recent reviewer in Slate, Rebecca Onion, called the book “hatefully regressive,” not only for its depiction of gender and class roles (the peaceful potsmoking townsfolk lock horns with a more feral tribe of NASCAR-loving trailer dwellers) but also for its air of wish fulfillment. “You could argue that people are generally better off mentally than we were back then,” Earle lectures a younger Union Grover who still mourns the Internet and the mall. “We follow the natural cycles. We eat real food instead of processed crap full of chemicals.” In Geography of Nowhere, Kunstler’s jeremiad against the oppressive cruddyness of the postwar landscape, that rage at industrialized America’s misplaced ideals had the force of revelation: He wrote as if he were the only man alive who had divined the truth, and after reading it, you couldn’t help but share his horror at roadside clutter you’d previously been content to ignore. Peak oil, it seems, has now offered Kunstler the means to destroy all those big-box stores and SUVs, and little wonder that he takes some unseemly pleasure in speeding that end. Much has been said about the religious fervor of peak oil proponents, and World Made By Hand’s righteousness does beg parallels with its counterpart in Christian eschatology, the Left Behind series of Rapture potboilers. But peak oilers have physics on their side, and their queasy conviction—the I-told-you-so quality—is part of what has always made such speculation, secular and otherwise, so compelling. After all, even an eco-apocalypse is a story of judgment—the sinners suffer; the faithful are tested. And in the end, both are cast out of the ruined cities to wander in the wilderness. ■ —David Dudley is Urbanite’s editor-in-chief.

art/culture

book

Fathers and Sons

The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 2008) Ta-Nehisi’s Coates’ loose, lyrical memoir about coming of age in the West Baltimore of the 1980s began life as a different book about a different time: a more straightforward account of the exploits of his father, Paul Coates, as a Black Panther leader in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “It was my dad’s idea—to look at his life through the eyes of his son,” says Coates, a former Washington City Paper and Village Voice writer who now lives in New York City. The elder Coates, who founded Baltimore’s Black Classic Press, still looms large in The Beautiful Struggle, which traces his efforts to shepherd bookish son Ta-Nehisi and older step-sibling Big Bill through a perilous West side boyhood and into the halls of Howard University. Bill is streetwise, bullheaded, and clearly headed for trouble; Ta-Nehisi is, well, kind of a dork—he’s into Dungeons & Dragons, has trouble talking to girls, and is hopeless at basketball. His father’s ironclad ideological convictions and complicated personal life—seven kids by four women— make him a formidable parental figure, and Coates manages to weave an impressionistic

account of his father’s remarkable life into the tale of his own efforts to triangulate between his family and the turf wars and random violence of Baltimore in the Age of Crack. Along the way, Coates deploys a veritable That ’80s Show worth of pop culture references (Starter jackets! Ric Flair! “Dancing on the Ceiling”!), and his loopy, rap-inflected prose style takes some getting used to. He’s best at capturing the low-level anxiety and constant threat of violence that accompanied his public school adolescence—a time when, he says, “probably one-quarter of my brain was occupied with personal safety.” Coates says that his father has pronounced himself pleased with the book, even if his own story takes a backseat to his son’s. “My dad, he’s a strong-willed dude. He disagrees with parts of it, and he makes his opinions known,” says Coates, whose habit of frequently dropping the n-word drew particular ire. “He told me, ‘Why did you have to curse so much?’” —David Dudley w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

located at st. paul and 33rd streets in the heart of charles village

the neighborhood Barnes & Noble Chipotle Cloud 9 Clothing Cold Stone Creamery Signatures Stationers Starbucks University Market Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union

Smart Living. at village lofts condominiums

»Spacious floor plans with private balconies or terrace and parking. »Live near your work—walk to Johns Hopkins and Union Memorial. »Save up to $50,000 in purchaser incentives. * »Call 410.243.0324 for your sales appointment.  *Offer available for a limited time on select condiminiums. Must use preferred lender.

village-lofts.com Developed and Managed by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

3201 st. paul street, baltimore, md 21218 410.243.0324

books

art/culture

Heatstrokes

by susan mccallum-smith

Illustration by Suzy Lee, from Wave

The Monster of Florence: A True Story by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi (Hachette Book Group USA, 2008) The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Company, 2008) Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Anchor Books, 1996) Wave by Suzy Lee (Chronicle Books, 2008)

weaty frolicking in the backseat is surely one of the joys of summer. “It has been said,” explains Douglas Preston, author of The Monster of Florence: A True Story, “that one out of every three Florentines alive today was conceived in a car.” In Italy, most young people live with their parents until marriage; therefore, dates often end with a private appuntamento to test the suspension of a Fiat Uno. Between 1974 and 1985, seven courting couples were murdered in their cars in the hills surrounding Florence, and, argue Preston and Mario Spezi (the Italian journalist who helped research this book), the killing spree may have started earlier, and the murderer is still at large. To true-crime buffs, the monster of Florence is old news, but Preston offers the rest of us a succinct account of a Felliniesque investigation that spread “like a malignancy” through Italian society for more than thirty years. A bumbling police force contaminated crime scenes, indulged in inter-departmental rivalries, and sought guidance from flaky clairvoyants and conspiracy theorists. New revelations hit the press daily, often penned by Spezi, Tuscany’s leading journalist, known across Italy as the “monstrologer.”

Despite the cover photograph of Giambologna’s hideous 16th century sculpture The Rape of the Sabine Woman, Preston manages (just) to resist over-sensationalizing his tabloid material, apart from the odd Dan Brownism (“the scene would be forever engraved in his mind,” “the killer might be among them”). The Monster of Florence’s quick pace and gory thrills makes it the perfect beach read—provided, of course, it’s not your son or daughter whose slaughter remains unavenged. If you prefer your true crime presented in a more scholarly fashion, settle farther into your beach chair with The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale, which proves yet again that nothing frightened the Victorians more than a 16-year-old girl. In the England of 1860, the Kent family presented a model of Victorian propriety. Underneath, however, simmered a cesspit of dysfunction worthy of Dallas’ Ewing clan, and on June 30, 3-year-old Saville Kent was found murdered in a garden privy, spawning a scandalous investigation that would never be solved. The detective assigned to the case, Jack Whicher, represented the newly formed Scotland Yard, and his methods inspired the writing of authors like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Like Spezi, Whicher paid dearly for his role in a failed murder case. He was despised, as all detectives were then, for exposing “the corruptions within the household: sexual transgression, emotional cruelty, scheming servants, wayward children …” that Victorians would rather ignore, and for proffering a solution to the crime that rattled class distinctions. The evidence Summerscale presents in support of her solution to the Kent murder is persuasive; however, she deflates suspense by unveiling her suspicions too early, and

her accumulation of details about peripheral characters adds nothing to the narrative drive. It feels like a tale that could have been told in half the time with half the words, and stands in stark contrast to Margaret Atwood’s masterpiece, Alias Grace, a prime example of what a talented fiction writer can achieve when she turns to fact (and scary girls) for inspiration. Surely there is nothing so innocent as the summer fruit and veggie stand? In 1859, the ambitious Dr. Simon Jordan often picks up a strawberry or an ear of corn on his way to visit convicted murderess Grace Marks in the Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario. Jordan hopes to discover if she truly suffers from amnesia and cannot remember her crime, or if she was, or is, insane, but his offerings of ever-more-suggestive root vegetables reveal more about his own perversions than Grace’s. Although Grace has never confessed, she has been in prison for fifteen years for the murder and robbery of her former master and his mistress. Her accomplice, James McDermott, admitted to physically carrying out the crime and was hanged in 1843. Newspaper accounts and McDermott’s confession stated that Grace drove him to it with promises of sexual favors. Some saw Grace as a seducing hussy, others as the terrified victim of McDermott’s lust and greed. She was barely 16 at the time and extremely beautiful. Just as the real Grace Marks disappeared from history without divulging her secrets, Atwood refuses to gratify the reader with a straightforward solution to the crime or Grace’s personality. Her fictional re-imagining of this true story fulfills all the stereotypes associated with women and madness in the 19th century, while, with humor and irony, subverting them. If you’ve spent the day on the beach reading the above accounts of human depravity, you’ll be sunburned and partially blind by now, and ready for the perfect sliver of innocence provided by Wave, a new children’s picture book by artist Suzy Lee. A little girl, mom in the distance, converses with the sea in a palette of white, gray, and the azure blue unique to childhood memory, accompanied by her very own wingmen: a cohort of gulls. Dabs of charcoal convey her journey through timidity to curiosity to joy, and finally to a mischievous cockiness that the sea rewards with a shower of gifts. From page to page, the azure blue migrates from sea to sky, tracking a perfect summer day as it deepens toward dusk. Time to pick up that beach towel and those crinkly books and head home. And remember: no stopping at the fruit stand, and no hanky panky in the Honda. ■ w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Year of the Horse continued from page 45 urban renewal and a changed regulatory environment began gnawing away at the network of neighborhood stables. (Another critical blow: The city’s wholesale produce market, source of the arabbers’ wares, moved from the Inner Harbor to distant Jessup.) During the Schaefer Administration in the 1970s, arabbers circled City Hall with their wagons to protest a proposed hike in licensing fees, and old-timers bitterly recall how local horse owners were spurned when the city solicited the tourist carriage business around the Inner Harbor. Arabbers and their defenders have also skirmished repeatedly with animal rights organizations. In January 1994, a horse and a pony died from a combination of starvation and cold at an East Baltimore stable that has since been closed. Later that year, city officials showed up at the Retreat Street stable, then a privately owned business, with a list of building code violations, along with horse buyers and auctioneers. The threat of condemnation led to the creation of the Arabber Preservation Society in 1994. The group fought off the closure with repairs, and the building reopened in 1995. The Preservation Society helped arabbers obtain regular veterinary care, started a farrier assistance and apprenticeship program, and, in 1998, filed a discrimination lawsuit claiming that the predominantly African American arabbers were subject to Health Department inspections and regulations that were never applied to other horse-powered businesses, such as the Inner Harbor carriage rides. That same year, then-councilwoman Sheila Dixon sponsored a bill to support arabbing as a “colorful Baltimore tradition,” one threatened by “city licensing and permit requirements … and misguided and misinformed animal-rights activists.” The case was settled out of court, and, according to current Arabber Preservation Society president Dan Van Allen, an artist and SoWeBo resident whose backyard overlooks the Carlton Street stable, the city has generally had a more hands-off relationship with the arabbers in recent years. But last summer, on July 31, 2007, the city again condemned the Retreat Street stable and gave horse ownHorse crazy: The private Carlton Street stable in SoWeBo is one of the last redoubts for inner-city horse owners.

ers a two-week eviction notice. The building—a decrepit stone and cinderblock structure in an alleyway off North and Pennsylvania avenues that had been owned by the city since 2000—housed fiftytwo animals, and inspectors said it was on the verge of collapse. It was also a fire hazard, thanks to bootleg wiring from a BGE pole. Days after the August 8 eviction, at a press conference a few blocks away at the Baltimore Neighborhood Recreation Center on Pennsylvania Avenue, city officials vowed to find another stable for the eight horse owners who used the Retreat Street facility. At one point, Deputy Housing Commissioner Reginald Scriber rose and recalled how his father worked the wagons. “You have my word today,” he said, “that as long as I have air in my chest, as long as I’m part of this administration, we’re going to do all that we can … to find a location that is suitable so this won’t happen again.” Assembled that day was a who’s who of the surviving arabber community, a cast of characters I’d come to know well after years following the wagons. There was 76-year-old Donald “Manboy” Savoy, distinguished in his gray muttonchops. The city’s biggest arabber, he rents up to six rigs and presides over a ramshackle lot of cinderblock buildings on Fremont Avenue that serve as a tack room, wagon storage area, and produce loading dock for the Retreat Street horses. Savoy walked away from the press conference glowing like a new parishioner. “I think everyone truly wants to keep the arabbers around,” he told me. Also present was 81-year-old Eugene “Fatback” Allen, whose mother, Mildred Allen, is credited as being the first woman arabber. The first time I met Allen was in 1996, in front of his tiny Whatcoat Street stable that has since been paved over to make way for the Sandtown-Winchester redevelopment projects. Today, he was wearing the same pained, quizzical look on his face. Allen had been relocated twice over the last decade, to Carlton Street, then to Retreat Street. All the while, he said, the city has been promising him a permanent location. He didn’t seem to believe that this latest overture would be any different. “The city right now, they will promise you golden slippers,” he said. “Unless we stay behind them and see that they keep their word, then we are lost.” When the city condemned Retreat Street, the Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative (PARC), a nonprofit that advocates for the revival of the historic cultural strip that once thrived during segregated Baltimore, stepped in and encouraged the city to take a more preservation-minded approach. PARC has been trying for several years to build an Arabber Preservation Center on Manboy’s Fremont Avenue lot, part of their effort to create a historic trail in the neighborhood. “As you can see walking up Pennsylvania Avenue, so much of our historic fabric has been torn down,” PARC director George Gilliam told me. “What we’re trying to do is stop historic products from leaving this community, and the arabs are the big part of that.” PARC lobbied the city to build the new stable on the Fremont Avenue lot, but, anticipating tough zoning issues, the city opted instead for a site on Monroe Street, on property owned by the B&O Railroad Museum. For most of the fall, Planning Department head Douglas McCoach ran detailed roundtable meetings with arabbers, engineers, architects, and even a small business consultant to create the new stable. As meetings proceeded, the challenges involved in working with the arabber community quickly became apparent. There was a faultline between the Savoys—Manboy and his son, Donald Savoy Jr.—and the Allens—Eugene, his brother, Orphas, and his daughter, Dorothy Johns. The Allens are former arabbers who kept retired

horses at Retreat Street; they represent the loose-knit cohort of ex-arabbers who work around the stable scene and offered $3 pony rides for neighborhood kids. The city, however, told the group that only working horses would be housed in the new stable, locking out ex-arabbers like the Allens. “The city is committed to finding a home for the working horses,” McCoach said during one planning meeting last fall. “But the city really shouldn’t be in a position of finding homes for horses that are pets.” The herd needed to be culled. Erin Sher, an assistant city solicitor who grew up as a racehorse walker at Pimlico, helped locate buyers—farmers, horse rescue organizations—for Retreat Street horse owners who wouldn’t be allowed to move into the city’s new facility. Many of these owners felt they were railroaded into selling their animals off. Still: The Retreat Street relocation and the accompanying pledge to build new stables marked perhaps the first time in modern memory that City Hall had squared all its resources in making arabbers a cultural priority. According to City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the administration earmarked about $500,000 in various agencies to relocate and possibly build a new stable facility. But history has offered strong evidence that municipal intervention has been less than effective. Van Allen recalls at least two other plans to build new stables, one going back to 1968. Schemes to site arabber horses in city parks have long been floated, and there were once plans to integrate stables into the renovations of the Pennsylvania Market in the 1990s. All came to nothing. “Every time they close a stable, they say, ‘We’re going to build you a new facility, a beautiful facility, and don’t worry because nobody’s going to lose work.’ But every time they haven’t done it,” an irate Dorothy Johns said at the August press conference. Over the course of the fall, she became increasingly vocal in her skepticism. “I think the city’s aim in this is to get rid of it,” she said. “I really don’t think they are looking for someone to run it.”

rooster crows. A white horse rolls in a paddock turned back to rich soil, a broken cement lot just ten years ago. A man sits halfway up a fire escape on a spring day, a beer at his feet, taking in the strange mix of urban and rural scenery around the Carlton Street stable. Hang around the stable and you can listen to a salty debate about the advantages of applying a homemade pepper-based salve on a horse’s blister. You can see an old man named Walter Milton Kelly, better known as Teeth, walk over to a rotting old arabbing wagon, the lumber soft as driftwood, and spit. He built it forty years ago, he says. China Waugh pulls a long knife out of a bushel basket, cuts through a pineapple, and begins one of his spiels on the history of arabbing, which up until the 1960s was a racially mixed trade. Sit on the tailgate with China and listen to him ticker-tape along, nailing dates and places with tooth-and-groove precision. He describes how the arabbers used to meet up for breakfast at Jim’s Lunch on Pratt Street, letting their horses drink from the fountain in front of what is now the bars and nightclubs of Power Plant Live. “They all had sharp horses and beautiful wagons,” he says. China sometimes gets frustrated when people fail to understand how prevalent arabbing once was. “People don’t know how amazing it was, because they weren’t around during the horse and wagons,” he says. “We used to go to the fish market, sold all kind of stuff off the wagon: crabs, shad roe, steakfish, porgies, butterfish or

spots on Fridays, hardheads, lake trout, flounder.” Arabbing may look like some kind of living history encampment, but it works. Out in West Baltimore, there aren’t many supermarkets; the most popular vegetable in the corner store is the potato chip. Brooks says he sells out his wagon faster than ever before. On Saturdays, when he rolls into Southwest Baltimore and Pigtown, he never makes it up into Federal Hill. In a world of disinvestment—boarded-up houses, failing schools, disappearing stores—the arabbers have an eager market to tend; in its own ambling way, a horse and cart is a nimble distribution system for this territory. Arabbers reach the people who need it most: low-income families and the elderly, people with little access to healthy foods from now-distant supermarkets. In a time of $4-per-gallon gas, one has to wonder if non-polluting, doorstep food delivery is an idea whose time has come again.

Once, loading produce in the alley, Brooks paused and said, “There used to be so many of them. Now I’m down to the last man. Last of the Mohicans, boy.” Keith Brooks’ father, James Brock, explains it this way: “With a truck you can go more places and do more,” he says. “But with a wagon you’re going to slow down and sell more. You catch the people walking down the street.” The arabbing wagon is also making its last rounds just as more well-off consumers are driving to farmers’ markets to seek out locally grown produce. (In November 2007, Urbanite publisher Tracy Durkin proposed investing in arabbers as a green food-distribution network in the Open Society Institute’s Audacious Ideas blog.) But the idea of connecting the locavore movement with this quintessentially local institution faces some practical problems. “Arabber customers are mostly not organic food buyers,” says Dan Van Allen. “They are looking for economical produce.” If business is good, Brooks says he might clear a hundred dollars a day, but he’s probably being cagey about his margins. A stablehand offered me a different formula: A load of wholesale produce from Jessup might cost $400; street value, perhaps $1,200, sold over a two-day run. Asked about the potential risks of doing this business on some of the city’s toughest streets, Brooks says he isn’t worried: People on his route know him. He’s had hassles from kids, bored thugs making a run at his wagon. For them, he carries a bat. I once asked Brooks’ father about the danger of being an arabber these days as we cruised in his immaculately kept Mercury Grand Marquis. “They know me and they know he’s my son,” Brock said. “Any of them mess with him will have to deal with me.” But, as Roland Freeman notes, perhaps the biggest peril on the streets is time itself. A visit to the stables reveals a distinct lack of young people on the scene. “The kids now days they don’t have the interest,” says Carlton Street stable manager Howard Smith. “They don’t have that drive. When I come up in the ’40s, things were rough. I was the fifth child. I wanted to have things like other kids had. I knew my parents weren’t able to give it to me, so I sold newspapers, shined shoes, ran errands. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

At the corner of Boston and Conkling Streets

THE nEiGHBORHOOd dogma-life with your pet. 5 Guys Burgers and Fries Dunkin Donuts Baskin-Robbins Pasta Mista PNC Bank

BalTimORE’S Located in the heart of Baltimore’s dynamic Canton neighborhood, historic Brewers Hill

Development Design Group, Inc. Bravo Health Met Life RE/MAX Sails Keystone Realty Company Exit 10 RM Sovich Architects Ontology Works Congruent Media Friday’s Child “K” Line Shipping Petards, Inc. Countrywide Home Loans Occupational Medical Services Canton Self Storage Obrecht Commercial Real Estate Kettler Cooperative Services, Inc

has sweeping views of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and city skyline. Brewers hill offers Class-A offices, retail shops and restaurants — ushering in a new, vibrant lifestyle option for Baltimore.

TOP OF THE Hill » ZONK’IZIZWE MIDRAND, GAUTENG, SOUTH AFRICA

brewershill.net

3600 O’Donnell Street Baltimore, MD 21224 | 410.327.4040

Developed and Managed by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse and Obrecht Commercial Real Estate.

urbanite july 08

DDG is an international architecture, planning and graphics firm specializing in award winning retail, entertainment, graphics, planning, town centers, residential and mixed-use projects. Development Design Group, Inc. 3700 O’Donnell Street, Baltimore, MD 21224 USA tel | 410 962 0505 fax | 410 783 0816 www.ddg-usa.com | web

When I got on the horse and wagon and I started arabbing, I loved it. I had money in my pocket every day. I raised my children arabbing.” Old-timers talk about how growing up horse-crazy kept them out of trouble, and it’s not hard to see the same thing happening on Carlton Street. One afternoon I spied 10-year-old Dante Bradford running up the alley. Dante wanted to ride Buck, a horse that earned its name. Instead, he got razzed by stablehand Terry Partlow. “Soon as you put the reins in his hands,” Partlow said of Dante, “you can’t tell him nothing.” Dante may not be the only kid hanging out at the stables—sometimes others bring their little ones by—but he appeared to be the only one working regularly. “We got to chase him home,” said Partlow. On another afternoon, I watched Dante climb on the split-rail fence at the paddock as Rock, the craziest horse of the bunch, did furious laps around the dirt and then rolled on his back. Behind him, in one of the brick alley homes, a party was going on. Music playing, door wide open. A teenager finished up a joint and came over to ask Dante if he wanted to meet a girl inside the house. Dante smiled, shook his head no, and kept watching the horse gallop in mad circles. n December, the horses that had been quartered at Pimlico had to move on. A steady rain fell at the racetrack while the animals were led onto a trailer. Dorothy Johns threw her arms around her uncle. She gave up two of her horses so that her uncle could have at least one at the new location, and the loss put an ache into the old man. “I had horses before any of them had horses,” said Allen. “This is what they do to me?” Johns drove to the Monroe Street site of the new city stables. It was just a stretch of mud next to an old railroad line vectoring out of the B&O roundhouse. Johns waited for the trailer on the soggy flat. A crew was doing an Iwo Jima flag-raising act, hoisting the main pole of one of the festival-style tents that would have to serve as stables until a more permanent solution arrived. “Oh my god,” she said, shaking her head and recalling the months of planning, the endless meetings. “Now look at this. We’re standing in mud.” For two hours she waited. The truck carrying the horses from Pimlico was lost. More than twenty city employees hoofed around in the muck, then departed. By the time the trailer showed up, the tents were ready. The driver stepped out of his semi, wondering if he dared drive his truck farther down the rutted path to the tents. When he pressed his boot into the ground, it yielded like a fish’s belly. He drove his truck a few more yards, until the wheels started spitting up mud, and then he, Erin Sher, and Johns walked the horses the rest of the way to their new home. The winter that the arabbers spent in these tents under the Monroe Street bridge was not a happy one. Grounded by the city’s new licensing regulations and marooned in an unfamiliar part of town, the old Retreat Street arabbers never took out a wagon. At times it was unclear who was running the stables, or even if the city still intended to follow through on its promise to build a permanent stable at all. Tension increased between the Allens and the Savoys. According to Dorothy Johns, city officials implied that she and the Allens were just looking for handouts. She contended that they would pay their way, as they always have. In April, the arabbers held an emergency meeting. Sitting on benches that overlooked the bleak, gravelly site, Johns urged her family members and the other arabbers to march on City Hall and

demand action if they had to. People seemed to concur, but no one seconded the notion. Then Fatback got up. “They took my grandchildren’s pony,” he said. “They sold [my horses] for $150, because I had nowhere to take them. Is that right?” A week later, Johns and the Allens moved their six horses out of the Monroe Street tents and into the private Carlton Street stable. She said that, with no information about when the new stables would be built, the situation just became intolerable. Left behind was Manboy’s twelve horses, plus about a dozen other animals owned by others. “I feel sorry for Manboy and them,” she said. “By the time they realize what’s going on, it will be too late.” According to Reggie Scriber, the city’s point person on building the new facility, the key concern is making sure that the stables are a self-sustaining operation: “The mayor said, ‘I’ll build a stable, but I won’t be responsible for taking care of the animals.’” PARC and Manboy have been tasked with producing a plan for the stables with Courtney Wilson, director of the B&O Railroad Museum. Sometimes, Scriber says, he gets calls from people asking, “Why are you trying to hang on to this?” His father raised eight children working an arabbing wagon on Mount Street. “I still think it has a lot to offer,” Scriber tells them. “I think it’s a tradition that we can’t afford to lose.”

“

ou see him?” I tell the young woman buying bananas. “He’s the last horse-and-cart produce peddler in the country.” Brooks winces. “Really?” she says. “You mean there is no arabbing in New York or New Jersey?” It seems Brooks never thought about this distinction. He figures there will be other wagons joining him on the street by the summer’s end. But once, loading produce in the alley, he did pause and say, “There used to be so many of them. Now I’m down to the last man. Last of the Mohicans, boy.” On Mount Street, Brooks keeps an impatient eye on a small dot up the street. That’s where his father has parked his Marquis in front of the senior apartments. Those ladies have been waiting for a month now. For the next two hours, he’ll be up there taking orders. Sometimes his niece, 9-year-old Tasha Brock, comes over and helps—three generations in the same trade. Brooks gets buzzed into the lobby of the senior center and there the women are, sitting. He gets on one knee to scribble orders on a paper bag. Jane Robinson orders cabbage, collard greens, and sweet potatoes. “I hope he stays around,” says Robinson. She’s 97 years old. Jean Hooks, who’s 72, places a hand on Brooks’ arm. “He’s a good man; he’s a working man.” A woman named Ruth Fain, a resident of the center for twentysix years, rolls her wheelchair over to the impromptu gathering in the lobby. “Keith’s like a historical building,” she says. “You take him away, you’ll be destroying a monument. People will be lost without him—leave him the hell alone.” ■ —Contributing writer Charles Cohen lives in Fells Point. He has reported on Baltimore’s arabber community for City Paper and The New York Times. Web extra: See video clips from the arabbers’ year of trials at www. urbanitebaltimore.com. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m j u l y 0 8

Good health begins with a free mind. Nicole Miller, BCBGMaxazria, and Retro

M A R K E T P L A C E

Every Thursday “Girls Night Out” 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm raspberry martinis and decadent chocolates 224-226 W. Read Street Baltimore, MD 21202 (410) 332-1818 Hours: Mon-Sat 11am - 8pm

1/2 OFF FIRST CONSULTATION Overload and baggage can impair our judgement and our ability to enjoy life. Remove the effects of the past and face your challenges with a keener sense of self. Contact 410.321.1587 or lyndahenn50@verizon.net to learn more or to schedule a session.

No matter who you are, no matter where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here. First United Church, UCC Worship: Sunday 10:45 am Holy Communion celebrated the first Sunday of each month www.firstuniteducc.com St. Sebastian Independent Catholic Church Mass: Sunday 4:30 pm & Wednesday 7:00 pm www.saintsebastiancatholic.com Rev. David B.G. Flaherty, Pastor 1728 Eastern Ave., Baltimore 443.691.9800

London’s BOUtIqUe

BCBG • BCBGirls MAX AZRIA

French Connections BUFFALO Jeans AND MORE...

Store Hours 11AM - 6PM MON - SAT 318 CHARLES ST. BALTIMORE, MD • 21201 STORE # 410.244.1288 FAX # 410.244.1588

Hunt Valley Tile and Stone Designer Showroom Exotic Materials Handmade Tile Featuring marble, granite, travertine, slate, limestone, mosaic, glass, metals, porcelain, and ceramic. www.huntvalleytileandstone.com

11110 Pepper Road, Suite D Hunt Valley, MD 21030 410.771.6441

Maharishi Enlightenment & Invincibility Center

Transcendental Meditation® & TM-Sidhi® techniques Effortless • Immediate Benefits Eliminate Stress

Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health(SM) consultations Non-invasive • Safe Prevention-oriented

www.BaltimorePeacePalace.org Baltimore@GlobalCountry.net 410-625-3696

Operating Hours Mon. - Fri.: 7 am - 5 pm Sat: 9 am - 2 pm *Breakfast till 11 am, Lunch till 5 pm Brunch on Saturdays & Sundays: 9 am - 2 pm

1000 Hull Street Baltimore, MD 410 837 0073

urbanite april 08

creating i-candee jewelry classes, beading circle jewelry gallery, beading parties jewelry shows and OH YEA BEADS!!!! 34 East Lanvale Street Baltimore, MD 21202 (443) 527-7006

www.beadalicious.biz

breathe books Travel with breathe books to India Sept. 2008! see details at: http://breathebooks.com/ bookstore_travel.php From Chakras to Shamans, Music to Meditation, Zafus and Zabutons, and over 30 events a month for your mind, body and spirit. See our classes and workshops at www.breathebooks.com. Open: Mon - Sat 11-7 pm | Sun 12-5 810 W. 36th Street | 410-235-READ

Roastery & Retail Shop Quality Custom Interior Painting, specializing in faux, decorative, Murals, painted furniture, and art. Residental/Commercial

Open Tuesday thru Sunday Fresh, locally roasted coffee, loose leaf teas and brewing accessories.

“Obscuring the line between art and decorative painting”

3003 Montebello Terrace Baltimore, MD 21214 443-992-4388

410 • 243 • 4182 www.geministudiospainting.com

www.zekescoffee.com

Mount Vernon’s Best Happy Hour

2for1

Beer, Wine & Cocktails tuesday - Friday, 4 - 6:30pm, saturday & sunday, 3 - 5:30pm

corner of Cathedral and eager streets 410.539.4252 wwww.citycafebaltimore.com lunch. dinner. weekend brunch.

It’s A Great Time to Buy Real Estate…

Broadway Drapery Manufacturers of Fine Window Treatments 3500 Parkdale Avenue Baltimore, MD 21211 410-342-6663

Are You Looking to Sell? Are you curious to know what your home is worth? I’d be happy to give you this information at no cost or obligation. I have buyers looking to purchase, as well as sellers looking to sell. **Investors, there are great deals, large and small, for you as well.** Give me a call and lets get started! For available listings, see my website at www.TheMACTeam1.com Valerie McNeal, GRI The MAC Team of RE/MAX Sails 410-814-2455

The Mercersburg Inn & Byron’s Dining Room

Adornment Craft Center & Gallery

Relaxation, Rejuvenation, Romance

• Art Jewelry •Jewelry & Bead Supplies • Beading & Jewelry Classes • Painting & Drawing Classes • Beading Parties for 6 yrs. & up • Beads & PMC

90 mins away

A bit of Moscow & Manhattan 17 Elegant Guest Rooms, Fine Dining 1909 Georgian Mansion in a quaint village

1-866-628-7401 mercersburginn.com

Roland Park Victorian Canton waterfront condo Mount Vernon brownstone Bolton Hill townhome Mount Washington modern BECAUSE CITY LIFE IS A WONDERFUL LIFE Avendui Lacovara 410-235-4100 443-326-8674 (direct) alacovara@cbmove.com Roland Park at Cross Keys

got wood? we do! The area’s largest selection of exotic, domestic, and FSC certified hardwoods. Custom milling, stair treads, countertops and more. 9572 Deereco Road, Timonium, MD 410-561-9444

www.freestatetimbers.com

www.adornment.net 3600 Clipper Mill Rd., Suite 130 Baltimore, MD 21211 410.662.6623

PETS See the entire collection of dogs and cats online @ www.robertmcclintock.com

Robert McClintock Studio & Gallery 1809 Thames Street Fells Point 410-814-2800

You treat them like family that’s obvious. As fellow pet owners, we get it. Ignite your creativity... Embrace your style... Discover your love of beads... We offer an amazing selection of beads, silver, tools, chains, gemstones, books, classes & crafts that will delight everyone on your gift list! Open 7 Days - 10:30 to 6:30

501 N. Charles Street 410.837.2323 www.beadazzled.net

GOOD DESIGN MAKES A DIFFERENCE Consult an AIA architect. AIABaltimore www.aiabalt.com 410.625.2585 11 ½ W. Chase St. Baltimore, MD 21201

827 E. Fort Avenue Baltimore MD 21230 410-752-7122 citypetsvet.com

Practical Pet Solutions, LLC Customized Obedience Training, Behavior Problem Solving, Pet Sitting and More! We teach you how to solve current behavior problems and help prevent future problems from developing. Please visit our website for more information on all of our services.

www.practicalpets.com 443.794.6752

The American Institute of Architects

Think Big ... Big Views Big Luxury Big Apartments

NEOPOL Baltimore’s ONLY smokery, specializing in

“life is short, eat dessert first”

smoked seafood and meats, savory cheese pies, gourmet

4 Frederick Road Ellicott City, MD 21043

foods, smoked seasoning salts

410.465.BAKE (2253) 410.465.9161 (fax)

Belvedere Square Marketplace

Pet Friendly (Breed restrictions do apply)

No monthly pet rent! CresentFellsPoint.com 410.534.8439

and chef’s supplies.

Baltimore, Maryland 21212

M A R K E T P L A C E

Tel: 410-433-7700

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m a p r i l 0 8

nos e to n o se

finnegan hanscom

foghat dudley

sophia meconi

sable rebbert

daisy durkin

franklin goldstein

kiwi wezwick

emmett okutake

micki macfarlane

milla amoss

gracie streyle

nate bowen

laila ali mbah

rosie brohawn

phoebe castro

rusty greycloud gossett

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s July and Eye to Eye is taking a summer break of sorts and going to the dogs (and cats). Here are the friends who catch our eye daily: the Urbanite pets who wander our ofďŹ ces, adding their special insights and inspiration to everything we do. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Alex Castro

urbanite july 08

$35.95 Economy Proof Menu includes your choice of Soup or Salad, Select Entrees and Accompaniment. Available Sunday & Monday all evening; Tuesday through Saturday 5:00PM - 7:00PM

ANNAPOLIS - EASTPORT | 410.990.0033 | 301 SEVERN AVENUE NOW SERVING LUNCH ON FRIDAYS BALTIMORE - PIER 5 | 410.230.0033 | 711 EASTERN AVENUE BALTIMORE - WATER ST | 410.783.0033 | 600 WATER STREET PIKESVILLE | 410.837.0033 | 1777 REISTERSTOWN ROAD NOW SERVING LUNCH ON FRIDAYS

VISIT US ONLINE AT SERIOUSSTEAKS.COM | VALET PARKING AVAILABLE 100

urbanite july 08