July 2011 by Urbanite LLC

FEATURE STORY

G A I A’ S R AV E N · S E C R E T PAT H S O F R O L A N D PA R K · A R T S C A P E H I G H L I G H T S HEALTH CARE THAT WORKS

jul y 2 011 i s s u e n o. 8 5

AMERICAN

PIE as more suburbs offer up city-style living, how will aging urban centers survive?

2â&#x20AC;&#x192; july 2011â&#x20AC;&#x192; www.urbanitebaltimore.com

this month

#85 July 2011

feature 31

departments 49

The Good Life

by Greg Hanscom With suburbs offering up more “urban” living, who needs cities? about the cover: Illustration by Peter Yuill, model from freeimageworks. com

Editor’s Note 7 What You’re Saying 9 What You’re Writing 13 Don’t Miss 15 The Goods —— baltimore observed 19 Under Pressure by John Motsinger

The Next “Next America”

by Brennen Jensen Columbia was cutting-edge in the 1960s. Can a new-urbanist retrofit keep it sharp for the 21st century?

As the EPA cracks down on water pollution, Baltimore gets serious about reducing tainted runoff from streets and sidewalks.

21 23 23 25

Update Poe House Urbanite Project Voices

—— poetry 53

47 The Illustration by Dara Weinberg

—— space 49 Olmsted’s Shortcuts by Rebecca Messner

web extras

more online at www.urbanitebaltimore.com

video A conversation with power rocker Rahne Alexander

Change is Brewing

music A playlist from Friends Records and tracks from Soul Cannon’s new album web A review of the Contemporary Museum’s Baltimore Liste show A map of the secret footpaths of Roland Park Urbanite’s arts/culture e-zine. Sign up at www.urbanitebaltimore.com.

on the air

Urbanite on The Marc Steiner Show, WEAA 88.9 fm July 5: Tona Brown and Rhane Alexander July 21: Health care reform July 28: Staunching stormwater runoff

The secret footpaths of Roland Park

scope

by Ron Cassie A health care dream team, meeting at a local coffee shop, aims to make Maryland the poster child for reform efforts nationwide.

—— food + drink 53 Hot & Cold by Michelle Gienow Is Baltimore’s blue-collar summer treat poised for a foodie facelift?

57 Dining Reviews 59 Wine & Spirits

—— arts + culture 61 The Un-Museum by Baynard Woods Can a new director find a fresh purpose for the outmoded Contemporary Museum?

63 Music 65 Artscape Preview

—— 67 The Scene —— 70 Eye to Eye Urbanite #85 july 2011 3

LB RESULTS - July Urbanite AD.pdf 1 5/31/2011 4:05:42 PM

issue 85: july 2011 publisher Tracy Ward Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com general manager Jean Meconi Jean@urbanitebaltimore.com editor-in-chief Greg Hanscom Greg@urbanitebaltimore.com assistant editor Rebecca Messner Rebecca@urbanitebaltimore.com digital media editor Andrew Zaleski Andrew@urbanitebaltimore.com editor-at-large David Dudley David@urbanitebaltimore.com online editors food/drink: Tracey Middlekauff Tracey@urbanitebaltimore.com arts/culture: Cara Ober Cara@urbanitebaltimore.com proofreader Marianne Amoss contributing writers Michael Anft, Scott Carlson, Charles Cohen, Michael Corbin, Heather Dewar, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, Mat Edelson, Lionel Foster, Brennen Jensen, Michelle Gienow, Clinton Macsherry, Richard O’Mara, Robin T. Reid, Andrew Reiner, Martha Thomas, Michael Yockel, Mary K. Zajac editorial interns Elizabeth Cole, Jonah Furman, Ashley May

art director Peter Yuill

production manager Belle Gossett Belle@urbanitebaltimore.com

staff photographer J.M. Giordano Joe@urbanitebaltimore.com

production interns April Chou, Aprile Greene, Susannah Lohr, Allison Samuels

CMY

senior account executives Catherine Bowen Catherine@urbanitebaltimore.com Susan R. Levy Susan@urbanitebaltimore.com Amy Sicard Amy@urbanitebaltimore.com

account executives Joe McMonagle JoeM@urbanitebaltimore.com Natalie Richardson Natalie@urbanitebaltimore.com advertising sales/events coordinator Erin Albright Erin@urbanitebaltimore.com advertising/sales/marketing intern Ed Gallagher jane of some trades Iris Goldstein Iris@urbanitebaltimore.com creative director emeritus Alex Castro founder Laurel Harris Durenberger — Advertising/Editorial/Business Offices 2002 Clipper Park Road, Fourth Floor, 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 share 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 2011, Urbanite llc. All rights reserved. Urbanite (issn 1556-8105) is a free publication distributed widely in the Baltimore metropolitan area. To suggest a drop location for the magazine, please contact us at 410-243-2050. Postmaster: Send address changes to Urbanite Subscriptions, 2002 Clipper Park Road, Fourth Floor, Baltimore, md 21211. Urbanite is a certified Minority Business Enterprise.

4 july 2011 www.urbanitebaltimore.com

bottom photo by Nathan Weinberg; middle photo by Allison Samuels; top photo By Allison Samuels; photo of Rebecca messner by J.M. Giordano

contributors

editor’s note

Ron Cassie, who writes about health care reform in “Change is Brewing” (p. 39), is an editor for Patch.com and lives in Baltimore City. A graduate of the master of arts writing program at Johns Hopkins University, he’s won national awards for religion, arts, and sports feature writing, including a notable selection in the 2006 anthology, The Best of American Sports Writing. He reported from Haiti in the days following the earthquake and New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His work has appeared in Baltimore Magazine, City Paper, Newsweek, and Huffington Post, among others.

Urbanite’s new video intern, April Chou, comes to Baltimore from Queens, New York. A member of Maryland Institute College of Art’s class of 2013, April studies video, screenprinting, drawing, and garment-making. This summer she’ll be helping with Urbanite’s latest foray into celluloid, and taking a class on sound. Find her video interview with Rahne Alexander (see “Getting it Straight, p. 25) at http://bit.ly/ rahneurbanite.

Dara Weinberg, author of “The Illustration” (p. 47), was born in Los Angeles and got her MFA in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. She will spend next year in Wrocław, Poland, studying with Teatr Piesnń Kozła (Song of the Goat Theatre). Her poems are published or forthcoming in Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Explosion-Proof, and The Hopkins Review.

in this issue of urbanite, we delve into life on the urban fringe and the complicated relationship between the suburbs and the city. In the feature story, “The Next ‘Next America’” (p. 32), Urbanite Contributing Writer Brennen Jensen explores Columbia, one of Maryland’s most successful ’burbs, and explains why it is trying to become more like the urban areas that many of its residents once fled. Columbia comes late to this game, by recent standards (witness Rockville or Reston or a dozen other ’burbs that have had radical new-urbanist makeovers), but the notion that suburbs should have all the amenities of cities stretches back even further. In the middle of the 19th century, Americans lived in extremes: either in dense urban centers or out in the country. It eventually became clear, however, that neither extreme was ideal. Those in the country wanted the convenience and connectedness of city life; the urbanites got tired of the dirt and noise, and longed for green, open spaces. Master landscape architect and urban planner Frederick Law Olmsted sought to bring these ways of life together. He “ruralized” urban areas by creating urban parks, the first of which happened to be Central Park in New York City. He also “urbanized” rural areas by creating some of the first real suburbs. Olmsted called suburbs neighborhoods of “detached dwellings with sylvan surroundings, yet supplied with a considerable share of urban convenience”—that is, gas and electric power, sanitary sewers, and links via rapid transit to city centers. Olmsted’s cross-pollinating vision has taken on new life recently, as cities and suburbs compete to attract Americans who increasingly want it both ways. And despite many predictions of a looming, nationwide “urban renaissance” and suburban collapse, it remains to be seen which will win out, as Urbanite Editor Greg Hanscom notes his introductory essay, “The Good Life” (p. 31). Elsewhere in the issue, Michelle Gienow gives us the history of that most delectable summer treat, the snowball—and we dish up a recipe for a newand-improved version from our sister city to the north. Baynard Woods writes about the Contemporary Museum, which is currently searching for a new home (literal and figurative) amid Baltimore’s lively arts landscape. And I write about Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.’s design for Roland Park, whose residences, he believed, echoing his father, should “be brought into harmony with the natural conditions as nearly as possible.” Lastly, should city life leave you lacking for things to do, Urbanite and WTMD 89.7 FM have teamed up to create the Great Baltimore CheckIn, a wild, smart-phone powered social networking scavenger hunt that will take you to some of the most colorful and least explored corners of the city. Be among those who “check in” at every one and you could win a Vespa scooter and other cool prizes. The game starts July 4. See www.thegreatbaltimorecheckin.com for details. Oh, and for good measure, we’ve thrown in a few locations in the suburbs as well. Where, after all, would we be without them? —Rebecca Messner is Urbanite’s assistant editor.

Coming next month

who killed general ross? A comedian and a historian search for the roots of Defenders Day.

Urbanite #85 july 2011 5

COMEBACK S · VINYL MAKES A IN? · ROOFTOP DECK C A N O T I S R O L L E Yo .W 8 4 issue n jun e 2 011

WHEN KIDS BECOME CRIMINALS

THE

TWEEOL

WREVOHLUTION

what you’re saying

FEATURE STORY

unprotected—no helmets, no lights, no reflectors. Often I see families out with their children; kids wear helmets, parents do not. What kind of message is this sending? If Baltimore is to become a bike-friendly city, citizen education needs to happen on both ends: Drivers and bikers need to be instructed on properly sharing the road. —Amanda Mignonne Smith, Oakenshawe

HOW BIKES CAN SAVE THE CITY

WHAT IS JUSTICE? Re: “The Labyrinth,” about Maryland’s juvenile justice system, June 2011: I think the problem really goes beyond juvenile justice. Maryland’s justice system as a whole provides a clear example of the lack of a coherent concept of justice in the United States. What are the justice system’s goals? Is the goal simply to lock up offenders, or should the system undertake broader attempts at crime reduction? Relatedly, should prisons be responsible for rehabilitation? (That was removed as a priority for the prison system in Maryland as the substance abuse counselors were removed from prisons full of drug addicts to free up funding for prison expansion.) The answers people give to these sorts of questions are often completely divorced from the policies they actually support. How can the state expect to properly administer justice in particularly complicated cases involving juveniles when it doesn’t know what justice is in the first place? —MikeM

CYCLISTS UNITE! (AND GET WITH THE PROGRAM ALREADY …) Re: “Shifting Gears,” about making Baltimore more bike-friendly, June 2011: I fully support making Baltimore more bikefriendly. As a recent transplant from Lansing, Michigan—where I bike-commuted year-round (snow and shine)—I miss having easy access to safe, continuous bike lanes and multiple options for biking routes. I must admit that Baltimore’s shortage of bike lanes does discourage me from riding through the city, but something that is even more disturbing to me is the number of bikers I see around town,

Bike lanes themselves in Bmore, while laudable in their intent, don’t protect cyclists from ignorant and aggressive drivers—and pedestrians! Just ask a cyclist how many times they’ve seen peds in the bike lanes out of ignorance for what that path is. I would even argue that un-separated yet designated paths engender a false sense of security in the cyclist that can be even more deadly than simply taking a lane in the street as is our right. Until drivers and pedestrians are taught the value of bicycling, and forced to take responsibility for the injuries, deaths, and damages they cause instead of being merely slapped on the wrist or let off all together—as in cases of the Krasnopoler accident, Yates death, and Micha Moise’s recent injury—and required to share the road as the laws currently say they must, I’ll be the same kind of unruly, “lawbreaking,” aggressive cyclist looking out for my own safety, in or out of a bike lane. —altar-ego

Thanks to the city for painting bike lanes and placing sharrows on Frederick Road. This route has been an avenue into and out of the city for many Catonsville, Oella, and Ellicott City cyclists over the past twenty-five years. Now, we need a world-class bicycle parking facility at Camden Yards to encourage more baseball fans to bike to the games. —Pacelines

I’d love to be able to bike around the city more (I live and work in the city), but with the self-centeredness of the drivers here I feel it’s not worth the risk. When the bike/bus lane comes back to Pratt Street I sure hope to see it enforced. When it first went in, I saw cars being pulled over … one morning. Never saw it enforced after that, and I walk to work down Pratt every day. —Holly Bowers

I try to bike to work more often but coming from Hamilton to Fells I haven’t found many bike lanes. I got hit by a car one of the first mornings I biked to work, and the car sped off and no one tried to help me at all. Despite the unpleasantness of that incident I still try to bike often. I would love to learn more of Bmore’s bike community and help to get more bikers on the streets. —Odessa Armstrong

@UrbaniteMD Just read the cover story. Thanks for letting people know that biking in bmore is possible and we are getting there slowly. —1fluffhead

GBCA DOESN’T ENDORSE CANDIDATES Re: “Agents of Change,” about the upcoming mayoral primary, June 2011: I was quoted in the June issue of Urbanite for an article about how the young, arts/tech savvy types are going to be involved in the mayoral primary (“Agents of Change”). I want to clarify that the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance does not advocate for any individual candidate. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has expressed her support of Baltimore’s arts community, and at a town hall meeting last fall she indicated that she is seeking a regional solution to fund arts and culture. —J. Buck Jabaily is the executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

I’M NOT A HIPSTER! Re: “Up on the Roof,” about rooftop decks in Baltimore, June 2011: I am really excited that my garden was featured in the June Urbanite (“Up on the Roof”), and I hope it inspires people to grow their own food and support the urban agriculture movement. There is something I want to point out, though, as it may cause a big stir in the community. You see, to quote Martha Thomas: “Jackson, with her asymmetrical haircut and multiple tattoos, is the embodiment of the urban hipster ...” Unfortunately, having an asymmetrical haircut and tattoos does not qualify me into hipsterdom, and I’m afraid all of Baltimore’s Hipsters will lash out at me, calling me a “poser.” Before I get jumped by this sub-culture would you kindly revise my mis-judged status? Hell, you can throw “bohemian” in there if you need a stereotype, just please, dear God, no hipster ... —Casey Jackson

TAKE THAT! @UrbaniteMD yo today on the ave I saw some crusties tearing up pages of the newest issue & calling it “Herbanite” I told them to shut up —cexmang

Join the conversation. Follow us on Facebook (and use the “Suggest Urbanite” button to recommend us to friends) and Twitter (@UrbaniteMD). E-mail us at mail@urbanitebaltimore.com or send your letter to Mail, Urbanite, 2002 Clipper Park Road, Fourth Floor, Baltimore, MD 21211. Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Urbanite #85 july 2011 7

The Challenge: The proposed Red Line is a 14.5-mile, light rail transit line that will run west-east from Woodlawn through downtown Baltimore, Fells Point, and Canton to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Campus. Its construction could dramatically disrupt city life with noise, dust, traffic snarls, and more. We think we can take advantage of this period to create a unique, vibrant, productive urban space. What do you think?

The Solution:

See solutions from architects, designers, and creative thinkers at:

D Center @ MAP 218 W. Saratoga Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 The new D Center @ Map gallery will be open for public viewing and voting from June 17 to July 8 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information about the Open City Challenge and the exhibition, visit www.urbanitebaltimore.com/project or www.dcenterbaltimore.com

Shop. Work. Donate. Shop any one of our 26 locations. www.goodwillches.org

8â&#x20AC;&#x192; july 2011â&#x20AC;&#x192; www.urbanitebaltimore.com

what you’re writing

illustration by Susannah Lohr

the other kids were gone. It was just us. “We’re not leaving until you do it!” She meant what she said. She’d been sitting on the hood of that Lincoln for more than an hour and hadn’t shifted even once. Between the sweltering heat of the day and the heat from the car’s engine, her rear must’ve been blazing. “I can’t. It’s too high. I’m afraid I’ll get water up my nose.” When you’re 8, the distance between the 5-meter platform and the pool can have El Capitan-like qualities. “Hurry up. It’s getting dark. Now raise your arms high and press them tight against your face until you can feel your ears.” “Like this?” I, of course, knew the drill, but a well-placed clarifying question could buy valuable time. “That’s good. Now, make a cup with your hands, lean forward, and jump! Just jump!” “OK, I’m gonna do it this time, Granny.” Knees buckling, dizzy from the sway of the water below, and reliving the pain of previous gut-busting attempts, I inched forward. “Do it! JUMP!” Jump I did, and this time there was no belly flop: just a smiling kid, a happy Granny, and an abundance of cool, clear water. —J.J. Huff lives in Baltimore. By day she manages middle school melodrama. By night she writes about the sights, the sounds, and the screwballs she encountered during her childhood along the Gulf Coast.

i miss them watering the grass. It was so long ago I barely remember it, and yet I miss the watering. They were the sons of the crushing coalmines, the hard-luck hollows, the punishing

city streets. They traded their sweat in the Baltimore factories for a thin line of prosperity. They bought the new, brick rowhouses of BelairEdison. In their plain lives, the only shared luxury was the grass, soft and green as new hope. In a neighborhood of stony self-reliance, the grass alone was pampered: fed, weeded, mowed, raked, trimmed, and lovingly, oh so lovingly, watered every night. After work, the exhausted men would sit on the unyielding concrete steps, arching water across the front lawns. It would pulse across the pavement into the gutters, lifting the black smears of car oil. We children would watch the small magic of the oil as it transformed itself into iridescent rainbow shimmers, draining off into the grated sewer. On Saturdays, the men and their wives would wash their cars. The cars were so much bigger then, the wives so much smaller. The wives would perch precariously atop kitchen stools, splashing sudsy water from their buckets, struggling vainly to sponge the very centers of the roofs. Then the men would come and take the sponges and finish the job. In a rare summer drought, there would be a city water ban. Sometimes I would awaken in the night to the soft pattering of forbidden water on the blades of grass. Some scofflaw father had dragged himself from sleep to water his lawn. These calloused men had borne bloody war, borne devouring poverty, but they could not bear the wilting of the grass. Summers were somehow gentler then. Perhaps the water hung in the air invisibly, protecting us. Now the summer sun hammers the skull, and the summer air chokes the throat. I miss them watering the grass.

—Mary Catalfamo is a retired special collections librarian, United States Naval Academy. A lifetime resident of the Belair-Edison community, she is a very grateful user of the Pratt Library system, particularly the Herring Run branch.

i’ve started a collection of reusable water bottles. This probably defeats the purpose of the reusable water bottle, since my pure consumerism is surely necessitating the manufacture of even more reusable water bottles, sending even more chemicals into the rivers and smog into the ozone. But I do hot yoga regularly, and I need my metal water receptacle by my side for those moments when there’s so much sweat dripping into my eyes that standing up would surely lead to falling down. It was only $2 at discount chain clothing store, and it has strawberries printed all over it. It reminds me of summer and John Lennon. I also need my splurge, baby blue, brandname, eco-friendly water bottle that has a sports top, so I don’t have to unscrew the lid every time I’m thirsty. I carry it when I go to work so not only am I fashionably hydrated, but I also have a reason to get up from my desk when it’s empty. Turns out, though, that the fancy, brandname, eco-friendly water bottle has let me down. The sports bottle top makes an embarrassingly loud squealing noise whenever I use it to refresh myself. I have to unscrew the whole lid to take a tiny sip, unless I want to call attention to myself, the girl hiding in the corner of the formerly silent yoga class who spends too much money on being “green.” One day, while at the wellness spa and yoga studio where I work, it finally became clear it Urbanite #85 july 2011 9

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what you’re writing was time to admit my water bottle was a dud. I was thirsty and too lazy to unscrew the lid, so I used the “convenient” sports top instead. The massage therapist talking to the receptionist next to me stopped her conversation and looked at me. “Is there a dolphin in here?” Suddenly, I wasn’t thirsty anymore. —Amanda DiGiondomenico, a resident of Catonsville, is the social media guru for Charm City Yoga and a graduate student in writing at Johns Hopkins. In her free time, she bakes and writes about it on her blog, www. mandabakes.com.

“and could we also have two waters?” the girl asked as I arranged her glass of Chardonnay and her date’s gin and tonic on cocktail napkins on the table between them. It was a Thursday night, and my boyfriend had been waiting at the bar to talk to me for nearly fifteen minutes by then, so I figured their waters could wait a second. Because we lived two doors down from the restaurant where I worked, Jeff often came in for a cocktail while I finished my shift. But that night we had fought—badly—before I left the house, and when he’d mouthed “we need to talk” as he passed through the dining room, I knew this time he wasn’t there for a drink with the regulars. “I packed all the stuff you’ll need for a few days,” he began, sliding the spare key to my

car that he’d had for nearly four years into the front pocket of my apron. “It’s all in the trunk of your car.” “Wait, what?” I asked, confused, thinking perhaps he was surprising me with a weekend trip out of town. He wasn’t. “Your makeup and bathroom stuff are in that little blue bag of mine. I need it back. And your clothes are in your suitcase. You can get the rest when you have somewhere to put it. I already changed the locks,” he added, an assertion I was never curious enough to verify. “But it’s the middle of my shift,” I pleaded, now understanding. “It would’ve been late by the time you got home.” “Like this?” “I had to,” he said, “or we never would.” I nodded. I finished my shift. A bar regular named TJ was deploying to Afghanistan and offered me his home while he was gone. “You’ll actually be doing me a favor, having someone in the house,” he lied. And before long I found my own place and my own friends and a new job. And I was fine. But on that night after work in TJ’s home, as I lay my head upon a strange pillow for the first time, freshly single in a new-again city, terrified and exhilarated and shocked in equal measure, all I could think about was that I

never got that girl her water. —Nicole Phipps is the American sales manager for a British fiber optics manufacturer. She lives in Highlandtown with a very tiny basenji and a chihuahua hybrid and dreams of the day she’ll publish her first novel. Her great loves are reading, baseball, and reading about baseball.

“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 previously unpublished, 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. Only one submission per topic, please. Send your essay to Urbanite, 2002 Clipper Park Road, Fourth Floor, Baltimore, MD 21211, or e-mail it to WhatYoureWriting@urbanitebaltimore.com. Submissions should be shorter than four hundred words. 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 Fresh July 11, 2011 September 2011 Ghost Stories Aug. 8, 2011 October 2011 In the Kitchen Sept. 12, 2011 November 2011

Urbanite #85 july 2011 11

the contemporarymuseum presents

Visit our new website today. EmmanuelDowntown.org

EclEctic EnlightEning Engaging EmmanuEl Sunday SErvicES

8:30 AM Holy Eucharist (spoken) 10:30 AM Morning Prayer or Holy Eucharist (sung)

Ceiling by Michelangelo

“lol” includes works by

Kendall Bruns, Kahty Chen Milstead, Chto Delat?, Patrizia Giambi, Gimhongsok, Larry Hammerness, Jonathan Horowitz, Katie Kehoe, Nina Katchadourian, Larry Krone, Jennifer Levonian, Ryan Mulligan, My Barbarian, Dan Perjovschi/Nedko Solakov, William Powhida, Rob Pruitt, David Schafer, Alysse Stepanian/Philip Mantione, Joey Versoza, and the Yes Men!

contemporar y museum 100 W. Centre Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 www.contemporary.org

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don’t miss images (clockwise from top left): photo by Max Garner; © Lee Serenethos | Dreamstime.com; photo by j.m. giordano; no credit; Photo by Felicia Savage; photo by Aaron Wojack

1 Every Friday, 3–8 p.m. FOOD/DRINK

The Charles Street Friday Market brings a new element of food entertainment to the Station North area, offering goods from local farmers and artisanal food producers, along with prepared foods from local chefs, artists’ booths, live music, and craft brews from Flying Dog Brewery. Billed as a way to wind down the workweek, the market is one block from Penn Station, and a portion of all proceeds go to the League of Dreams, an organization that works to provide opportunities for children with mental and physical disabilities. Free Lanvale and Charles sts. www.charlesstreetfridaymarket.com

2 July 1–3 and 7–10 THEATER

The Run of the Mill Theater Company (which claims that it’s “anything but”) presents BMORE 1-ACTS at the LOF/t (Load of Fun Theater): four one-act plays by local authors that touch on the subjects of Alice in Wonderland, a sadistic sausage, home invasion, and Thelonious Monk. $15 120 W. North Ave. 410-796-1555 www.runofthemilltheater.org

3 July 4, 10 a.m. community

Bored with your usual dog-walking routine? The American Visionary Art Museum presents Pets on Parade on July 4, calling on you to “dress your pet and strut your stuff.” Trophies will be awarded for best costume, most patriotic, most visionary pet, and least likely to succeed as a pet, among others. Water and doggie bags will be provided. Free 800 Key Hwy. 410-244-1900 www.avam.org

4 July 15–17 ARTS/CULTURE

The thirtieth anniversary of Baltimore’s Artscape festival, billed as America’s largest free outdoor arts festival and the region’s premier celebration of the arts, descends upon north central Baltimore on the third weekend in July. Local, regional, and national musicians will perform on four outdoor stages; visual arts exhibitions will be on display; performers will take to the streets; and the Artists’ Market will be filled with crafts and works of art for sale. (For more on this year’s Artscape, see page 65.) Free Mt. Royal Ave. and Cathedral St. www.artscape.org

5 July 19, 6:30 p.m. LITERATURE

The Enoch Pratt Free Library hosts Wall Street Journal staff writer Cameron McWhirter for a reading from his new book, Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America, about the period of race riots and lynchings that followed World War I. Free 400 Cathedral St. 410-396-5430 www.prattlibrary.org

6 July 27, 8 p.m. MUSIC

The jazzy folk group Callers (pictured) joins Nat Baldwin, bassist for the Dirty Projectors, and the ethereal Baltimore-based indie pop band Lands & Peoples for a show at the Metro Gallery. $8 1700 N. Charles St. 410-370-7747 www.themetrogallery.net For more events, see the Scene on page 71.

Urbanite #85 july 2011 13

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2. Yellow Dog Tavern A friendly neighborhood restaurant featuring upscale pub fare using fresh, local and regional ingredients. The dog offers outdoor seating & a full bar selection including rotating local brew and house infused vodka. Visit YDT at 700 s. Potomac St in canton.join us for dinner Tues -sat 5pm to 11. Brunch sat and sun 10 to 3 3. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Returning for its ninth year at the ruins of the unforgettable PFI Historic Park, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). It’s family friendly and kids are free! June 10- July 24th, Thursday-Saturday at 8:00 pm, Sunday’s at 6:00 pm. 4. Live Baltimore Some stories can only be told in Baltimore. City home prices are historically low and interest rates are, too. At Live Baltimore, we can match you with homebuying incentives, renovation information, neighborhoods, and more. So if you’ve ever told yourself, “Someday I’ll own my own place,” get in touch, www.SomedayBaltimore.com. 5. Chesapeake Wine Company Baltimore’s original wine bar in a wine shop, now in its 13th year. Full-service bar; 600+ hand-picked wines; top shelf spirits; craftbrews; artisanal cheese and meats; house cured olives and house made tapenades. No scores or big brands, just good stuff to eat and drink! Open 7 days. 6. BMA The BMA is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art—distinguished by the largest collection of works by Matisse in the world—plus dynamic exhibitions, scenic sculpture gardens, and exciting programs. Visit today! Admission to the Museum is FREE for everyone, every day! ARTBMA.ORG.

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andrew zaleski Opened in March, Baltimore Cakery (2005 Eastern Ave.; 443-869-3930; www.baltimorecakery.com) bakes the cakes that TV shows like Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss have spoiled us with: 3-D champagne bottles, an edible iPhone, a sugary box of Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets. The brainchild of chef Jill Williams, a transplant to Baltimore in 2002, Baltimore Cakery prides itself on being a green business—staffers use no plastic cups or forks, compost regularly, and bake with organic ingredients whenever possible.

Painted Ladies

jonah furman After ten years as a makeup artist, Tiffany Jeffers has cashed in on a childhood dream. Federal Hill recently welcomed to the neighborhood Jeffers’s brainchild, SYLK Cosmetics (1049 S. Charles St.; 410-585-8654; www. sylkcosmetics.com). The local startup features in-house makeup artists and photographers by appointment. And come August, SYLK rolls out its original cosmetics line with both pre-made and custom-blended lipstick, foundation, eye shadow, and more. Catch SYLK at its grand opening on August 13 as it premieres the new line and helps kick off Baltimore Fashion Week.

Perfect Gentleman

andrew zaleski Some men just want a crisp white shirt and a new tie. So says Kenneth Himmelstein, the owner of Samuel Parker Clothier (6080 Falls Rd.; 410-372-0078; www.samuelparker.com), who thought Baltimore lacked a traditional men’s shop that emphasized quality and classic English-American style. Seersucker trousers, multi-patterned bow ties, and $1,100 blazers hand-tailored in Italy fill the shop, and almost all the lines carried are exclusive to Baltimore. “What I have here is investment clothing,” says Himmelstein. “It’ll last you five to eight years.”

Urbanite #85 july 2011 15

Buy Local

advertising section cont

7. Maryland Department of Agriculture

The Maryland Department of Agriculture invites Urbanite readers to eat locally grown and produced foods during Maryland’s ‘Buy Local Challenge’ July 23rd through the 31st. Available at farmer’s markets, farm stands and the “local aisle” of grocery stores. To learn about the challenge, visit www.marylandsbest.net.

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ies are available within Harbor East and Downtown with 48-hour pre-order.

10. Milk & Honey Market Milk & Honey Market offers locally and regionally sourced produce, meats & dairy as well as specialty groceries, artisan cheeses, fresh bread and sweet treats! Located in the Professional Arts Building, we stock our shelves with everything we love from right nearby and around the world from raw ingredients to prepared foods & coffee. Come join us in celebrating our local sustainable farmers this summer!

11. Fashion Attic The Fashion Attic is a fabulous women’s consignment shop located in Fells Point, Baltimore.We consign and sell gently used women’s clothing and accessories. Now in our seventh year of business! Winner of Best Consignment shop in Baltimore the last four years. Stop by and see what you can find! 12. Geometrics Studio The newly renovated Geometrics Hair Studio offers a diverse and talented staff that specializes in all of your styling needs from multi-cultural to fine. We are committed to providing you with unsurpassed service in a creative, upbeat, and stylish atmosphere. No matter what service you receive, we strive to make everyone feel as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside. Geometrics-- Where your new style awaits.

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Keep breaking toe clips? Hate having to bring separate bike shoes for the daily commute? So did the folks behind Hold Fast, so they cooked up these ingeniously simple, durable, handmade fabric bike-pedal straps. To sweeten the deal, Hold Fast recently relocated from Brooklyn to Baltimore and now operates entirely out of Meadow Mill. Pick up a set at Baltimore Bicycle Works (1813 Falls Rd.; 410-605-0705; www.baltimorebicycleworks.com) or direct from Hold Fast (3600 Clipper Mill Rd.; 443-7082561; www.holdfastordie.com).

Which Came First?

andrew zaleski Some combinations just work. Peanut butter and jelly. Peas and carrots. And beer and chicken. But extracting the most flavor from your grilled chicken might require mixing the two a little more intimately. That’s right—stuffing an open beer can into the body cavity of a chicken prior to even lighting the grill. Watson’s Garden Center (1620 York Rd.; 410-321-7300; www.watsonsgarden.com) sells several contraptions for beer can chicken cooking, all of which balance your chicken and the enclosed beverage vertically on your grill top.

Statuesque

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Concrete, steel, and wooden creations seem to pepper the cityscape, but who put them there? Why? Cindy Kelly knows. She is the author of Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), an essential guide to nearly every sculpture in the city. It’s full of fun facts and quirky details (a sculpture of Edgar Allan Poe once displayed a misquoted line from The Raven), and although its heft makes it hard to carry, readers can find all of the featured art within eighteen carefully constructed walking and driving tours.

Urbanite #85 july 2011 17

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features / update / urbanite project / voices

Agents Under of Change Pressure Catch-all: This boom at the mouth of the Jones Falls skims garbage off the surface of the water, but can’t touch the nasties underneath.

As the EPA cracks down on water pollution, Baltimore gets serious about reducing tainted runoff from streets and sidewalks.

By John Motsinger

he patter of raindrops on the roof starts just before 8 a.m. on a dreary Saturday. Outside, a thick fog sits on the rooftops of Mount Vernon. Narrow rivulets of rainwater soon line each gutter, carrying miscellaneous bits of urban detritus toward the bowels of the city. Within a few minutes, water backs up at a clogged storm drain near Penn Station. In the next block, water cascades off the roof of a three-story building, splattering buckets of rain onto the sidewalk. At the base of Falls Road, white foam churns on the surface of turgid, brown murk as the Jones Falls is swallowed beneath its namesake expressway, making its final, subterranean descent to the open waters of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Each year, Baltimore receives an average of more than 40 inches of precipitation. The city’s parks, backyards, and street trees soak up much of that rainfall. But almost half of Baltimore’s nearly 52,000 acres of land is covered

with roads, sidewalks, and rooftops—hard, impermeable surfaces that shunt a vast quantity of the remaining rainfall directly into waterways. All that water has to go somewhere, and much of it ends up in the harbor, along with any grit, grease, and grime that gets in its way. The city uses garbage booms and skimmer boats to pick up trash off the surface of the harbor, but beneath all the plastic bags and bottles, invisible to the human eye, are compounds that are doing far more damage. Baltimore’s planning department estimates that more than 640,000 pounds of nitrogen and 55,000 pounds of phosphorus end up in the harbor each year, and a large percentage of that pollution is swept off city streets and rooftops by rainwater. Excess levels of these nutrients give rise to algal blooms that block out sunlight and gobble up oxygen needed to sustain aquatic life, which is why the Chesapeake Bay is now in critical condition. Well over half of the sediment pollution in the harbor’s watershed also comes from stormwater runoff, according to the state’s BayStat database. “The city is engineered to carry water away from streets and homes and Urbanite #85 july 2011 19

Photos (clockwise from left): photo by j.m. -Giordano; Original Design by Jenna Kaminsky

Feature / Update baltimore observed to the harbor as fast as possible,” says Celeste TreeBaltimore program and the nonprofit Parks Amato, spokeswoman for the Baltimore City De& People Foundation planted approximately partment of Public Works. “It’s the worst thing 8,000 trees around the city. possible for water quality.” The city and its partners can always do more, Bay and harbor cleanup efforts are under way but Burgess says they need help. “Who can improve water quality? Every single person in the on a number of different fronts. The state and federal governments are forcing poultry farmers city.” to reduce nutrient runoff from chicken manure. The trick is getting people to see the connec(See “Now or Never,” July ’10 Urbanite.) The city, tion between the plastic bottle in the gutter or under a federal mandate, is in the dog poop on the sidewalk the midst of a billion-dollar and the exploding pipes, lifeless rehab of its infamously leaky creeks, and littered beaches just sewer system. And now, thanks downstream. Blue alleys and in part to new federal regulagreen rooftops may have the sex tions designed to restore the appeal, but picking up the trash bay, urban stormwater runoff is just as important. is becoming the next target. Which brings us back to the The EPA’s new “pollution diet” harbor, where all this junk ends requires municipalities across up. The Waterfront Partnership the Chesapeake Bay watershed of Baltimore, a coalition of busito reduce the amount of nitronesses and nonprofit groups that’s responsible for maintaingen, phosphorus, and sediment runoff by up to 25 percent over ing public spaces around the Inthe next fourteen years. ner Harbor, has set a long-term Leading that effort in Baltigoal of a fishable, swimmable more is Kim Burgess, who took harbor by 2020. The partnership over as chief of the surface wahas made a number of changes to its own practices to prevent ter management division at the Water cop: Kimberly Burgess is in pollutants from fouling the Department of Public Works charge of cleaning up the water that off city streets and, eventually, harbor, says executive director at the end of last year. Her to- washes into the harbor. do list includes such massive Laurie Schwartz—switching to capital projects as restoring Baltimore’s natural more environmentally friendly cleaning agents for power-washing the promenade and adjustwaterways and upgrading the city’s crumbling, 100-year-old storm drain infrastructure. Public ing how it applies fertilizer to public lawns. The Works is already in the middle of a multimilliongroup has also put in forty-five ash urns to collect cigarette butts that might otherwise get dollar rehabilitation of Stony Run in north Baltimore that will increase infiltration. Also in progflicked into the water. ress, says Burgess, is fixing a large underground But there’s much more work to be done, most pipe system near the stadiums that has been out of it well upstream of the harbor. On that front, of commission for close to two years. Schwartz says the partnership is hoping to enlist At the same time, the city is undertaking a some of the 12 to 15 million people who visit the number of innovative programs to engage indiInner Harbor every year. Its new harbor cleanup vidual households. With help from the nonprofit plan that will be rolled out in July will emphasize Blue Water Baltimore and others, the city has public education. Plans also include expanding been encouraging residents to disconnect their the “floating wetlands,” small islands of plants downspouts, install rain barrels, and plant rain growing atop platforms in the middle of the gardens to capture stormwater. They’re also exharbor. The wetlands help filter pollutants and ploring ways to harvest rainwater with cisterns improve water quality, but they’re more about and graywater systems in buildings that are unstimulating conversation than anything else. dergoing renovations. And they’re trying to turn Bill Stack led the city’s stormwater efforts for more vacant lots into community green spaces many years before leaving to take a position as director of programs for the Center for Waterthat can help mitigate stormwater runoff. Last year, Blue Water Baltimore received a shed Protection, a national watershed planning $600,000 grant to start a pilot program aimed organization based in Ellicot City. He says it’s a good thing that the EPA is now forcing municiat reducing the amount of runoff from the city’s 456 miles of alleyways, and the city is chipping palities to get going on cleaning up the bay, even in another $300,000. Over the next three years, if the federal government has done little to pay at least eleven “blue alleys” will be created usfor these efforts. “It is an unfunded mandate,” ing pervious pavement—new building materials Stack says. “But without EPA’s push, it would just and design elements that allow more rainwater be situation normal.” to soak into the ground. Simply planting more trees is a mainstay — John Motsinger does PR for endangered in stormwater runoff mitigation as well, and species by day and moonlights as a freelance the city has set an ambitious goal of doubling writer, focusing on the nexus between urban Baltimore’s tree canopy by 2037. Last year, the communities and the environment.

FRESH FOOD, FAST: Picture this: a retrofitted Washington Post newspaper delivery truck that rolls through city neighborhoods, inviting passersby to flag it down and purchase locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The idea isn’t that far-fetched. Real Food Farm (see “Farm Aid,” Sept. ’09 Urbanite), which grows produce on a six-acre plot in Clifton Park, bought the truck back in March and has been working with the Center for Design Practice at Maryland Institute College of Art to make it road-ready. Real Food Farm’s community outreach coordinator, Maya Kosok, describes the truck as part-arabber, part-ice cream truck. It made its stationary debut at the Urban Farm and Food Fair last month. Eventually, says Kosok, the truck will make stops at schools, churches, clinics, and offices around Clifton Park, and will accept cash, credit, EBT, and food stamps as payment. Real Food Farm hopes to begin home deliveries as early as late July. HERE COME THE FOOD TRUCKS: Barely three weeks after the Baltimore Sun reported on the woes of downtown food truck vendors, who are constantly asked to move by angry store owners and restaurateurs, the city showed mobile foodies some love. (See “One for the Road,” Sept. ’10 Urbanite.) All food truck operators must carry street vendor’s permits, but can now park and sell their fare anywhere downtown. Also, Baltimore’s Street Vendors Board now permits food trucks to park within 300 feet of restaurants that sell similar eats and has established five zones downtown marked exclusively for food truck parking. The city plans to try out the new rules for six months, making a final ruling in December. VIVA LA SCHOOL LUNCH REVOLUCIÓN! The push to transform cafeteria lunches in city schools from pre-packaged piles of glop into freshly made, locally sourced, and healthy meals has been slow. (See “Hard to Swallow,” July ’10 Urbanite.) But in June, the Maryland State Department of Education awarded just under $3 million in federal funding to selected state schools to provide kids with fresh fruits and vegetables through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. More than 80 Baltimore City schools will be included. Weirdly, federal rules prohibit these fruits and veggies from being served during scheduled school breakfast and lunch hours; they’re for educational purposes, to be used during class time in lessons about nutrition.

—Andrew Zaleski Urbanite #85 july 2011 21

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The Big Ideas The Open City Challenge Exhibition opens at D center @ MAP. By Rebecca Messner

are the days of surrounding our conG one struction sites with chain-link fence. Try,

Help Comes Tapping Troubled Poe museum gets a boost from the street artist Gaia. Photo by allison samuels

by Andrew Zaleski

imes are dreary for the Poe House, the red brick duplex in West Baltimore once home to practiced purveyor of the dark and ominous, Edgar Allan Poe. The poet lived at his aunt’s home at 203 North Amity Street from 1832 to 1835, a decade before he penned his best-known work, “The Raven.” Poe was buried in Baltimore in 1849. The house was turned into a museum in 1977. Now, due to financial hardship, Poe’s short-lived home might be closed by early next year—unless an unlikely duo from the city’s local arts scene saves the day. For more than three decades, the Poe House and Museum has operated under the auspices of the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, a wing of the city’s planning department. A number of Poe’s personal items, including his sextant and traveling desk, furniture from the period he lived in the house, and Gustave Dore’s 1884 illustrations for “The Raven,” are displayed inside, although the primary “piece” on display is the home itself, reportedly built in 1830. Last summer, however, Baltimore City government resolved to cease its financial support—$85,000 annually—for the historical house. “In these budget days, you really have to look at core functions of city government,” says Tom Stosur, director of the Department of Planning. “There are ways the city can continue to support [the Poe House], and it’s not just writing the full check.” For now, the house remains open Saturdays only and survives by siphoning from a $300,000 pot raised two years ago during a campaign

marking 200 years since Poe’s birth. The city is hiring a museum consulting firm to develop a financial sustainability plan for the house, although Jeff Jerome, the curator of the Poe House, has said that he doesn’t believe Poe’s former home can survive without city funding. Enter Gaia, recent graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art and street artist, whose work—larger than life paintings and prints of part-animal, part-human creatures—is plastered on decrepit buildings around Baltimore. (See “The Oracle,” Oct.’10 Urbanite.) At the suggestion of Baltimore Museum of Art Director Doreen Bolger, an avid reader of Poe’s works, Gaia has produced an original raven print, which will be sold for $400 a pop at Artscape. All proceeds go directly to the Poe House. “I had been following Gaia’s work and was struck by his ability to express the personalities of animals, especially birds, and thought Gaia should do a raven,” says Bolger. For Gaia, whose large-scale blow-up of the raven is slathered on the side of the Poe Homes on West Lexington Street, producing the prints is less about sending any overt political message about saving the Poe House and more about drawing awareness to a characteristic Baltimore artifact in a rather uncharacteristic way. “The attempt is to show that the Edgar Allan Poe House can raise money,” says Gaia. “It’s a way of showing some autonomy.” Gaia’s raven prints will be on display at the Urbanite gallery at Case[werks] on Thursday, July 14. For more information, go to www.urbanitebaltimore.com.

instead, a tall, thick crop of green bamboo. Or a series of yellow, interlocking octahedrons, protruding out like honeycomb, fashioned into amphitheaters, places to sit, and venues for street art. Or, sure, keep your chain-link fence, but get members of the community to hang up and maintain biodegradable fabric bags full of growing native plants, which can absorb dust. Or get disparate and divided neighborhoods to know each other by pairing up those neighborhoods and using community-submitted photographs to decorate each other’s construction sites. These ideas were all submitted to Urbanite Project 2011: Open City Challenge, which sought ideas for how to make the construction process of the Red Line easier—and, dare we say, more fun—for the neighborhoods it will impact. Submissions came from all corners of the world. In addition to Baltimore, the contest inspired architects, designers, and regular, creative-thinking people from Italy, South Korea, England, Israel, California, and New York. Through July 8, D center @ MAP, located in the Maryland Art Place building at 218 West Saratoga Street, will display each submission in the Open City Challenge Exhibition. The exhibition marks the grand opening of the first brickand-mortar location for D center Baltimore, a group that seeks to encourage creative design in Baltimore. D center @ MAP is supported by one of Downtown Partnership’s Operation: Storefront grants, which seek to breathe new life into downtown’s vacant buildings. Winners of the Open City Challenge will split $10,000 in prize money—and the public gets to make the first cut. Gallery visitors are invited to vote for their favorites through July 8, when finalists will be turned over to a jury of all-star judges: celebrated architecture critic Mimi Zeiger; Henry Kay, deputy administrator for planning and engineering for the Maryland Transportation Administration; Christine Gaspar, executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy; Alex Rinsler, artist and creative director of the UK’s Pirate Technics; and Scot Spencer, associate director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. View the exhibition at D center @ MAP. which will be open through July 8 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Finalists for Urbanite Project 2011: Open City Challenge will be announced in the October issue of Urbanite. Stay tuned. Urbanite #85 july 2011 23

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voices baltimore observed

Getting it Straight Two local musicians talk about what it’s like to grow up, fall in love, and figure out that your gender and your body are not in agreement.

Tona’s Photo by Gar Roberts Photography; Rahne’s Photo by J.M. Giordano

Interview by Marc Steiner

Out with it: Concert violinist Tona Brown (left) and power rocker Rahne Alexander have some things they think you ought to hear.

ona Brown and Rhane Alexander met for the first time when Marc Steiner invited them to take part in an interview for his namesake talk radio program and for Urbanite, but these women have much in common. For starters, they’re both musicians: Alexander, who spends her days as operations and development manager of the Maryland Film Festival, is guitar player and lead singer for the all-girl power rock group The Degenerettes. Brown is a concert violinist, a singer, and the leader of the AIDA String Ensemble. They share something else, too: Both were born male. In the wake of several highly publicized incidents of violence against transgender individuals, we asked them if they would shed some light on what some cultures call “the third sex.” urb: I

wondered if you would tell your stories of growing up and your discovery of self. ra: I was born into a fairly religious, Mormon family, and I knew pretty early on that I had some gender issues going on, which I kinda kept to myself, and I don’t think terribly successfully. [laughter] I didn’t really begin to explore any transitional options until I got to college. This was in the late eighties, before Judith Butler had published Gender Trouble and a lot of other theory, and a lot of the other things that have given rise to the movement throughout the nineties and the early 2000s. I had to go into the deep stacks at [the University of South Carolina] and look at a lot of very deep, surgical, and sociological sorts of textbooks [laughs] to get my information.

I began my transition officially in the early nineties, just after I finished college. I changed my name, started the process, and haven’t regretted it ever since. tb:

I was born in the South. My family is from … the Bible Belt. My family members are ministers and such. So growing up was very interesting, because … you know, you’re just being yourself. But you realize that something is not working … One of the things that’s interesting for me is looking through poetry from when I was younger. It was very mature, and it was dark. I think that was just trying to struggle with feeling different, knowing that [I] couldn’t really place why I seemed so different and, when I looked in the mirror, something wasn’t complete. It’s a subtle thing that grows and grows and grows … In college … it was just like, OK, something is different; you’re not just doing this for show. This is who you are, and you’re gonna have to sit down and do some research and figure out where you’re gonna go. And that’s what I did. I started doing some research and talking to people and learning about the process, and that’s how I came to be who I am now. ra: I get asked this kind of question all the time, like, “So how did you feel, how did you know who you really were?” And I’m really interested, how does anybody know that they’re a particular gender? urb:

Really?

ra: I mean, how do you know? Is it because

you’re told? Is it because you feel a particular way? urb: You were born in a particular

body, a female body or a male body, but you’re saying this is not what defines your gender? tb: That’s exactly what we’re saying. [laughter] What you have to understand is, what is below does not dictate who you are. The average person believes … well, this is the way an individual is born, so they’re going to like football or whatever. But what research is showing, what we have learned, and the blessing of being a transgender individual, is that you can see things from two perspectives. ra: This brings to mind that moment that I had when I decided that yes, I was going to transition and I was going to really, you know— urb:

Physically, from a man to a woman, you’re talking about.

ra: Uh, yeah, I’ll go with that. I mean, it’s not terminology that really rings true to me … I never ever would have imagined that I could have been passing as a man at any point. I’ve been a lot of things, but … no one’s ever been able to really accuse me of [being a man]. urb: When someone is transgender, in Western culture and society, it raises questions about gender and sexuality in a much broader spectrum. ra:

It definitely creates discomfort. Urbanite #85 july 2011 25

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voices baltimore observed tb: Well, I think that what it really does is, I think that it causes you, the person who sees a transgender individual, to question yourself … especially if you’re attracted to that person. It causes you to look inward. And that’s the feeling that people don’t necessarily like … Being in an African American community, there is a lot of homophobia—and we’re starting to see that that’s slowly changing, praise be—but then to take it further, to say that, you know, you’re changing your gender, that’s a whole ’nother conversation. urb:

There have been a number of transgender people who have been severely beaten, even killed, by men who discover that this woman that they find attractive may have male parts. I think that a lot of people wonder, what does a person do as transgender? How do you fall in love? How do you find somebody to be with?

It’s just like anyone else. You have the ups and downs, you date, just like a normal person, because, you know what? We’re normal people. I say that and laugh, but I’m so glad you’re bringing these questions. There’s a process of dating and when you’re dating someone and you disclose, “This is who I am.” And it’s up to that person to decide as to whether they would like to pursue a relationship with you. And a lot of times when you hear about these horrible

stereotyping and sensationalism. If you could see that your lawyer, your doctor, your musician, the clerk at the grocery store, you know, that we are everywhere, and that we’re just like you.

ra: In another aspect of my life I create video art, which is largely assembled from existing sources—hunted footage or found footage. A piece that I put together a couple years ago assembled moments of trans-panic from the history of Hollywood … ranging from these early Ernst Lubitsch and Buster Keaton films all the way up to today, you know, scenes from Entourage …You think of the movie The Crying Game being one of the biggest examples … I decided that what I wanted was to pull together all these scenes of reactions … whether it’s Stephen Rae vomiting or Jim Carrey’s parody of Stephen Rae vomiting, and once these things are all assembled together it really becomes clear that … you know, for a hundred years we’ve been seeing this same kind of scene of embarrassment, joking, derision, and violence.

urb: So when you see things like what occurred around the attack on Chrissy Lee Polis at that McDonald’s … what do you feel about how this should be handled? ra: I mean, the whole thing just breaks my heart on kind of every level. There’s just no—no pure good is coming out of this situation … but something I’d never thought I’d see in my lifetime was where legislators are having to deal with these issues. There was a point in my life where I figured that just saying the word “transsexual” would shatter everything. And, like, I would never ever be happy and I would never live to be in love and in a relationship and be able to go out and be myself, you know. And for me, in my lifetime, to find that not only the city of Baltimore but the entire state of Maryland is grappling with these issues, it’s mind-blowing.

tb:

It’s imperative that we do this sort of work and that more women, and gentlemen as well, feel comfortable enough to speak about their lives and to come out and say that I’m proud to be who I am. That’s also the last step I feel that’s needed to end this violence and all this

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“the world just opened up” Hearing aids change lives for twins

photo by David Rehor

By ro B i n t. r e i d

If you saw Brian

McBride, 15, and his twin sister, Bria, walking down the halls of Pikesville High School, you’d be hard pressed to notice what sets them apart from the rest of the students. Clad in jeans and T-shirts, they look and sound like typical teenagers. She’s interested in volleyball and biology, and he’s a budding football player who excels in music. But take a closer look at the slim, clear plastic tubes partially encircling their ears, the tiny devices that resemble headsets. They’re hearing aids. And they’ve been integral parts of the McBrides since they were 4 years old. Brian— who is older than his sister by one minute—was born with 75 percent hearing loss, and Bria, with about 40 percent.

Their mother, Gretchen McBride, first suspected the hearing loss when the twins were 3. “I’d be in my room, and their room was down the hall,” she said. “The TV was always very loud. And when their backs were to me, they couldn’t hear me. Whereas when they were looking at me, they seemed to hear, because they were reading my lips.” She discussed these things with the nurse practitioner during a checkup for the twins. The nurse dismissed McBride’s concerns and said the children could indeed hear but simply weren’t paying attention. “It took about a year for the doctor to get serious about this,” McBride recalled. “At that time, we didn’t know Bria had a problem, so we focused on

Brian. I kept telling the doctor Brian needed to have his hearing tested.” Luckily, one of the people she said this to was a friend who worked for The Hearing and Speech Agency (HASA). Eventually the children went to an audiologist for the tests. Brian went into the sound booth first, and then Bria followed. The results confirmed McBride’s suspicions that Brian had hearing loss. She was shocked to learn that Bria did too. “My heart was broken,” she said. “I thought, ‘What did I do wrong during my pregnancy?’” Probably nothing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one baby out of a thousand born in the United States is either

deaf or hard of hearing. Within that group, between 50 and 60 percent of the hearing loss can be attributed to genetics, 25 percent to maternal infections during pregnancy, and the remaining 25 percent to unknown causes. Premature babies may also be more susceptible, and the McBrides were five weeks early. Once the diagnosis was in hand, Gretchen McBride turned to HASA to assist her in finding resources to help with the costs of hearing aids because her health insurer—like so many others—did not cover the devices. HASA’s staff identified groups that provided grants and then helped her fill out the applications. She wound up getting a grant for $4,500, which enabled both children to get hearing aids. “The world just opened up,”

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Brian said, recalling the first days with his hearing aid. “I could finally hear what people were saying. Before I heard sounds and a lot of mumbles.” Bria agreed. “Sometimes before, I couldn’t hear anything,” she added. “After we got them and started kindergarten, the other kids were like ‘Wow, can we get one?’” There was an adjustment period, of course. Brian said his first one, made of hard plastic, made his ears sore. And both twins found that the aids would stop working after they’d played sports and were sweating. But after eleven years with them, the twins say they often forget that they’re wearing them. “Some nights I forget to take it out until my head hits the pillow,” Bria said. Luckily, the newer ones got increasingly smaller as the technology improved. Every two years, Bria and Brian get new aids; in Maryland, medical assistance and most insurers are required to cover the cost of hearing aids until the age of 21. After that, the McBrides will have to find other ways to pick up the costs. But Brian isn’t worried about that right now. The rising sophomore intends to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; “I’ll be set for life,” he said emphatically. His mother laughed. Then after reflecting on the struggles she had to help him hear and gain that confidence, she said, “When it comes to your children, never let anyone tell you no. A mother knows her children, and I knew they needed help.”

Visit www.hasa.org to view a video segment of Bria and Brian’s interview.

Detecting Hearing Loss

Q: How hard is it to catch up? For example,

HASA audiologist Sun Young Lee advises parents

A: Many children with hearing loss are not

Q: How can you tell if a newborn has any hearing loss?

A: Almost all states now have mandatory

hearing screening procedures for all newborns. Best practices would rescreen an infant before the age of 1 month if she/he fails the initial screening. If an infant fails the second screening, then a full diagnostic evaluation by an audiologist is recommended by the age of 3 months.

Q: How many children are born who cannot hear?

A: According to the National Institute on

Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, for every thousand children born in the United States, two to three are deaf or hardof-hearing. Nine out of every ten children who are born deaf are born to parents who can hear.

how hard is it to help a child who has not been diagnosed as soon as possible?

diagnosed according to the 1-3-6 guidelines, and therefore their speech is delayed compared with their peers whose hearing is normal. However, each child’s development is different, and it is important to begin intervention as soon as the hearing loss is diagnosed.

Q: Can children outgrow hearing aids? A: Sensorineural hearing loss is a result of

dysfunction of the hair cells in the inner ear. Scientists are working on being able to regenerate these sensory cells, but the technology is not there yet. Currently, a child who uses hearing aids will most likely continue to use them throughout his or her lifetime.

Q: Tell me your favorite success story. A: We had a teenager come into the clinic

Act?

who had a sudden hearing loss related to other health problems. He was a bright student and previously had normal hearing. We were able to help him to get health insurance that would cover the cochlear implant device and surgical procedure. Now he is doing great.

A: Maryland was one of the first states to

Q: Does HASA specialize in pediatric

Q: What is the Newborn Infant Screening pass legislation in 1999 mandating that all newborns receive a hearing screening before discharge from the birth hospital.

Q: How do you treat an infant with partial hearing loss?

A: Early identification is critical for the best

speech, language, cognitive, and educational outcomes. We strive to meet the 1-3-6 timeline: screening by 1 month, diagnosis by 3 months, and intervention by 6 months. Intervention includes a medical evaluation— preferably by a pediatric ear, nose, and throat doctor—genetic testing, hearing aid fitting and monitoring, and early intervention services.

Q: What is the success rate of cochlear implants in infants?

Call The Hearing and Speech Agency today for an appointment: 410.318.6780.

developing normal speech and language.

A: The best outcomes are for children who have the implants by the time they’re 1 year old. Those who began intervention by 6 months have the greatest potential for

audiology?

A: While we provide audiology services to

many infants, young children, and teenagers, we also offer hearing aid services to adults. In fact, last year, 37 percent of our audiology clients were over the age of 60.

Q: Many insurance plans do not cover

the cost of hearing aids. What options are available?

A: Maryland has legislated that all insurance companies based in Maryland are required to provide some kind of hearing aid coverage for children. Other commercial insurance companies may not provide this benefit. Medical assistance covers the cost of hearing aids until a child turns 21. The Hear Now program from the Starkey Foundation provides lowcost hearing aids for families that financially qualify. Other organizations, such as Lions Clubs, Jill Fox Fund, etc., provide funding for hearing aids.

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With the suburbs offering up more “urban” living, who needs cities?

illustration by peter yuill

The Good Life

By Greg Hanscom

n the days leading up to the release of the 2010 Census, hopes were high that Baltimore had finally stopped its decades-long population free-fall and could stand proud next to its ever-swelling suburbs. The recession had hit the city hard, but there was evidence that the resurgence we’d seen early in the decade had held, at least to a point. The downtown area had more than doubled its population, according to local counts. Crime was down. Enrollment in city schools was up. “I think we are, let’s say, optimistic, maybe a little cautiously optimistic, that this official number coming out … will point to a stabilization of our population,” Thomas Stosur, the city planning director, told the Baltimore Sun in January. This optimism was stoked by between-year Census data that suggested that, for the first time in a generation in many metropolitan areas, white people were shunning the suburbs in favor of city living. “A new image of urban America is in the making,” William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, told the Associated Press. “What used to be white flight to the suburbs is turning into ‘bright flight’ to cities that have become magnets for aspiring young adults who see access to knowledge-based jobs, public transportation, and a new city ambiance as an attraction.” When the final Census numbers arrived, however, they hit like a bucket of cold water. Baltimore had lost another 30,000 residents since 2000. It was the smallest loss in decades, but it was a devastating slide nonetheless, taking almost 5 percent of the city’s remaining residents. Whites and blacks fled the city in roughly equal numbers: 22,000 and 23,000 respectively. Fifteen thousand mostly Hispanic and Asian newcomers prevented an even more precipitous drop. The suburbs, meanwhile, continued to grow. Baltimore County’s population grew by 6.7 percent. Howard County’s jumped 16 percent. Nationally, the picture was the same. An analysis of eight metro areas, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, and Baltimore, showed that from 2000 to 2010, 96 percent of the population growth, on average, occurred in the suburbs. So much for the “urban renaissance.” Americans were sticking to their two-car garages and big lawns, thank you very much. What happened? “The sad truth of the matter is that there’s really very little information on this back-to-the-city thing, at least from a demographic standpoint,” says Frey. By the final Census numbers, only three major cities (Atlanta, Oakland,

and Washington, D.C.) supported his “bright flight” hypothesis. This is not to say that it is not happening, Frey explains (the Census provides little in the way of socioeconomic details), just that we don’t have the numbers, on the national level, to support it. A renaissance may still be in the making, however, thanks to two groups of people who together make up more than half of the U.S. population. First are the Baby Boomers, now childless and sitting in sprawling suburban homes, looking to downsize and spend less time in their cars. Second are the Boomers’ kids, the “Millennials” or “Generation Y,” who are now graduating from college. A 2008 report by the national research firm RCLCO found that 77 percent of Millennials want to live in an urban area, drawn by diversity (racial and otherwise) and an eco-friendly lifestyle. The recession has hit the Boomers hard, of course, and many have opted to delay their plans to downsize. Baltimore City lost more than 20,000 of them between 2000 and 2010. The Millennials, however, seem to be making good on their promise: 20- to 24-year-olds are up by more than 7,000 in the city from a decade ago. It is a dramatic turnaround from the 1990s— which saw a decline of 11,000 people in this age group—and a sign that young people are coming to the city, or at least sticking with the city longer than they did a decade ago. If the in-between generation is any indication, however, holding on to these youngsters will be tough. The 35- to 44-year-old cohort is down by almost 25,000 from a decade ago. Translation: When the kids hit school age, we continue to beeline it for greener pastures in the suburbs. And as Urbanite Contributing Writer Brennen Jensen reports in the following pages, those pastures are only getting greener. Suburbs are retooling, putting in walkable “downtowns,” cute coffee shops, and other amenities. Oh, and in addition to better schools, the ’burbs have more jobs—and around here, at least, a property tax rate that is a fraction of the city’s. Still, Stosur is confident that Baltimore will be able to compete. With the education, health care, and tourism industries driving job growth, and neighborhood revitalization efforts sprucing up the housing stock, the city should attract not just Boomers and Millenials, he says, but also more of the Hispanics and Asians that have already boosted the city’s population. “I still feel we’re poised for a turnaround,” Stosur says. Whether that turnaround actually comes to fruition depends largely upon convincing people that the benefits of urban living outweigh the obvious inconveniences, especially when kids come into the picture. That, it seems, is still a tall order.

Urbanite #85 july 2011 31

The Next “Next America”

C o lu m b ia wa s cu ttin g-e d g e in th e 19 6 0 s. C a n a n e w-

By Brennen Jensen Photog raphy by J.M. Giordano

t’s a postcard-perfect spring day on Columbia’s brick promenade overlooking rippling Lake Kittamaqundi. A quartet of geese methodically probes a patch of shoreline grass while a handful of murmuring workmen endeavor to repair a wooden pier. The May sun glints off the gilt canopy of People Tree, a looming sylvan sculpture with human-shaped branches that’s a symbol of this planned community of nearly 100,000 that über-developer Jim Rouse carved out of 14,000 acres of Howard County farmland in the 1960s.

All is bright, shiny, and decidedly sleepy. “This area just doesn’t generate casual visits,” says longtime Columbia resident and community activist Phil Engelke, who arranged to meet a reporter here. “I haven’t seen one jogger. I haven’t seen one baby carriage.” Concerts and outdoor films do draw people down to this shoreline, but when nothing’s officially going on here, well, nothing much goes on. Where you will see bustle and baby carriages (and power walkers, if not joggers) is just up the

way inside the cavernous Mall in Columbia, one of Maryland’s largest climate-controlled shopping venues. In an era when many malls are wheezing (such as Owings Mills) or have been demolished (like Hunt Valley), here the halls and food courts still hum. And if you wanted to saunter over to the mall from here on the sun-splashed promenade? “Well, you have to wander around over there,” Engelke says, sweeping a hand toward some steps leading up a hill. “Then you go over that bridge,

around the edge of a parking garage, up some more steps, and then into a side door.” In short, it would be easier to drive. And there’s the rub. Columbia’s Town Center is auto-centric and foot-unfriendly. Dominated by acres of parking lots and blank mall walls, there’s no real there there, to borrow a bit from Gertrude Stein. “And what there is there, you can’t find,” adds a chuckling Engelke, no stranger to hearing Stein’s sentiments applied to what would be the state’s secondlargest city, were it officially incorporated. But this could be changing. Last year Howard County approved a sweeping, thirty-year master plan for Columbia’s Town Center, allowing up to 5,500 new housing units, more than 4 million square feet of office space, and 1 million-plus square feet of retail. It’s all to be wedged within fewer than 500 acres of downtown Columbia— including overtop of much of the mall’s parking lots. Several new mixed-use neighborhoods will rise along a gridwork of streets in the “new urbanism” style, where eateries and shops are on the

lifestyle that is less dependent on automobiles. There are all sorts of reasons to look at those big parking lots and ask, ‘Hey, what else can we do there?’” Jim Rouse, somewhat portentously, referred to Columbia as “The Next America.” But that was in the 1960s, when gas cost a quarter a gallon, father knew best (and, more often than not, mom stayed home), and it was physically and financially possible for a single developer to snatch up 14,000 acres of farmland in the shadow of two major cities. The next “Next America”—by necessity and desire— appears to be moving away from car-centered cul de sacs and toward the kind of urban landscape that many suburbanites once fled.

prawl is inefficient, ugly. Worst of all it is inhuman,” Jim Rouse told Business Week in 1966. Carefully planned Columbia was an antidote to the haphazard, gimcrack development spewing up the spoke roads emanating from American

hundreds and hundreds of new streets to name in a hurry, the company turned (often obscurely) to the world of American literature and art for inspiration. Casual visitors can find themselves lost within a leafy, Byzantine layout looking for Dried Earth Boulevard, Sealed Message Road, Snuffbox Terrace, or Tolling Clock Way. The “city” of Columbia is made up of the town center by the lake and nine “villages,” each a collection of housing developments clustered around a shopping area called the “village center.” This quaint designation was said to be a nod to Rouse’s Eastern Shore childhood in Easton—an effort to capture some small-town feel in suburbia. And Rouse’s contrarian stake went well beneath the suburban surface. The Fair Housing Act didn’t exist when Columbia began. In the 1964 Democratic primary, Howard Countians voted for arch-segregationist George Wallace. And so it raised some eyebrows when, from the get-go, the Rouse Company touted Columbia as a racially inclusive community, free of redlining or other

u r b a n ist r etr o fi t k e ep it sh a r p fo r th e 2 1 st centu r y?

ground level with apartments and offices above, and parking is tucked underground or stashed behind buildings in unobtrusive garages. Artistic renderings accompanying the plan depict busy sidewalks and plentiful pocket parks and public gathering places. Buildings as tall as twenty stories will loom overhead. This … in Columbia? Turns out the once cutting-edge community is really playing planning catch-up now, as low-density mall-centered suburban developments across the country are being “urbanized” into mixed-use communities. In Denver alone, eight of thirteen area malls are seeing some form of density-increasing makeover, says Ellen Dunham-Jones, an architecture instructor at Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of the book Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs. “‘Every five years, every 5 miles—a new mall’ used to be the leapfrog development pattern,” she says. “Now people want a more sustainable

Life on the

edge: Suburban underhanded efforts to “protect” cities. The man who changed the way Columbia was America shopped was going to change neighborhoods or steer minorities to designed with the way we lived, cutting his teeth in certain corners. “You forget how radinature in mind, but this arena with Baltimore’s Village of cal this was at the time,” says Engelke, its auto-dependent Cross Keys, a mixed-use development who, along with other progressive “city center” needs an upgrade, says erected on an erstwhile golf course off types, was attracted to what he dubs community activist Falls Road in 1964. Rouse then bought “a post-collegiate campus for young Phil Engelke, far about ten percent of Howard County married couples.” right. The Mall at to create what he colorfully called “a Forty years on, Columbia remains Columbia, center, continues to be garden for growing people.” racially diverse—about 55 percent the heart of this white, 25 percent black, and 11 perAesthetically, Columbia broke with unincorporated cent Asian. But much has changed the normal suburban laissez-faire community. here. One telling demographic shift tolerance for visual noise. There are restrictions (although recently loosis median age. When young Columbia ened) on commercial signage and a litany of neigh- brimmed with families, the median age was all of borhood covenants controlling the appearance of 11. Today it’s 39. Also aging is the village-centers private homes. “Respect for nature” was one of the concept, with some centers struggling commerpillars of Columbia’s design, and so unlike the typ- cially, beset with tenant turnover and vacancies. ical grid street pattern that ignored land contours, Wilde Lake Village Center, one of the oldest, has Columbia’s planners preserved stream valleys and been without a major grocery store since 2006. sent roads looping along the lay of the land. With These smallish, tucked-in-the-neighborhood

Urbanite #85 july 2011 33

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Coming soon: Columbia planners years now, growth as been directed retail centers have lost customers to a shunned the subureastward at Columbia and the alphalanx of big box stores that bloomed ban grids of their ready largely built-up Route 40 and on Columbia’s periphery. era, tucking homes And crime has come to this corner Route 1 corridors. into the trees. The city’s “downtown” of the ’burbs. In the 1990s and early Still, if Columbia’s not broke, why could soon see 2000s, high profile incidents hit the fix it? buildings up to news, including a drug dispute that “Master planned communities like twenty stories tall. ended in a dual shotgun shooting and Columbia are the best version of what the abduction and rape of a 15-yearare referred to as ‘drivable suburban’ old girl waiting for her mother in front of the town development. But we don’t need to build any more center library. Neighborhood decay had attracted of them,” says Christopher Leinberger, a veteran gangs, drugs, and prostitution. Just as “inner city” developer, visiting fellow at the Brookings Instibecame shorthand for urban blight, there began tution in Washington, D.C., and author of The to be talk of an “inner Columbia” and even an “in- Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American ner village.” (Even so, crime stats show that today, Dream. “‘Walkable urban’—that’s where market Columbia is three times safer than the country as demand is now. So the question is, will Columwhole and ten times safer than Baltimore City.) bia participate in the next American dream, one Despite the changes, however, Rouse’s “Next where you have the option of both drivable suburAmerica” remains immensely popular. Colum- bia, which Columbia has in spades, and walkable bia’s decades-spanning growth is a principal rea- urban at the same time?” son that Howard County’s population expanded twelve-fold over the last sixty-odd years. And t wasn’t visions of some new urban utowhile growth has slowed of late, it’s still on the pia that first brought Columbia’s Town move, bolstered now by the federal government’s Center into the planning crosshairs, howongoing relocation of some ten thousand workers ever. Rather, in 2003 the Rouse Company right across the Anne Arundel County border to sought to build on the largest chunk of Fort Meade as part of base realignment efforts. Town Center’s undeveloped land: the gravel park(See “Maneuvers,” Nov. ’09 Urbanite.) Just last ing lots and scrubby woods surrounding much of year Money magazine ranked Columbia the sec- Merriweather Post Pavilion, the open-air concert ond best place to live in the country—second only venue. When company leaders asked the county to Eden Prairie, Minnesota. for the required zoning variance, planners saw an Of course much of Columbia’s appeal lies in opportunity to conduct a comprehensive study of its proximity to both Baltimore and Washing- central Columbia’s development potential. ton, D.C.—and in the fact that there aren’t a lot “It’s not a question of having continuing growth of options for development in Howard County. opportunities; it’s a question of how much can we Howard’s western half remains largely rural, and accommodate and where, because there isn’t a lot “smart growth” guidelines, agricultural land ease- of raw ground,” explains Marsha McLaughlin, diments, and other open space preservation prac- rector of the Howard County Department of Plantices have pretty much locked it down for the ning and Zoning. cows’ continued enjoyment. For at least twenty In 2005 the county sponsored a weeklong

community charrette at which some three hundred residents worked alongside planning experts to hammer out a vision for Town Center. The first draft of a county planning document, Downtown Columbia: A Community Vision, emerged in 2007. Meanwhile, General Growth Properties, the Chicago-based outfit that acquired the Rouse Company in 2004, began holding its own public planning events and, borrowing from the county’s plan, released its own plan in 2008. The concepts were debated and plans amended and integrated. The final combined plan passed unanimously in February 2010. General Growth estimated that the county would add 50,000 new residents by 2040, and, in a 2008 letter to county officials, suggested that a denser downtown Columbia could capture 20 percent of these new Howard Countians. They also figured the city-like development with highrises and street life would appeal largely to folks without school-aged children, such as fresh-outof-college professionals and empty nesters. “The master plan for downtown is part of an effort to create an urban setting and an urban context that appeals to and attracts the people who would otherwise leave and go live in D.C., Baltimore, Annapolis, or wherever,” says Roger Lewis, professor emeritus at University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and an urban planning columnist for the Washington Post, who testified in support of the plan. “There’s not a single, single-family home proposed in downtown. Traditional nuclear families are now the minority of American households, which was not the case when Rouse designed Columbia.” Besides just absorbing growth, McLaughlin sees the plan for dense and lively development filling a larger, countywide need. “It’s great that we’re close to Baltimore and Washington, but you Urbanite #85 july 2011 35

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shouldn’t have to go to either of those places for a as well as mall shoppers. “In Reston, they took a night on the town,” she says. “There ought to be piece of property that was undeveloped and said, more happening in Columbia. We’re looking at it ‘We’re going to put a downtown here,’” says Lewis. as an urban center for all of Howard County.” “It was not a makeover of an existing town center But this image of an urbanized Columbia did but a start from scratch on land that was very acnot sit well with many. They were fearful the new cessible via an existing highway network.” density would mean more traffic, more congesReston is also slated to be connected to an extion—more of the stuff they moved to leafy Co- tension of D.C.’s Metro—and mass transit access lumbia to get away from. A bruising, multi-year can be a key component of suburban makeovers. battle preceded the plan’s passage by the county In Rockville, four years ago a tired downtown mall council, playing out in blistering blog posts and was replaced with a mixed-use development that rival online advocacy groups. has been a success in no small part because of its Columbian Alan Klein is a charter member proximity to both Metro and MARC stops. Tyson’s and chief spokesperson for the Coalition for Co- Corner, Virgina—poster child of mall-centered lumbia’s Downtown. This group of three hundred sprawl—is poised for a density-increasing mixedor so formed in 2005 to promote a more “human use makeover that is spurred in part by plans for scale” downtown of mid-density at best—and four new Metro stops. Closer still, Montgomery has continued to voice opposition to the mas- County has approved a remake of some 400 acres ter plan. For starters, he feels the 5,500 housing of old-school suburbia around White Flint Mall. units is three times the number that the area can The new development will be replete with thirtycomfortably absorb and that buildings should story buildings. The area already has Metro access be no more than around twelve stories tall. “We and is slated to get a new MARC stop as well. are not disputing the usefulness of a renovation Columbia has a bus network, but as to other of our downtown space and enhancing its den- transit, McLaughlin can only say, “We want it, we sity,” Klein says. “But we don’t feel the output of need it, we’re working on it.” But given the comthe charrette reflected what the community was munity’s circuitous, widespread nature and disactually intending. Twenty-story buildings were tance from existing lines, the concept of “Columallowed when on the first day people emphasized bia Rail” remains a fanciful and far-off proposition that they wanted to keep density low.” that would probably carry a ten-figure price tag. McLaughlin, who defends the public proAnd so ballooning traffic volumes are another cess that led to the plan, acknowledges that the concern for Columbians keeping an eye on the 5,500 units figure ultimately came from General plan, although Dunham-Jones offers some encourGrowth, but feels it’s a “reasonable” sum given the aging news on this front. She notes that despite plan’s thirty-year time frame. the addition of residents and workers in such subFor his part, Engelke co-founded the New City urban retrofits, traffic can often go down, in part Alliance to promote the plan, primarily through because more errands can be done on foot or bike. a slick website. “Columbia risks becoming a mu- Rush hours can also be tempered. “It seems counseum,” Engelke says. “For the county to embrace terintuitive that traffic can be reduced, but if you this plan was a tremendous leap of faith.” have an office park and you bring in restaurants The plan had a voter referendum of sorts last and bars and shopping, suddenly people have reaSeptember, when Klein ran against incumbent sons to come early and stay late, which dampens fourth district councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty in peak travel times,” she says. the Democratic primary. Sigaty had voted to pass Dunham-Jones cautions, however, that for a the master plan, and it was largely a one-issue retrofit development to truly work in this manner, campaign: Town Center redesign, yea or nay. Al- you have to build them in “big chunks.” “You can’t though Klein lost by a nearly two-to-one margin, change behavior by developing one little piece at a he and his fellow concerned Columbians vow to time,” she says. “It has to be comprehensive.” continue following the development process and How the construction of the new Columbia voicing their concerns. “My fear is that we will get Town Center will actually play out is currently up a cookie cutter, look-alike town center designed in the air, because midway through the planning only for maximum profit,” Klein says. process, the economy tanked. General Growth Properties, now Columbia’s principal landowner olumbia does face some unique and developer, slipped in and out of bankruptcy. challenges to its urban reinven- Last fall, it spun off all of its Columbia holdings, tion, especially when set against save the mall itself, to the Howard Hughes Corthose happening elsewhere in the poration, a Dallas-based developer of planned region. Reston, a planned commu- communities. Brand-new to the Howard County nity in Fairfax County, Virginia, began work on its game, Hughes executives play it pretty close to the neo-urban town center back in 1988. It now sports vest when discussing how the plan might move eighteen-story buildings and has been dubbed in forward. the press “the downtown for the 21st century.” John DeWolf, hired in May as Howard Hughes’ But then, Reston had an easier time of it. Co- senior vice president of development for Columlumbia’s new Town Center must rise while con- bia, calls the plan “masterful” and affirms that tinuing to accommodate concert-goers (and park- his company is “committed” to its fruition, but as ers) at the popular Merriweather Post Pavilion, of press time he could offer little else. He did say

shovels wouldn’t be hitting the ground for at least another year. General Growth, meanwhile, when reached at its Chicago headquarters, directed inquires to Columbia Mall management, who would only say they had a good working relation with Howard Hughes and anticipated doing whatever it took to keep the area thriving.

eturning to the placid shores of Lake Kittamaqundi, there is always one person in attendance on the promenade: Jim Rouse. His bronze likeness stands there alongside his older brother and fellow developer, Willard. Although Rouse retired from the eponymous company in 1979 and died in 1996, the bespectacled mall-magnate-cum-town-builder still casts a long shadow over these parts. Folks on both sides of the development issue invoke Rouse’s “vision” for Columbia to support their positions. (Engelke calls it “channeling Jim.”) “We never used the word ‘vision,’” scoffs Robert Tennenbaum, the community’s chief planner who Rouse brought in when the environs were just pastureland, and a Columbia resident from day one. “People like to put things in his mouth he never said or ideas in his head that he never had to support their view.” The retired architect also dismisses new urbanism as a “sound bite” and just a “catchy term.” Rouse did say he wanted Columbia to be a “real city” and not just a “better suburb.” Having made his millions building malls, there was never a doubt what would be at Columbia’s core. But he wanted other hubbub there as well. For years the idea was to add an amusement park to the lake shore modeled after Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. In the end, Columbia’s Town Center got overlooked over the years. The mall expanded and some residential developments blossomed in 1990s, but the bulk of commercial development was added to Columbia Gateway, a nearby sprawling industrial park off I-95 that the Rouse Company developed after its founder’s departure. For his part, Tennenbaum has concerns about the master plan—concerns about how and if the mall’s anchor stores will give up their surface parking lots, concerns about Merriweather concerts being loudly obtrusive to folks in the proposed high-rises nearby. “But I don’t want to come off as negative,” Tennenbaum says in the end. “Overall, it’s a good plan, and I support it. It’s important to have a plan.” What does he think Jim would do? “Jim Rouse would love to see an urban town center,” Tennenbaum says. “He would know full well that forty years after the model and drawings were made, density would increase. I hope it works out in the end.”

A native of Silver Spring, Brennen Jensen first began visiting Columbia in the mid-’70s and had his high school graduation dinner in 1981 at the lakefront restaurant Clyde’s. Urbanite #85 july 2011 37

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The Charm City Circulator reminds me of other popular resort attraction buses— except on the CCC, the drivers and riders are very friendly. As a small business owner, I have noticed groups of people coming into my store from the Baltimore Convention Center. It has opened up the city for me—anything that makes it easy for people to ride and move beyond the harbor is a very real benefit.

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I ride the Charm City Circulator every day to get to work. It’s always on time with a few delays due to the road construction. Prior to riding the CCC, I used to pay using another system. A lot of people can’t afford to pay and I think it’s a good thing for Baltimore. The drivers are always friendly and say “hi” to you. I always feel safe riding!

April Moran and daughter, Erin Moran CCC rider and Baltimore City Resident I really appreciate the convenience of taking the Charm City Circulator with my children. Not only is it convenient and FREE, but it also serves as an adventure for my children. I feel safe riding it and will frequent the Harborplace Mall more often because of this service!

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The CCC is the official transportation sponsor for the Great Baltimore Check-in. Ride for FREE on the CCC! 38 july 2011 www.urbanitebaltimore.com

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photos by j.m. Giordano

Change is Brewing A health care dream team, meeting at a local coffee shop, aims to make Maryland the poster child for reform efforts nationwide.

By Ron Cassie

r. Peter Beilenson sits at a wobbly wooden table inside a busy Cold Spring Lane coffee shop at 8 a.m. on a recent morning, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Nearby, neighborhood residents on their way to work grab quick cups to go. Loyola students, telecommuters, and the self-employed order bagels and muffins, cracking open newspapers or laptops at booths, on sofas, and at similarly uneven tables. It’s a typical weekday, by any measure, but at Beilenson’s table, something quite extraordinary is in the works. Beilenson, Howard County’s health officer, sits with a group of colleagues. He has led these casual but focused before-work meetings weekly for fifteen months, drawing some of the best local minds in health care, law, business, and I.T. The meetings are not directly related to Beilenson’s Howard County position. They grew from an opportunity he saw following the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the federal law signed March 23, 2010, often shorthanded to “Obamacare.” Specifically, Beilenson and his colleagues plan to take advantage of a provision in the law that encourages the development of heath care cooperatives. To start, the co-op will target families and individuals who will soon be mandated by law to buy health insurance but will be hard-pressed to afford it—low- and middle-income people who will number in the hundreds of thousands in this state—but Beilenson and his colleagues believe it will be attractive to those in higher income brackets as well. The plan, dubbed the Evergreen Project after the cafe where it was cooked up, has little national precedent. It melds health care insurer and health care provider into a single organization, literally under the same roof. Imagine a string of roughly fifty urgent care-type clinics and five regional specialty centers in Maryland’s I-95 corridor that operate under their own insurance company. In this network along the densely populated Beltway to Beltway area, it will be in everyone’s best interest to keep people healthy and minimize costs, rather than the current fee-for-service system, which creates perverse incentives for doctors to administer tests and procedures that may not be

Urbanite #85 july 2011 39

necessary, despite driving up costs for both the patient and his fellow insurance carriers. “This is an attempt to make cultural change,” Beilenson says, “to actually go from where doctors, insurance companies, and patients are operating in a system with separate interests to putting them all on the same side.” Beilenson, a medical doctor with a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has a history of tackling ambitious and controversial projects. As Baltimore City’s health commissioner, he started the largest city-run needle exchange program in the country, proposed blood testing in crack houses and the city jail to tackle syphilis, and pushed for providing more contraception in school-based clinics. He founded the Health Care for All campaign, a bid to make Maryland

previously excluded because of pre-existing medical conditions, allows children to remain on parent’s policies until they’re 26 years old, and expands Medicaid coverage. To make coverage more affordable, the law provides subsidies to those who can’t afford insurance and aids small businesses offering coverage to their employees. Consumer advocates argue, however, that even with the subsidies, millions of individuals and families will struggle to afford premiums mandated by law, forcing many to weigh potentially budget-busting monthly premiums against the prospect of coughing up a $2,085 penalty at tax time. Kathleen Stoll, with Families USA, a nonprofit health care advocacy organization, says a family of four making $33,000 annually will still be saddled with a $2,800 yearly insurance bill. A family of four earning $60,000 will

“This is the most interesting and compelling thing I’ve worked on in twenty years of public health work, and potentially the most important. It could be a national model.” Dr. Peter Beilenson, Howard County’s health officer the first state in the U.S. to cover all its residents. (See “Impossible Dream,” Jan. ’08 Urbanite.) He’s also a key architect of Healthy Howard, a county effort to reach the uninsured. Not everything he has tried has been successful, including a run for Congress in 2006, but clearly he’s not afraid of tackling big challenges. (It runs in the family. His father, Anthony Beilenson, who later served ten terms in Congress, introduced early legislation as a California state senator to ban tobacco advertising.) Without a doubt, building the co-op is Beilenson’s biggest challenge yet. With Obamacare still unfolding, everyone is, or will soon be, scrambling to adapt—hospitals, insurance providers, doctors, and, not least, patients. The Evergreen Project wants to lead the way and make Maryland the test case for an integrated health care system that really works. “This is the most interesting and compelling thing I’ve worked on in twenty years of public health work, and potentially the most important,” Beilenson says. “It could be a national model.”

esigned to extend health coverage to 32 million of the roughly 50 million uninsured people in the United States, the health care reform law has been in the news lately because of the controversial mandate that every citizen purchase health insurance. This mandate will, in theory, allow insurance companies to provide affordable health care coverage to a greater number of people, and those with pre-existing conditions, without going belly-up. (See sidebar, p. 43.) The law also requires insurance companies to accept people

40 july 2011 www.urbanitebaltimore.com

get a $5,200 bill. “It’s a robust subsidy, a big helping hand,” Stoll says of the federal government’s share of the cost, “but people have to make a significant contribution.” In Maryland, 750,000 to 800,000 people currently live without health insurance. A statefunded study projects the federal health care law could cut that number by half. But Beilenson thinks those projections are overly optimistic, given the cost. That’s where the Evergreen Project comes in. The project uses section 1322 of the health care reform law, which encourages nonprofit co-ops to develop low-cost alternatives to traditional for-profit health insurance companies. Such co-ops will compete in state insurance exchanges where consumers can compare rates—“like Travelocity,” Beilenson says. Beilenson believes the project can reduce insurance premiums by 20 to 30 percent, narrowing the gap between subsidies and out-of-pocket premiums. To start, the Evergreen Project targets adults and families earning 33 to 300 percent above the poverty line. That means a family of four that makes $29,326 to $88,200 annually. But Beilenson thinks the project could be broadened. “There’s certainly the possibility of a clinic in Takoma Park,” he says, referring to the affluent historically progressive D.C. suburb. To get it started, he has assembled something of a dream team. The project’s founding members include Newt Fowler, law partner at Rosenberg-Martin-Greenberg; Kathleen Westcoat, executive director of the nonprofit Baltimore Health Care Access; Dawn O’Neill, Howard County Health Department deputy officer; and Liddy Garcia-Bunuel, executive director of

Healthy Howard. The executive director is Jim Kucher, former executive director of the Entrepreneurial Opportunity Center at the University of Baltimore. On the ground, the Evergreen Project would look something like this: a network of neighborhood-based clinics with extended hours and patient call-in services. Each clinic would be staffed by a doctor serving 1,300 to 1,500 patients—half of the typical patient load for primary care doctors—and teams consisting of a family nurse practitioner, a medical assistant to do lab work, a care coordinator, a half-time social worker, a front office worker from the community, and a part-time health care coach. The clinics would be member-only, meaning all patients belong to the same co-op insurance pool, cutting down on administrative costs. Beilenson and his team envision five groups of ten such clinics, each linked to a regional specialty center, with the first group based in Baltimore City. The first clinic could break ground in January in South Baltimore. The goal is to follow with clinic clusters stretching along the I-95 corridor from Harford to Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. To simultaneously cut costs and provide high quality care, the Evergreen Project model has three pillars. The first is the “medical home” concept—the clinics, where each patient would have a dedicated primary care physician and support team right in their neighborhood. With the clinics’ longer hours (on the weekends, too), call-in services, and immediate follow-up care for patients, the goal is for patients to receive almost all of their care from the same physician. An added benefit: The system will substantially cut emergency room visits—a huge driver of costs— and minimize repetitive hospital stays. The second pillar, payment reform, would eliminate the traditional fee-for-services system. Rather than being paid based on the tests and procedures they administer, primary care doctors would receive a salary. In addition to removing the incentive for unneeded tests and procedures, this switch promises better working conditions for the primary care docs, says Kucher. “It eliminates a lot of hassles,” he says. “They’ll be able to get home and kiss their kids goodnight.” The final pillar is the utilization of “evidencebased” prescription and medical practices. Doctors rely too much on their own anecdotal evidence, Beilenson says, tending to perform tests and surgeries that boost their bottom line. Big Pharma and the medical device industry don’t help matters, he adds. Take early signs of high blood pressure. “Guidelines from the Center for Disease Control, when [blood pressure] is a little high … call for a diuretic”—a pill that causes a person to urinate, reducing fluid in the body and bringing blood pressure down, Beilenson says. “It’s a 10-cent pill and works at least as well as newer medications that are one, two, three, and

scope

Healthy give-and-take: The Evergreen team includes, from left, Nancy Lewin, Liddy Garcia-Bunuel, Jim Kucher (standing), Peter Beilenson, and Dawn O’Neill.

four dollars a pill.” Yet many doctors opt for the newer drug, even though it’s far more expensive, he says. “What’s new and different is not trying these things individually, but combining them all at the same time,” says Kucher, whose first job was in his family’s insurance business. “It’s not dancing around the edges.”

he most relevant comparison to the Evergreen Project initiative is the Group Health Cooperative, a consumergoverned, nonprofit health care system based in Washington state. Founded in 1947, Group Health has more than 600,000 members. Almost two-thirds of them receive their health care in Group Health-operated facilities. Group Health executives, whose structure was viewed as a potential national co-op model, testified on Capitol Hill during the health care debate. Dr. Harry J. Shriver III, chief of a Group Health clinic near Seattle, told the New York Times that thanks to the primary care collaborative model and electronic record-keeping, he could practice proactive medicine. “I surprise my patients by asking, ‘Is there anything else you want to talk about today?’” Shriver said. “They’ve never heard a doctor say that.” The hope is now to add at least one cooperative

to each state’s insurance exchange in hopes of generating greater competition for consumers. In a 2009 American Medical Association study, twenty-four of forty-three states reported their two largest insurers reached a combined market share of at least 70 percent. Margaret Stanley, appointed to the Affordable Care Act CO-OP advisory board by the Government Accountability Office, served as clinical manager at Group Health in the late 1970s. She says physician salaries work: “[Doctors] don’t have any incentive to produce any more tests, and the focus is on the care of patients, at least partly because of the incentives.” Kaiser Permanente, an integrated health care system based in California, Stanley adds, is an example of another successful program that pays doctor salaries as opposed to fees for services. Patients at Group Health, Stanley says, also have access to their own electronic records and can e-mail with doctors or set up phone consultations. Group Health operates its own pharmacy and funds research work. “I think it’s worked well over a long period of time,” Stanley says. “I think the only question is, why haven’t there been more?” According to John Morrison, an attorney, health care advocate, and former Montana insurance commissioner active in the proposed

Montana Health Cooperative, there are a variety of cooperative-type efforts underway in a dozen states. Morrison is serving as chairman and president of the fledgling National Alliance of State Health Cooperatives, an umbrella group representing cooperative interests across the country. Significantly, Morrison says, the new co-op law encourages the creation of cooperatives in ways not attempted previously. The statute helps with two phases of funding: a start-up phase for technical assistance, feasibility, and actuarial studies, and the operations phase, offering loans toward capitalization. “The real opening is because of the federal money,” Morrison says.

n Maryland, hard core reformers like Peter Beilenson and his compatriots aren’t the only ones looking to use the health care reform law to foster better-coordinated, lowercost care. John Chessare, who joined GBMC HealthCare a year ago as president and CEO, believes health care reform will be a “game changer” in the way that hospitals provide services in the near future. Chessare is leading significant changes at GBMC, including the formation of the Greater Baltimore Health Alliance. “We’re morphing from a hospital-based organization into a true health alliance,” he says. Urbanite #85 july 2011 41

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scope The alliance takes advantage of another provision of the law that offers incentives to hospitals, long-term care facilities, hospices, and doctors to form networks, sharing responsibility for treatment of Medicare patients. These “accountable care organizations” agree to manage all of the health care needs of a minimum of 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries for at least three years. Participation is voluntary, but the program is drawing interest from local hospitals, and Chessare believes the organizations have the potential to dramatically change health care delivery. Like the leaders of the Evergreen Project, Chessare intends to expand primary care satellite office hours and phase out the fee-for-services model in favor of salaries for doctors. “We [in the United States] spend 16 percent of GDP on health care, twice as much as other western countries,” Chessare says. “We used to justify that by saying that our system is better, offering the best outcomes, but in many cases that isn’t true anymore.” John Colmers, vice president for health care

transformation and strategic planning at Johns Hopkins Medicine, says Hopkins is looking at creating patient-centered, primary care medical homes, but hasn’t committed yet to becoming an accountable care organization. The legislation is complicated, and rules regarding these organizations remain to be finalized, Colmer says, adding that their operators will share in the risks—potential losses—as well as rewards. The uncertainty doesn’t seem to phase Chessare. He sees the accountable care organizations provision as an opportunity for systemic reform, beginning with payment reform. “The numberone problem is the fee-for-services model,” Chessare says. “No one is held accountable for the value of the service. We’re not asked to [determine whether] the treatment you got was the treatment you should’ve gotten; bills are being paid like it’s any other transaction. You do a CAT scan, we pay. You do a lab test, we pay. “Because of health care costs, every industry is going bankrupt,” he adds. “There’s going to be no industry left except health care.”

Will Obamacare Survive? Court challenges aim to pull the plug on reform efforts. The controversial mandate that every citizen health care coverage to a greater number of purchase health insurance could well be the people, including those with pre-existing constraw that breaks the camel’s back on health ditions. If it is thrown out by itself, and the care reform. Challenged in federal courts rest of the law is left intact, insurance compaby more than half the states, the “individual nies could be on the hook for the new covermandate” could stand, get sliced off by itself, age mandates without large enough pools to or bring down the entire law. spread the risk. Two major lawsuits—one from Virginia at“It’s definitely a concern,” says Jessica Walttorney general Ken Cuccinelli and the other man, senior vice president of government affrom twenty-six other states, all but two with fairs for the National Association of Health UnRepublican governors—allege that the indi- derwriters, an industry group. She describes an vidual mandate violates the commerce clause experiment in New Jersey in the 1990s in which of the Constitution. U.S. District Court Judge people were allowed to buy insurance despite Henry Hudson has ruled in Cuccinelli’s favor. existing conditions. “It was like a death spiral. U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson has People only bought insurance when they were ruled in favor of the states. However, the judges sick, and so the pool got smaller. The price are allowing the law to be implemented while people had to pay increased, and the pool got the cases work their way through the appeals smaller again.” Ten to twelve years later, the price of getting insurance in New Jersey had process. Robert H. Sprinkle, associate professor in skyrocketed by 90 percent. the School of Public Policy at the University Sprinkle believes that even if the individual of Maryland, says he can’t predict with confi- mandate is thrown out, new ways can be found dence how the cases will turn. Judge Hudson, to promote and/or require individual coverage, Sprinkle says, appears willing to lop off the but it will be troublesome at the moment given individual mandate and leave the rest of the Republican control of the House. A Supreme law intact. Judge Vinson, not so much. “Vin- Court ruling likely will come sometime next son didn’t think he could separate the man- summer, in time to become a hot button 2012 date from the whole bill,” Sprinkle says. “The election issue. thing is, he read the congressional finding at In the meantime, reformers in Maryland are the beginning of the bill that each part is an in- pushing ahead. Says John Chessare, president tegrated and necessary part of the whole. ‘Well, and CEO of GBMC HealthCare, “We’re getting I take the Congress at its word,’ Vinson said.” ready to become more accountable even if the Why is each part integrated and necessary? health care law changes.” The individual mandate will, in theory, allow insurance companies to provide affordable —R.C.

or Beilenson, the health care reform law’s cost containment measures leave much to be desired. He makes no bones about favoring a single-payer, national health care system and was in favor of the proposed “public option” discussed during the congressional debate. He calls the co-op provision “a sop” to Democrats—a pacifier for progressives. Still, it proved enough of an opening to spur him to action. But many hurdles remain for the Evergreen Project, which is very much in the feasibility phase. The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, where the co-op will potentially compete with other health insurers, just named its board in late May. It doesn’t open for business until January 1, 2014—the date the individual mandate becomes effective. In the meantime, one of the first questions that Evergreen Project leaders need to answer is whether their model has financial legs. Grants from the Abell Foundation, Open Society InstituteBaltimore, and Strauss Foundation will fund full-fledged feasibility studies beginning this summer. “If they determine it won’t work, then it’s a no-go; we shut it all down,” Beilenson says. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, though.” The next challenge will be to get the word out via marketing and bring clients through the door, something Beilenson and Kucher are working on now. And even if they do manage to build a clientele base, what’s stopping one of the major insurance providers from undercutting Evergreen’s prices and putting the fledgling coop out of business? Beilenson insists he’s not terribly worried. “One reason we’re not hugely concerned is this is not exactly the sweet spot of the health insurance industry,” he says. “These are people who do not tend to have the best health outcomes.” Then there’s the question of sustainability. Beilenson and Kucher emphasize that the coop must be financially viable on its own. Grant money for studies and federal loans for reserve capitalization are fine, they say, but after the $120 million projected start-up phase, the cooperative must be sustainable without further philanthropic funding. Still, the Evergreen organizers are soldiering on. “You can only go so far in testing these propositions,” Kucher says. “Eventually you have to put the blocks and the buildings in place and see how they function in real time.” And the project has many fans, including those who’ve worked on healthcare access and affordability, like Beilenson, for decades. “The Evergreen Project’s a great idea,” says Vincent deMarco, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and leader the Maryland Health Care for All campaign that Beilenson founded. “It’s perfect for low and middle-income people caught between the individual mandate and subsidies. It’s a good option.” Urbanite #85 july 2011 43

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Maryland’s Buy Local Challenge encourages you to eat Maryland grown products for one week

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Maryland’s Buy Local Challenge is an offer you can’t refuse. After all, why wouldn’t anyone want to load up on fresh, local produce during the summer? The more likely challenge would be to get through a farmers’ market or pass a roadside farm stand without buying cherry-red tomatoes, aromatic peaches, or that summer icon, sweet corn. Here’s how the Buy Local Challenge works. Add one product that’s grown, made, or harvested in Maryland to your meals each day between July 23 and 31. “Product” encompasses a wide range: vegetables, fruits, meat, poultry, seafood, cheese, wine, beer, etc. And if you don’t feel like doing so at home, take the challenge to a restaurant that specializes in carrying local products. The weeklong event kicks off a few days before with a cookout at the

governor’s mansion, where about twenty teams of chefs, farmers, and other food suppliers demonstrate ways they use locally sourced goods. Some of the best of the 2011 cookout are included in a cookbook, available at www.marylandsbest.net. “Buying locally is key to ensuring a smart, green, and growing future for Maryland families,” said First Lady Katie O’Malley. “It preserves farmland, protects the environment, keeps our money in Maryland, and provides fresh, nutritious food for a healthy diet.” Gov. Martin O’Malley expanded the challenge in 2008 after its initial success in Southern Maryland. Doing so made good sense in a state where about a third of the land is farmed. To sign up for the challenge and to see where to buy local, go to www. marylandsbest.net to see where you can get the goods. What have you got to lose?

Tak

Local Cha y u B e llen e th

Recipes from the 2010 Maryland Buy Local Cookbook

Watermelon and feta bruschetta

Rosemary lollipop

Summer ripe gazpacho

Ingredients: ½ whole seedless watermelon (green and pale white removed), small dice 4 oz red onion, small dice 2 cucumbers, peeled and seeds removed, small dice 2 oz white balsamic vinegar 2 heirloom tomatoes, seeds removed, fine dice 2 tsp fine sea salt

Ingredients: ¾ lb. ground beef 4 heirloom tomatoes 2 large onions 1 tbsp crushed and chopped garlic 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 12 rosemary sticks, 12 inches long 1 tsp thyme ground pepper and sea salt to taste 2 tbsp water ½ cup canola oil ½ tbsp unsalted butter 1 handful spicy micro-greens for garnish

Ingredients: 3 tomatoes (variety of slicers, heirlooms, sungolds, etc.) 2 sweet bell peppers (red and green, seeded) 1 sweet onion 2 cucumbers, peeled and seeded 1 cup micro-greens 5 cups fresh tomato juice (plum or pear tomatoes) 1/3 cup champagne vinegar 2 tsp sea salt cracked black pepper 1 tsp Tabasco ½ cup extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic

Serves 4-8

Additional ingredients: 6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled 8 oz pomegranate juice reduced over medium heat by half (down to about 4 oz.), then chilled extra virgin olive oil as needed 3 large ciabatta loaves Fresh mint Mix all the spread ingredients and keep cold for at least an hour to let flavors combine. Slice the bread into 1-inch slices and place on a sheet tray. Drizzle with olive oil and a light dusting of sea salt. Bake for 7 minutes at 350 degrees. To assemble, place watermelon mix on top of the warm ciabatta slices. Top with feta cheese. Drizzle with pomegranate reduction and olive oil. Garnish with fresh mint. Pair with Gunpoder Falls white, Woodhall Wine Cellars, Parkton Chef: Chad Gauss, City Café, Baltimore Producer: Ian Seletzky, Richfield Farm, Manchester

of Maryland beef, onion spaghetti, smoky heirloom tomato confit & spicy micro-greens mélange Serves 4-8

Core, peel, and seed tomatoes. Put on a rack in smoker and smoke for about two hours. Cut onion and cook in a pan with canola oil and butter until caramelized. Add chopped thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Roast garlic with canola oil in a large pan. Add smoked tomatoes and cook more on stovetop. Once cooked to desired consistency, add olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper. Mix ground beef with garlic. Add water to moisten. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4-8

Hand-chop ingredients to small dice (1/8”). Mix and chill ingredients for 24 hours. Pair with: barrel-fermented chardonnay, Bordeleau Vineyards & Winery, Eden Chef: Craig Sewell, A Cook’s Café, Annapolis Producer: David and Sharon Lankford, Davon Crest II, Trappe

Cook on the grill, then skewer on a rosemary stick (resembling a lollipop). Serve atop tomato mixture and garnish with micro-greens. Pair with: Cabernet franc, Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, Dickerson Chef: Raphael Jurkovic, Tapenade Catering, Edgewater Producer: Allen Colhoun, Ivy Neck Farm, Harwood Producer: Sara Colhoun, Ivy Brand Organic Farm, Harwood Producer: Shawn Sizer, the Sizer Farmstand, Anne Arundel County

For information on these recipes and more, go to www.marylandsbest.net.

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Photo by Michael Cantor

Poetry THE ILLUSTRATION by Dara Weinberg

In the northernmost of the cities of the South, on an afternoon as warm as a wet stamp, we go out on an air-conditioning-search and end up in a famous dead man’s house. The shelves are bursting with the damp of his yellowed folio books of birds. The cold hard seat, the loosened thighs, the eyes slanted up to the florescent lights, the feigned indifference so the stream will come— then the clutching, the warmth coming out of your skin, the hard sound of water, the sharp breath in, and the animal fume of the secret act done. You are crouched in the garden, your eyes held in the air above the crest of a dark red bird. I can see a line of ants streaming from his beak. The sky is bare; the light is so hot that we fade like a faded color plate. I squint and watch you watch; there is sweat down your shoulders and under your hair; you are still except for the backs of your hands. “It’s an oriole,” you pant, “like baseball—I’ve never seen a real one before.” The bird’s little head wavers and we feign indifference, foreheads held tight, breath quickened, trying not to see the dark eyes, not to feel the body, soft as crumpled paper, quivering under the dark red feathers. Summer 2009; Evergreen House, Baltimore.

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olmsted’s shortcuts s The secret footpaths of Roland Park

by rebecca messner photogr a ph y by da n iel bedell

he shortest distance be- For residents of these communities, this tween two points in a land- has its obvious drawbacks. The footpaths scape designed by Frederick of Roland Park were the antidote to windiLaw Olmsted—grandfather ness and designed to be “imminently practical,” says Doug Munro, historical editor of landscape architecture and designer of Central of Roland Park’s website. They were built for the express purpose of creatPark—is not a straight line. Olmsted’s goal with his parks was to Visit Urban- ing that straight line. When Edward H. Bounton, get you lost, leading you effort- ite’s website president of the Roland Park lessly along a system of curvilin- for a map of ear paths, which are divided by Roland Park’s Company, needed to design the northwest corner of his new Rotheir uses and rarely intersect. footpaths. land Park suburb 1901, he turned The result, when you’re on a walk in the park, is tranquilizing. There to the Olmsted firm, then being are no right angles, no moments at which run by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and you have to stop and ask yourself, “Which John Charles Olmsted, who took over after way?” Instead, you’re allowed to feel com- their father’s retirement at the end of the pletely immersed in nature. 19th century. In this corner, the land is The same can be said of the tree-lined exceedingly steep—sloping dramatically roads that wind through many of Olm- down from Roland Avenue to Falls Road. sted’s planned communities, and those de- The Olmsted brothers wound their roads signed by his sons, including Roland Park. around the topography, adding the series

Urbanite #85 july 2011 49

of footpaths—fourteen in all—to allow residents to travel quickly up to Roland Avenue or down to Falls Road to catch the trolley. Jean Mellot, former president of the Roland Park Community Foundation and current board member of the neighborhood’s Roads and Maintenance Corporation, which maintains the paths, speculates that the paths were also once used by servants to get quickly to and from Cross Keys village—once a thriving African American community with a number of household goods stores. The paths worked with the lanes (don’t you dare call them “alleys”), which lined the backs of the neighborhood’s houses, to echo Olmsted’s complex, separated circulation system, where pedestrians could be kept apart from the increasingly used automobile. They also created community within the neighborhood. “The Olmsteds were conscious of the need to get people out and about to socialize,” says Munro. “One of the methods of doing this was having these footpaths.”

hey’re scarcely populated now, given that the trolleys stopped running in the late 1940s. “People use them for recreation,” says Mellot. With a house on Squirrel Path, Mellot says she sees mostly kids on the paths these days. “I watch the kids who live in the neighborhood and walk to school. A lot of people just like to walk on them on the weekends, to get to Eddie’s or the post office. In the winter, kids sled on them.” But like so many of Olmsted’s landscapes, today, the paths also evoke a sense of magic and privacy, augmented by their bucolic names and elegantly rustic signs, which were designed during the Roads and Maintenance Corporation’s restoration of the paths in the 1990s. It also helps that much of the greenery surrounding the paths is thick and towering and that the paths themselves often feel like private walkways. They cut between houses, giving you voyeuristic views of residents’ backyards and kitchen tables. “There are some that come right up next to the houses,” says Judy Dobbs, president of the Friends of Maryland’s Olmsted Parks, who adds that she can see how some residents might find this intrusive. “But it comes with the territory.”

2. 1. Voyeurstic view: The footpaths often cut through private backyards. 2. Pardon the interrruption: Saint Margaret’s Path is bisected by a trickling stream. 3. Some enchanted evening: Sunset Path offers stunning views of the sunset over Cylburn Arboretum. 4. Steep climb: Many of the paths have stairs because of the steep topography. 5. Kept clean: The paths are maintined by the Roland Park Roads and Maintence Corporation . 6. Trail head: Elegant markers were designed in the 1990s. 7.Lush life: Much of the vegetation is naturally overgrown. 8. Narrow way: The paths discourage bicycle and vehicle traffic, only wide enough to be traveled on foot.

50 july 2011 www.urbanitebaltimore.com

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Urbanite #85 july 2011 51

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food + drink

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feature / dining reviews / wine + spirits

hot Cold

Is Baltimore’s blue-collar summer treat poised for a foodie facelift?

By Michelle Gienow

Tried and true: The recipe for snowballs has remained largeley unchanged for decades. Is it time to add some new ingredients?

he summertime equation is simple: Heat plus ice plus sweet equals cheap, cold delight. Midwesterners cool off with snow cones, which utilize very coarse granules of ice, usually pre-frozen, and tend to come in only a handful of not-terribly-imaginative fruit flavors. Our East Coast neighbors to the north (we’re looking at you, Jersey) turn to Italian ice, which owes more to sorbet than snowball. The West Coast digs the slush cup. Even Mexico, Korea, and Cuba have their own icy, Day-Glo, summer treats. Nowhere, though, is the sum of those parts as delectable as in Baltimore. New Orleans is the only other city that calls their particular regional freezie-treat a “snowball,” but their version consists of ice that’s been shaved so fine it’s nearly liquid, and, sorry, any frozen concoction sippable through a straw (see: slush cups) is simply not a true snowball. In Baltimore, the ice is crushed on the spot just for you and then slowly soaked down with your syrup flavor of choice, from the ordinary (orange, grape) to the

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feature / recipe food + Drink inexplicable (creatively named Technicolor concoctions like Sponge Bob, Tiger’s Blood, and Pimp Juice, which, for whatever reason, is neon green). The snowball is, in a word, superior: Last year, the New York Times wrote, “A snoball,”—the “w,” even in Baltimore, comes and goes—“is to a snow cone as Warren Beatty is to Shirley Mac Laine: closely related, but prettier, smoother, and infinitely cooler.” This spring brought about the usual onslaught of snowball coverage by local media, and while Baltimore-style snowballs may not yet be sweeping the nation, there’s a chance they may be soon. Snowball stands have been popping up everywhere from the San Francisco Bay Area to Austin, Texas, where Baltimore Ballers serves snowballs “Bmore style.” Other cities are taking things one step further, mixing the tried-andtrue ice and sugar combo with a hint of sophistication and organic, locally sourced ingredients. It makes you wonder, in today’s foodie climate, is the snowball poised for a makeover? The exact origin of snowballs is difficult to pin down. When commercially frozen ice became widely available in the steamy summers of the late 19th century, snowballs followed, shaved from the blocks of ice used to cool preelectric iceboxes. Families flavored the shavings with what was available: vanilla egg custard, which was a common base for homemade ice cream, or crushed, seasonal fruit. The commercia l craze for the nowubiquitous treat began in earnest in Baltimore in the late 1920s, when a city-based manufacturer introduced the SnoMaster: an ice crushing machine distributed at first to drug store soda fountains, and, later, dedicated snowball stands. Snowballs became so popular during the Great Depression, when they were dubbed “the hard-times sundae,” that some citizens protested the stands that began popping up in residential neighborhoods. We have Mayor Harold W. Jackson to thank for keeping the trend going, when he said, “Some of us may be down to eating snowballs soon, and I don’t want to put any limitations on the trade.” Eight decades after they became widely available, snowballs are still eminently affordable, which may explain their staying power. Two bucks buys a regular snowball, complete with marshmallow topping, at many local stands. “A family of four can still go out for snowballs for under ten dollars,” says Kathy McLane, cofounder of Baltimore-based Kavern Snow Syrups and herself a proprietor of three area snowball stands—“Probably the only thing they can all do together for under ten dollars!” The enduring popularity of snowballs prompted a triumverate of local-born Baltimoreans (Katie Lambright, Bruce Blume, and Sara Tomko, all on the cusp of their thirtieth birthdays) to found the Baltimore Snoball Collective, which Lambright, a Waverly resident, describes as a “community-driven, shared project to map all the city’s snowball stands.” The collective

self-published a zine in May called Snobaltimore, which includes a fold-out map/guide to fifty area snowball stands. There is also a website, www.snobaltimore.com, where anyone can write in to add new stands. “It’s been hard for us to map everything, even as three people who drive around a lot and take notes,” says Lambright, who was partly inspired by an interactive online map of Portland, Oregon’s mobile food trucks. “So we’re hoping that Snobaltimore will sort of take, and by next summer it will really coalesce into an accurate map of Baltimore snowball stands. Mainly, though, we want to recognize and engage the larger community around the social aspect of snowballs.” McLane agrees that snowballs are a thriving local social institution: “When you go to your local stand, you aren’t just buying dessert—you’re connecting,” she says. “You hang out at the picnic tables, maybe run into some friends. Even on hot nights with huge lines people don’t really care, because they see people they know. You can walk the dog down, say, ‘Hi,’ to the neighbors while you get your egg custard snowball.” And egg custard—favorite of the early 20th century homemade snowball makers—is still “by far the most hugely popular snowball flavor,” says McLane, whose own fave is diet mango. “If in a summer we make a thousand gallons of any flavor, like a watermelon or a strawberry, then we make twenty thousand gallons of egg custard. Egg custard, cherry, Skylite, those are eternally the three most popular.” (McLane says the neon-blue Skylite flavor “tastes like a blue freezie-pop.”) Lambright says there may be a market for “fancy snowballs, made in a more classic and traditional way.” In New York, the Brooklyn-based People’s Pops is one of a number of outfits making artisanal ice treats using organic and locally sourced fruit and herbs, which they make into flavors like apricot-basil, rhubarb, and peachtarragon. To keep things super authentic, they hand-shave a block of ice and sweeten the juice with cane sugar. The result, says founder David Carrell, is less sugary than the artificial version, which he calls “hurt-your-teeth sweet.” People’s Pops sells “shave ices” in 6-ounce cups for $2.50. “It’s less of a guilty pleasure and more of a pleasure,” says Carrell. The closest Baltimore has come to this seems to be Paradice Snowballs in Fallston, which has introduced crushed fruit to its usual array of artificial syrups. But Carrell says he’s gotten a couple of calls from people in the Baltimore area interested in setting up similar ventures and looking for advice. Still, some hold that Baltimore may not be ready to trendify the old mainstay. Danielle Sweeney, who runs Bella’s Big Squeeze (an upscale lemonade stand at the Baltimore Museum of Industry Farmers Market), has, as a businesswoman, pondered this notion. “Gourmet, organic snowballs at farmers markets is hypothetically a great idea, but probably not profitable,”

she says. Considering the pricier ingredients involved, “You’d be looking at $4 snowballs,” she says—a price she feels most people would balk at. “Anyway,” she adds, “A lot of the folks who buy snowballs are kids. It’s hard to imagine a kid wanting a gourmet lemon verbena/kaffir lime/ spearmint syrup flavor on a snowball—or caring if the mint is all natural.” Then again, Baltimoreans are nothing if not imaginative, especially when it comes to their favorite summertime treat. —Michelle Gienow is an Urbanite contributing writer. Rebecca Messner contributed reporting to this article.

athalie Jordi and David Carrell of People’s Pops, New York-based purveyors of fine ice treats, contributed the following recipe, which will also be published in their cookbook, Ten Speed, forthcoming in Spring 2012. While their stands, which can be found at flea and food markets around New York, are alcohol-free, they like to suggest tasty BYOB pairings and will serve alcoholic shave ices at catered events.

PEACH & PROSECCO SHAVE ICEThis is the shave ice equivalent of a bellini and is absolutely fabulous at parties. For a PG-rated but equally delicious version of peach shave ice, pair peaches with lavender or orange blossom syrup. 4 to 5 tennis ball-sized peaches 10 oz simple syrup 1 oz (2 tbs) freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 bottle of Prosecco

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Halve the peaches and place them face down on a cookie sheet, then bake them until the skins and flesh have softened, about 20 minutes. Once the peaches have cooked and are cool enough to touch, remove the pits and whizz the flesh, skins and all, in a food processor until very smooth. Add the simple syrup and the freshly squeezed lemon juice and taste; the mixture should taste quite sweet and wonderfully like ripe peaches. Keep the Prosecco separate and don’t open the bottle until you’re ready to serve, or it’ll lose carbonation. If refrigerated, this syrup will last up to a week. When serving, watch out: The Prosecco will bubble fiercely. Serve to taste over shaved (or crushed, if you’re true to Bawlmer style) ice. Urbanite #85 july 2011 55

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dining reviews food + Drink

Marie Louise Bistro f you don’t live nearby, Marie Louise Bistro may seem like another innocuous Charles Street restaurant: large windows behind an awning, a handful of tables and comfortable rattan chairs on the sidewalk when it’s warm. But if you poke your head through Sweet relief: The pastries in Marie Louise’s glass case lure you inside. the door, you’ll see the pastry suspension of critical observation (Where’s case with curved glass safeguarding shelves of the smoke? The elbows? Why are we facing delicacies: tarts embellished with shiny, glazed each other instead of the passersby? Did that fruits; a chocolate bombe coated in a hard woman across the street actually pick up after shell; ramekins of crème brulée; and a variety her dog?), the place does just that. of croissants, eclairs, and chocolate-dipped Take the bouillabaisse, a fishy broth touched macarons. The floors are tiled, the tabletops with saffron and loaded with plump mussels, are marble, and ceilings are pressed tin. There’s clams, and shrimp. Or a simple plate of al an oversized wrought iron chandelier, its proxdente lentils, seared in olive oil and a touch of imity to the second floor mezzanine deserving salt, with a couple of fat sausages and a slice of of a setting in an Alexandre Dumas novel. chewy baguette. Add a glass of red wine ($4 for In other words, Marie Louise has a clear the house pour if it’s happy hour), and you can’t mission: to bring the French café, worthy go wrong. of Montmartre or the Marais, to the streets Along with its classic French fare—coq au of Mount Vernon. And with just the right

vin, duck confit, boeuf bourguignon, and the like—there’s plenty of good old bistro food, familiar on either side of the Atlantic: pasta, burgers, Caesar salad, and a soup of the day. A side of mac ‘n’ cheese is nicely browned on top and stretchy with gruyére and smoky with bits of bacon. There’s a solid selection of meatless dishes: a pan-fried quinoa cake, crisp on the outside, laced with sundried tomatoes, peppers, and shallots and drizzled with creamy boursin; vegetable lasagna; and a grilled portabello stuffed with feta and pesto, served on wilted greens. The preparation may be uneven: On one day, the meat on a duck salad was as dry as paper, and the service is not always as efficient as one might wish, but Marie Louise overcomes its slips with charming nonchalance—just as they tend to do in France. The weekday happy hour runs until 8 p.m., so there’s plenty of time to relax, sip a glass of wine or a cocktail, and nibble on a few small plates or a bowl of steamed mussels. You could just as easily be on another continent. (Breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily; brunch Sat and Sun. 904 N. Charles St.; 410-385-9946; www.marielouisebistrocatering.com)

no-frills attitude, but it’s as if the Hells Angels, in their retirement, developed a taste for bone marrow, and switched from whiskey to wine. The change was not calculated. Owners Bud and Karin Tiffany, who live above the restaurant, took over the small, 1700s-era rowhouse in the mid-1990s and have been slowly tweaking things ever since. “It’s just like someone who’s learning guitar: You just happen to get better, even unbeknownst to you,” Bud says. “In ’95 we were doing vegetarian lasagna, and now we’re doing osso bucco.” Everybody knows your name: Peter’s Inn is a neighborhood favorite. Peter’s doesn’t take reservations, and this isn’t because it’s trying to be trendy— it’s because it’s a small space, and that’s the way it’s always been. (“I wouldn’t really know how to deal with that,” Bud says. “How long do you give people to eat?”) The menu is by rebecca Messner handwritten, since it changes weekly (another thing that Bud says “just happened”—a result of habit, weekly trips to the farmer’s market, eter’s Inn comes by its kitsch honestly. and a desire to try new things). And the wine This Fells Point institution, walls list features more than forty-five varieties, albedecked with swordfish and vintage Natty most all of them available by the glass. (Go on Boh cans, has a liquor license that dates back Wednesday, and selected wines are half-price.) to just after Prohibition. It was a biker bar in The food, while simple, displays a knowing the 1980s. Today, it hangs onto its semi-gritty,

sophistication and is often surprisingly artful in its preparation. A simple salad of romaine— one of the only menu mainstays, along with filet mignon and New York strip steak, which come with a side of “100 percent butter”—is dressed in a vinaigrette, but really, you’ll order it for the side of old-school Italian garlic bread, which comes generously topped with a creamy pesto that’s breath-threateningly garlicky. A soft-shell crab is simple and golden, served with a meuniere sauce. The braised short rib (just one, but it’s quite a large one) is tender, falling off the bone with just the pull of your fork; it comes robustly placed atop a thick, chunky mound of mashed potatoes, and a massive cooked carrot. The buttery trout amandine, also simple and golden, is soft and moist, topped with toasted almonds, and accompanied by green beans and fresh fingerling potatoes. To finish, the hideaway chocolate birthday cake for two will leave you feeling celebratory. It’s thick, rich, festively iced, and comes with chocolate-espresso ice cream and a birthday candle—proof that whether you’ve been coming to Peter’s Inn since its biker bar days or just popped in for a visit, they’re awfully glad you came. (Dinner Tues–Sat. 504 S. Ann St.; 410-675-7313; www.petersinn.com)

by martha thomas

photos by j.m. giordano

Peter’s Inn P

Urbanite #85 july 2011 57

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Sippin’ Sisters

Wine tasting, no boys allowed By Clinton Macsherry

t’s 7 p.m. inside Harbor East’s Bin 604 wine shop, and a tanned 20-something in jeans and high heels claims the last of sixteen chairs at a group of small tables tucked amid shelves of Bordeaux and Burgundy. I’m standing on the perimeter, with a notepad perched on some wine cases, failing to look inconspicuous. One young woman tilts her head my way and says offhandedly to a tablemate, “I’m surprised we’re Ladies who taste: Girls on Grapes at Bin 604 offers women-only wine tastings. not making him wear a skirt.” Susan Glass, Bin 604’s general manager, Without men present, “the social dynamic is definitely different,” she continues. “Women steps front and center. She’ll lead tonight’s tastgenerally feel more open, more comfortable ing of Pinot Grigio (a.k.a. Pinot Gris) for Girls on Grapes (GOG), an all-female wine club with speaking their minds, and more outgoing if the five hundred members in the Baltimore-Annapgroup’s all women. There’s a really good vibe.” olis area. But first, Glass introduces me. “This GOG layers sassiness onto its educational and is Clinton,” she says. “But tonight, his Girls on social mission. “Knowledge is power,” notes the Grapes name is Cleopatra.” As it turns out, I’m GOG website, “(and power looks good on you).” The $25 annual dues—a portion of which goes not the first interloper to attend a GOG event, nor necessarily the most conspicuous. My sole to local women’s charities—entitles members to male predecessor, I’m told, was a guy in the a nifty T-shirt, discounts on monthly selections wine biz with several friends in the club. Afat Bin 604 and its sister shop in Annapolis, and ter rebuffing his repeated requests to join a access to members-only events, typically orgatasting, the members struck a compromise: nized around grape-of-the-month themes. He squeezed into a dress and found a wig that Emily Brauner, a 29-year-old Fells Pointer, didn’t clash too egregiously with his beard. He joined GOG four years ago “to meet girls who get out and like wine.” Last year she signed hasn’t returned. up her mother, who’s accompanying her at toIn the world of wine clubs, GOG has comnight’s tasting of Pinot G’s. Midway through, pany. From Hoboken, New Jersey, to Lima, Peru, three guys shopping spot Brauner, butt in on women have formed gender-exclusive groups to enjoy tastings, pairing dinners, and other her table, and greet her boisterously, seemingly wine-oriented events without the side effects of oblivious to the proceedings. (They’re former co-workers, she later explains.) With a pained testosterone poisoning. Some of us left outside might react cynically, citing gals’ clubs as extensmile, Brauner exchanges a few words, shifting sions of marketing efforts to cash in on the fact her glance between the smart-alecks and her tablemates until the guys move on. “Intrudthat women both buy and drink the majority of wine. Bin 604 partner Jen Burger, who founded ers!” barks one taster in mock outrage. Brauner, downcast, mutters an apology. GOG in 2004, takes a longer view. GOG grew out of popular educational tastings at the wine shop A bit later, Glass pours a final sample, the ultra-clear, pale yellow Panther Creek Pinot that welcomed everyone, she says. Many customers came as couples and kept to themselves, Gris 2009 ($16, 13.2 percent alcohol) from Orebut staffers observed a subset of single women gon. A dollop of Viognier in the mix contributes who arrived in small groups or met girlfriends at floral and lanolin aromatics. On a mid-weight frame, flavors of melon, grapefruit, and honeythe tasting “and went out for dinner afterwards and made a fun night of it,” says Burger. suckle follow. With a 15 percent GOG discount, While maintaining an informative approach, I’d buy a bunch. “Next month, we do Zinfandel, Burger wanted GOG “to be very social, to build and we’ll get our teeth purple,” Glass concludes knowledge and wine-tasting confidence in a setto a chorus of appreciative ooh’s. So now I need ting where women have fun and make friends.” to go wig shopping. Photo by j.m. Giordano

Urbanite #85 july 2011 59

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arts + Culture

photo by: J.M. GIORDANO

feature / music / artscape preview

Caption goes here for the photos. Caption goes here for the photos. Caption goes here for the photos.

Homeless: Sue Spaid took over as head of the Contemporary shortly after the museum got word that it would be evicted from its home of ten years.

The Un-Museum

the Mount Vernon buildt is the day before ing it had occupied since Sue Spaid’s first 1999. Even more troubling big art opening was that the institution as director of the Can a new director find a fresh purpose for Contemporary Museum, and she is seemed to have lost any vital connection to the outmoded Contemporary Museum? the public. It’s not that people were saying rushing around, wrapping up final by Baynard woods details. Spaid is a statuesque woman with a anything bad about the Contemporary; they funky, ’80s fashion sense. Today, she’s sporting just weren’t talking about it. The museum had sunglasses inside—but they’re not just for style points. She’s hiding a black sponsored a slew of parties, lectures, music series, and classes. But few of eye. She was at the museum late last night helping artists with the first inthem (with the notable exception of the Mobtown Modern music series, stallment of the museum’s Baltimore Liste show. She fell down, hit her face, whose season ended in June) attracted an audience much broader than the and ended up in the hospital. The doctors told her to rest, but instead she is museum’s membership of fewer than two hundred people. climbing a ladder to sand away a rough spot on the wall. “I haven’t been there in years,” Jason Hoylman, an artist and the curator Spaid faced challenges far more daunting than a black eye when she of exhibitions at the Windup Space on North Avenue, admitted in March. took over as director of the Contemporary last December. The 21-year“There’s an opening somewhere almost every night now. All the galleries—we old museum had recently received notice that it would be evicted from know what’s going on with each other. For some reason the Contemporary Urbanite #85 july 2011 61

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Feature / music arts + culture just isn’t a part of that conversation.” much time for such criticism. “The alternative to So while Spaid began the search for a new it being rushed and imperfect was to do nothing home for the museum, the most important quesand not give these Baltimore artists a show,” she tion was not where the Contemporary would says. “I don’t want to be the kind of curator who land on a geographical map of the city, but where is an undertaker and puts the work in a coffin. it might fit into Baltimore’s cultural geography. My goal is to be nimble. The other museums only The location wouldn’t matter much if no one show extant works. But we commission them.” showed up. That commission, plus the looming deadline, had produced some inspired work. “When I got Spaid grew up in Saudi Arabia and went to the invitation to show, I had ten days to make a college at the University of Texas at Austin. She new body of work,” says multimedia artist Jorstarted collecting art when she got a job on Wall dan Bernier. “It is stressful, but I was able to do Street in the 1980s and all her artist friends needed to borrow money. “Finally, they paid me this thing bigger than I’d even considered before.” back in art,” she says. Eventually, she quit her job He produced an extraordinarily ambitious work and moved to L.A., where she opened Sue Spaid that included more than seventy stop-action Fine A r ts in a animation v ideos displayed on small storefront. In 1992, the New York twenty-nine stacked Times credited her televisions. with “forging a noNow that the frills gallery style” work w a s done, t hat shook up the question was the L.A. art scene. whether Spaid could Jason Hoylman, an artist and the curator of Spaid left L.A. to muster an aud iexhibitions at the Windup Space on North Avenue work as curator at ence for shows like the Contemporary this in a town that Arts Centre in Cincinnati and eventually began seems saturated with galleries and avant-garde work on a PhD in philosophy at Temple Univerarts happenings. sity in Philadelphia. The answer, it turned out, was yes. The night When Irene Hofman, the Contemporary’s of the opening, almost three hundred people previous director, left for Site Santa Fe last year, packed into the museum, and very few of them the museum seemed like a perfect opportunity were members. If anything, Spaid’s black eye, for Spaid. Local school-teacher-turned-gallerycombined with the keg and the Jell-O shots, gave owner George Ciscle founded the museum in her a bit of hardcore Baltimore cred and added to 1989 in an attempt to directly connect artists the success of the evening. “This is really great,” and the public. It has never had a permanent colsaid Hoylman, who a few months before had conlection. For its first decade, it did not even have a fessed that he never went to the Contemporary. “There’s so much national interest in Baltimore stable location. Spaid was interested in the kinds music, but it’s not there in art. The Contempoof problems a museum like the Contemporary rary could connect Baltimore to the larger art raised—and in the power of a museum to push interesting art out to the public. “A gallery says, scene.” ‘This is good work; you should buy it,’” she says. Spaid’s next show, LoL: a Decade of Antic Art, “But a museum takes a stand on history. It judges which is up until the end of August, aims to do and it looks forward.” just that. While most of the artists in the show are from elsewhere, it is the first major AmeriPrivately, however, some members of the Concan retrospective of “antic art”—art that is detemporary’s board worried that Spaid would be signed to engage passersby—and Spaid hopes it too brash. Her shows had often been the subject of controversy, and she had a reputation for being will draw the art world’s attention to the city. In impulsive. a sense, the LoL show also gets back to the Contemporary’s roots—connecting people directly Baltimore Liste would be Spaid’s first test. A with art and artists. “All the artists in the show succession of week-long group solo shows Spaid planned throughout the month of May, Liste was create situations that are humorous or ironic and named after the “young arts festival” in Berlin get the public to engage with them,” Spaid says. and Basel. Spaid worked with seven local galler- “The work is the interaction; it is open-ended, so ies, asking each to suggest three artist candidates, they bring the public into the work.” whose studios Spaid then visited. It is an inspired show for a museum that still The gallery owners were glad for the chance faces a nomadic future. Spaid still doesn’t know to work with the museum, but Seth Adelsberger where the Contemporary will be in the fall; a new and Alex Ebstein of the Nudashank gallery felt location is in the works, but nothing has been fithat Spaid was too hasty putting it together. “It nalized. Her ambitious summer shows, however, feels like she wanted to be able to say that she might just inspire us to go looking. enlisted the galleries,” Adelsberger says. “But we Web extra: Find a review of Baltimore Liste didn’t really have much say in anything. It was by Urbanite’s online arts and culture editor, too rushed.” Cara Ober, at http://bit.ly/bmoreliste. As the opening loomed, Spaid didn’t have

Album Art/Design by Nick Prevas: www.magnificentlore.com

“All the galleries—we know what’s going on with each other. For some reason the Contemporary just isn’t a part of that conversation.”

Mixed Message

The Mixed Ape by

Soul Cannon (Mobtown Records, 2011) by Al Shipley

here’s no road map or obvious template for hip-hop bands that play live instruments, since even the most famous examples, like the Roots or Stetsasonic, tend to be self-styled renegades. Baltimore band Soul Cannon steps confidently into that tradition, or lack thereof, by forging its own unpredictable path on its second album, The Mixed Ape. The title may be a play on contemporary hip-hop “mixtapes,” but it’s certainly an album in the classic sense: a densely packed collection of thoughtful lyrics and deeply original music. Those familiar with Soul Cannon’s 2008 debut, Kaboom, recorded by the band’s original five-piece lineup, may have a completely different concept of the band than those who have seen their more intense live shows since the departure of bassist Ryan Dorsey. But The Mixed Ape resembles none of the above, almost entirely abandoning the live instrumentation usually played in concert by keyboardist Jon Birkholz, guitarist Matt Frazao, and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, all of whom are versatile, conservatory-trained musicians. Instead, they’ve constructed woozy, disorienting soundscapes out of synths, drum machines, and samples, adopting the tools of contemporary hip-hop production with completely different results. The strange, spare music on The Mixed Ape turns out to be the perfect environment to showcase rapper Eze Jackson. In the past, it sometimes felt like Jackson could be overpowered by his bandmates or had to push his voice so hard to not be drowned out by the band that he ended up more of a frontman than an MC, for better or worse. Here, though, he’s in total control as a master lyricist and elastic vocalist, jumping through the hoops of tempo changes on the arresting opener, “Fall In (whatchugondew???),” and taking hip-hop’s tradition of the storytelling song to new extremes on “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” twisting his voice to inhabit every character in the complex, winding tale. On “Ride,” Jackson sings melodically through vocal effects, but the droning organ-driven track is hardly radio-friendly Auto-Tune soul. On “The 27th Letter,” Jackson delivers something of a statement of purpose for Soul Cannon, in his own offbeat way: “I discovered the 27th letter, then I had it embroidered on my argyle sweater.” On The Mixed Ape, Jackson and his band aren’t so much creating their own musical language as they are adding wild new letters to the existing alphabet. Urbanite #85 july 2011 63

Feeling better,

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artscape preview arts + culture

Opera, Al Dente

accessible (performing works in English, for example), says Bon Appetit “isn’t meant to be serious. It’s an interesting attempt to set the language of television to music.” Even so, what Bowen describes as a “tantalizing little appetizer” of an opera may well tempt Artscape audiences to come back for the main course when Opera Vivente starts its season in the fall.

Opera Vivente’s Bon Appetit at Artscape, July 16 Aida Opera of D.C.’s A Tribute to Singers of Color at Artscape, July 15 By Martha Thomas

Bottom photo by Leslie Furlong; Top Photo from The schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

imicking Julia Child is easy. Her highpitched intonations and mannerisms, at once lofty and inclusive, are easily recognizable, even to those who didn’t grow up in the days when her cooking show on PBS occupied a singular, pre-Food Nework niche. Channeling Julia Child—as some say Meryl Streep did in the movie Julie and Julia a couple of summers ago— is a different matter. Jennifer Blades, a local opera singer, will take on the challenge at Artscape, in the eighteenminute Bon Appetit, directed by Opera Vivente’s John Bowen. Composer Lee Houby (who died in March) wrote the one-woman vignette, originally performed by Jean Stapleton (best known What’s cooking? Opera Vivente brings Julia Child’s kitchen to as TV’s Edith Bunker on All in the Family) in the stage in Bon Appetit. the 1980s with a libretto taken directly from the cooking program. the performer, says Blades, “is supposed to be cracking the eggs and mixing the batter while Julia Child’s “whole manner of speaking is singing,” something the mezzo has never done written into the opera,” says Blades. “All of her idiosyncrasies.” The character sketch follows the on stage before, although she loves to cook. French chef as she bakes a chocolate cake, and Bowen, whose opera company aspires to be

Arcade Fire

Gamescape at Artscape, July 15–17 By elizabeth cole

rtscape does not immediately conjure images of video games, but when it’s pushing 100 degrees and you’re standing shoulder-toshoulder with sweaty festivalgoers enjoying live music and art, a little digital entertainment in an air-conditioned room may be just the thing. Even if you’re not a gamer, you’ll want to duck inside MICA’s Bunting Center building to cool off and check out the fun and the artistry at Gamescape. The exhibit will feature the art of local video game designers and artists and will showcase a variety of games, from classics like Super Mario Brothers to new social media and mobile games. One of last year’s crowd-pleasers, back this year, is Color Fusion from Maniacal Games, a puzzle on a finger-painted background with simplified characters and gameplay reminiscent of LittleBigPlanet, another puzzle platform game that features user-generated content. Indie company Baltib’s homemade arcade machines will also run Flash games like Chess. Ben Walsh, Gamescape curator and executive director of Innovate Baltimore, collaborated

The fledging company Aida Opera of D.C. is likewise hoping to channel larger than life personalities with its Artscape appearance in A Tribute to Singers of Color. The collective will perform a tribute to such famous opera singers as Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle, and Todd Duncan. Members of the group—whose mission is to present the works of classical vocalists of color—“face the dual challenge of interpreting the singer as well as the character from the opera in which it appeared,” says company member Ameerah Sabreen. The program will follow the format of a recital, she says, and will be interspersed with narrative about the famous performers. Both productions are free, of course, in the tradition of Artscape. For more information on Opera Vivente’s Bon Appetit, call John Bowen, 410-547-7997, or visit www.operavivente.org. For more information on Aida Opera of D.C.’s A Tribute to Singers of Color, call 240-844-2432 or email aidaoperadc@ yahoo.com.

with the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) to create Gamescape. Walsh hopes the exhibit will “let people know what cool things are happening in the region when it comes to digital design. “A video game often starts on paper,” he ex pla ins. “Video games are very visual. They are about either telling a story or creating experiences—or both—which is what art is about.” The majority of the games will be featured in hands-on, Game time: MICA’s Bunting Center hosts Gamescape during Artscape weekend, offering a pixelated, air-conditioned alternative to the outdoor fun. interactive demos. One of the social media games included in the exhibit is a “jam space” where musicians can play their My Pet Rock, a game developed by Walsh’s comfavorite theme songs. pany, Pure Bang Games; it lets players customAlong with the games, the event will include exhibits ranging from comics to phoize their rocks and send them into battle or on tographic explorations of violence as enterdates and has 100,000 players on Facebook. Antainment. And don’t worry, the exhibit is not other game that may remind you of your youth just for geeked-out gamers. Last year “it was is Eric Ruth’s Pixel Force Halo, an old-school really cool to see people who had no intenNintendo NES-style, Halo-inspired game. Ruth tion of playing a video game that weekend is excited to demo his games because “when sit down and play one,” remarks Walsh. people usually think of video games, they have a limited vision of XBox, Nintendo, and Wii. There is a whole world past that.” MAGfest will For more information, call 410-752-8632 or visit www. be providing arcade machines for the event and artscape.org. Urbanite #85 july 2011 65

the scene

this month’s happenings compiled by Rebecca Messner

ART/CULTURE FILM Anthology I, A Short Films Collaboration is a series of short films by eight filmmakers that combine poems recorded by the Baltimore-based chorus Parallel Octave, improvised music, and inspired imagery. Think W.B. Yeats performed by giant plastic lizards. The premiere of these films, on July 8 at the Creative Alliance, will be followed by a live performance by the chorus. (3134 Eastern Ave.; 410-276-1651; www.creativealliance.org)

Photo by Thomas C. Scilipoti

LITER ATURE Shirley Jackson’s disturbing short story The Lottery was wildly controversial at the time of its publication 1948. Discuss Jackson’s collection, The Lottery and Other Stories, on July 27 with Atomic Books’ Atomic Reading Club. (3620 Falls Rd.; 410-662-4444; www.atomicbooks.com)

MUSIC Jazz in the Sculpture Garden returns to the Baltimore Museum of Art with three concerts in July. Saxophonist Don Braden, once the music supervisor for The Cosby Show, joins acclaimed vocalist Vanessa Rubin on July 2; the Dave Stryker Organ Quintet brings its rhythmic drive on July 23; and the Hendrick Meurkens Samba Jazz Quintet explores Brazilian jazz through the harmonica and vibraphone on July 30. (10 Art Museum Dr.; 443-573-1700; www.artbma.org)

Banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck reunites with The Original Flecktones: keyboardist Howard Levy, bassist Victor Wooten, and percussionist Futureman, bringing cosmic bluegrass-funk to Pier Six Pavilion on July 7. The Carolina Chocolate Drops and Abigail Washburn open. (731 Eastern Ave.; 410-783-4189; http://tickets.piersixpavilion.com) Experimental rock band Animal Collective, made up of childhood friends from Baltimore County, returns to Merriweather Post Pavilion, the venue that inspired the band’s 2009 release of the same name, on July 9. (10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy.; 410-715-5550; www.merriweathermusic.com)

from New York on July 29 at the Ottobar. (2549 N. Howard St.; 410-662-0069; www.theottobar.com)

affordable art at this once-a-year event. (3134 Eastern Ave.; 410-276-1651; www.creativealliance.org)

On July 30, the BSO pays homage to the video game with Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, featuring music that Japanese video game composer Nobuo Uematsu composed for the entire series. Grammy Award-winning conductor Arnie Roth will lead the orchestra, while images from the popular thumb-cruncher will be displayed on a screen above the stage. (1212 Cathedral St.; 410-783-8000; www.bsomusic.org)

Sample the works of the torchbearers of art at Young Blood, now through August 27. Presented by Maryland Art Place, Young Blood features work by recent masters of fine art graduates from Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson University, University of Maryland, College Park, and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. (8 Market Pl.; 410-962-8565; www.mdartplace.org)

Singer k.d. lang’s new album, Sing it Loud, features a backup alt-country band, the Siss Boom Bang, and pays special attention to the beauty of melodies. She and the band perform at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (sans the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) on July 14. (1212 Cathedral St.; 410-783-8000; www.bsomusic.org)

VISUAL ART

Long before there were office supply stores, cultures worldwide fashioned writing utensils out of gems, imported woods, gold, and silver. In the Walters Art Museum’s new show, The Art of the Writing Instrument from Paris to Persia, July 2–Sept. 25, more than twenty writing instruments produced in such cities as Paris, Isfahan, and Kyoto are featured, along with accoutrements like storage chests, pen cases, and writing desks. (600 N. Charles St.; 410547-9000; www.thewalters.org)

Just before they head to the Lollapalooza music festival, Chicago rock band Disappears shares a bill with Baltimore’s own Arbouretum and the Psychic Paramount

Billed as “jaw-dropping” and “life-affirming” by the Creative Alliance, the BIG SHOW, the annual art exhibition of work by Alliance members, runs through July 23. Stop by to purchase

Baltimore’s 100 E. Pratt Street lobby marks the first stop for the Artefacting Mumbai project, which runs July 5–29. Visual artist and urbanist Alex White

THEATER The Baltimore Playwrights Festival celebrates its thirtieth season, presenting new works in July by Maryland playwrights Marilyn Millstone, Colin Riley, and J.F. Bibeau, covering the topics of early 20thcentury sculpture, Internet relationships, and time travel. Catch the plays starting July 8 at various venues throughout the city. (www.baltimoreplaywrightsfestival.org)

Thomas C. Scilipoti has photographed JFK in Patterson Park and O’s fans climbing the fences at the last out of the 1966 World Series. On his sixtieth anniversary as a contributing photographer for the East Baltimore Guide, Scilipoti’s shots will be on view when the Creative Alliance presents 60 Years of Baltimore Photographs, through July 9.

Urbanite #85 july 2011 67

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Originally from England, artist John K. Lawson used Mardi Gras beads to produce work in a studio in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Since having to abandon his studio, Lawson has kept a running “floodline” of Mardi Gras beads, representing the hurricane, in borrowed studio space in New York City. On July 9, Lawson will be exhibiting the work, Beyond The Surface, at the Metro Gallery. (1700 N. Charles St.; www.themetrogallery.net) In 2009, David Harvey kicked off the City From Below conference with “David Harvey and a View From Federal Hill, Revisited,” a lecture on the story of urban development in Baltimore, which touched on his 1992 account of urban development in the city, On July 14, the Indypendent Reader will be premiering the video of Harvey’s 2009 lecture. (www.indyreader.org) Beginning July 14, the work of the semi-finalists for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize will be on view at Maryland Institute College of Art. The Sondheim Artscape Prize recognizes the achievements of visual artists living or working in Maryland, Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and southeastern Pennsylvania. Semi-finalists, finalists, and the winner are all chosen by an independent panel of jurors. Through July 31 (1300 W. Mt. Royal Ave.; 410-2252280; www.mica.edu)

Ladies who are interested in tackling a triathalon but unsure of how to start training can get up and running at She Does Tri triathalon training camp July 15–17. The camp, headquartered at the Falls Road Running Store, features seminars on injury prevention, bike maintenance, and swimming technique, in addition to group workouts. (6247 Falls Rd.; 443-414-5846; www.shedoestri.com)

GREEN/SUSTAINABLE Civic Works hosts The Big Green Pirate Party aboard the USS Constellation on July 7, promising live music from Telesma and DJ Fatty, Heavy Seas Beer, and food from Dangerously Delicious Pies. Costumes are encouraged, and tickets include an eye patch and a sustainable swag bag. All proceeds benefit the organization’s Baltimore Center for Green Careers. Urbanite is a sponsor of this event. (301 E. Pratt St.; 410-929-6126; www.greenpartyforapurpose.org) Are you aware that there are cheetahs, lions, and leopards in Baltimore? Learn about the felines at the Maryland Zoo on July 23 is Big Cat Awareness Day, featuring a lesson on conservation efforts and daily husbandry practices. (Druid Hill Park; 410-396-7102; www.marylandzoo.org)

FOOD/DRINK Learn how to prepare and pamper your protein before throwing it on the barbie at Dogwood’s Cooking with the Seasons—Grilling, Barbecue, & Outdoor Smoking on July 9. The chefs at this Hampden restaurant will teach you special grilling techniques, along with how to choose your cut, marinade, or spice rub, and create accompaniments for the perfect summer picnic. (911 W. 36th St.; 410-889-0952; www.dogwoodbaltimore.com)

MICA’s MA in Community Arts (MACA) program sends students to do fieldwork in Baltimore neighborhoods, immersing the artists in intensive work with children, youth, and adults in community settings. On July 15–30, graduates of the program present a MACA Exhibition of art works, inspired and informed by their immersion experiences. (1303 W. Mt. Royal Ave.; 410-669-9200; www.mica.edu)

Corks restaurant in Federal Hill teaches you the Art of Making Pizza on July 24. Let Chef Pellegrino share his dough-swirling techniques for thin-crust and deep-dish pizza, cranking up the oven to 500 degrees while you sip some cold Chianti. (1026 S. Charles St.; 410-752-3810; www.corksrestaurant.com)

COMMUNITY

HOME/DESIGN

At the African American Festival, July 2–3, take in a gospel choir competition, the 2011 African American Film Festival, and African dance performances, along with more than 150 vending booths and attractions— all within the confines of Lots B and C at M&T Bank Stadium. (1101 Russell St.; 410-244-8861; www. africanamericanfestival.net)

Charles Carroll Jr. wed Harriet Chew Carroll 211 years ago and settled into his country house, Homewood; the house is now the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Museum. On July 17, you can celebrate the Carrolls’ 211th Wedding Anniversary with classic finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and a lecture on the lives and lifestyle of one of early America’s wealthiest and most socially prominent families. (3400 N. Charles St.; 410-516-5589; www.museums.jhu.edu)

On July 4, the Inner Harbor lights up for the annual Ports America Chesapeake Fourth of July Celebration. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts kick off the festivities in the afternoon with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard Band, followed by the United States Naval Academy Band and of course, lots and lots of fireworks at 9:30 p.m. (The Inner Harbor Amphitheater at Pratt and Light sts.; 1-877-BALTIMORE; www.promotionandarts.org)

STYLE/SHOPPING Bling yourself up for summer. The Timonium Fairgrounds welcomes the International Gem and Jewelry Show July 1–3, with more than two hundred exhibitors offering unique pieces at low prices, as well as beading classes. (2200 York Rd.; 410-252-0200; www.intergem.com)

Urbanite #85 july 2011 69

eye to eye

chris day’s artist books are ambiguously timeless and deliciously creepy, set in a foreboding, post-apocalyptic world. Each page is an incomplete vision, a collection of details taken out of context. This particular example, two pages from Calf, presents several anomalous vignettes. The viewer is left to ponder the relationship between a Dalmatian-headed man, a dead wolf, a coffin, and the cryptic, confrontational text. Artist books are difficult to explain. They are not sketchbooks, comic books, or diaries. Rather, they are pieces of original artwork realized in a book format. Day’s books combine original text with visual details drawn from popular culture. He favors fragments and hints over a fully realized narrative, generating an atmospheric sense of events unfolding in both the past and the future. With the turn of each page, the reader’s interpretation cara ober must evolve to participate in a progression of complex and open-ended discoveries. cara ober is urbanite’s online arts/culture editor. to receive “These drawings are flooded with many seemher weekly e-zine, go to ingly incongruent plots and ideas,” Day says. “The www.urbanitebaltimore.com. book provides a format to collect and unify these dissimilar elements while enhancing the clarity and experience of the overarching narrative. The book provides progress where a single image cannot.” Based in Baltimore, Day is both a printmaker and a musician. He is a member of the Open Space Gallery and Closed Caption Comics and co-produces a small-run record and publication label called Lost Ghosts Records with Neal Reinalda. Although his books are often printed in batches, the originals are created entirely by hand. He prefers pens, brushes, scissors, and glue over manipulating images in a computer. 70 july 2011 www.urbanitebaltimore.com

Chris Day Spread 7 from Calf, 2010 Xerox copy of pen and ink on paper 8.5 by 11 inches

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