saving the city’s secret wilderness
B A L T I M O R E ’ S
C U R I O U S
are we there yet? making sense of mass transit
september 2007 issue no. 39
F O R
back to school with andres alonso
The Most Effective Way to Buy and Sell Your Property LD SO
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A LETTER FROM PAUL COOPER Traditional wisdom dictates that when you want to sell your business or home, you contact a nearby realtor, who multiple lists your property, places a sign in the window or on the lawn, and then hopes for the best. But I'm here to tell there is a better way, a more efficient way that also eliminates most hassles associated with a real estate transaction. Did you know that hundreds and hundreds of sellers now consider a Real Estate Auction as the preferred method to sell property? Let me take a minute to explain the benefits of a Real Estate Auction. First: For the SELLER there are no expensive commissions to pay! When you sell through a real estate agent, you, the seller must pay the commission to the real estate company. On a $300,000 sale, the commission could cost you approximately $21,000! An auction sale costs the seller nothing. The BUYER pays the commission through the purchase price; and an auction sale commission can be LESS than through a real estate agent!
Second: For the SELLER there are no need for showings. You don't have the hasslesof having your daily business activities, or if you're selling your house, daily home time interrupted. For the BUYER, in most cases, you view the property at an open house, and you get to see who else is competing for the property! Third: You sell and buy faster! The best advantage of an Auction! In today's glut of properties on the real estate market, a SELLER may have a real estate listing languish for months, and months, and months; with either no offers or ridiculously low ones. BUYERS are shown a plethora of properties, marked up to cover commissions and real estate fees, and in some cases, inflated listings that exceed appraised value. An auction is a plausible, effective, viable alternative.
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urban areas. close to mass transit. in communities where people can actually bike or walk to work or to school – or to the grocer, coffee shop, wine bar, market, retail shop or restaurant. because, after all, urban living is green living. and doing what’s best for our planet has always been part of the sber philosophy and vision. so, we have consistently worked to discover the urban neighborhoods and historic buildings that hold enormous potential for change, and then renewed and reinvigorated them. consequently, we constantly watch for opportunities – looking for the places poised for redevelopment where we can restore this vital and valuable sense of community, and bring people home to america’s cities.
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VISIT CLIPPER MILL... AN URBAN OASIS. An integrative, holistic approach to health and wellness offering a diverse group of health and mental health practitioners, classes and meeting space. 2002 Clipper Park Rd., Suite 110 410.889.8974 www.avalonwellnessllc.com
Artistry and industry merge before your eyes. Watch glassblowing from our showroom overlooking the studio. Classes and group glassblowing events available. 2010 Clipper Park Rd., Suite 119 410.243.2010 www.corradetti.com studio@corradetti.com
amaranthine museum
Thursday, 6-8; Saturday, 10-4 2010 Clipper Park Rd. Suite 118
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Gutierrez Studios is a company of dedicated artisans specializing in the design and fabrication of contemporary furniture, lighting and architectural metalwork. 2010 Clipper Park Road 410.889.5341 www.gutierrezstudios.com
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Scores of masterworks, architectural, sculptural, or paintings juxtaposed with one another in one painting sets up a subliminal action in the viewer’s mind that works magic. 2010 Clipper Park Road Les Harris 410.523.2574 / 410.456.1343
Design. Build. Install. Your resource for Custom built metal furniture, railings, gates, window grates, architectural hardware, lighting & accessories. 2010 Clipper Park Road , Suite 101 410.366.8813 www.mandalacreations.com
THE LIST Corradetti Glass Cynthia Padgett Gutierrez Studios InfoCulture, LLC Linda Bills MudPies Studio / Madonna Hitchcock Mandala Creations / Chris Gavin Marketing Initiative, LLC
Norma Wallis Gallery G @ The Beveled Edge Artisan Interiors Harry Campbell Lisa Egeli Patrick O’Brien Paul Daniel Amaranthine Museum Woodberry Kitchen
Artifact Coffee 4Thought, Inc. Urbanite Avalon Wellness People Encouraging People Havens by Hessen William Jackson Ewing The Law Offices of Arnold M. Weiner
Fisher & Winner, LLP Gabrielli Design Studio, LLC Benchmark Asset Managers Castro/Arts Art on Purpose BioHabitats JRS Architects G1440
UPCOMING EVENTS: Saturday, September 8 Overlook Clipper Mill Furnished Model Home Grand Opening Sunday, October 21 Baltimore’s 19th Annual School 33 Art Center Open Studio Tour Thursday, November 29 2nd Annual Mingle at the Mill
2002 Clipper Park Rd, Suite 102 Baltimore, MD 21211 www.clippermill.net 443.573.4460
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urbanite september 07
I needed a bed...they gave me a place to dream. it’s about finding solutions to everyday needs
FREE DESIGN SERVICE TOWSON 8727 LOCH RAVEN BOULEVARD BELTWAY EXIT 29 NEAR JOPPA ROAD 410.882.8830 CATONSVILLE 6612 BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE BELTWAY EXIT 15 WEST OF ROLLING ROAD 410.744.7272 ANNAPOLIS 2401 SOLOMONS ISLAND RD. 410.266.7452 410.841.6822 WWW.ETHANALLEN.COM ©2007 ETHAN ALLEN GLOBAL, INC.
The Escale速 Suite from KOHLER速 A complete solution for bath and powder rooms, the Escale Suite takes its inspiration from Japanese ceramic tableware design. A wide range of mix-and-match products enable the homeowner to create a light, modern feel.
With six convenient locations and 2 more scheduled to open the Somerville Showroom offers you just what you are looking for with your new home or remodeling project. Our friendly knowledgeable sales staff is on hand to assist you in any way. Look for environmentally friendly products on display in our showrooms
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f e a t u r e s
saving the city’s secret wilderness
B A L T I M O R E ’ S
C U R I O U S
are we there yet? making sense of mass transit
back to school with Andres Alonso
photo by Marshall Clarke
september 2007 issue no. 39
F O R
september 2007 issue no. 38
september’s cover: Marshall Clarke photographed Edward Cohen, president of the Transit Riders Action Council of Metropolitan Baltimore, at a bus stop in Mount Vernon.
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the tao of transit the bus is late. the light rail is slow. and the streetcar is gone. what happened to baltimore’s mass transit system? by mat edelson
public transit is a metaphor for the health of a city, spelled out with rubber, concrete, and steel. with the suburban population on the rise and federal transportation funds low, getting around the baltimore of tomorrow may require an entirely new philosophy.
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another one rides the bus backtalk and breakdowns on a hot day in july by heather rudow
spend a shift with an mta bus driver and discover why the people who drive the behemoths for a living need a little understanding.
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step by step walking the city, north to south by kerr houston
considering alternative means of transportation? none is more basic than putting one foot in front of the other. after millennia of assisted movement, walking the length of a city can lead to a radical change of perspective.
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Go back to school and Buy Local from Baltimore City independent, locally owned businesses.
Faith... Hope... Love... Learning
Archbishop Curley…Archbishop Spalding, Severn… Calvert Hall…Cardinal Gibbons…The Catholic High School… Cristo Rey Jesuit High School…St. Frances Academy… Institute of Notre Dame…The John Carroll School, Bel Air… Saint John's Catholic Prep, Frederick…Loyola Blakefield… St. Mary’s, Annapolis…Maryvale…Mercy…Mount de Sales… Mt. St. Joseph…Notre Dame Prep…Our Lady of Mt. Carmel… The Seton Keough High School…Towson Catholic High School
Top 10 Reasons to buy local: 1. Keep money in the neighborhood 2. Embrace what makes us different. Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods.
Most of these schools will be present at both of the fairs. Check the web page: www.archbalt.org/schools or call 1-800-5-CATHOLIC for a complete listing or more information.
West Side (Catonsville) Sunday, September 9 / 3-5 PM UMBC’s University Center / www.umbc.edu
East Side (Towson) Sunday, September 16 / 3-5 PM College of Notre Dame of Maryland / www.ndm.edu
Learn about registration,enrollment,financial assistance, testing, special programs, and much, much more...
3. Get better service 4. Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy. 5. Create more good jobs 6. Invest in the community 7. Support community groups 8. Help out the environment 9. Put your taxes to good use 10. Show the country we believe in Baltimore
Your good taste belongs on North Charles. Located at the crossroads of three prestigious neighborhoods, Ruxton, Roland Park and Rodgers Forge, Woodbrook on Charles offers you the finest in luxurious modern living, combined with many “in-town” conveniences. Enjoy living minutes from top cultural attractions, exquisite shopping and dining, and Baltimore County’s award-winning schools. Select from distinctive three and four-bedroom townhomes and single-family homes designed by the renowned architectural firm, Deveraux and Associates.
Gourmet Kitchen • 10-foot ceilings • Elevator option • Up to 3600 square feet Two-car garage • Priced from the mid $700s Call 4l0-734-2308 to schedule your personal tour. Open Daily 11 to 6.
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urbanite september 07
6303 North Charles Street, Baltimore • www.woodbrookoncharles.com
YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL WINK BACK.
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MUVICO EGYPTIAN 24
OTHER SHOPS: Dogma, Life with Your Pet
Ontology Works
5 Guys Burgers and Fries
Congruent Media
Dunkin Donuts/Baskin-Robbins
Friday’s Child
Pasta Mista
“K” Line Shipping
PNC Bank
Petards, Inc.
Development Design Group, Inc.
Countrywide Home Loans
Bravo Health
Occupational Medical Services
Met Life
Canton Self Storage
RE/MAX Sails
Friday’s Child
Keystone Realty Company
Obrecht Commercial Real Estate
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RM Sovich Architects
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urbanite september 07
luxury apartment living that’s fells point to the core.
departments september 2007 issue no. 39
45
23
what you’re saying
29
what you’re seeing
31
what you’re writing
37
corkboard
39
have you heard …
45
food: the $50 feast
got something on your mind? this is the place for feedback from our readers
photographs from the streets of baltimore. this month, the topic is “a peaceful place.”
original, nonfiction essays written by readers. this month, the topic is “serendipity.”
six not-to-miss events around town
people, places, and things you should know about
chef spike gjerde goes local for a seasonal menu challenge. by mary k. zajac
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baltimore observed: the big test the city school system’s new ceo takes the helm. by karen houppert
57
encounter: spellbound a gathering of young men test their skills at magic. by heather rudow
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space: mansion on a hill cylburn arboretum, the park that time forgot, is about to enter the twenty-first century. and not everyone is welcoming the change. by charles cohen
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out there: signing off visionary traffic planners promise that fewer rules for motorists actually improve safety. by ted white
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recommended books, bands, exhibits, and more
103
resources
110
eye to eye
further reading on topics covered in this issue
a closing thought, curated by creative director alex castro
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Issue 39 September 2007 Publisher Tracy Ward Durkin Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com Creative Director Alex Castro General Manager Jean Meconi Jean@urbanitebaltimore.com Executive Editor David Dudley David@urbanitebaltimore.com Guest Editor Clive Rock Managing Editor Marianne Amoss Marianne@urbanitebaltimore.com Senior Editor Karen Houppert Karen@urbanitebaltimore.com Copy Editor Angela Davids Editorial/Marketing Assistant Lionel Foster Lionel@urbanitebaltimore.com Contributing Editor Susan McCallum-Smith Editorial Interns Heather Rudow, Svetlana Shkolnikova Design/Production Manager Lisa Macfarlane Lisa@urbanitebaltimore.com Traffic/Production Coordinator Bellee Gossett Bellee@urbanitebaltimore.com Designer/Photographer Jason Okutake Production Intern Lindsay MacDonald Web Coordinator George Teaford Administrative/Photography Assistant La Kaye Mbah Senior Account Executives Susan R. Levy Susan@urbanitebaltimore.com Janet Brown Janet@urbanitebaltimore.com Account Executives Abber Knott Abber@urbanitebaltimore.com Alex Rothstein Alex@urbanitebaltimore.com Bookkeeper/Sales Assistant Michele Holcombe Michele@urbanitebaltimore.com Marketing Kathleen Dragovich Kathleen@urbanitebaltimore.com Marketing/Sales Intern Lindsay Hanson Founder Laurel Harris Durenberger Advertising/Editorial/Business Offices P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 Phone: 410-243-2050; Fax: 410-243-2115 www.urbanitebaltimore.com Editorial inquiries: Send queries to editor@urbanitebaltimore.com (no phone calls, please). The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Urbanite does not necessarily support the opinions of its authors. To subscribe or obtain assistance with a current subscription, call 410-243-2050. Subscription price: $18 per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission by Urbanite is prohibited. Copyright 2007, Urbanite LLC. All rights reserved. Urbanite (ISSN 1556-8105) is a free publication distributed widely in the Baltimore metropolitan area. If you know of a location that urbanites frequent and would recommend placing the magazine there, please contact us at 410-243-2050. Postmaster: Send address changes to Urbanite Subscriptions, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211.
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urbanite september 07
editor’s
note
quotes
photo by La Kaye Mbah
Lo, soul! seest thou not God’s purpose from the first? The earth to be spanned, connected by network. —Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Transportation is a dirty business, and not only because the dominant means of overland locomotion here in the twenty-first century is based on a technology—the hoary, carbon-spewing internal combustion engine—devised in the mid-nineteenth. (Few recall that the horseless carriage, now reviled as an ecological nightmare, solved another pollution menace—the mountains of animal waste generated by the urban horse.) Even if the world’s cars and buses ran on pixie dust, many of the social challenges that industrialized transportation created would persist, from the atomization of communities to the outsized amount of money, space, and human lives that the hardware and its attendant infrastructure consume as we go about the business of getting somewhere else. In July, the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board released a public draft of a long-range plan called “Transportation Outlook 2035.” It is less a plan than a plea: Based on anticipated regional population increases (an 18 percent spike to almost three million people), a huge jobs/labor force gap triggered by retiring baby boomers (translation: more people driving longer distances to get to work), and essentially stagnant mass transit usage (only 8 percent of area commuters now use transit, and the BRTB doesn’t predict that number will change), traffic congestion during the evening rush hour of the future will increase by 258 percent. (This, of course, assumes that there will be some affordable source of fuel for your 2035 vehicle.) As you sit sucking fumes on I-83 tonight and contemplate that prospect, you will perhaps grapple with the same conundrum that planners face as they try to construct the massively expensive transportation alternatives that Americans claim to support but (with a few notable exceptions) seldom actually use. Luring the American driver off ever-more-crowded roads, as writer Mat Edelson details in his account of the unmaking and possible rebirth of Baltimore’s once-formidable public transit system (“The Tao of Transit,” p. 68), takes more than just taxes and tolls and new subway lines. It requires the philosophical embrace of a notion that seems inconceivable after a century in the thrall of the automobile: A municipal service shared with thousands can and should get us around more easily and efficiently than we could get around by ourselves. Mass transit is a leap of faith; we surrender our hard-won personal autonomy and join a collective of strangers going our way, hoping to make it home. Little wonder that terrorists so often target subways and buses. Transit riders are already a vulnerable lot, deeply aware of just how delicate this mutual trust is, and how devastating immobility can be, for a person or a city. Above all, we have to keep moving. In the future, that means rethinking our relationship with the vehicles that promised—and, it must be said, delivered—freedom. Making the journey from driver to passenger will be an uneasy ride, but it may be the only way to go.
In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived. —Paul J. Bedford, former chief planner for the City of Toronto
Being sober on a bus is, like, totally different than being drunk on a bus. —Ozzy Osbourne, British musician
Rather than design a transportation system to get the most out of America’s cities, America redesigned the cities to get the most out of the automobile. —Richard Moe, American author and president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The paradox of transportation in the late twentieth century is that while it became possible to travel to the moon, it also became impossible, in many cases, to walk across the street. —Joell Vanderwagen, Canadian planning consultant and environmental activist
—David Dudley
The car is not the enemy, nor is the elimination of cars the solution. It is our societal bias toward cars that must be questioned.
Can Baltimore compete? Coming Next Month: Guest Editor Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of UMBC, joins us as we look at which industries and skills will succeed—and which won’t—in the Baltimore of the future.
www.urbanitebaltimore.com
F O R
B A LT I M O R E ’ S
—Anne Vernez Moudon, American professor, author, and urban planning consultant
C U R I O U S
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urbanite september 07
contributors
behind this issue
courtesy of Ted White
photo by La Kaye Mbah
photo by La Kaye Mbah
Mat Edelson A veteran freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Washingtonian and Baltimore magazine, and on NPR and CBS Radio, writer Mat Edelson chronicles the ups and downs of Baltimore’s transportation system in this month’s issue (p. 68). A Fells Point resident off and on since 1991, Edelson grew up on Long Island riding the Q44 bus to Shea Stadium, which involved one reliable and free connection to the Q44A bus at Main Street/ Flushing. He never missed the first pitch of any Mets game. Lindsay MacDonald Urbanite production intern Lindsay MacDonald will graduate from the Maryland Institute College of Art in December with a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography. The Massachusetts native spent last fall studying abroad at Parsons Paris and interning for Paris Voice, where she shot photos for the “Shopping” and “Food and Wine” sections. MacDonald has also served as photo illustrator for the children’s books Miles Per Hour and Anthony’s Gift. After graduation, MacDonald hopes to shoot documentary photography for magazines. You’ll find two of her images in this month’s “Have You Heard” department (p. 39 and 41). Andrew Nagl Freelance photographer Andrew Nagl recently began his sophomore year at Baltimore City College High School, where he has covered a wide range of sporting events, including the century-old City-Poly football game. The 15-year-old contributed photos to this issue’s feature on transportation in Baltimore (“The Tao of Transit,” p. 68). Nagl has also shot for the Baltimore City Department of Planning, and he spent a few days this June photographing the skateboarders and cyclists of the Dew Action Sports Tour when it came to Baltimore. Nagl first picked up a camera as a child to capture everyday events like ships in the Inner Harbor, carved pumpkins, and Lego structures. “I just had a need to document things,” he says. After college he hopes to pursue photography full-time.
Ted White Ted White is an award-winning filmmaker, geographer, and longtime advocate of transportation alternatives. His two documentaries, Return of the Scorcher and We Aren’t Blocking Traffic, We ARE Traffic!, celebrate the history and future of the bicycle as a joyous and useful form of transportation (for more info, go to www.tedwhite greenlight.com). He has written and photographed for various magazines, including Yes!, Adbusters, Mothering, Bike Culture Quarterly, and Oregon Cycling. White’s article on innovative approaches to traffic signage appears in this month’s “Out There” department (p. 85).
Clive Rock
is the director of strategic planning and policy for the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, commonly known as TransLink. In the late 1990s, he was one of the principal architects of the vision that transformed the often fragmented approach to transportation in the more than twenty municipalities in the Vancouver metropolitan region and the provincial government into what may be one of the most enviable transportation systems in North America. Formed in 1999, the breadth of TransLink’s powers and services has few parallels in Canada or the United States. The regional authority plans routes, handles funding, and oversees capital improvements for this system, which serves more than 2.3 million people, averaging around 600,000 commutes per day on buses, ferries, automated light rail, and commuter trains. TransLink also administers Vancouver’s “AirCare” vehicle emissions testing program and funds and maintains more than 1,300 lane miles within the region’s Major Road Network. Public transit ridership in the area has increased by almost 30 percent since 1999. Getting to this point was not easy. For decades, Vancouver was a relatively car-dependent region facing one of the strongest population growth rates in North America. Funding for public transit expansion was limited and at times unpredictable. TransLink’s predecessor had limited means of raising operating funds or capital, with the only other funding coming from a provincial government that faced competing demands for education, health, and social services during several years of ongoing deficits. In addition, the transportation and infrastructure goals of the province and the municipalities were sometimes at odds with each other. Overcoming such divisions was the result of a patient, open dialogue that has become one of the hallmarks of TransLink’s approach. A series of conferences involving thousands of residents shifted to formal negotiations between the Greater Vancouver Regional District (the federation of municipalities in the region) and the province. The process was characterized by a sense of mutual problem-solving and widespread public engagement through a variety of innovative means. “We set up an open house in a Home Depot store,” says Rock, describing a recent rapid transit initiative. “Joe and Jane Average might be out looking for a new faucet when they came across us, and we engaged them in conversation. It’s nonthreatening. People don’t have to stand up and speak at a microphone. What we’re always trying to do is cut through the clutter and talk to folks.” These efforts have paid off. Today, it is difficult to imagine how Vancouver could manage its transportation agenda without TransLink’s regional approach. The Authority’s current to-do list is extensive. It is expanding bus and passenger ferry service and building a new rapid transit line to the airport, with two other lines in the planning stage. In addition, it is building a new crossing of the Fraser River, the Golden Ears Bridge, which will open later this decade. On top of these system-expansion initiatives, the agency is preparing to play its part in hosting the more than two million visitors that the 2010 Olympic Games will bring to British Columbia, working to achieve the 100 percent or so increase in public transit ridership needed to meet greenhouse gas mitigation goals, and confronting the realities of providing accessible transit for an aging population. It is an ambitious agenda that Rock poses in very modest terms: “We’d like to be more boring. We’d like to be so imbedded into people’s everyday lives that they don’t even think about us.”
courtesy of Clive Rock
courtesy of Mat Edelson
with guest editor clive rock
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A GRAND OPENING You Simply Can’t Miss. Elegant Townhomes with Harbor Views
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09.15.07
James W. Rouse Day. Get Involved.
At SBER we believe in the greatness of Baltimore, its people, and its neighborhoods. We established James W. Rouse Community Service Day seven years ago to celebrate that greatness, and to honor one man who tirelessly worked to improve our city. Join us as we embark on ten community improvement projects. You are welcome to select the location and project that interests you. We have work for all ages and skill levels. We will provide breakfast, lunch, and a t-shirt. Let’s join to clean, landscape, paint, and pave ( the way to a better Baltimore)! No matter who you are, we are neighbors, and we’d like to enlist your help in a fun day of service to our city.
“Whatever excuses others may have had for conditions in their cities– we have none.” JAMES W. ROUSE
www.sber.com To read more about the projects and sign up to volunteer, visit:
A COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY SPONSORED BY |
SBER | We are city people.
The International Baccalaureate Program St. Paul’s School makes available a uniquely challenging program offered only at top schools across the country and around the world. Learn more about the excitement of the IB program at:
www.stpaulsschool.org
ABILITY IS NOTHING WITHOUT OPPORTUNITY Enter St. Paul's and discover a world of possibilities. COED LOWER SCHOOL Kindergarten through 4th Grade Open House for Parents
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, BEGINS AT 9 AM
BOYS MIDDLE & UPPER SCHOOL
Grades 5 through 12 Open House for Parents & Students TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, BEGINS AT 9 AM
OPEN HOUSE FOR ALL GRADES Kindergarten through 12th Grade Open House for Parents & Students
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2 PM The Ward Center for the Arts
Held jointly with St. Paul’s School for Girls
Kindergarten is coming! FALL 2008
Call for information or attend an Open House on Oct. 10 or Nov. 4.
Complete details available at
www.stpaulsschool.org Admissions Office
410-821-3034 Call us to learn more about the opportunities which await you at St. Paul’s School.
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urbanite september 07
what you’re saying
Green Party
photo by Jason Okutake
Why not have tree-planting parties in Patterson Park and Federal Hill, as Portland does (“Going Out on a Limb,” August)? There are also smaller “dog parks” in Canton and Fells Point that could use some work. This could perhaps be a good activity for city kids and others, who could become active in their communities. —Gretchen White works as a bartender and artist in Baltimore.
Bike Without Fear I was disappointed with the article “Shifting Gears” in the July issue. As with so much journalism today, its tone is sensationalistic, emphasizing the perceived (and yes, in some cases, real) dangers of bicycling. The author refers to cyclists being “regularly forced into the moving traffic.” As a cyclist of fifteen years, I can say that one is not “forced” into moving traffic; rather, when there are cars parked in the right lane, it is prudent to move away from them. It is important as well to remember that if a cyclist is riding on the road, she/he is in fact part of the traffic. The author also refers to the “frightening” statistics for injuries of pedestrians and cyclists without giving any perspective: Nearly 50 percent of injuries experienced by cyclists are from falls unassociated with motor vehicle encounters. I can attest to regularly seeing other cyclists riding in ways that are decidedly dangerous, and illegal—running red lights and stop signs, riding between two rows of stopped vehicles, weaving in and out of parked cars, and riding the wrong way on a one-way street. I also feel the claim that cyclists are “harassed by disgruntled drivers” is exaggerated. Yes, there are some drivers who are rude and impatient. My personal experience is, however, that most are not rude and will in fact often give a cyclist the right-of-way. As for “honking,” I believe motorists use their horns in an effort to alert a cyclist ahead of them that they are coming up behind him or her, and rarely as a way of saying, “Get out of the way.” If the aim of the author was to encourage cycling, her article would fail in its goal, as it would create a climate of fear about the nature of cycling.
The author should have taken the opportunity to cite Maryland law, which says cyclists are to obey the same rules of the road as do motorists. If you are going to be taken seriously as a cyclist, you should ride in a serious manner and behave as a vehicle, making yourself visible and predictable, and most of all, as with driving, riding defensively. —Teresa Schiano Dutton lives in Baltimore. She owns a cleaning business and regularly commutes to clients by bike, with her supplies in a trailer. She’d like to thank cycling friend Polly Heninger for her help writing this letter.
to ask for bins at high-traffic areas in the neighborhood. Neighbors could volunteer to dispose of the full bins on a rotating basis. Another easy thing that could be done is to post recycling schedules throughout your neighborhood. Does everyone know what they can recycle and when? As a citizen of Baltimore City, I should be able to walk down a street and see no trash, and a recycle bin at every bus stop, along with a trash bin, so people don’t have any excuse for littering. —Tim Lauer lives in Baltimore and has been a teacher for nine years.
Trash Talk Correction Thank you for the article and pictures (“Netscape,” August). I hope in the future that more publications will follow your lead, so that this issue becomes something every citizen of Baltimore cares about and demands some attention for. It’s about time that we see in print what I see everyday when I walk through my neighborhood. Every week, I could fill a trash bag with fast-food bags, empty soda cans, and candy wrappers. I noticed that one reason people threw things onto the ground was that they didn’t have a trash bin around to dispose their waste. So I simply put a used trash bin at the corner of my yard and noticed people actually threw the trash into the bin I provided. Every so often now, I just empty it myself, put a new liner in the bin, and add it to my own personal waste that is collected by the city. If you belong to a community where neighborhood meetings are held, encourage your neighbors
The “Behind This Issue” (August 2007) department incorrectly stated that WYPR radio host Marc Steiner purchased public radio station WJHU when it was sold by Johns Hopkins University. Steiner founded the non-profit Your Public Radio Corporation and was a leader of that group’s efforts to purchase the station, but was not one of the guarantors of the loan that led to WYPR’s creation in 2001.
We want to hear what you’re saying. E-mail us at mail@urbanitebaltimore.com or send your letter to Mail, Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211. Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. You can also comment on our website (www.urbanite baltimore.com/forum).
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update
Last December, Urbanite’s “Have You Heard” department introduced readers to Organic Soul Tuesdays, a long-running open-mike series that provides a venue for anyone itching to perform music or poetry. In June, just one month before its sixth anniversary, Organic Soul Tuesdays held the first event in its new Mount Vernon home, Eden’s Lounge at 15 West Eager Street. The new location gives the series a higher profile and greater versatility: The club has dance and lounge space in addition to a performance area. The difference is already noticeable. Six months ago, a typical crowd consisted of fifty to seventy people. Cofounder Olu Butterfly Woods says the event now draws up to two hundred people. A few local members of the Organic Soul Tuesdays family have also taken big steps forward. In February, Woods received a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. She also has a world hip-hop poetry CD in the works. Singer Che’Ray, a longtime Organic Soul Tuesdays participant, performed at the African American
Heritage Festival in July and the Hopkins Plaza Jazzy Summer Nights series in August. An Organic Soul Tuesdays favorite, J.S.O.U.L is scheduled to unveil his second nationally released album, The Love Soldier, this fall on the Blackout Studios label. And between his Tuesday sessions here in Baltimore, guitarist and house bandleader Joel Mills performs with R&B singer Carl Thomas at shows around the country. Successes like these confirm Woods’ long-held belief in the city’s local talent and in Organic Soul Tuesdays’ supportive role in its development. A DVD showcasing the series is in the planning stages. “I travel a lot,” Woods says. “I’d like to document this for posterity and for people in other cities.” Even six years in, she still has work to do. “I would love for Baltimore to be a model for independent art,” she says. “There’s not a lot of industry presence here, and honestly, that’s fine with me. You can still reach people. I’d like Organic Soul Tuesdays to do its part.” ■ —Lionel Foster is Urbanite’s editorial assistant.
photo by La Kaye Mbah
Organic Soul Tuesdays
Organic Soul Tuesdays cofounder Olu Butterfly Woods believes the open-mike series can play a role in developing Baltimore’s creative talent.
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urbanite september 07
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what you’re seeing
Welcome to the new “What You’re Seeing” department. This is the place for photography that captures the true spirit of Baltimore, showing the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the sad—and don’t forget the wild, zany, and spectacular! Each month we will choose a topic; you send us one photograph that speaks to that subject. Along with your photograph, please include a brief description of the image along with your contact information. For more information on how to submit your photograph, please visit www.urbanitebaltimore.com/wyseeing. PLEASE NOTE: By sending us a photograph, you are giving us full permission to publish the image in its entirety. This permission extends to the models and/or subjects in the photograph. It is essential that all people in the photograph be aware that the image may be published. Please read the limited license agreement on our website, www.urbanitebaltimore.com/wyseeing.
Show us …
Deadline
Publication Date
A House with Character The Strangest Car My True Self A Hero
Sep 19, 2007 Oct 26, 2007 Nov 21, 2007 Dec 21, 2007
Nov 2007 Dec 2007 Jan 2008 Feb 2008
Visit www.urbanitebaltimore.com/wyseeing for more information on how to submit your photograph.
A Peaceful Place by John Packard
Whatever the temperature is outside in Baltimore, inside the Druid Hill Conservatory it is always rainforest-warm and humid. The lush plants and inviting path create the most peaceful place. —J. P.
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The Enoch Pratt Free Library presents
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urbanite september 07
Q
How do we know Moses was Jewish?
A
Come to Me’ah and find out!
& October 10, 2007 and runs through the Spring. Wednesday nights starting at 6pm with dinner, followed by class
me'ah (ma'a) n. 1. the Hebrew word for 100 2. a 100-hour study program for adults taught by Baltimore Hebrew University's outstanding faculty For details, see our website at www.bhu.edu/meah or contact Elaine Eckstein at 410-578-6905 or eeckstein@bhu.edu.
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what you’re writing
“What You’re Writing” is the place for creative nonfiction from our readers. Each month, we pick a topic. Use the topic as a springboard into your own life and send us a true story inspired by that month’s theme. Only nonfiction submissions that include contact information can be considered. We reserve the right to edit heavily for space and clarity, but we will give you the opportunity to review the edits. You may submit under “name withheld” to keep your essay anonymous, but you do need to let us know how to contact you. If you’ve already changed the names of the people involved, please let us know. Due to libel and invasion-of-privacy issues, we reserve the right to print the piece under your initials. Submissions should be typed (and if you cannot type, please print clearly). Only one submission per topic, please. Send your essay to Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 or to WhatYoure Writing@urbanitebaltimore.com. Please keep submissions under four hundred words; longer submissions may not be read due to time constraints. Because of the number of essays we receive, we cannot respond individually to each writer. Please do not send originals; submissions cannot be returned. The themes printed below are for the “What You’re Writing” department only and are not the themes for future issues of the magazine itself.
Deadline
Publication
White Lies First Times Cravings
Sep 14, 2007 Oct 12, 2007 Nov 12, 2007
Dec 2007 Jan 2008 Feb 2008
illustration by Johnny Robles
Topic
erendipity
Accidents happen,
everyone tells you. Accidents happen, just like shit; everybody knows that, and all you can do is clean it up and keep moving on. These are the facts of life, no use denying them. Got a great boyfriend? Won’t last long, that’s for sure and that’s for certain. He’ll let you down in some spectacular fashion—or things will implode in the other direction: He’ll stay great, but you’ll get fired or your cat will get run over, or some other indescribable and inexplicable disaster will make up
for your romantic bonanza. The scales have to balance, nothing gold can stay, and into every life a little rain must fall—especially when you just bought sunglasses. For me, it’s so much easier to trust misfortune than amazing coincidences, so much smarter to selfsabotage than to expect rainbows and ponies for all of my days. But my daughter is delighted when her favorite dress gets a hole in it, because the patch I sew on to cover it is a deep celestial blue with white and gold stars. “Now it’s even more my favorite
dress,” she says to me. She’s so happy and surprised that it all managed to converge in just that particular way. People think that’s an innocence she’s destined to lose, but I think seeing happy coincidences everywhere we look is an act of pure bravery. A physics professor asked me a trick question once: “Which weighs more: a ton of feathers or a ton of cannonballs?” Of course, the point is that a ton is a ton is a ton, but today the point for me is that feathers are a lot harder to hang onto than cannonballs, and you need a lot more of them to survive, to
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keep you floating on hope when the cannonballs of this world want to weigh you down. —Jackie Regales lives in Baltimore with her family, teaches English at Roland Park Country School, and likes to try her hand at every kind of writing under the sun.
I had allowed
my mother to make the travel arrangements for me: Europe for six weeks before visiting my best friend at her Peace Corps stint in Nepal. Boston to JFK to Rome to India to Nepal and back again. After leaving my family in Boston, I was on my own at the JFK International Airport Air India counter. With no expression on his face, the agent informed me, “These tickets are not valid.” I shook my head rapidly back and forth. “But here they are,” I responded, thumbing through the thick packet of slightly filmy paper. To my numb face he explained, “Your reservations were cancelled. Your travel agent must have neglected to phone in the ticket numbers.” I managed to make my way to Rome, with assurances that I could solve the rest of my ticketing problems at the local Air India office. Using my Europe on $10 a Day guidebook, I selected a pensioni that sounded clean, friendly, and close enough to walk to. A heavyset woman who spoke little English showed me a room. Three beds in a row. All I could do was lie down; there was nothing I wanted to see, nowhere I wanted to go. I heard voices speaking rapid Italian in the hallway. The conversation quieted, and a young woman walked into my room. Our eyes met, and suddenly I recognized her from school—her name was Lisa. She had spent a year in Italy, hence her fluent Italian. For two days Lisa took me under her wing. She found the Air India office, took me to her favorite eateries, and told me what to order and where to find the best gelato. She introduced me to the joy of carved marble statues and fountains, smiled at the whistles we received, and offered guidance on how to deal with Italian men. I remained a few days longer, with repeated trips to the Air India office to sort out my tickets. I was mesmerized by Rome: the art, the history, the people. Men with arms slung casually over each other’s shoulders, sharing a newspaper. Conversations with strangers—them in Italian, me in English—in which something somehow got said. Bars that served ice cream, juice, pastries, and alcohol. But when I think of Italy, I think of the grace of that moment when a familiar face walked through the door of a random pensioni. I wonder, still, how I ever would have gotten myself up off that bed without that particular twist of fate. —Sindee Ernst is a transplanted New Englander living in Baltimore County. In addition to writing her
memoir, she composes banjo tunes, does traditional English and American dancing, and now takes care of all of her own travel plans.
I am not
particularly sentimental, and my husband is definitely not a romantic. Over fifty years we have had our moments—shared adventures, special times, and favorite places that evoke in both of us memories that touch the heartstrings. Yet, during this time, many of our pursuits, endeavors, and travels have been undertaken without the other. In May 1993, my husband, Dave, was spending a month as an exchange artist in Maryland’s sister province in China, Anhui. When his exhibits and lectures were over, he traveled to other parts of the country with a Chinese friend. His accommodations were not the usual tourist hotels, but the homes of villagers or inns. I heard from him only once because there was little chance of finding a phone in the type of places where his bath was heated with boiling water brought to his room in thermos bottles. One day toward the end of his journey I was listening to the radio while driving to work. The talk on NPR was getting boring so I switched to classical music. A piece I was not familiar with had just started. A solo violin was being played, and it mesmerized me. It was so lovely that tears filled my eyes and fell into my lap. When it was over, the announcer said the name of the piece was the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto and it could be purchased at An Die Musik. I called the store, only to be told they had already sold the three copies in stock. Two days later, Dave came home, full of tales and lovely souvenirs. One was a CD—the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto. He had heard it as he passed a music store in Guangzhou. Going inside to hear it more clearly, he suddenly missed me. When we compared notes and calculated the time difference, we were astonished to learn that we had heard the music on the same day at almost the same time. My husband has always chalked it up to the law of probability, though he does admit the odds are miniscule. I know better—that day the gods looked on us with favor and sent a message of love across the universe. No cupid’s bow was needed—just that of a violin, and a beautiful concerto. —Barbara Orbock is a former special education teacher who now creates colored pencil artwork and writes essays and poetry.
I’m sitting
in an airline office in Amman, Jordan, miserably waiting for my turn. I’ve just lost something very special to me: a small stone with a smaller hole in it that I found—or, I should say, that found me—during a visit to India with my mother eighteen months ago. The trip was one of anticipation. I was finally bringing Mom to the country I had fallen deeply in
love with. But it wasn’t fun because I was a moody bitch, and for no good reason. It certainly wasn’t Mom’s fault. But I treated her like it was. By the time we got to the Taj Mahal I was even nastier than I had been for the two weeks we had been traveling. We took off our shoes and walked around the famous domed building. I gave Mom hell for taking her time looking around. I wanted to see it; she wanted to experience it. I stomped around a corner and onto something small but painful. Cursing, I bent down and picked up the stone I had stepped on. It was rectangular, about the size of a domino tile, with smooth rounded corners and a hole at one end. I couldn’t understand how something so small and timeworn could have hurt so much. I closed my fist around it. It grew burning-hot-but-not in my hand. As the not-hot-heat spread throughout my body, I saw Mom in the distance, looking as fragile and timeworn as the stone. I mentally kicked myself as I realized that despite my awful behavior, Mom had remained loving and strong. I limped over, gave her a big hug, whispered a short but ferocious apology into her ear, and spent the entire day feeling guilty, but strangely happy. And as I sit in the airline office, feeling the profound absence of the stone that I always wore around my neck, I look up through its glass walls and see two Buddhist monks. I turn to my friend and jokingly say, “Oh, look, Buddhist monks. Maybe the Dalai Lama is here.” I look back outside and suddenly, there he is— the Dalai Lama. He turns around, catches my eye and smiles at me, then gets into a car and drives away. And with that, the realization strikes me: The stone was never really mine. Its work is done. I no longer need a tangible object to remind me that fragility and strength go hand in hand, and to always treat people how I want to be treated—particularly those people I love. ■ —Jackie Sawiris is a half-Jordanian, half-Egyptian writer, director, and actor who can’t seem to stay in Baltimore ... but always returns.
Want to learn how to get your essay into print? Stop by the “What You’re Writing” session on September 29 at the Baltimore Book Festival. Held in the CityLit tent from 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., the session will include readings by past published essayists and advice from Urbanite editors on how to get your writing published in “What You’re Writing.” Participants (and the general public) are invited to submit a finished essay for possible publication at any time during the Book Festival, at the Urbanite table. Go to www.balti morebookfestival.com for more information.
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At McDaniel College you will develop new t a s t e s , both in and out of the classroom. You will learn to s m e l l the difference between fact and fiction, and to form opinions in grounded logic. You will f e e l the challenge of academic rigor, as well as the comfort of belonging to an authentic community where students come first. You will begin to h e a r your inner voice—and trust it. At McDaniel College you will discover your future through numerous research, travel, and internship opportunities. Come s e e for yourself.
www.mcdaniel.edu/admissions T wo College Hill wesTMinsTer, MD 21157 800-638-5005
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urbanite september 07
d i f f e r e n c e
CORK Baltimore Comic Convention Allow your Spidey senses to tingle a little at Baltimore’s eighth annual Comic Convention (known to the initiated as “Comic-Con”). Along with innumerable opportunities to ogle and acquire comic paraphernalia, conventioneers will be able to meet and greet industry stars like Hell Boy creator Mike Mignola.
September 8–9 Baltimore Convention Center 1 West Pratt Street 410-576-1000 www.comicon.com/baltimore
Reggae and Brew Festival Party like an animal at the zoo’s Reggae and Brew Festival. Jah Works and Unity Reggae Band provide the musical backdrop for Caribbean food, games, craft vendors, beer, and frozen tropical drinks. Your ticket will also give you admission to the zoo itself.
September 15 Maryland Zoo in Baltimore 300 Druid Park Drive 443-552-5276 www.marylandzoo.org
High Zero Festival The list of instruments in this year’s High Zero Festival of experimental music—voice, trumpet, the human body, various homemade inventions—is fascinating in its own right, and the music is even more so. Observe artists from across the country and around the world as they push the boundaries of sound-making for a full week.
September 24–30 Festival takes place at Theatre Project, 45 West Preston Street, and other venues; see website for information 443-414-5414 www.highzero.org
A Conversation with Maryland’s Poet Laureate Michael Glaser says of poetry, “It evokes a sharing of our humanness.” As Maryland Poet Laureate, the St. Mary’s College literature professor has a chance to facilitate these types of exchanges in every region of the state. Join him for a reading of new poems and older works as he and the audience draw connections between poetry and the natural world.
September 26, 7 p.m. Anne Arundel Community College 101 College Parkway, Arnold 410-777-2510 www.mdhc.org
Baltimore Book Festival The twelfth annual Baltimore Book Festival offers events and activities for readers and writers alike. Enjoy three free days of shortstory readings, writing workshops, and poetry slams. Among the special guests will be Project Runway’s Tim Gunn, author of Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style and acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni. Don’t miss Urbanite’s “What You’re Writing” session on Saturday; see page 33 for details.
September 28–30 Mount Vernon Place 600 block of North Charles Street 410-752-8632 www.baltimorebookfestival.com
The Art of the Solo For one night only, the BMA provides the backdrop for solo works by some of the greatest choreographers of the twentieth century. The program includes pieces by such seminal figures as Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn (two of Martha Graham’s teachers) and Doris Humphrey, one of the first faculty members of the Dance Division of the Juilliard School.
September 29, 7 p.m. Baltimore Museum of Art 10 Art Museum Drive 443-573-1700 www.theartofthesolo.org
Photo credits from top to bottom: no credit; illustration by Jason Okutake; photo by Michael Muniak; photo by Eric Heisler; courtesy of Baltimore Offi ce of Promotion and the Arts; photo by Kanji Takeno
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imagine
the possibilities.
join
the urbanite project Last year, The Urbanite Project brought together six teams of unexpected collaborators and asked them to dream up a new vision for the city. This year, we will include Urbanite readers in the project. Selected participants will be invited to join an Urbanite Project team that will collectively propose radical solutions to ciry issues. To apply, go to www. urbaniteproject.com. Tell us who you are and why you should be a part of this special annual issue. Applications are due by September 28, 2007.
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urbanite september 07
have you heard . . .
compiled by lionel foster
Travel … Inner Harbor, Charles Street, Light Rail, and over a dozen bus lines—is ideal for travelers who want to take in the area’s attractions. Though residents within thirty miles of Baltimore City cannot take advantage of the hostel’s accommodations, locally based Friends of Baltimore Hostel hosts events that incorporate locals and travelers, like the upcoming grand-opening celebration in November. Go to www. baltimorehostel.org.
photo by Iris Goldstein
The July 1 reopening of the Baltimore Hostel (17 West Mulberry Street; 410-576-8880) gives world travelers on a budget an incentive to come to Charm City. The refurbished nineteenth-century mansion can accommodate forty-four guests on two floors. The rooms, which contain between four and twelve beds, each have their own full bathroom. At $25 per night for Hostelling International members ($28 for nonmembers), guests have access to a large common area with a TV, VCR, and DVD, plus a full kitchen, spacious patio, and wireless Internet. The Mount Vernon location—within walking distance of the
—Lionel Foster
Bath Time … Foods Market. Try the exfoliating Beach Bar and the Polar Bar (made with peppermint and petit grain essential oil). Also available at Body & Soul Hair Salon & Spa (6423 Harford Road; 410-4268680) and other stores throughout the state and country. To order or find a store near you, call 443-928-4724 or go to www.biggsandfeather.com.
photo by Kelly Evick
Kelly and Kasey Evick’s four-year-old business began with a Christmas gift. “My sister and I read a Martha Stewart article on soap-making around the holidays,” explains Kelly. The bars became so popular among family members that, within months, the Anne Arundel County natives started a full line of natural body care products under the name Biggs and Featherbelle. Their soaps, lip balms, belly balm, body butter bars, and bath soaks are now available at both specialty and large chain stores such as Whole
—L. F.
Luxury Bedding ...
photo by Lindsay MacDonald
Phina’s Luxury Linen Collective (919 South Charles Street; 410-685-0911) is doing its part to make Baltimore rest a little easier. Opened last winter by long-time Baltimorean Josephine Bravo and her daughter Teresa Bravo, this little shop of luxury offers just about everything the discerning consumer could ask for in bed, bath, and body comforts. In addition to carrying a stock of high-end sheets (thread counts go as high as 1,000) and thirsty 800gram-weight towels, the Federal Hill store invites customers to create custom bedroom linens from swatches and samples in an array of soft jewel tones.
Phina’s will soon be carrying the Sferra line of linens, an Italian brand in demand by interior design professionals. Phina’s can also help you get ready to slip into those sheets with spa-quality bath salts, body butters, and skin-softening soufflés from luxurious skincare lines like Spa Blends and Ahava. Robes in either reversible waffle-weave cotton and terrycloth or heavyweight silk wrap up the whole experience. Open Tues–Sat 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun 12 p.m.–5 p.m., Mon by appointment only. Go to www.phinas.com. —Shannon Dunn
Have you heard of something new and interesting happening in your neighborhood? E-mail your news to Editorial Assistant Lionel Foster at Lionel@urbanitebaltimore.com, and you may see it in a future issue.
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One Vision Many Voices
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Maryland Humanities Council presents a series of community conversations as part of its Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Remembrance and Reconciliation initiative. Visit www.mdhc.org/programs/mlk.htm for more information about the initiative.
Join the Conversation! Visit www.mdhc.org for more information. Snapshots: Glimpses of America in Change
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Playwright/actress Anna Deavere Smith transforms herself into a vast array of characters expressing their own views on life and race in America. September 20, 7 p.m. Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles Street Reserve your seat at www.mdhc.org or 410-685-0095.
Renowned Poet Nikki Giovanni Reads Her Work As part of Baltimore Book Festival activities September 30, 12:30 p.m. Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles Street Open seating, first come basis For more information visit www.mdhc.org or 410-685-0095.
Two Part Series: Martin and Malcolm: One Vision—Two Voices: A Conversation about Race in America An interactive living history performance with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, moderated by WYPR’s Marc Steiner. October 16, 7 p.m. Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive Reserve your seat at www.mdhc.org or 410-685-0095. An interactive performance with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and after school students. October 27, 2 p.m. Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center, 847 N. Howard Street Reserve your seat at www.eubieblake.org or 410-225-3130.
All programs are FREE. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Maryland Division of Historical and Cultural Programs, Maryland State Department of Education, David and Barbara B. Hirschhorn Foundation, Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, Walters Art Museum, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Media sponsors:
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urbanite september 07
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have you heard . . . H2O … Funded with start-up money from Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Kanye West, GOOD (Getting Out Our Dreams) Water Store Cafe in St. Mary’s County (21600 Great Mills Road; 240-895-7873) blends social activism and star power. Raymond West, Kanye’s father, manages the store and developed the concept: to provide clean water in a comfortable atmosphere while educating the public about the importance of one of the world’s most precious resources. Customers can watch as water is purified using carbon filtering, reverse osmosis, steam filtering, and distil-
lation techniques. The final product sells for $.79, $.89, and $.99 per gallon and is joined on the menu by an assortment of teas, wraps, salads, yogurts, smoothies, and coffees. Lounge space, flat screen TVs, wireless Internet, and a small stage for local performers make GOOD a place to enjoy the essentials in comfort. Open Tues–Sat 12 p.m.–7 p.m. Go to www.mygoodwater.com. —L. F.
BBQ … Open since mid-May, Alabama BBQ Company (4311 Harford Road; 410-254-1440) specializes in barbecue made to exacting standards. Alabama native Jay Belle and partner Louise Pantall coat their ribs with a secret dry rub before the racks join cuts of pork shoulder and beef brisket in a smoker—a process that, depending on the meat, can take up to fourteen hours. The finished product is perfect for dipping in their custom fruit-based sauces and glazes, such as Bluezberry, which gives the tender brisket
a light, sweet flavor. Portions range in size from sandwiches to “The Bear”: a rack of twelve ribs, two pints of your favorite meat, and two large sides. It might take a while to down that much protein, but the hospitality ensures that you’ll be comfortable doing it. Open Tues–Thurs 11:30 a.m.–8 p.m., Fri and Sat 12 p.m.–9 p.m. Go to www.alabamabbqcompany.com. —L. F.
Flooring … photo by Lindsay MacDonald
Sharona Gamliel and Ric Martinkus’ home furnishings store Paradiso (1015 West 36th Street; 410-2431317) is like an elaborate, constantly evolving puzzle. Inside, it is not unusual to find a modern, customdesigned lamp atop a table from the late 1800s. It’s an eclectic and demanding mix. Recently, the store has introduced an innovative woven vinyl floor covering called Plynyl, created by New York designer Sandy Chilewich, that makes complementing this
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diversity of styles, periods, and textures a little easier. The water- and stain-resistant floor mats can mimic the warmth of more traditional organic fibers while maintaining the sleek, modern feel of a synthetic. Open Fri and Sat 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.–4 p.m., or by appointment. —L. F.
“Best of Baltimore”, 2007 Baltimore Magazine
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urbanite september 07
f o o d
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photography by steve buchanan
The $50 Feast Chef Spike Gjerde goes local for a seasonal menu challenge
Pick of the crop: Local restaurateur Spike Gjerde will emphasize local produce at his new eatery.
Spike Gjerde meanders through the crowded Waverly Farmers’ Market, examining the ripe fruits and vegetables that cover every table. This local chef— formerly of past Baltimore eateries Joy America Cafe, Spike and Charlie’s, jr., and Atlantic—is a man on a mission: Create a dinner menu for four, spending no more than $50 and using mainly the fresh ingredients he can find at the market. Gjerde’s two children, 7-year-old Finn and 4-year-old Katie, fair-skinned and tow-haired like their father, have come along; I am here as an observer, to see what magic Gjerde can make out of the edible gems of summer. The challenge is a good fit for Gjerde, who, along with his wife, Amy, and his business partner, Nelson Carey, will soon open Woodberry Kitchen, a restaurant in Clipper Mill with a menu devoted to seasonal, local, and sustainable agriculture. “The basic premise of the restaurant is that we can get most of what we eat from where we live,” explains Gjerde. And although Woodberry Kitchen will focus on foods from responsible local purveyors, non-local items (like lemons to squirt on Chesapeake Bay oysters, for example) will not be absent from the menu. Gjerde is approaching the market with what he terms “a kind of Zen emptiness”—waiting to see what will inspire him, rather than toting a shopping list and a plan. Beginning at the northern end of the market, near the intersection of Barclay and 33rd streets, he purchases a dozen ears of corn before wandering over to Gardener’s Gourmet for baby spinach. Nearby, his children stage a mock swordfight using thick bunches of chives as weapons. In One Straw Farm’s spacious tent, Gjerde rustles through a slatted box for the perfect head of garlic. (“I look for firmness and heaviness and make sure there are no dead cells,” he explains.) Then he considers a dusty bunch of beets. “I would do beets in a heartbeat,” he says, “but I’m alone in my beet love at home.” Finn and Katie are getting restless, so Gjerde speeds up, picking up a frozen skirt steak from Harford County’s Woolsey Farm (plus a cup of strawber-
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ry ice cream for Katie). From the Reid’s Orchard table, he selects fragrant, rosyskinned white peaches and blueberries that look like indigo buttons; bags of potatoes and string beans are added to the haul. Finally, Gjerde turns once more to Gardener’s Gourmet, where his eyes light up at the sight of a large flat-leaf green herb sitting in one of the stall’s baskets. “Oh, shiso’s the bomb,” he breathes excitedly. “It’s also called perilla. It tastes about halfway between mint and basil. It’s really gorgeous. We’ll have to try some.” With that, Gjerde shifts into high gear; he’s not wandering anymore. “Now I’m getting all fired up,” he says with a smile. The shiso, apparently, has brought the meal into focus. “Sometimes it’s that one little thing, a little peg to hang everything on.” The children are tired, but as if being pulled on a string, Gjerde hones in on cucumbers, then tomatoes. We leave the market with handfuls of bags and the sound of the green-bean man
“Shiso’s the bomb,” Gjerde says. “It tastes about halfway between mint and basil. We’ll have to try some.” chanting, “Got a few left!” ringing in our ears. The next day, at his home in Roland Park, Gjerde begins the process of putting the meal together. The meat has been defrosted and is marinating in a combination of lemon juice, oil, honey, mustard, and soy sauce; string beans are blanched and potatoes parboiled (the latter will be tossed in garlic-infused olive oil and grilled). Gjerde has decided to make soup with the corn, and, with a little help from Finn, he cuts the kernels from the cob before turning the knife to its blunt side and running it back over the cut surface to extract all the pulp and milky liquid. He drizzles the cobs with oil and roasts them to concentrate their flavor; later he’ll throw them into a pot with water and the green tops of red onions to produce the rich vegetable stock. “The thing for me,” he says, “is to do a corn soup that’s truly based on corn, so I’m trying to get as much out of the corn as I can. This has to be our M.O. in the restaurant, too. We’re going to try to use whatever value can be extracted from the ingredients.” Meanwhile, Gjerde’s wife, Amy, tosses peeled and sliced peaches in a skillet with
Farm to table: Corn soup, grilled skirt steak, and a cool summer salad complete the challenge.
Recipes
BY SPIKE GJE RD E
Corn Soup with Grilled Green Pepper Garnish Six ears sweet corn Olive oil 2 small yellow onions 2 ribs celery 4 cloves garlic, peeled 1 bay leaf Salt 8 white peppercorns, plus ground white pepper to taste Green tops of red onions 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup cream Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. With a sharp knife, cut top half of kernels from cobs. Reserve. Use the back of the knife to scrape starchy corn milk into another bowl. Reserve. Place cobs on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and roast in oven until brown and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Roughly chop 1 onion and 1 rib of celery. Partially crush 2 cloves of garlic. In a large pot, combine corncobs with chopped vegetables, crushed garlic, bay leaf, pinch of salt, 8 white peppercorns, green tops of red onions, and 1 quart of water. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Strain, reserve liquid, discard cobs, vegetables, crushed garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, and green tops. Finely dice remaining onion, celery, and garlic. In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add diced vegetables and reserved corn kernels; stir until well combined. Cook until just beginning to soften. Add 2½ cups reserved corn stock and reserved corn milk. Whisk in cream, return to simmer, and season to taste with salt and white pepper. Grilled Green Pepper Garnish 4 Jimmy Nardello chiles, or other elongated, mediumhot chile such as Fresno or Anaheim Prepare grill or broiler. Roast peppers, turning occasionally until charred. When peppers are cool enough to handle, remove and discard skin. Dice peppers. To serve, ladle out soup and garnish each bowl with diced green peppers. Marinated Skirt Steak 1 pound skirt steak, trimmed, cut into 6-inch strips Salt ¼ cup soy sauce 1 tablespoon honey 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard ¼ cup vegetable oil Freshly ground black pepper Juice of 2 lemons
Generously salt skirt steak on both sides and reserve in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. In a small bowl, whisk soy sauce, honey, Dijon mustard, vegetable oil, and pepper until well combined. Divide marinade in half and marinate steak for at least 30 minutes. Add lemon juice to remaining half of soy mixture to use for dressing green beans.* Grill steak over hot coals or broil to desired doneness, about 2 to 3 minutes per side, depending on thickness. *Gjerde serves Marinated Skirt Steak with blanched string beans tossed with the reserved lemon/soy marinade. Summer Salad with Lemon Dressing 1 head young lettuce, washed 1 large handful flat-leaf spinach, washed ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil Juice of 2 lemons Salt 6 shiso leaves (also known as perilla) 2 medium cucumbers (peel lengthwise in alternating stripes, cut lengthwise, scoop out seeds, and slice) 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes, stemmed and cut into wedges 2 young red onions, cut in thick julienne Arrange lettuce and spinach leaves on a platter. In a small bowl, whisk olive oil and lemon juice. Add salt to taste. Cut shiso in half lengthwise, stack leaves, and cut crosswise into thin ribbons. In a large bowl, toss shiso, cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions with lemon dressing. To serve, top lettuce and spinach leaves with vegetable mixture. White Peach and Blueberry Clafoutis 6 white peaches ½ cup sugar 3 tablespoons butter, plus more for coating baking dish 2 eggs, separated ½ cup milk ¼ cup flour ½ teaspoon vanilla Pinch of salt ½ pint blueberries Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To peel peaches, plunge them into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds. Transfer peaches to a bowl of ice water. Remove skin; cut peaches in half, remove pit and slice into wedges. In a large bowl, toss peaches with sugar. In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, melt butter, add peaches, and stir to coat with butter. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer peaches to a buttered 9-inch baking dish; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks with milk, flour, vanilla, and salt. Whisk egg whites separately and fold into yolk mixture. Top peaches with blueberries; pour batter to cover fruit. Bake until set, about 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees if top browns too rapidly.
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urbanite september 07
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butter, mixes the sautéed fruit in a bowl with the blueberries, and pours in a creamy yellow clafoutis batter. “Awesome,” Gjerde murmurs as Amy spoons the batter into a ceramic dish. While Gjerde slices onion, tomato, and cucumbers for the salad, I sneak a nibble of shiso: It’s floral and fresh, and I begin to understand how a handful of the leaves will add a certain brightness to the salad vegetables. While Amy spoons corn soup into modern white bowls, Gjerde tosses the salad ingredients with olive oil and lemon juice and mounds them on a large white platter on top of a bed of spinach and lettuce. He makes room
The platter now holds a bright mosaic of juicy reds and cool greens, tempered by a few dark lashings of brown. on the platter for the beans, blanched bright green and slightly shiny from being tossed in some unused steak marinade, and then nimbly arranges strips of steak and the halved potatoes, their surfaces striped with grill lines. The platter now holds a bright mosaic of juicy reds and cool greens, tempered by a few dark lashings of brown. The sweet smell of the cooling clafoutis hangs in the air. “This is how we usually eat,” Gjerde says, pointing to the platter and its colorful offerings. And as we sit enjoying the fruits of the season on the Gjerdes’ shady back deck, I can’t imagine any other way I’d want to do it. ■ —Mary K. Zajac wrote about peach cake in the July issue.
Home cooking: Gjerde slices corn off its cob, with assistance from son Finn and daughter Katie.
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urbanite september 07
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urbanite september 07
baltimore observed
by karen houppert
photography by marshall clarke
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The school system’s new CEO prepares for a challenge Dr. Andrés Alonso, the new CEO of Baltimore’s public schools, has a favorite saying. He says it to the media in New York City, where he served as deputy chancellor; he says it to the media in Baltimore, where he was appointed in July to run the city’s very troubled schools; and he says it to parents who have gathered in Patterson Park’s Southeast Anchor Library on a sultry summer evening just days after stepping into his new job here. “In every school, there is a great teacher,” he tells the audience—mostly moms who have crowded into the room to meet him. “Everybody has an anecdote about a great teacher their kid had. And if there is one great teacher and one great classroom in a school, that means it can be done.” w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m s e p t e m b e r 0 7
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On a hot Thursday morning, Alonso settles comfortably into a chair in his North Avenue conference room; he’s been on the job less than two weeks, and a steady stream of visitors is scheduled to troop in here to offer opinions on how to fix the schools. But Alonso wants to talk about why we need to fix Baltimore’s schools. The teacher in him wants to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Alonso, the city’s sixth school CEO appointed in the last decade, is an optimist. He insists that even a single stellar school is a good sign. “If it happens there, that means it can happen all over this city.”
Head of the class: “I am not coming in here with the notion that I need to do the same things here that we did in New York,” Alonso says. “But I do come here with the understanding that schools function in the same ways.”
He leans forward, a big man in a slightly rumpled suit. “And in every school system, no matter how challenged, there are some great schools that are succeeding with the same types of kids,” he explains. “And we have that here in Baltimore. If one teacher, one school, one principal has found the key, that means it is possible for other schools and the community to find the key as well.” Parents listen intently, fanning themselves with the multicolored flyers they were handed upon entering. The yellow flyers announce a “breakfast club,” free for all students, not just the 85 percent who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Pink flyers spell out the forty-nine kinds of weapons and explosives (hypodermic needle, Molotov cocktail, M-80, etc.) that are grounds for expulsion here. White flyers detail suspension protocols (five city schools were designated “persistently dangerous” this year under the federal No Child Left Behind law, meaning more than 2.5 percent of the student body was suspended for arson, sexual assault, possessing a weapon or drugs, or assaulting a teacher or student). Green flyers encourage parents to contact the Special Education Parent Response Unit. (Perhaps an effort to address the charges levied in the city’s 21-year-old special education lawsuit?) And gray flyers list graduation requirements (according to a 2007 Education Week report, Baltimore’s 34.6 percent graduation
rate is third-worst among the nation’s fifty largest school districts). Alonso, the city’s sixth school CEO appointed in the last decade, is an optimist. He insists that even a single stellar school is a good sign. “If it happens there, that means it can happen all over this city.” He smiles—a friendly, encouraging, gap-toothed grin at the audience. And parents, for the most part, smile back; they want to believe.
O n e c o u l d a r g u e that 50-year-old Andrés Alonso, newcomer to Baltimore, holds the fate of the city in his hands. A history of ineffective leadership has led to an attempt by the state to take over several failing schools, eighty-nine Baltimore City schools—or 46 percent—are considered “Schools in Need of Improvement” under the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act because of poor test scores, and an April Sun exposé showed that an inattentive school board approved a wildly out-of-whack budget (line items taken at face value in the document would have given 460 employees annual salaries exceeding $200,000 while 2,000 other full-time employees would receive less than $9,000 annually.) And this is just in the last year.
“Clearly there are parts of the city that have this sense of forward momentum, and you see this in the construction, you see it in the diversity of the businesses and in the richness of the cultural life,” he says. “Then in other parts of the city you see this poverty.” Alonso—a quick study—has already pinpointed and fretted over these inequalities. “My question will be, ‘How does that forward momentum encompass the entire city?’ The schools are an engine for that to happen, because if we can make our schools places that everyone wants to go to, then we will bring capital into the city—human capital and financial capital. But it is necessary for the schools to have the support of the community in order to create the expectations and external pressures necessary for schools to rethink themselves.” Alonso’s emphasis on educational equity and excellence seems to stem from both professional conviction and personal experience. Arriving from Cuba with his family when he was 12 years old, Alonso mastered English in the public schools of Union City, New Jersey, and credits his early teachers, who encouraged him to apply to Columbia University, with exemplifying the transformative power of education. He got a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1982 and worked for several years as a Wall Street attorney for Hughes, Hubbard and Reed. In 1987, after quitting his Wall Street job and traveling the world for a year, Alonso took a job teaching English language learners and special education students in Newark, New Jersey—and found his true calling as an educator. After eleven years of teaching—and even adopting one of his former students, a then-15-year-old boy in special education—Alonso was accepted to Harvard continued on page 99
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urbanite september 07
encounter
Spellbound
The air was electric at the Convention Center; fans waved foam fingers, shook plastic noisemakers, and cheered as more than 1,200 players from around the country converged on Baltimore in late July for a curious sporting event—the U.S. National Championships of Magic: The Gathering. This was “Magic Weekend,” the annual tournament for devotees of the trading-card-based role playing game, played by some eight million people—mostly teenage boys and young men—worldwide. By assembling and deploying a complex and ever-expanding collection of collectible cards (there are now more than eight thousand of them), Magic: The Gathering players delve into a fantasy universe of dueling wizards: They become “planeswalkers” traveling through different worlds, fighting rival wizards with an array of creatures while casting spells, gaining strength, and building an army. “It’s a game of resource management,” says Magic tournament director Scott Larabee, who oversees the game’s organized “Pro Tour” of Magic players. “It’s fun, it’s intellectually challenging, and there are so many cards out there.”
The three-day tournament awarded $20,000 in prize money among the top twenty finishers, with the overall champion (24-year-old Luis Scott-Vargas of Oakland, California, who won $5,000) advancing to the World Championship in New York City in December. But for many fans, the highlight of the weekend was an exhibition match between Alan Comer, Pro Tour veteran and 2005 Magic Hall of Fame inductee, and Richard Garfield, the former mathematics instructor who invented Magic in the early 1990s while he was working on his doctorate in combinatory math. To hardcore fans, the head-to-head battle— dubbed the “Game of the Year”—would be something like watching Abner Doubleday face off with Babe Ruth in a home-run derby. Magic is played with standard-sized playing cards, but for the Game of the Year, Comer and Garfield deployed giant three-foot tall cards, with kids from the crowd helping to carry them into position on the board, a massive carpet printed with all of the zones necessary to play the game. “I have a little bit of stage fright,” Garfield admitted. Since Garfield sold the game to Wizards of the Coast, a Seattle-based game publisher, in 1993, Magic has spawned a thriving international subculture. “It is perpetually amazing to me how these events have taken off,” said Garfield, who is 44 and had his 7-yearold son, Schuyler, at his side. “I like to play with them,” said Schuyler, through handfuls of Goldfish crackers.
photo by Jason Okutake
A gathering of young men test their skills at Magic
by heather rudow
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Twenty minutes into the battle, Garfield laid down a heavily enchanted “Malach of the Dawn” card; Comer’s “Korlash, Heir of Blackblade” didn’t stand a chance.
True believers: The climactic Game of the Year (above), played with three-foot-tall cards, pitted Magic’s creator against a top player. Below: Noah Williams poses atop the Goblin King.
“He mixes his Magic cards with his Pokémon,” said Garfield. “But he’s looking forward to seeing cards bigger than he is.” In the rival corner, Alan Comer looked as cool as a cucumber in his blue Hawaiian shirt. “I’ve been over at Richard’s house to play games before,” he said. “He’s not such a myth to me.” Comer competed on the Pro Tour from 1996 to 2002; at 38, he’s now working in the prototypes department of Wizards of the Coast’s Magic Online Division. “With who I played on the Pro Tour,” said Comer, in the tone of a wily veteran, “there’s no way to intimidate me.” Each player begins with twenty life points, and by the end of the match, the loser will be reduced to zero. According to Comer, Garfield had been given a slightly more powerful deck, in order to better match their skill levels. (When asked about this handicapping, a spokesperson for Wizards of the Coast responded, “Game of the Year decks are built to create a fair and exciting game. I am unable to confirm which deck
is built ‘better.’”) Comer seemed sanguine about his chances. “Historically, Richard’s going to kick me all over the playing field,” Comer said, “but it’s Richard, so it’s okay.”
Twenty minutes into the battle, Richard Garfield laid down a heavily enchanted “Malach of the Dawn” card; Alan Comer’s “Korlash, Heir of Blackblade” didn’t stand a chance. In the beginning, it was anybody’s game. But twenty minutes into the battle, Comer’s prediction turned out to be true: Garfield laid down a heavily enchanted “Malach of the Dawn” card; Comer’s “Korlash, Heir of Blackblade” didn’t stand a chance. Watching from the sidelines was 14-year-old Ben Friedman, a Gilman School student. Earlier in the day he participated in the Magic: The Gathering Scholarship Series, in which the top sixty-four players receive a collected total of $100,000 in college scholarships. Friedman landed in fifty-first place and won a $500 scholarship. “I am very, very pleased with how it went,” he said. “It’s the best Magic I’ve played in my life.” —Heather Rudow is one of Urbanite’s summer editorial interns. What do you think of Magic and other role-playing games? Tell us about it at www.urbanitebaltimore.com/forum.
w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m s e p t e m b e r 0 7
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Mansion on a Hill Cylburn Arboretum, the park that time forgot, is about to enter the 21st century. And not everyone is welcoming the change.
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urbanite september 07
Not a lot of people know about the Cylburn Arboretum, a 207-acre Civil War-era estate surrounded by woods, gardens, and meadows stashed away on a crook of Greenspring Avenue. And as a longtime Cylburn aficionado with childhood roots in this pocket of city wilderness, that’s the way I like it. But my little piece of paradise is about to change. Construction on a $2.8 million Orientation and Education Center is scheduled to begin in early September. Designed by Baltimore architecture firm GWWO, Inc./Architects, the roughly 10,000-squarefoot building will feature offices, a 250-seat meeting hall, an orientation gallery, and a striking wall of windows—plus such environmentally friendly technologies as composting toilets, natural ventilation, and a green roof. A terraced outdoor amphitheater is also in the works. The long, low building will be
sited about one hundred yards from the circle in front of the stone Italianate mansion that is now the only significant structure in sight, and it is designed to “snuggle into the side of the woods and into the side of the hill,” according to William Vondrasek, director of the City’s Horticultural Division, which is headquartered at the Cylburn Mansion. The Cylburn Arboretum Association, the volunteer organization that works with the City to oversee activities at the estate, has its reasons for pursuing the new facility: to secure future funding for the park. I can’t help but mourn the fact that a quirky bit of kept nature will fall to a rather modern preoccupation. More and more we find ourselves experiencing the great outdoors inside, standing before a gallery of photographs in a ramped-up information center when the very subject lies beyond the win-
courtesy of GWWO, Inc./Architects
Splendid isolation: The 207-acre Cylburn Arboretum (left) will soon include a modern 10,000-square-foot orientation center (above) that the Arboretum Association hopes will attract more visitors.
dow. Can adding a sleek new building really add to the natural beauty of a park? Will spectacular design compete with the very serenity that drew us there in the first place?
As it stand s now, Cylburn is open to interpretation. From Greenspring Avenue, turn onto the old drive and head past the meadow and eclectic mixture of native and exotic towering trees—pines standing across from a giant ginkgo near the mansion circle, with a 100-year-old black walnut in the middle and another nearby. Picturesque Japanese maples, their gnarled branches reaching out in an open-palm finger roll, surround the mansion. “As soon as you turn into the narrow driveway, urban Baltimore falls away behind you,” says Jane Baldwin, former Arboretum Association president. “You don’t see a house, you don’t see a building; you don’t see anything but beautiful lawns, beautiful trees. You think you’ve passed into a whole other world.” It’s the kind of place where, on a Thursday morning, a retired schoolteacher leads toddlers clutching magnifying glasses down the mansion steps and along a wooded trail. They poke under tree bark, turn over stones, and search for BlackEyed Susans. Cylburn also holds many events, including chamber music concerts and nature story hours for children; its biggest crowd comes on Market Day, an annual plant sale in May.
At Cylburn, you can still feel the impressions of the original owners, like potter’s prints pressed upon the place. The mansion house was last restored in the late 1970s, but many rooms seem little changed from the late nineteenth century, when Baltimore businessman Jesse Tyson, rich from his Bare Hills and Soldier’s Delight chromite mines, began building a summer home here for his mother and himself. Construction began in 1863 but was interrupted by the Civil War, and Tyson didn’t complete the house until 1869, after his mother had died. In 1888 he married 19-year-old debutante Edyth Johns. Tyson, then 61, was said to have claimed, “I have the fairest wife, the fastest horses, and the finest house in Maryland.” Edyth decorated her formal rooms with furnishings handpicked during her European travels. After Tyson’s death in 1906, she married Army lieutenant Bruce Cotten and continued traveling in the highest social circles; she helped to establish Union Memorial Hospital, according to her 1942 Sun obituary. After her death, the City purchased Cylburn at auction for $42,300 and turned it into the Home for Neglected Children. In 1954, a volunteer group working with the City’s Department of Recreation and Parks founded the Cylburn Wildflower Preserve and Garden Center and began the task of building and maintaining nature trails and gardens on the site. One of my earliest memories is of my father whisking me to Cylburn from my Mount Wash-
ington home for a bird-tagging demonstration. I rediscovered Cylburn in high school in the late 1970s, when I found a culvert underneath Northern Parkway that offered easy access from the University of Baltimore playing fields to the park’s woods. Recently I’ve reacquainted myself with the grounds by taking my daughters, who do their version of Where the Wild Things Are as they run across what they imagine to be an endless wilderness. For years, volunteers have been struggling to make Cylburn more than a “best-kept secret,” trying to maintain the mansion and grounds while fending off development pressures from nearby Coldspring Newtown, which borders the southern end of the park. Cylburn’s keepers hope that the new visitor’s center will give more people a chance to see what they’ve been missing. “It’s a marvelous facility,” says Baldwin. “It has lain fallow for so long, for so many years. It hasn’t lived up to its potential. It will now.”
T h e i d ea for building a more modern center has been germinating within the all-volunteer Cylburn Arboretum Association for years. The limited facilities at the mansion house, which only accommodate about seventy people, have long prevented Cylburn from attracting larger groups of visitors. The group’s dreams came to fruition in 2005 when an anonymous donor offered $1 million to create the center. The City matched that and contributed w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m s e p t e m b e r 0 7
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an additional $1 million; it has also committed $2 million in capital improvements, including the construction of roads, expansion of parking, and modernization of greenhouses. Along with the Arboretum Association, the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland and the Horticultural Society of Maryland, all of which will have offices in the new facility, are in the midst of raising additional funds. Sitting in his mansion office, a second-floor room covered with plaster relief down to the Grecian pedestals holding up the fireplace mantel, William Vondrasek says the center will give city kids who haven’t seen anything wilder than a playing field their first chance to follow a trail through the woods. Vondrasek guesses that only about 5,000 to 10,000 people visit Cylburn per year. The visitor’s center would change all that. Overseen by Natalie Lopes, the newly appointed, full-time interim executive director of the Arboretum Association, the facility could host educational and horticultural
Original Cylburn owner Jesse Tyson was said to have claimed, “I have the fairest wife, the fastest horses, and the finest house in Maryland.” programs that would bring hundreds of daily visitors. Those busloads of school children could give the park a better chance of receiving funding. “How can I ask for more money when it’s just taking care of trees?” Vondrasek asks. “We need to get more people out here so that, in the eyes of the decisionmakers of City Hall, Cylburn is as necessary as a new recreation center.” For Vondrasek, Cylburn isn’t just the staging ground for his fifty horticulture employees, who tend urban green spaces from Druid Hill Park to the medians along President Street. From his window, he can appreciate the work of longtime horticultural division director Gerard Moudry, whose trees now stand tall. He’s also watched newcomers drive up and then wander around trying to figure out where to go, a problem that the visitor’s center will soon address. When asked if he is in favor of the new center, Moudry is hesitant to answer. Nobody knows Cylburn better than he does: The former chief horticulturalist worked in the mansion from 1958 to 1994. “If I was there, I probably wouldn’t be in support of the project,” he finally admits. “I like coming up that drive and seeing that expansive part of the arboretum. I know it’s progress and that’s the way it is. I say, it’s going to be a different world.”
As Jane
Baldwin puts it, arboretums don’t exactly have a history of being overrun by the public. “Believe me—I have visited a lot of them,” she says. But it doesn’t take many folks to disturb a rare piece of tranquility in the middle of the city, and I
Home alone: The Civil War-era mansion house, last renovated in the late 1970s, isn’t able to accommodate large groups of visitors.
have seen how the growing popularity of outdoor recreation can change parks. The Northern Central Railroad Trail heading into Pennsylvania from Hunt Valley is a virtual expressway of bicycles on a good day. Robert E. Lee Park is so popular with pet lovers that the stench of dog urine greets you at the bridge. And try going to the “Wings of Fancy” butterfly exhibit at the Brookside Gardens in Wheaton—odds are you’ll wait in line at their information center and then find some of the atriums shut down for weddings. No doubt the new center will help make the site “central to how people think about Baltimore,” as Baldwin says. But, as the age of free-form frolic ends, Cylburn may also lose its otherworldliness.
There’s a fundamental difference between a secluded thirty-seven-acre lawn with a mansion on the hill and a modern facility clogged with tour buses. The former offers a voyeuristic peep into the past; the latter feels more like walking on a campus. The air may be irrevocably cut with educational somberness. And I wonder whether I’ll be able to bring a friend, his kid in the backseat with mine, and hear him marvel, “I can’t believe this place exists.” ■ —This is freelance writer Charles Cohen’s first piece for Urbanite. How do you think the new visitor’s center will impact Cylburn? Post your comment on www.urbanitebaltimore.com/forum.
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The bus is late. The light rail is slow. And the streetcar is gone.
the tao of transit M at
E d e l s o n
photo by Marshall Clarke
B y
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urbanite september 07
photo by Andrew Nagl
What happened to Baltimore’s mass transit system?
Confession: After sixteen years and many efforts, I’ve yet to really connect with mass transit in this town. That’s odd, considering that I grew up on mass transit in New York City’s melting pot and generally like the communal experience—a daily, egalitarian reminder that we are indeed all in this together. But taking mass transit around Baltimore? It reminds me why I hate to exercise: Feels good, but I can’t stick with it. Every once in a while, something—guilt, perhaps, or moths in my wallet—drives me toward the fare box. Then the reality sets in. Half-mile walk to the Metro? Too far. Light Rail to Camden Yards? A dog sled would be quicker down Howard Street. And so I return, like so many others, back to my car. Few city dwellers who have a choice, it seems, choose mass transit. And for good reasons: No highspeed east-west connector to the north-south Metro subway and Light Rail routes. A Light Rail system built along the Jones Falls right-of-way, where few human beings actually live. Bus service that’s infrequent, especially outside of the city center. In short, a system that’s perceived as not bad at getting you downtown, but not great at getting you around town. Or out of town. So what’s the fix? How does Baltimore—the town that invented commercial electric mass transit in 1885—return to its rightful place as a model city on the move? I ask a transit-planning friend, Gibran Hadj-Chikh, if he has any insight. As a planner for a private firm, he’s worked on projects from downtown Baltimore to Dubai. His answer is cryptic. “Transit,” he muses, “is subtle.” As great truths go, this doesn’t rank up there with I think, therefore I am, but it seems at least as good as the Maryland Transit Administration’s recent slogan, “Your ride is here.” (All I can think of as I’m waiting for a bus is, “No, it isn’t.”)
Uneasy rider: Former math teacher Edward Cohen keeps his eye on the MTA as president of the Transit Riders Action Council of Metropolitan Baltimore. “This is not brain surgery,” he says. “People should be able to travel with the fewest number of transfers in the shortest possible distance.”
Length of the Chesapeake Bay:
193 miles Bridges connecting the
Bay’s eastern and western shores:
2
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photos by Andrew Nagl
Nevertheless, Gibran is the voice of experience, and a stickler by nature for nuance. An ardent fan of the military strategist Sun Tzu—Gibran insists mobilizing soldiers isn’t so different from transporting city dwellers—he patiently explains that focusing purely on mass transit’s physical hardware is to understand only at the shallowest level why transit does or doesn’t work for its populace. It’s like going to a baseball game and limiting your vision purely to ball, bat, and result. You can see that the Orioles lost, but never figure out why they annually implode. Or, for that matter, what to do to make them a winner. Gibran’s thoughts echo in the ensuing conversations I have with a dozen transit players across the region. They have a common theme: To improve mass transit, planners must contemplate connections of all ilk. Not just the tangible ones (such as, How can our Light Rail and Metro lines physically cross near Lexington Market without a connecting platform?) but also the historic, cultural, economic, psychological, and political bonds that explain the rise, fall, and attempted resurrection of what one veteran transit advocate calls “a system that is not a system.” Yet it’s on this system that the future of Baltimore literally rides.
Baltimore’s rich transit prologue and fractionalized present boils down to the tale of two tycoons. One’s wealth united the Baltimore transit system. The other’s fortune tore it apart. Alexander Brown—great-grandson of the scion who founded the investment firm of Alex. Brown & Sons—walked out of his downtown empire one day in 1899 and this is what he saw: Trolleys. Everywhere. Numerous privately owned rail lines, radiating like fingers from the palm of downtown. So thick were the streetcars that Baltimoreans socially connected themselves by the number of their streetcar route, much the way that New Jerseyans generations later would say, “Yeah, what exit you from?” Charm City’s denizens worked, played, lived, and even went to the afterlife via the streetcar.
Top speed of a donkey:
Average speed on Interstate 895
during evening rush hour in 2004:
70
urbanite september 07
23 mph
“You’d arrange for the transit company to bring their funeral car as close as they could to your house,” says Baltimore Streetcar Museum historian Jerry Kelly. “They had a little gurney they’d wheel down to your house. The pallbearers would place the coffin on this gurney and transport it up to the funeral car. The pallbearers sat up front, and off they went to the cemetery.” Nearly everything in Baltimore was within walking distance of a streetcar, Brown saw. On them clanged rolling hordes of the great barely washed, paying customers all. Only they weren’t paying him. So he created a holding company that made the trolley owners a buyout offer they couldn’t refuse. As the name suggests, Brown’s United Railways & Electric Company hooked up a city and an economy. For the first time, for one fare, a Catonsville father could afford to get a job at Sparrows Point, or a Canton stevedore could on the cheap steal a kiss from his honey at her Towson front porch. Though the Depression stole ridership—many a man walked miles to find or go to work rather than spend a nickel he didn’t have—World War II soon had Baltimore’s factories running 24/7, and the newly reorganized Baltimore Transit Company’s (BTC) trolleys filled to the gills. It was transit’s golden age. It was also its last gasp. A fever called “freewheeling”—as in get off the rails and get into a car—gripped postwar workers flush with cash. The streetcar connected the working stiff to his job, but the auto promised freedom. This increasing personal mobilization gradually drained the transit system of its lifeblood and portended eventual doom. But what few saw was that BTC already had a serious case of industrial osteoporosis, its bones gnawed for a decade by an inside saboteur. In a scandal that inspired the fictionalized plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the kin of Standard Oil baron John D. Rockefeller allegedly conspired with cronies at General Motors, Firestone, and Phillips Petroleum to push America’s transit riders off their reliable electric rails and into fuel-gobbling, rubber-shod cars and buses. Under the guise of the holding company National City Lines, from 1936 to 1950 the quartet bought majority positions on trolley companies in forty-five cities, including Baltimore. NCL cut mainte-
30 mph Amount of money the average American driver spent on gasoline and oil in 2004:
1,598 dollars
photo by Marshall Clarke
“It’s a pretty darn good system,” says MTA’s Henry Kay. “Is it everything that we want it to be? No. But overall we’re building on a great base.”
nance: Tracks broke, switches rusted, trolleys derailed. Eventually the tracks were pulled up and the buses rolled out. And if the public abandoned transit entirely for cars, well, that was a win for NCL’s cohorts, too. For their work in short-circuiting the nation’s streetcar industry, a judge in 1948 found GM guilty of conspiracy and fined it the awesome sum of $5,000. GM’s top execs were fined a buck each. (NCL, also named in the difficult-to-prove case as a GM subsidiary, escaped conviction). On November 3, 1963, after seventy-eight years, the streetcars of Baltimore were officially laid to rest, as the last two lines were pulled off the street. What was once a national model for efficient, electric transit had been reduced to a chaotic, smelly bus system. It was soon to be run on underfunded city streets by a fledgling state agency full of earnest civil servants forced to hit the ground running. Forty-four years later, the MTA is still trying to catch up.
With the mind of Albert Einstein and the social commitment of Wavy Gravy—and a look that’s somewhere between the two—Edward Cohen may be the Baltimore transit rider’s best friend. A former math teacher, Cohen brings a logician’s precision to his study of transit. He is president of the Transit Riders Action Council of Metropolitan Baltimore (TRAC), and his raison d’etre is holding the Maryland Transit Administration accountable. Whether it’s challenging MTA scheduling, service, legislation, proposals, or fares, Cohen keeps transit riders connected and informed. Then again, he has a vested interest: The Mount Vernon resident has never owned his own car. One July day, Cohen takes me on a four-hour, five-bus circumnavigation of Baltimore. Armed with a pocketful of numbered bus schedules, he displays an encyclopedic knowledge of the system’s fluidity and faults. While our four transfers between busy lines all take place within a few minutes, other lines aren’t as well coordinated. On our ride on the 3 bus down to Hopkins Place, Cohen, whose heart disease limits his walking, points out a problematic route change. Commuters once transferred seamlessly from the 3 to the 35
to White Marsh. Now they must walk several blocks, despite the fact that the routes still physically cross. Cohen’s solution is the type of inviolable rule the MTA has yet to implement. “Any line that goes through downtown must have a stop and transfer within one block to a crossing line,” he says. “This is not brain surgery. People should be able to travel with the fewest number of transfers in the shortest possible distance.” Is the MTA perfect? Hardly. Have they come close to the daily ridership numbers projected years ago for the Metro (80,000-plus) and Light Rail (33,000)? Not really—but nearly every transit authority in the country greatly exaggerated estimates to secure federal and state funding through the 1990s. The feds eventually cracked down, forcing states to provide more realistic numbers. By that measure, the MTA stats seem more promising. According to Henry Kay, MTA’s deputy administrator for planning and engineering, 44,000 people board Metro daily; 23,000 now take Light Rail, up 11 percent in 2006. MARC train ridership bounced 6 percent and Baltimore commuter bus service 5 percent in the same time frame. And look at the future: a wondrous framework called the Baltimore Region Rail System Plan. The plan, commissioned in 2001, envisions a juggernaut of colorfully interwoven rail tissue that looks remarkably like Washington, D.C.’s Metro. There would be six lines in all: 109 miles and 122 stations. In their final report, the plan’s authors aren’t shy about what they aim to build: “One great transit system.” It’s beyond the fantasy stage. The Red Line, the desperately needed connector planned to run from Woodlawn to Canton, has nearly $250 million in federal and state monies budgeted for study and design. “It is the one project that’s furthest along,” says Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) president Don Fry, former chair of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s transit advisory panel and the head of Mayor Sheila Dixon’s transportation transition team. “It’s the beginning of a system. The Red Line would be the first east-west route that bisects [Metro and Light Rail] and provides that interconnectivity.” If the funding continues—and there are no guarantees—the Red Line could begin operation around 2016. Until then, the MTA’s two-year-old 40-
Maryland Transit Administration dollars budget in 2004, per capita:
45
Percentage of Americans
who drive to work alone: Number of cars for every
100 people in the United States:
77 percent
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CO2 emissions in 2000 from Maryland’s coal-fired power plants:
On this front, the MTA may be playing against a stacked deck. Rising gas prices and congestion may have nudged a handful of Americans toward mass transit, but at this moment Baltimore-area commuters can still connect to the city far better and faster by car. Roads are plentiful, congestion specific and limited, and, thanks to the five large city garages built under the O’Malley administration (and numerous private garages), downtown parking is comparatively cheap. And then there’s the image problem. Mass transit—especially buses— is viewed by many drivers as déclassé, something best left behind in grade school. Even the MTA admits that status—imagined or real—plays a role in how transit is used. “I’ve seen a Hopkins student, someone who comes to town for the institution, who afterwards says, ‘Well, I would have stayed, but the transit is terrible,’” says Henry Kay. “I can tell you, there’s nothing wrong with the transit serving Hopkins, but there’s that sense that, if you’re the Hopkins student, you’re standing on the sidewalk, the people on that bus don’t look like you, you think that bus isn’t for you, and therefore you reach the conclusion that transit is bad. We have a rap that is associated with a larger set of social circumstances that are unfortunate and that we can’t control.” What they can control is how well they choose to communicate with their partners. Traditionally, the MTA has been an agency in need of serious marriage counseling, partly because it’s been set up to be above reproach. From the City’s viewpoint, it’s left in the lurch because the MTA’s organizational chart makes it answerable only to the governor. The MTA has no board of directors. Traditionally, those boards consist of elected or appointed transit advocates with some formal say in how the system runs. Washington’s Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which oversees D.C.’s Metro system, has such a board. Because the MTA supplies a third of WMATA’s funds (for the portion of Metro that operates in Maryland), WMATA’s board has insisted its agency partner closely with the MTA. “There’s a world of difference between an agency where we have a board meeting every month and we’re scared to death of them—and what they’re going to say and make us do,” says Kay, adding that MTA’s and WMATA’s staff talk almost daily about service issues. WMATA’s board keeps WMATA
32 million metric tons CO2 emissions in 2004 from Maryland’s gasoline-burning machinery, such as cars and SUVs:
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urbanite september 07
photos by Andrew Nagl
photo by Andrew Nagl
line “quick bus” service is getting the public used to the Red Line’s proposed route by running “limited” service. Unlike traditional bus service, the 40 stops only at major transit intersections, mimicking the eventual mode of transit that will end up on the corridor. Currently, the MTA is considering everything from trolleys to high-speed buses to sleek European light-rail cars that eliminate unsightly elevated platforms by operating at street level. Kay says only “heavy rail” (a subway), has been ruled out. Both new MTA head Paul Wiedefeld and Kay boast deep Baltimore roots and long transit advocacy expertise. (Wiedefeld helped develop the regional rail plan, while Kay created the Baltimore Transit Alliance while at the Greater Baltimore Committee in 2004.) On paper, the MTA appears poised to weave cohesion back into the transit experience. But the organization will have its work cut out for it: Many riders spit on the ground at the mere mention of the MTA. Why is the zeitgeist of this transit-built town so apparently anti-transit? The simple answer is the MTA is only now catching on to the little things that make mass transit a mass hassle. Neglected signage, lack of shelters, confusing and often poorly coordinated schedules, few bike lockers—these are the MTA’s legacy. Combine that with historically poor public relations, and in some quarters the MTA has a serious perception problem. One recent MTA slogan—“Your new ride … our new attitude”—sounds more mea culpa than motto. The MTA’s Henry Kay insists his colleagues are sincerely committed to improving a system with a solid existing infrastructure. “It’s a pretty darn good system. There are only ten cities in the U.S. that have heavy rail [Metro]. We’re one of them. We have thirty miles of light rail; maybe twentyfive cities in the country have that. There’s been a willingness to invest. Is it everything that we want it to be? No. Was I just down to Metro and there’s trash on the ground? Yeah. There are a ton of things like that. But overall we’re building on a great base.” The MTA’s biggest challenge is convincing what transit planners call “choice riders” to forego their cars and adopt transit. For while transit is the lifeline of the poor, disabled, and lower working class—the so-called “captive riders” (and if that sounds like a hostage situation, sometimes it is)—it’s upscale riders who ultimately determine a transit system’s success.
23 million metric tons
as an agency accountable. That’s the kind of pressure the MTA doesn’t feel internally, or from the Baltimore region. The result? “We lack the City of Baltimore and Baltimore County feeling like they have a direct stake in our management and our success because they’re not involved,” says Kay. Case in point: the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative, or GBBI, implemented in 2005 by the Ehrlich administration as a way to improve bus scheduling and route efficiency. Even GBBI’s opponents say it could have accomplished some of these goals if it had been phased in gradually. It wasn’t. Seemingly overnight, thousands of city and regional riders were affected by what they saw as ill-conceived service cuts and disruptions. At a time when pulling together Baltimore’s transit system was front and center on everybody’s mind, GBBI was seen as fragmenting service even more. Informed that incoming Governor Martin O’Malley wasn’t going to support scheduled GBBI changes, Ehrlich decided to save resources and pulled GBBI’s plug in his administration’s waning days. O’Malley—who touted the transit benefits of Smart Growth on the campaign trail—is seen as more pro-transit than his predecessor. Although Ehrlich supported continued federal and state funding for the Red Line, political insiders saw this as quid pro quo for supporting such highway initiatives as the Intercounty Connector, the $2.4 billion, eighteen-mile tollway long slated to link I-270 in Gaithersburg to I-95 in Laurel. Proponents (including O’Malley) tout the ICC as a suburb-to-suburb congestion reliever; transit advocates condemn the project as a sprawl-magnet. (Of all that ICC earmarked cash, Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of the Baltimore advocacy group 1000 Friends of Maryland, says, “If we put half that money into the [weekday only] MARC train system, which goes all the way from D.C. to Perryville, we could have weekend travel.”) O’Malley also brought back John Porcari as Maryland’s secretary of transportation, a role he had filled under Parris Glendening. Porcari is a fixed-rail advocate; he launched the original rail-friendly Baltimore Regional Transit Plan in 2001 and says rail attracts the upscale transit-oriented development that cities love to encourage. Because Baltimore City doesn’t contribute financially to the MTA, it’s been decades since anyone in the mayor’s office made transit a priority. The
Number of lane miles maintained by the Maryland Highway Administration:
MTA ran the buses, the City fixed the potholes, and few cooperative projects were discussed. That, too, could change. Jamie Kendrick, who started the Transit Riders League and was transit director for the advocacy group Citizens Planning and Housing Association, was one of the MTA’s original project directors on the Red Line. Now he’s Mayor Dixon’s deputy director for administration of transportation. Kendrick insists that his input to the MTA can only amount to “goodwill,” but he knows the language of transit and can identify with the MTA’s culture. “There was no one [in City Hall] who woke up every day and said, ‘How can I make transit service better in the city?’ I think that’s part of my job.”
The irony of Baltimore mass transit is that connecting to a better future may mean reaching back to the past. Streetcars—no, not the ones in the museum (though wouldn’t that be cool?), but their modern light-rail descendants—are revitalizing transit in fifteen cities, including Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Louis, and Portland, Oregon. With subways too costly and buses unpopular with developers, streetcar/light rail could end up being the cost-conscious compromise for the Red Line. Some transit advocates are skeptical—TRAC’s Edward Cohen says it will never get federal funding, as the feds measure “rider benefit,” i.e., time saved by taking transit, and an above-ground streetcar system cutting through downtown would be “something that takes more time than the current buses.” But University of Maryland urban studies and planning professor Kelly Clifton says a well-planned Red Line light-rail connection at MARC’s wellused West Baltimore station could help this blighted area take off with new development: transit, retail, office space, the works. “Here you already have the ridership,” says Clifton. “The neighborhood needs investment. This could be the anchor for neighborhood commercial development,” an example, she adds, of people in an area benefiting from a transit project whether they use transit or not. Unfortunately, on the state level, the Transportation Trust Fund, which funds transit projects, is in dire financial straits. “The cupboards are bare,”
17,000
Length of Baltimore subway system from end to end:
Number of times Baltimore’s subway system
would fit into the systems of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York, respectively:
1, 7, 15
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photo by Marshall Clarke
5
On the Move
transit ideas that work
Patterson Park’s Kelly Clifton (left) believes in transit on both a personal and professional level. As a professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland and a researcher at the National Center for Smart Growth, she often bikes to the MARC station at Camden Yards to take the train down to College Park. Clifton says there’s a lot we can learn—and perhaps borrow—from other transit systems around the world. Here are a few of her favorites:
says GBC’s Don Fry. He estimates that the fund, which derives revenue mostly from the gas tax and vehicle titling and registration fees, needs an additional $600 million annually. Perhaps more ominously, Fry adds that if the state doesn’t find the funds, “we absolutely put the federal transit dollars at risk.” Those matching dollars are the lifeblood of projects such as the Red Line and the Yellow Line (a service, perhaps a trolley, proposed for Charles Street from downtown to Towson). Carl Balser, a representative on the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board—the federally required regional entity that secures roughly $400 million annually in federal transportation funds—says, “We’re long overdue for the state to increase its revenues for transportation.” The legislature is scheduled to consider an increase in the gas tax (the first since 1992), a redistribution and/or increase in corporate income tax, and a possible quarter-cent sales-tax increase towards the Transportation Trust Fund. If the state can’t come through, all those colorful proposed routes in the Baltimore Regional Rail Plan could fade to black. The federal government, which once offered to fund up to 80 percent of new transit project costs, now expects states to pick up half the tab. Only a handful of the hundred or so transit projects proposed annually are federally funded, with some states offering more cash to win the competition. It’s a game the region can’t afford to lose. Between the military’s base realignment, the planned biotech parks at Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland Medical Center, and the area’s low real estate prices relative to Washington, D.C., thousands of additional people will soon be connecting to the area’s transportation grid. Whether they opt for transit could spell the difference between a thriving Baltimore and a gridlocked, smog-shrouded, and perpetually divided town. “To be a competitive city in the twenty-first century, you have to have good transit,” says Baltimore architect Klaus Philipsen of ArchPlan, which consults with the MTA on planning. “Metro regions that don’t will not have the quality of life that the creative class is looking for when they can live just about anywhere.” Not just the creative class. The rest of us, too. ■
Seattle, Washington: In an example of great planning, the City built a speedy underground tunnel system for their bus routes, with the capacity to include light rail underground as funds become available. As the light rail has been built, the buses have come above ground to augment the system. Tokyo, Japan: Each subway/rail stop not only has a name, but a color code and number. This is very helpful for riders to whom the names of stops and streets mean little. Businesses take advantage by printing directions on their cards, such as “Get off at yellow 9, take right.” Incredibly detailed “You are here” maps assist in each station. Washington, D.C.: The Metro has fully secure bike lockers at many stations. Clifton says their only shortcoming is they don’t offer daily rentals. The Netherlands: When the Dutch decided they wanted at least 30 percent of commuting to take place on bikes, they built a dedicated bike freeway system that feeds all areas of their cities and outlying areas. In some communities, once you ride off your local street, you rarely encounter pedestrians or cars until you reach your destination. College Park: Tired of wasting time waiting for the bus? The University of Maryland shuttle system is testing a real-time text message alert that tells students and faculty exactly when the next bus is due. “If it’s late at night, I can time leaving my office so I’m not dallying around or alone at the station for a long time. It offers a lot of user benefits,” says Clifton. ■
Share your transit joys and woes at www.urbanitebaltimore.com/forum.
Money raised from camera-captured red-light violations in Baltimore City in 2004: million dollars
11.1
Cost of a one-month MTA pass:
74
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Average weight difference between a person living in a sprawling area versus a densely populated area:
64 dollars
6 lbs.
Another One Rides the Bus B y
He at H e r
ru d O W
PHOtOgraPHy By gaIl BurtOn
backtalk and breakdowns on a hot day in july 4:50 a.m. I can barely keep my eyes open, but the bus operators
at an MTA bus yard on Bush Street carry on like it’s happy hour. Some recline on La-Z-Boys and watch an old black-and-white movie on a widescreen TV; others shoot the breeze and eat breakfast. The moon is still out, but everyone is in good spirits and ready for the day. I will be spending the day with driver Kenneth Keys. A placid, 39year-old man with short cornrows and a quiet demeanor, Keys gives me a quick nod as we head to the parking lot. It’s a pleasant 70 degrees at this hour, but the highs today will be in the upper 90s. “Hopefully we’ll have air conditioning,” he says.
5:10 a.m. Our first bus, the 15, travels from Mercy Medical Center
to Security Square Mall. After a lunch break, Keys will pilot the 8, which heads out to Lutherville, for his second four-hour shift of the day. We won’t be in service until we hit Belair Road, which gives me plenty of time to get to know my driver. Growing up in Southwest Baltimore’s Yale Heights, Keys joined the Army Reserve and attended Coppin State, from which he graduated as a criminal justice major in 1996. In addition to working full-time for the MTA, he owns a bar on Fulton Street called Sweetwater (we pass it a few minutes later) and a bail bond business.
5:32 a.m. The sky is now pale pink. As we pass a line of North
Avenue rowhouses, Keys tells me about the verbal harassment he sometimes gets from riders. “They do it a lot more often than you’d think,” he says. But he also remembers another passenger, a woman with whom he had barely spoken. “She got off around Dundalk,” he says. “Then she waited for my bus to come back around and she gave me roses.”
5:40 a.m. A woman’s voice coming from the navigational system
announces over the speaker we’re about to hit the zero block of Gay Street, meaning that we’re in business. Our first passenger, dressed in red from his athletic shoes to his knit cap, and smelling faintly of cigarettes, hops up the stairs, pays his $1.60 fare, and heads to the back of the bus. A pair of friends and a nurse in white scrubs get on, and the once-silent bus is now quietly buzzing with conversation.
5:55 a.m. The city is waking up. More cars, bikes, and people share the road. As we head northeast, Keys offers his thoughts on improving the MTA. “Across the board, full-time employees would make the system much better,” he says. He explains that full-timers are more efficient and are better able to pick up slack when a bus is delayed or breaks down.
Police officers killed in the line of duty by firearms in 2005:
50
Police officers killed in the line of duty with vehicles that were used as weapons in 2005:
U.S. highway fatalities in 2000:
5
41,945
U.S. public transportation fatalities in 2000:
295
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As much flak as he gets from passengers about buses not being on time, Keys assures me that he and his fellow drivers are doing their best. “We don’t want to be late either.”
11:00 a.m. Lunch break. We park near Paca and Saratoga; Keys and the remaining passengers leave the bus as another driver gets on, and Keys disappears to grab a quick lunch with some other drivers.
6:08 a.m. As we turn right on Perry Hall Boulevard, Keys explains that he’s not allowed to have a radio on the bus. To keep from getting bored, he eavesdrops on passengers. “I listen to the public,” he says with a laugh. “They’re entertaining enough. Trust me.”
11:33 a.m. I’m outside of the 1st Mariner Arena, where Keys reappears
6:11 a.m. We’ve reached the end of the line, and the bus loops back
around to Belair Road and becomes a downtown express, which skips stops and costs an extra forty cents. Medical garb and button-down shirts are the order of the day here.
6:50 a.m. The bus is nearly full as we speed down Monument Street,
and the slumbering city has finally come to life. The sky is a clear blue, and the Legg Mason building shines off in the distance. I have never seen Baltimore look so pristine. While in the Army Reserve, Keys lived in Korea, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, and Oklahoma, so I ask him what sets his hometown apart. “Crabs, I guess,” he says.
7:30 a.m. The bus has finished its route and goes out of service as we drive to the Overlea bus station to begin our next portion of the 15. I get off and talk to some folks waiting for a different bus. “I hate taking the bus,” a woman named Anita says, tapping her fingers against the bench. The 55, her bus, is already five minutes late, and she’ll be late for work. Anita says that the bus is frequently late. Adam, a quiet teenager who works for a water tank company, nods in agreement. “Sixty-five to seventy percent of the time,” he estimates.
7:45 a.m. Anita is getting increasingly exasperated. “He’s never this
late,” she says. “He probably broke down.” I wait with her a few more minutes, then climb back aboard the 15. As we head toward Security Square Mall, I tell Keys about the earful I got in Overlea. “People act like this is a limo service where they can drink champagne and get picked up whenever they want,” he says. “We just want to do our job and get people there safe.” Drivers usually aren’t to blame for delays, Keys insists. Bad traffic, road detours, equipment breakdowns, and a host of other outside forces conspire to throw them off their schedules. “Until you’ve done the job,” he says, “you can’t judge.” I ask him about passengers who say that drivers have bad attitudes. “You can’t really say we’re nasty,” he says. “Maybe we just have to go to the bathroom really bad.”
9:51 a.m. In an effort to stop the bus, a woman carrying a baby runs
out into the middle of the street. Keys halts for her, but when she sees that this isn’t her bus she turns around without a word and walks back onto the sidewalk. He rolls his eyes.
Average adult daily Internet usage in minutes:
to climb aboard the 8 bus for his second shift. The 8 crosses the city on Baltimore Street, then follows Greenmount Avenue/York Road out to Lutherville. As I talk to other passengers and listen to their complaints, I notice the woman across the aisle getting agitated. She is named Anna, and she turns out to be a strong bus-driver advocate. “He’s just as human as us,” she says fiercely, with a nod at Keys. “Everybody in Baltimore is arrogant as hell. The bus system? Shit happens!”
11:57 a.m. As we drop off passengers at East 33rd Street, the engine stumbles and dies. I ask Keys if this happens on hot days. “It isn’t supposed to,” he says. 12:01 p.m. We stall again. “The engine’s probably overheating,” Keys says calmly.
12:04 p.m. The engine dies again. Keys restarts, but we don’t get far. He parks alongside McCabe Avenue, gets out, walks back to the engine bay, and checks the temperature: It’s overheating. We can’t go any farther.
12:15 p.m. Keys is on the phone with the Kirk Avenue bus depot, trying to get a mechanic. Most passengers disembark, but eight adults, two babies, and I stay on the bus. Even without air conditioning, it’s cooler in here. It is 96 degrees outside. “This is the first time this has ever happened to me,” says Chanel, who takes the 8 twice a week. The others disagree. “I don’t take the bus all the time,” says Brittany, “but it seems that every other time I do, it breaks down.”
12:24 p.m. Three buses pass us by before a fourth finally stops and picks up our stranded riders. 12:37 p.m. No sign of a mechanic. Keys leaves the bus and returns a few minutes later with a Popsicle. Last week, he had a flat tire on this same route. “I waited two hours for them to come,” he says between bites.
12:57 p.m. Keys calls his supervisor and asks him if they’ve sent a bus. They haven’t. “But the shop man’s coming,” he reassures me.
1:04 p.m. A mechanic named Clarence shows up and inspects the engine. He tells us that it was low on oil.
1:20 p.m. Finally, the bus is ready to limp home. I ask Keys what he’s going to do once he’s off-duty. He turns on the air conditioning and pulls away from the curb. “Sleep!” he says. ■ Heather Rudow is an Urbanite intern.
93.4 Average adult daily telephone usage in minutes:
76
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42.2
step B Y
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h oU s t on
ARt BY WARRen Linn
by
step
walking the city, north to south Does walking really need a defense? After all, it’s always had its supporters—its enthusiasts include Thomas Jefferson, who claimed that “of all exercises, walking is the best.” With the swell of interest in things green, traveling on foot is often touted as a straightforward, personal response to the threat of climate change. Walking saves energy, is good for the heart, and delights urban designers, who see pedestrian traffic as a sign of a neighborhood’s health. In short, walking is something like oatmeal; it’s the simple and responsible, if slightly staid, option that you know you should be choosing but often avoid. But even the most ardent defenders of walking usually emphasize walks away from the city and into unpopulated landscapes, rather than through the city and its perceived pressures. This notion of a walk as an escape is a common one, but it’s most famously connected to Henry David Thoreau, who regularly tramped across the Massachusetts countryside and composed an essay in 1862 that celebrated walks “through the woods and over the hills and fields absolutely free from all worldly engagements.” For Thoreau, and generations of his readers since, walking implied turning one’s back on the city and subsuming oneself instead in settings without streets. All of which is well and good—unless one lives in a city with 600,000 other souls and endless strings of rowhouses. Thoreau could find himself in a field in a few minutes; if I leave my house, face away from downtown, and walk for a good hour, I find myself
Length of transmission time for Queen Victoria’s message to President James Buchanan via transatlantic cable in 1858:
16 hours Length of the message:
103 words
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near the intersection of I-83 and I-695. Consequently, a question suggests itself: What does it mean to walk in—or across—a city? And so I found myself standing, on a recent weekday morning, near Harford Road in the extreme northeastern corner of the city, with a street map in my pocket and a rough plan in mind. My idea was to walk across the entirety of the city, from north to south, on a jagged nineteen-mile course down to Curtis Bay. I’d sketched out a route that would largely skirt downtown and lead instead through areas of Baltimore that I knew only in passing: Waltherson, Belair-Parkside, East North Avenue, Washington Village, Cherry Hill. People in the city walk for any number of reasons—for many, it is the only transportation option their pocketbooks permit—but this was a walk for walking’s sake, as I had no pressing business anywhere and simply hoped to gain a better sense of how the city fit together. With that in mind, I put one foot in front of the other.
A walk through the city, however brief, places you in a novel relationship to the urban landscape. Think about pace, for instance. We all know the pleasure of seeing the city from a moving car, as a stream of partial details: a sparkle in a storefront; a dog trotting around an alley corner; a man reaching toward his pocket. On foot, though, such details assume a fuller form: The storefront proffers its jewelry, or the man pulls out a cell phone, checks the time, pauses, and then strides resolutely toward a bar. Walking takes time, of course, but for that very reason the city reveals itself differently to a walker; the many details encountered on foot bloom into larger plots. Walking through Parkville, I watched the tide of morning commuters take shape. A woman in a parked car peered into her rearview mirror while carefully applying mascara; students bantered as they shuffled to school. On foot, the physical structure of the city manifests itself more dramatically. City blocks feel more stately and varied instead of receding into a series of regular intervals between traffic lights. Neighborhoods proclaim particular identities through their specific surfaces: The nicked, canted wooden surfaces of houses on Echodale Avenue resolutely differentiate themselves from the crisp stone quoins along Walther Avenue. The city’s topography also becomes much more obvious. No longer a plane of asphalt, the walked city becomes a comprehensible pattern of
Land mass of the U.S.: Annual cargo shipped through port of Baltimore in tons: million
30
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3.67 million square miles Land mass of China:
3.69 million square miles
valleys and rises, and names of neighborhoods—Wilson Heights, Mount Winans—make fuller sense as one struggles up the hilly terrain. As the journalist and author Hal Borland once noted, “All walking is discovery. On foot we take the time to see things whole.” The underlying geography and history of the area become clearer, and the city suggests its origins as a constellation of settlements that once looked out over pastures and streams. In other ways, too, walking reveals the surprisingly insistent presence of the natural. As I passed Herring Run Park, dogs gamboled under shade trees, and the patches of parched grass at the Clifton Park Golf Course spoke of a dry summer. Likewise, the changing seasons are obvious to anyone who simply repeats a familiar urban walk. More than one hundred times over the past year, I’ve taken a short stroll along a dirt road that hugs the eastern bank of the Jones Falls, not far from I-83. In that time, I’ve seen neighbors’ tomato vines wither, become covered in snow, and then burst into fruit once more. I’ve witnessed the arrival of seven ducklings in May, stumbled across a late-summer wedding, and ambled along a sidewalk covered in a carpet of maple leaves. Living in a city may render the patterns of the natural world less immediately clear, but a walk—especially in the rain or through sleet—soon restores such connections with a real potency.
Walking also creates, inevitably, social connections. “Lowly, unpurposeful, and random as they may appear,” urban planner Jane Jacobs declared, “sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city’s wealth of public life may grow.” As I walked along North Avenue, her point became clear: The broad sidewalk yielded a range of incidental contacts and brief encounters. I listened to a man in a wheelchair recite rap lyrics to passersby; several blocks later, I ran into a colleague, and we talked about a new building as pedestrians around us crossed paths and occasionally stopped to talk as well. No walker has to participate in such a network—there are always side streets to accommodate the staunch isolationists—but walking allows an unparalleled chance to participate in the social web of the city. Of course, it’s for this reason that walking in a city can also be perilous, as the police chopper circling noisily over Hillen Road reminded me. Both my wife and I have been mugged while walking. But walkers in the countryside are not impervious to danger,
People per square mile in the U.S.:
79 People per square mile in China:
358
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either. The Scottish explorer John Dundas Cochrane, who walked across the entirety of Russia in the 1820s, was accosted by two thieves in a forest near Liuban, and wound up nearly naked and bound to a tree. And medieval pilgrims headed to Compostela reported that thieves in the Basque countryside rode travelers like asses. So walking, like any mode of transport, carries associated dangers, but as the unabated stream of pilgrims to Compostela has always implied, the perceived rewards of a long walk can often outweigh those related risks. The most famous of contemporary urban walkers is probably David Hammons, the New York-based artist who regularly takes extended walks through the streets of Manhattan and sometimes works the incidental, unexpected details that are revealed during such strolls into his videos and performance pieces. For me, it’s the curious juxtapositions that catch the eye: the Teutonically precise street signs on Southern Avenue between Walther and Belair (“Speed Hump Ahead 253 feet”), or the flag at half-mast on Hollins Ferry Road that was attended by a small statue of a polar bear. And it’s the chance encounter. On lively mid-day Eutaw Street, I came across Mayor Sheila Dixon testing a microphone before a campaign event. The Western canon, if you think about it, is full of chance meetings involving walkers: Oedipus seeing his father at a crossroads; Leopold Bloom running into Stephen Dedalus. But such chance encounters are not limited to texts; instead, they’re the natural result of putting yourself into the world. I wished the mayor’s staff well and carried on. Smell the city; hear the city. In a car, you perceive the city through muting glass, above the drone of the engine and over the tinny clamor of the radio. On foot, you can discern the doughy odor of fresh donuts outside a bakery or the fulsome chemical scent of freshly laid asphalt hanging over the sidewalk. Enter Lexington Market, and the roar of vendors and lunchers surrounds you. But fifteen minutes later, on Penn Street in Ridgely’s Delight, the city drops absolutely quiet for a moment: a partial lull in the middle of the lunch-hour rush, during which only the breeze and the distant clip of heels on a sidewalk are audible. A walk also reveals hidden worlds; the living city sometimes parts to expose the other, earlier cities that stand behind it. As I walked I wandered into several cemeteries, including the aged B’nai Israel Cemetery in Waltherson, whose toppled tombstones loosely recall the famous chaos of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. As I neared Cherry Hill at around 1:30, I walked into Mount Auburn Cemetery, the oldest African-American burial
Miles of paved road in the U.S. (2005):
2.6 million Miles of paved road in China (2004):
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ground in the city, largely swamped under waist-high grasses. On foot, one can step into the underlying cities of the dead. And repeatedly, as I made my way south, I saw the nucleus of towers that make up downtown: from Belair Road, a gauzy blue collection of prisms, and then from the Clifton Park Golf Course, where the vista from the final hole opened toward the city beyond, as if framed. In his essay on walking, Thoreau claims that the verb “to saunter” comes from Sainte Terre; it was pilgrims to the Holy Land, their eyes seeking spires on the horizon, who were the first saunterers. Spires—now secular—still demand the walker’s attention, and as my walk neared its end I spent several minutes of the afternoon on the ample lawn at the Baltimore Rowing Club in Middle Branch Park, peering across the water toward the city center. Peering, ruminating, simply thinking; walking seems to naturally support them all. A. E. Housman claimed that some of his best ideas came to him during the regular strolls he took (after, it should be said, his daily pint of beer): “As I went along, thinking of nothing in particular, only looking at things around me and following the progress of the seasons, there would flow into my mind, with sudden and unaccountable emotion, sometimes a line or two of verse, sometimes a whole stanza at once.” Walking can encourage new angles on a considered subject, much as it offers new angles on the city itself. Finally, Open Street, in Curtis Bay: a stretch of road just within the city limits and just past a strip club. Concrete construction barriers clogged the lane; a sign brightly announced, “End Road Work.” I paused, and, after eight hours of walking south, turned north. I found a bus stop and sat at a bench next to a trash can that smelled of rotting crab. Sixty years ago, I could have taken the Number 6 streetcar up Patapsco, past the amusement parks that then dotted the mouth of Gwynns Falls, and up Light Street. Now it was the Number 64 bus that sped me north to the WalMart and then toward Camden Yards. The numbers and the routes change, as do the sights that we see from the windows. But one thing remains eminently steady: the private, timeless pace of step after step after step, leading through the city unmediated. ■ —Kerr Houston, a professor of art history at the Maryland Institute College of Art, wrote about airports in the May issue of Urbanite. Do you have a good story about riding the bus or walking the city? Share it with us at www.urbanitebaltimore.com/forum.
Distance to outer space from Earth’s surface:
62 miles
Escape velocity needed to break from Earth’s atmosphere:
7 miles per second c o m Pi L e D
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Advertising Sales Assistant/ Bookkeeper The successful candidate must be organized, detail-oriented, have excellent communication skills, and be able to multi-task, meet deadlines, and work well under pressure. Bookkeeping experience is a must. Experience in Quickbooks and Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint is required. Urbanite is a customer-focused and forwardthinking company that rewards hard work, innovation, and teamwork. EOE. Send cover letter with salary requirements and resume to: Tracy W. Durkin, Publisher Urbanite Magazine 2002 Clipper Park Road, 4th Flr. Baltimore, MD 21211 Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com
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Boutiques. Antiques. And all things unique.
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the Queen’s ink— Classes and supplies for stamp and collage art www.queensink.com 301-497-9449
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Go antiquing, boutiquing and treasure seeking in Maryland’s most unique shopping destination, Savage Mill. Browse hundreds of original fashion, jewelry, antique, contemporary art, collectibles, craft and home shops as distinctive and unique as you are. And top off the shopping with lunch, dinner or drinks at the ram’s head tavern. It’s all less than a half hour south of Baltimore, just off I-95 and route 32.
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Visionary traffic planners promise that fewer rules for motorists actually improve safety
Above: Using a principle dubbed “shared space,” several European cities allow pedestrians and cars to mingle more freely.
It was a hot August night and I was dreading my commute home to Amherst, Massachusetts, from the college in Keene, New Hampshire, where I teach. My trip always began with an excruciatingly long line of backed-up cars waiting at a traffic light just outside of Keene. But today something was different. Even though it was rush hour, I sailed down the road and in seconds entered the intersection. All the traffic signals were gone; in their place was a new roundabout. Now what? Where was the signal light—that fixture of authority that always told me when to go? I slowed down a bit, glanced around cautiously, made eye contact with other drivers, and suddenly, like magic, I had traveled through the roundabout. Without the guidance of a traffic signal I had instead trusted myself and the other drivers and now I was headed swiftly home—happy. My experience was not an anomaly. Across the United States and around the world, traffic engineers have begun to rethink the role that signs play in directing traffic. When signage is altered in a surprising way, or even removed altogether, they are finding that people slow down at intersections and
become more conscious of their actions. Without the sense of entitlement that a green light engenders, drivers are cautious, patient, respectful—self-policed with a collective congeniality. And while it seems counterintuitive that fewer safeguards could make the roads safer, these alterations to traffic signage are being implemented with surprisingly positive results that are improving both safety and traffic flow. Dubbed the “shared space” movement by Dutch civil engineer and traffic planner Hans Monderman, this egalitarian approach to traffic engineering promotes personal initiative and negotiation rather than mere rule-following. His less-is-more concept aims to facilitate eye contact and communication among drivers, walkers, and cyclists, with less distraction from signage clutter. Monderman has discovered that leaving a more naturalistic blank slate, one that does not impose narrow behaviors, actually encourages more cautious behavior. If needed, Monderman replaces traffic lights with a roundabout—to slow speeds and improve flow. A project completed in 2003 using Monderman’s shared space principle was implemented on congested Kensington High Street in London. The city w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m s e p t e m b e r 0 7
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Fran Dugan 410.627.4944 fran@LNF.com
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Susan Colandrea 443.540.3906
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photo by Jason Okutake
Walk this way: Shared-space advocates say that changes in paving, such as raised brick crosswalks, are more effective than signs at slowing drivers.
removed 850 meters of bollards and other physical barricades that had been erected to separate motorists from pedestrians. Then it took down many of the street’s traffic signs and removed lane markings. In the next three years, pedestrian injuries dropped by almost 60 percent, road accidents were down 40 percent, and car traffic was flowing more smoothly. In 2003 in the Dutch town of Drachten, Monderman removed traffic lights at the town’s busy Laweiplein Square intersection, through which 22,000 vehicles pass per day. In 2004 and 2005, after sign removal, there were only two accidents involving injuries, compared with ten in 2002, four in 2001, and nine in 2000. In fact, Monderman proudly points out, there has never been a fatality caused by a car accident on any of his redesigned streets. Based on many proven successes, Monderman’s shared space vision is now being adopted in seven pilot cities in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom—and may be coming soon to a town near you. Historically, the proliferation of U.S. traffic signs dates to the turn of the twentieth century when, in 1899, “horseless carriage” owners met to form what would be the forerunner to the American Automobile Association (AAA). According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), it was these early car clubs, not government agencies, that made and installed the first road signs. They were designed to provide directions for the newly motorized who, as they exuberantly expanded their horizons, frequently got lost. Lively competitions developed between car clubs posting multiple signs at the same location. Some were as rudimentary as color-coded ribbons tied around utility poles, but other signage was more creative: In Britain, the skull-and-crossbones warned bicyclists of dangerously steep descents. But by 1915, local municipalities in the United States had stepped in to control traffic. The first stop sign was installed in Detroit in 1915, and in 1920 the first three-color traffic signal premiered there.
At the dawn of this new century, traffic signs are again undergoing changes as Monderman’s radical ideas trickle down into the common vernacular of traffic-calming visionaries here in the United States. “There’s simply not enough space to have all this fixed-use thinking,” says Ian Lockwood, a Monderman kindred spirit and senior transportation engineer at the planning and design firm Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin in Orlando, Florida. This is especially true in urban environments where people who drive, bike, walk, shop, and park are all battling for a piece of the road. And as local politicians begin to tackle the safety problems associated with these disparate groups, some planners are
Dutch traffic planner Hans Monderman proudly points out that there has never been a fatality caused by a car accident on any of his redesigned streets. reminding them that cars are only one set of users. Slowing folks down by removing signs, curbs, and lane markings can make a place more pedestrianfriendly (which means shops relying on foot-traffic thrive) and more livable for residents of the area. “It levels the playing field for all road users,” Lockwood says. Several cities, such as Hartford, Connecticut, and West Palm Beach, Florida, are already embracing some of these traffic-calming ideas, swayed perhaps by FHA safety statistics showing that removing a signal light at a four-way intersection and building a roundabout results in 37 percent fewer total crashes and 51 percent fewer crashes that result in injuries. But you can’t just take all the street signs down, Lockwood cautions. Roads must be strategically redesigned for slower but better-flowing travel. This
requires a new set of cues. Raised brick crosswalks (like those recently installed on St. Paul Street in Charles Village, for example) are a common sharedspace tactic for slowing cars at intersections because they provide a visual and tactile signal for motorists to brake and watch for pedestrians. Paving an entire block with brick or cobblestone also changes motorists’ behavior. “This gives drivers a totally different ride, and when they’re going an inappropriate speed for that context, they can feel it,” Lockwood says, explaining that changes in textures, paving materials, trees, or colors allow streets to dictate the rules of the road better than any sign can. To Lockwood’s mind, the shared space philosophy is more than a way to move traffic more safely and efficiently—it’s an effort to undo the mischief wrought on the American city by the rise of the automobile. “We’ve had five thousand years of building cities, and since the 1930s we’ve had this collective amnesia about how to do it right,” he says. “Our biggest mistakes are modern ones, and a lot of our modern auto-oriented values have been damaging.” The term “auto-oriented values,” for Lockwood and other urban planners, is a euphemism for speed. “One hundred years ago, cities all operated at the same speed, four to six miles per hour, which is just about the speed a horse goes,” Lockwood says. “Now we have sped up our urban streets and no one wants to live alongside those busy roads and highways—so we have these declining city cores.” It might be difficult for Americans to wrap their heads around the idea of slowing down, but for a downtown, speed kills. “There is a buzz to cities that is very attractive to people, and part of that comes from wanting to communicate with others,” Lockwood says. “If you try to recast a city, to sanitize it by separating out all these different users as the suburbs try to do, you lose that exchange. A lot of what is going on now in street design is an effort to restore a city’s balance. Those lower speeds allow people to communicate with each other again.” ■ w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m s e p t e m b e r 0 7
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recommended
MUSIC
By Robert C. Knott It’s not easy being a Ryan Adams fan. After leading the alt-country outfit Whiskeytown, Adams emerged as a solo artist in 2000 with the roots-rock gem Heartbreaker. Critics and fans alike embraced the album; it distinguished Adams as a top indie talent, yet set a standard he has since failed to consistently maintain. Part of the problem is that there isn’t a creative moment that Adams hasn’t captured in song: He has released nine albums of original material since 2000. Adams’ prolific output makes yard-sale scavengers of his listeners, requiring them to sort through the many throwaways to discover the keepers. 2005’s Cold Roses, for example, is a good double album that could have been an outstanding single album. Adams’ uneven output has been compounded by his well-chronicled drug addiction, which was on display when he performed in June 2005 at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Adams acted so bizarrely that the members of his band, The Cardinals, literally shrugged their shoulders and filed offstage in the middle of the show. All of which brings us to Adams’ new release, Easy Tiger. Its title suggests that Adams finally recognizes the need to adopt a more measured approach to both his life and music. Now drug-free, he wastes no time announcing his new outlook, singing “good morning sunshine, a new day begins” on the album’s first cut, “Goodnight, Rose.” Easy Tiger is Adams’ most focused effort since 2001’s Gold. “Two” is Adams’ “Heart of Gold”—an instantly memorable, mid-tempo number that features the background vocals of Sheryl Crow. (Crow is this generation’s Linda Rondstadt, who, along with James Taylor, lent her background vocals to the Neil Young classic.) “Halloweenhead,” the album’s only rocker, features an infectious barre chord progression, while “Pearls on a String” is a bluegrass pleasure that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Del McCoury album. Other standouts include “These Girls,” “The Sun Also Sets,” and “Everybody Knows.” Easy Tiger isn’t without its weaknesses. “Tears of Gold,” while mildly appealing, is wholly derivative of Gram Parsons—even for Adams—and the album’s coda, “I Taught Myself How to Grow Old,” is simultaneously melodramatic and anticlimactic. Still, for those who have grown weary, or gone broke, trying to keep up with Adams’ rapid-fire releases, Easy Tiger is a compelling reminder of why you took to him in the first place. —Robert C. Knott wrote about the Baltimore band Thrushes in the June issue.
ART
photo by Edwin Remsberg
By Jack Livingston After a successful two-year stint producing exhibitions for Goucher College, Jackie Milad recently signed on as program coordinator for the Union Gallery, a small gem of an exhibition space at the University of Maryland at College Park. Milad, a Baltimore artist and curator, is a founding member of the now-defunct CHELA Collective artist group and gallery and a cofounding member of Baltimore’s Transmodern Festival, which brings innovative performers and artists to the city every year. With an international perspective and an interest in collaborative community-aimed projects, Milad has
made captivating curatorial efforts that feel fresh and inspiring. Under her auspices, the gallery promises to be a vital creative laboratory for the artists, the university, and the community at large. Opening September 20 is the first exhibition of the season, and the first that Milad is managing: The Georgic Odyssey—Where your food comes from. The Agricultural Photographs of Edwin Remsberg. —Jack Livingston is an artist, critic, and arts activist living in Baltimore.
MAGAZINE
By Michael Paulson
Baltimorean William P. Tandy’s zine, Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore!, turns out Baltimore-related writing and images several times a year. Occasionally, Tandy publishes a special themed installment of Smile, Hon; the most recent, called “Criminally Yours,” is a collaboration with The Mobtown Shank, the e-zine of Atomic Books and Atomic Pop co-owner Benn Ray. (Previous special issues include “Infestation!” about the city’s rats, and “Show Me Yours, Show You Mine,” about scars.) The issue contains true stories of Baltimore crime written by twenty-nine area contributors. The tales range from the petty to the
macabre: In one piece, a Charles Village resident steps inside for tongs only to discover upon returning that the rack of ribs he left on the porch grill has disappeared; in another, “Johnny Law” describes life at the police academy and the process of breaking down recruits to “weed out the weak-hearted and eliminate the quitters.” These short vignettes sometimes lack polish, but the honest and simple eloquence of the writing perfectly conveys the ethos of living in a tough yet forgiving city. —Michael Paulson teaches English at the Friends School.
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food
By Kerry Dunnington
India. In warmer months, diners bypass the inside tables for seats on the outdoor terrace. Visit the Ambassador for their lunch buffet, or take in some of the classic Indian cuisine on the dinner menu. Some dinner standouts include the onion bhajia appetizer, thinly sliced onions mixed with a chickpea batter and deep-fried to golden brown, accompanied by a tamarind dipping sauce; the palak paneer entree, creamed and pureed spinach topped with Indian cheese; and Goa Fish, a whole rockfish pan-fried and topped with roasted garlic, tamarind, and scallions. Be sure to order poori, a deep-fried whole-wheat bread that comes hot and puffed; it’s paper-thin and delicate-tasting. The experience is complete with cardamom ice cream for dessert. All three restaurants are located within walking distance of each other, and all have become regular haunts of neighborhood residents. “Owning these restaurants is like having friends in for dinner every night,” says Kehar. As for when they might open their fourth eatery, Kehar says they don’t have any plans to expand … “at least not now.”
photos by La Kaye Mbah
In Baltimore, stellar new restaurants open up almost weekly. But the city is also filled with tried and true eateries that have served us delicious dishes for years. This month, I raise my glass to three distinctive restaurants in the TuscanyCanterbury neighborhood in North Baltimore, all run by brothers Kehar and Binda Singh. Ten years ago, Kehar and Binda opened the Ambassador Dining Room (3811 Canterbury Road; 410-366-1484). Since then, they have expanded their empire to include the Carlyle Club (500 West University Parkway; 410-243-5454), a Lebanese eatery that opened in 2003, and the Spice Company (4 West University Parkway; 410-235-8200), which opened in 2006 and serves American food. The flagship restaurant, however, is still the Ambassador, an elegant purveyor of royal Indian cuisine. When they first saw the Ambassador Dining Room in 1997, with its diamond-paned windows and canopied terrace overlooking a garden, the brothers Singh knew they had found the perfect space in which to open an Indian restaurant. The Ambassador occupies the ground floor of a prewar apartment building. Kehar, who took charge of the decor, used the existing Tudor-Gothic architecture to create a clubby wood-paneled echo of British Empire
—Kerry Dunnington is the author of This Book Cooks and is passionate about all things food.
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literature By Susan McCallum-Smith
Throwing a book out shows contempt for an effort of the spirit,” writes Lynne Sharon Schwartz in her 1996 memoir, Ruined by Reading. I bet the six hyperactive personalities who are helping us move house wish I were capable of such contempt. One tatty paperback did end up in the trash but, like Schwartz, “the thought of its mingling with chicken bones and olive pits nagged at me,” till finally I wiped it off and boxed it with the rest. Ruined by Reading would never be pulped. Schwartz, a lover of the classics and a fearless critic, writes, “Current books are modishly sleek inside and out, low-fat, low-cholesterol, sort of like Lite beer—not bad on a hot day yet hardly the thing for a seasoned drinker.” Furthermore, (authors take note) she writes: “Some have lost faith in language altogether and use as little as they can get away with.” Fewer words would please the movers, though, whose dismay over the Manhattan of boxes precedes events that spiral into sitcom excess. A toilet overflows, the air-conditioning dies, and my husband yells from the kitchen that my purse is on fire. I escape into Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Nigerian-born Achebe has just won the Man Booker International Prize, and his best-selling 1958 novel showcases his Shakespearean concerns with the intersection of fate and human nature. Set during the colonization of Nigeria around the turn of the twentieth century, the novel tells the story of powerful Igbo clansman Okonkwo, who is forced to choose between adhering to tribal tradition and losing face. A young boy has come to live with him as compensation for a crime committed by another tribe, and their relationship has grown akin to that of father and son. However, custom now demands that the boy be executed, and although Okonkwo’s peers would excuse him from the slaughter, he feels duty-bound to take part in it. “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” In the end, Okonkwo’s pride wreaks havoc for himself and those he loves. The suppression of the indigenous Africans is not presented as an Eden being pillaged by the ignorant white man, but rather as a tragicomedy of mankind stubbing its toe against a mirror. The two societies reflect one another across an unnavigable cultural and religious divide—both equally capable of committing great good and appalling depravity.
It’s late afternoon; the movers look parched. The trot from the van to the loft has wilted to a dither. I uncork flagons of Gatorade to rev them back up to the pitch of adolescents with ADD so they can return to fumbling the china like footballs and pitching it to touchdown in the wrong rooms. Rupert Thomson’s new novel, Death of a Murderer, offers some sanctuary from the mayhem, albeit a haunting one. It is set against the historical backdrop of England’s most notorious trial, at which Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were found guilty in 1966 of the murders of several children. “No one who had been alive at the time could ever be entirely free of it,” he writes. “It was one of those rare news items against which you defined yourself.” So true: I grew up in a Britain where Hindley’s infamous police mugshot—“the sixties beehive hairdo, the sullen, bruised-looking mouth and, most potent of all, that steady black stare, so full of defiance and hostility, so empty of regret”—inspired Warhol-style art and punk-rock tributes. In Thomson’s novel, it is November 2002, and Myra Hindley has just died in prison, having failed to ever secure parole. Policeman Billy Tyler is assigned to the morgue to guard her body against journalists and souvenir hunters. Over one long, eerie night, he reflects on violent incidents in his own past, his problematic marriage, and his fraught relationship with his demanding daughter, who suffers from Down syndrome. He also wrestles with his lifelong obsession with Hindley, who haunts his consciousness like barely suppressed guilt. The public loathed her so much, he believes, because “she had shown them what a human being was capable of. She had given them a glimpse of the horrific and terrifying acts that lay within their grasp.” Thomson dissects specific human relationships in order to uncover a universal truth, unlike Ann Packer’s Songs Without Words, her second novel after her enthusiastically received debut, The Dive from Clausen’s Pier. I crack its spine as the satellite TV guy gathers his tools and leaves. In Songs Without Words, Liz and Sarabeth have been friends since childhood. Now in their forties, Sarabeth is a bohemian single who makes lampshades and flits from affair to affair, while the matronly, married Liz mothers everyone around her. The women natter at lunch dates, slightly jealous of each others’ lives, yet secretly relieved about their own: “I’ll trade you,
Sarabeth used to say. You couldn’t stand it for more than a day. Which was true, of course.” Then tragedy strikes Liz’s family, and Liz, “surrounded by the vast ocean of her guilt,” needs Sarabeth’s support. But Sarabeth fails to come through for her, even though “Liz had saved her, saved her a thousand times over—it was the central truth of her life.” Yet, “She could not see Liz that upset. She couldn’t.” Packer understands the complex nuances of friendship, yet I can’t get over this book’s essential ordinariness. Ordinary events (because difficult teenagers, uncommunicative husbands, and suicide are, sadly, ordinary events) need to be written about with resonance; they must become singular and extraordinary. Unlike Achebe and Thomson, Packer seems to lack not talent, but courage—the courage needed to extrapolate her story from the physical and into the metaphysical, from the here and now to the everywhere and the end of time. The movers have abandoned us in our debris. None of the lids have pots, none of the shades have lamps, and if we don’t find clean underwear soon our new neighbors will whip the welcome mat out from under us. But I’ve just closed my new study door, and here are my precious boxes—my ruin and my refuge. ■ —Susan McCallum-Smith is Urbanite’s literary editor.
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Presents
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Stephen Dixon Meyer Dana Kollmann Never Suck a Dead Man’s Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI
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CityLit Project Presents in the Literary Salon... “Putting ‘No Child Left Behind’ to the Test” Moderated by WYPR’s Marc Steiner with NPR Education Correspondent Larry Abramson, BCPS CEO Dr. Andres Alonso, and Linda Perlstein, Author, Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade
Stephen Hunter The 47th Samurai See Complete Schedule at www.CityLitProject.org
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The Big Test continued from page 55 University’s prestigious Urban Superintendents Program in 1998 and earned his doctorate in June 2006. While working on his doctorate he served as Chief of Staff for Teaching and Learning in New York City for three years, and then as deputy chancellor, the number-two position in the New York City Department of Education, for a year. Alonso, who is unmarried and tends to put in long hours, is considered by colleagues to be a dedicated leader. “He’s an outstanding, passionate, committed educator who cares deeply about kids—and also about the adults who work with them,” says Laura Rodriguez, a regional superintendent under Alonso who is now CEO of New York City’s Leadership Learning Support Organization. Speculating that his legal background lends him an aura of objectivity, Rodriguez says his years as a special education teacher complement this with a profound understanding of teaching and what goes on in the classroom. “The pedagogy in special education is all about providing different approaches to the curriculum. Students will all learn the same material, but how you present it and how you engage them is different,” Rodriguez says. “One of the important things Dr. Alonso brought to the table is the belief that this is true of all kids—and that teachers must be encouraged to access the curriculum in different, but still rigorous, ways.”
giving up on anyone’s kids. The kind of expectations I’m talking about must permeate the system.” For the moment, Alonso avoids getting too specific about the philosophy or curriculum wars that embroil educators—whole language versus phonics; problem-solving math versus skills-based math. But he is forthright and passionate about certain other educational touchstones. “I think test preparation is one of the banes of urban school systems,” he says. “No child has ever become proficient in reading because of test prep. And it’s unfathomable to me that so many teachers agree with me, then close the door
W hen it comes
and start test-prepping their kids.” He shakes his head. “Such a waste of time.” Instead, Alonso advocates knowledge-based learning: giving kids meaningful information about the world they live in, not just the three Rs. He believes this can level the playing field for disadvantaged kids. One problem with No Child Left Behind is that it has narrowed the range of what teachers teach, Alonso says. NCLB’s exclusive focus on basic reading, writing, and math skills in the primary years means students get shortchanged when it comes to learning about stuff, like history, social studies, science, and art. “It may work for some populations of students that already come to school with a certain preparation and have access to certain social capital,” Alonso says, “but it is severely detrimental to those who don’t have access to that kind of knowledge outside school.” What this means is that students who may perform at grade level in the early years, when they’re tested on skills, will fall behind later because they lack basic knowledge of the world. “If a student has never read about ancient Mesopotamia, then a global history class is going to hit them as something that has no context when they get to high school,” Alonso says. “And knowledge is what is measured at
to the nuts-andbolts of what, exactly, has to change in order to fix Baltimore’s schools, Alonso is savvy enough to parry the question. “I will give you one caveat, which is that I am on my seventh day on the job,” he says. Then he laughs. “That’s not even a caveat!” Alonso explains that he has a month of back-to-back conversations planned with parents, teachers, principals, and local politicians to take the pulse of city schools. “So for me to answer that question now would be extraordinarily presumptuous. It would signal that what I’m doing now—listening—is just an empty gesture.” That said, Alonso has some general ideas about direction. “What most superintendents do when they’re new to a district is emphasize elementary school programs,” he says, because it is easier to get a bump in test scores with younger children. “But it signals to the community and students themselves that there are some kids you just cannot get to because they’re already unsalvageable.” Alonso, perhaps because of his experience with special education students, insists with mantra-like regularity that we must have high expectations for all learners. “It is important to communicate that even kids in eleventh and twelfth grade are capable and no one should be
“I think test preparation is one of the banes of urban school systems,” Alonso says. “No child has ever become proficient in reading because of test prep. And it’s unfathomable to me that so many teachers agree with me, then close the door and start testprepping their kids.”
the end of the road,” he continues. “Paradoxically, the struggling schools are the ones spending a great deal of time on remediation and basic math and reading. They are forgetting that there are vast domains of knowledge these kids need to master, too.” While working in New York City, Alonso was instrumental in implementing reforms that shifted power—though he prefers the term “responsibility”—to school principals. Under many urban systems, centralized bureaucracies run the schools. “But if you look at studies of effective schools, you find they had really good principals,” he says. “Now, that’s a kind of ‘D’Oh!’ Homer Simpson moment, but to me this is very striking.” A schoolbased management movement in New York sought out the best principals and worked with them, creating good managers and inspirational leaders. Alonso clearly sees this as vitally important. “It would be very difficult to reach 7,000 teachers quickly here in Baltimore, just as, in New York City, it would have been very difficult to reach 85,000 teachers. But it should not be so difficult to reach Baltimore’s 190 principals, just like in New York City it was not so difficult to get to 1,000 principals.” Making sure that the best and the brightest are in charge and well-supported is a priority for Alonso, who helped oversee the implementation of new principal training programs in New York City and a radical reorganization of geographical districts into affinity groups that principals joined based on their school’s particular issues. “I am not coming here with the notion that I need to do the same things here that we did in New York,” he says. “But I do come here with the understanding that schools function in the same ways.” Many school principals persuasively argue that they are not allowed to do what they think is best for their students because of bureaucratic and administrative obstacles. Alonso plans to change that. “I want to give principals the means to be effective—and then hold them accountable for their actions.” Alonso explains that his job is to jumpstart the process of making sure good, rigorous schools are the norm in every neighborhood in the city. “To the extent that this doesn’t happen—that it is acceptable on some level to have inferior schools—is due in part to the fact that some parents don’t have the political salience or social capital to insist on accountability,” he says. That’s where Alonso intends to shine. “I see my role as being a proxy for parents in terms of demanding that kind of will and accountability.” ■ —Karen Houppert is Urbanite’s senior editor. What do you think of Alonso’s views on how to improve the city’s public schools? Share your thoughts at www. urbanitebaltimore.com/forum.
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68 The Tao of Transit For more on the Baltimore Region Rail System Plan, go to www.baltimorerailplan.com. The Baltimore Streetcar Museum is open year-round on Sundays, noon–5 p.m., and from June to October also on Saturdays, noon–5 p.m. The museum is located at 1901 Falls Road. For information and admission prices, call 410-547-0264 or go to www.baltimorestreetcar.org. The website of the Transit Riders Action Council of Metropolitan Baltimore is www.getontrac.org. For information on Maryland’s public transit system, go to www. mtamaryland.com.
91 Recommended Art: For directions to the Union Gallery in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, call 301-314-8493 or go to www. union.umd.edu/gallery. The first exhibition overseen by new program coordinator Jackie Milad, The Georgic Odyssey—Where your food comes from. The Agricultural Photographs of Edwin Remsberg, will be accompanied by five brownbag lunch discussions in the gallery; see the website for dates and times. Magazine: The zine Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore!, put out by William P. Tandy’s EightStone Press (www.eightstonepress.com), is available for purchase at Atomic Books (1100 West 36th Street; 410-662-4444; www.atomicbooks.
Sources for “By The Numbers” (p. 68-81) 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica Online; 2 Google Maps; 3 Baltimore Metropolitan Council; 4 Bonaire Donkey Sanctuary (Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles); 5 Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research (University of Delaware); 6 Maryland Department of Budget and Management; 7 “Learning from China: Why the Western Model Will Not Work for the World,” by Lester Brown/ Earth Policy Institute (Washington, D.C.); 8 United States Census Bureau; 9 National Environmental Trust (Washington, D.C.); 10 Environment Maryland; 11 Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration; 12 Maryland State Archives; 13 Maryland Manual Online, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, MTA New York City Transit; 14 Maryland General Assembly Department of Legislative Services; 15 Maryland Transit Administration; 16 “Studies Tie Urban Sprawl to Health Risks, Road Danger,” by Kathleen Fackelmann/USA Today; 17/18 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; 19 Center for Transportation Excellence (Washington, D.C.); 20 American Public Transportation Association (Washington, D.C.); 21/22 Pew Internet & American Life Project (Washington, D.C.); 23/24 South Western Electricity Historical Society (Bristol, England); 25 Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association; 26/27 Encyclopaedia Britannica Online; 28–31 CIA World Factbook; 32/33 “Where Does Outer Space Begin?” by Seth Shostak/MSNBC.com.
photo by Steve Buchanan
com). The latest special issue, “Criminally Yours,” is a collaboration with e-zine The Mobtown Shank (www.mobtownshank.com). Smile, Hon is available for loan as part of the Baltimore County Public Library’s Zine Collection; go to www.bcpl.info for library locations and hours.
To read about chef Spike Gjerde’s $50 feast, go to page 45.
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The Can Company—featuring all of the essentials: great food, specialty shops and services. Located right in the heart of Canton. shops and restaurants
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Harborview Community
Cindy Conklin & Bob Merbler 410.727.0606 | www.conklinmerbler.com
1264 Harbor Island Walk
900 Valencia Court
100 Harborview Drive #412
Large three bedroom, three and one-half bath Harborview townhouse with garage and parking pad. Open main level floor plan with hardwood floors and bright, white kitchen. The large luxurious master bedroom suite includes bath with separate shower and whirlpool tub. Top floor family room and large rooftop deck with Harbor views. Major Price Reduction!! $725,000
New Listing! Beautiful 360 degree views of Federal Hill Park and the Inner Harbor in the new Harborview Pier Homes community. Luxurious amenities throughout including roof top deck, gourmet kitchen adorned with granite counters and stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, and 2 car garage. Five year phase in on property taxes. $1,200,000
Wonderful Inner Harbor Vistas from this bright and sunny 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath unit in harbor view tower. Enjoy 24-hour security, doorman, indoor/ outdoor pools, health club, sauna and covered parking. $495,000
THE TOWN HOMES AT HAUBERT SQUARE
Locust Point Model Opening 12–2 p.m. and 5–7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19 1329 Decatur Street, 21230 First Section SOLD OUT! Coming this Fall in Butcher’s Hill The Townhomes at Pr att & Chester
Cindy Conklin | 410.727.0606 Susannah Barnum | 410-570-5161 www.haubertsquare.com
w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m s e p t e m b e r 0 7
109
eye to eye
... and the walls became the world all around.
Dana Reifler
—Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are
Untitled (studio wall 1)
This is a studio wall, but then again, it is not. It is a work in its own right. What unifies it are the consciously established relationships between what seem to be disparate parts. A two-dimensional surface springs to life— no longer a boundary, it is now a portal to the mind’s wild things. The artist, Dana Reifler, graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005; she received the Graduate Painting Award. “I have always been obsessed with peeling and dissecting,” says Reifler. “As with most methods and materials I work with, I realized the possibilities and potential of drywall by accident while experimenting in my studio. These walls allow me to search through my obsessions without self-consciousness. In this case, the obsessions are architectural and biological structure.” Sendak must be smiling. —Alex Castro
110
urbanite september 07
2007 Incised drywall, joint compound, pencil, gold leaf, pins approx. 30 x 58 inches
Construction is ending,
but the transformation
is just about to begin...
We’re proud to announce the opening of the MAC at Harbor East. And now that the club is almost complete, we’re ready to start working on you. Stop by to see our 54,000-square-foot facility, featuring - 4 saltwater pools - 6 group exercise studios for spinning, Pilates, Yoga, Kinesis and more - 4 international singles squash courts - certified personal trainers - Results Guaranteed Programs
- state-of-the-art strength equipment - 60 cardio stations with personal viewing screens - 800+ parking spaces - Kid’s Club - Internet Café
and more . . .
Only the next 300 members will enjoy special savings! Hurry, this offer expires after our opening, this September! 655 South President Street, Suite 200 | 410.625.5000 | macwellness.com
goodbye,
high heating bills.
• Pella makes it easy to save nearly 1/3 on your energy bills.1 • Receive up to a $500 tax credit.2
150
$
off
each installed Pella® replacement window, patio door or entry door3
or
FREE
professional prefinishing3
plus
No payments and no interest for 6 months! 3
Hurry, sale ends soon! Call, stop by or visit www.kc-pella.com to request your free consultation. PELLA WINDOW & DOOR SHOWROOMS — K.C. COMPANY, INC. Annapolis • Beltsville • Bethesda • Easton Falls Church • Frederick • Lewes • Salisbury • Timonium
window & door replacement | 866-211-3781 1 Computer simulation average when Designer Series® windows with triple-pane glass are compared to single-pane wood windows. Actual results may vary. 2 Qualifying products must be installed in the taxpayer’s primary residence. Consult with a qualified tax adviser to confirm the amount you may be eligible to receive.
3 Does not apply to Pella Impervia®, ThermaStar by Pella® or ProLine® products. Other restrictions may apply. See store for details. Must be installed by Pella professionals. Not valid with any other offer or promotion. Valid for replacement projects only. Financing available to qualified customers only. Prior sales excluded. Financing valid on $1,000 minimum purchase of Pella windows and doors purchased through K.C. Company, Inc. Subject to approval by GE Money Bank. Offer ends 11/20/07. © 2007 Pella Corporation MHIC #38731