Baltimore Neighborhood Discussion Thread

[dtzeigler]

[QUOTEHere's an interesting article about a transformation taking place in Fells Point. It's from back in August, but still a good read. It's kind of long, so I'll summarize, but it's still worth a read. It basically talks about Fells Point changing from a place of cheap bars to upscale restaurants. It mentions a couple of new restaurants and new expansions of already-existing restaurants. Some of them should have opened by now. Anybody have a chance to check any of them out?[/QUOTE]

Yup, Fells Point definately isnt what it used to be and the change happend fairly quick. Maybe 5 years ago Fells Point still had a sizable college crowd but now it seems as if the point is going upscale and the college crowd has left for Federal Hill, Powere Plant Live and Canton.

I wonder how raising property values is going to affect the latino immigrant community down there.

[Jkosmides]

Originally Posted by dtzeigler

Yup, Fells Point definately isnt what it used to be and the change happend fairly quick. Maybe 5 years ago Fells Point still had a sizable college crowd but now it seems as if the point is going upscale and the college crowd has left for Federal Hill, Powere Plant Live and Canton.

I agreeeeeeee. Damn pazo is expensive! That’s my line when people talk about fells point. That area is going to be hot hot hot in the coming years. Its the connection, i mean i was sitting next to bond steet warehouse(that park) enjoying the weather yesterday and i realized that Harbor east and fells point will be completely connected in the coming years, and harbor east is already connected with the inner harbor, walkable. Tons of money is and will be coming into the area. I work at the black olive on bond street(just weekend nights) and im still amazed that there is a market for that level of restaurant in a neighborhood i remember as a kid for being nothing more then a college watering hole.

and the Latinos? gentrification ive heard is a happening thing now. unfort

[Jkosmides]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Union Square-Hollins Market New Housing on Pratt Street
Southwest Visions is a non-profit developer working within the boundaries of the Union Square-Hollins Market Historic District to provide a mixed-income condominium community comprised of market rate condominiums and 25% affordable housing.
The project goal is to build 42-50 units using a combination of new infill housing and historic renovation. The design is to be sensitive to the current neighborhood residents and the historic context of the area. The project will incorporate sustainable design ideas, and try to be an economic generator for continued development in the neighborhood.

Can someone map this for me? im having a hard time understanding where its going? Thanks

[jamie_hunt]

Originally Posted by Jkosmides

... I work at the black olive on bond street...

Cool. Any idea what the status of Stelios's inn is?

[jamie_hunt]

Originally Posted by Jkosmides

Can someone map this for me? im having a hard time understanding where its going? Thanks

NW corner of W. Pratt and S. Mount Streets near Union Square. Click here, hit the "aerial view" tab and drill down. You'll see the empty lot and the twin spires of the church in the background.

[Jkosmides]

Originally Posted by jamie_hunt

Cool. Any idea what the status of Stelios's inn is?

ahaha, good joke. Umm no seriously, The funding is there, they covered all the legal stuff, and they should be starting within 45days from the newyear, after that its 8months till it should be open. It will be a nice addition to the area... ive viewed and started to work with them on some of the project. Market place on the first floor selling organic produce(heavily local), fish, and a variety of other greek products. Also an unbelieveable cafe on the roof, etc etc. Lets just start consturction already. ~7mil going into it

[PeterSmith]

Originally Posted by Jkosmides

ahaha, good joke. Umm no seriously, The funding is there, they covered all the legal stuff, and they should be starting within 45days from the newyear, after that its 8months till it should be open. It will be a nice addition to the area... ive viewed and started to work with them on some of the project. Market place on the first floor selling organic produce(heavily local), fish, and a variety of other greek products. Also an unbelieveable cafe on the roof, etc etc. Lets just start consturction already. ~7mil going into it

Great news. What are the latest renderings for this one?

[Jkosmides]

Originally Posted by jamie_hunt

NW corner of W. Pratt and S. Mount Streets near Union Square. Click here, hit the "aerial view" tab and drill down. You'll see the empty lot and the twin spires of the church in the background.

ah! westside. Man, i had the best idea for MARC... create a "westside" station, that line there at the B&O connects to the camden line and could go right to Union. imagine a solid station 3blocks away from UMbio park. Thats going to be a fun area to watch come up with billions in development. Now, if they could only get a grocery store over there

[scando]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Historic Mt. Washington means business

01/03/08
by Virginia Terhune
Baltimore Messenger

People who drive through the Mt. Washington area on Falls Road may be so focused on the road ahead that they miss spotting -- and patronizing -- small businesses along the way.

For that reason, nearly 20 shop owners and organizations recently launched a Web site to promote their businesses located east of the Jones Falls Expressway, an area distinct from Mt. Washington Village, which is west of the expressway.

"We started it to highlight our section of the neighborhood," said Scott Schools, owner of the Eastbank Hair salon on Falls Road.

The east side could use some PR, in fact not only isn't there much PR about the area, but I live a couple blocks away and hadn't heard about the new web site or program. Personally I think they would have better luck if they combined efforts for the entire area on both sides of the Falls since there's a considerable critical mass in the area that the little village or the east sides alone area doesn't have. They also need something that would appear to guys (aside from bikes and car repairs) since most of the retail has to do with hair or makeup. I love living here because of all the local businesses, but what's weakest is that after about 7 PM the place mostly closes up.

I am pleased to see that there will be some sort of new marketplace in the building where the old Mt Washington grocery store was. I hope the new owner has some sort of angle to distinguish the new place from the nearby Whole Foods store or the competition will be pretty tough. My impression is that it will be a multi-vendor, local produce sort of place, but I don't have many facts on that.

[cgunna]

Originally Posted by Jkosmides

ah! westside. Man, i had the best idea for MARC... create a "westside" station, that line there at the B&O connects to the camden line and could go right to Union. imagine a solid station 3blocks away from UMbio park. Thats going to be a fun area to watch come up with billions in development. Now, if they could only get a grocery store over there

There is a Safeway at Carey and Pratt. About 6 blocks from MLK....

[dtzeigler]

Originally Posted by Jkosmides

I agreeeeeeee. Damn pazo is expensive! That’s my line when people talk about fells point. That area is going to be hot hot hot in the coming years. Its the connection, i mean i was sitting next to bond steet warehouse(that park) enjoying the weather yesterday and i realized that Harbor east and fells point will be completely connected in the coming years, and harbor east is already connected with the inner harbor, walkable. Tons of money is and will be coming into the area. I work at the black olive on bond street(just weekend nights) and im still amazed that there is a market for that level of restaurant in a neighborhood i remember as a kid for being nothing more then a college watering hole.

and the Latinos? gentrification ive heard is a happening thing now. unfort

I believe soon the Inner Harbor, Harbor East, Federal Hill and Canton will all be connected by it's waterfront. Right now every sees them as their own seperate neighborhoods but if all these development projects come into fruition, the waterfront will soom dominate the Baltimore skyline.

[PeterSmith]

Originally Posted by cgunna

There is a Safeway at Carey and Pratt. About 6 blocks from MLK....

I would love to see a redevelopment of that Safeway. Right now there is just too much surface parking for my liking. Unfortunately, they'd probably have to tear down the whole thing and start over...but I guess they could do something there like they're doing with the Rotunda. It would be a good project to tie Hollins Market with Pigtown, and maybe add a little sprucing up to Carroll Park. They'd probably have to do something with the B&O tracks that run through there though. I have heard the idea floated that it could be used for a streetcar line connecting Pratt St. and Pigtown with Montgomery Park.

In Portland they are building a Safeway grocery as part of a larger mixed use project (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=120198)

[dtzeigler]

The Northwood Plaza Design Team is proud to sponsor A Community Design Workshop – Creating A New Vision for Northwood Plaza… the commercial heart of our community! The workshop will be held on Saturday, January 19, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at The Clarence M. Mitchell School of Engineering on the campus of Morgan State University (5200 Perring Parkway).

Participating Organizations include: Northwood Plaza Working Group, The Neighborhood Design Center, Hillen Road Improvement Association, Northeast Community Organization, Original Northwood Association, Northeast Development Alliance, Baltimore City Planning Department, Morgan State University, Baltimore Development Corporation.

[Coldspring]

Hi all just visiting the forum. Moved to Baltimore 3yrs ago from the Carolinas. Love the City even with its challenges. Settled in the north Baltimore neighborhood of Coldspring. Seems that a lot of new development is quietly making its way to the northern section of the City. Specifically the Rotunda in Hamden. I have heard rumors that Pimplico Racetrack may close (Peakness will move to Laurel) and the site could be redeveloped into one of the largest mixed uses projects in the City per the Park Heights Redevelopment Plan. Anyone have any insight on this?

[jamie_hunt]

Originally Posted by Coldspring

... I have heard rumors that Pimlico Racetrack may close (Peakness will move to Laurel) and the site could be redeveloped into one of the largest mixed uses projects in the City per the Park Heights Redevelopment Plan. Anyone have any insight on this?

Welcome! The narrative you've outlined is plausible. However, surrounding neighborhoods score a certain amount of boodle in "impact fees" from having the track as a neighbor ... and that boodle would be boosted significantly if the slots bill passes.

If ya wanna learn more about the issue, check out the Baltimore Messenger's archives. Key word: Pimlico.

Cheers!

[PeterSmith]

http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article...4191&type=UTTM

East Baltimore community school will displace at least 25 homeowners, 47 renters
ROBBIE WHELAN
Daily Record Business Writer
January 30, 2008 6:21 PM

Officials involved with the redevelopment of Middle East, the neighborhood near the Johns Hopkins Hospital, have obtained $41 million to acquire land for a “community school” in East Baltimore, but local residents are upset because the project will force them from their homes.

Members of the Baltimore City Board of Estimates approved the issue of nearly $58 million in tax increment bonds on Jan. 16 for East Baltimore Development Inc., the nonprofit organization directing the development push.

A partnership involving the city, the state, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, the 88-acre, $1.8 billion East Side effort is being carried out in two phases and will include hundreds of units of new and rehabilitated housing, several life sciences buildings to be leased by private biotech firms and the Johns Hopkins University, and thousands of square feet of retail space.

At present, the area is plagued by blighted housing stock, high crime rates and a flourishing drug trade.

Construction of affordable housing units in Phase I has begun. The first research facility, a lab building adjacent to Hopkins, is expected to open in April.

The community school, to be located on two blocks along the north side of Ashland Avenue, between North Chester Street and Collington Avenue, is part of Phase II.

The school will serve students from kindergarten through eighth grade, and is not expected to open until at least 2011, but residents and homeowners have been given only a few months to pack up for relocation. It will displace at least 25 homeowners and 47 renters.

Since 2002, 396 families have been displaced by Phase I, and the average family was paid $153,000 to cover the price of their home and relocation costs, said Jack Shannon, president and CEO of EBDI. The average value of a house in the Phase I area is less than $30,000.

“All of our activities to date have come at a high cost for the families,” Shannon said. “But for these families, it’s different in a few ways. Unlike five years ago, we have a demonstrated track record of successful outcomes.”

The community school will feature an “integrated curriculum” that focuses on wellness and health. A clinic run in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute will be part of the campus.

Nathan Sooy, executive director of the Save Middle East Action Committee, a community organization, said the school will be a positive addition to the neighborhood, but its real purpose is to attract middle-class homebuyers once the poor community members have been relocated.

“The residents of the neighborhood clearly know that none of this is being done for them,” he said. “Any benefit they receive is going to be entirely incidental.”

Officials at EBDI have orally assured the community that those families who have be relocated will still have the right to send their children to the school.

But Nikita Edwards, a SMEAC member and stay-at-home mother who lives nearby the proposed campus for the school, doesn’t think the school is such a good idea.

“The ones who live around here will have to scramble to put their children in a new school … plus a lot of people can’t afford the transportation to get to the new school,” she said. “It may be here in the near future, but for most of us, it wasn’t meant for us.”

Roy Wade, who has lived with in his mother’s house on the corner of Collington Street and Ashland Avenue for 40 years, says that he has been told to move out of his house in a matter of months.

“We don’t mind making the community better — I want to see the drug dealers gone, now,” he said. “But they just said, ‘You’ve got to leave.’”

His mother is 75, and has paid off the mortgage on her house, but Wade said he is worried that in a new, unfamiliar community, she might not feel safe.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve put into your house, it’s how much life you’ve put into it,” he said.

[PeterSmith]

Unsold homes put up for rent
Development near train station feels real estate pinch
Station North Townhomes

Station North Townhomes, in the 1700 block N. Calvert St., was hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis. Buyers with contracts no longer qualified for loans, and investors -- about a quarter of the buyers -- dropped out. (Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / January 24, 2008)

By Lorraine Mirabella | Sun reporter
February 1, 2008

The Station North Townhomes had no shortage of pre-construction buyers, lured by the promise of luxury living near Penn Station in Baltimore's emerging arts district. Prices in 2005 reflected a red-hot market, rising tens of thousands of dollars with each batch of new contracts.

But when construction wrapped up last spring, subprime mortgage woes had begun to surface and the housing market was slumping.

Buyers with contracts no longer qualified for loans, and investors - who made up about a quarter of the buyers - dropped out. The four-story, four-bedroom homes, with granite kitchens, open floor plans, huge windows and garages, sat in stark contrast to nearby blocks of boarded and vacant homes. Just over half had been sold.

Now, amid a housing slump that has builders slashing prices and offering giveaways, Station North's developer is looking for tenants.

"The sales just pretty much stopped," said James D. Campbell, a principal with Somerset Development Co., of Washington.

Somerset hopes to rent the 14 unsold homes in the 32-unit development, offering a lease-to-buy program or straight rentals, with monthly payments ranging from $1,600 to $2,400. Rents are slightly higher for the lease-to-own program

So far, one family has signed on to lease with the option to buy, Campbell said. In that program, tenants sign a sales contract, but typically delay the closing six to 12 months, during which a portion of the rent gets applied to a down payment and tenants get help on improving their credit.

Somerset's sale prices, which started at a range of $280,000 to $300,000 in summer 2005 and climbed in a matter of months to the high $400,000s for the largest corner units, have already been reduced. They now range from $300,000 to $450,000. Campbell said additional price cuts were not an option.

"We didn't want to price them so low that it didn't make any kind of economic sense," Campbell said. "Renting will be a better strategy."

John E. Kortecamp, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Maryland, said he was unaware of any other Baltimore-area, for-sale housing projects that had converted to rentals.

Such conversions have become more common in the harder-hit housing market in metropolitan Washington, he said.

But "there is continued talk about more and more condos coming on the market, and if that trend turns out to be true, then we might very well see more of this," he said.

Melissa Wallace-Johnson, 29, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, moved in June from Silver Spring, where she and her husband rented, to Station North, where they bought their first home.

The couple got a reduced price of $339,000 with upgrades such as granite counters. And the couple liked the access to Penn Station and nightlife and restaurants in a neighborhood where people were renovating homes and bringing in new businesses.

"If we'd bought in Silver Spring, it would have been double the price," Wallace-Johnson said. "We've fallen in love with the neighborhood. You can tell it's on the verge of something."

The couple does not regret the decision, despite the conversion to rentals, which Wallace-Johnson said is a better route than slashing prices to try to sell.

"We went into this knowing we would not be there forever, but we didn't go into it to make money," she said. "We wanted to buy and own. We're confident we won't lose money."

One neighbor, though, said she is troubled by an increasing number of tenants, including those who are renting from individual property owners as well as those who will rent from the developer.

Homeowner Charmaine Mercer estimated that about 10 or 11 of the homes are now occupied by owners, with the rest either leased or vacant.

"People who rent don't have a vested interest in the properties," said Mercer, who moved with her husband from a suburban area near Catonsville last summer, drawn by the homes' contemporary design, the area's cultural activities and the proximity of the trains she takes to work in Washington.

Mercer said she and other homeowners have started to work together to deal with problems such as trash - and have even purchased trash cans for neighbors to use.

"There's an expectation when you pay a certain amount that there are issues you won't have to encounter, and that hasn't been the case," she said.

Converting for-sale homes to rentals is one strategy for waiting out a slow market, said Bob Aydukovic, vice president of economic development for the Downtown Partnership.

"What developers have realized is that the rental market is still extremely strong downtown," Aydukovic said. "They're going after that rental base and trying to get people in there to cover costs. The whole for-sale market is slow but not crashing."

Other builders have been forced to halt construction, reduce prices or lure buyers with incentives and giveaways. Inventory is still exceeding demand, Kortecamp said.

In November, Lennar Corp., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, sold the bulk of its unsold, 26-unit Federal Place luxury development off Key Highway in Baltimore's Federal Hill to Terra Nova Ventures, a local developer who cut prices by about 20 percent. The new owner has since sold one house.

And last month, because homebuilders were canceling land sales, Columbia's master developer General Growth Properties Inc., said it plans to lower the estimated market value of its remaining unsold residential lots in the Howard County community and take a non-cash charge of $77 million.

The Station North Townhomes may have felt the housing downturn more severely because of its location, Kortecamp said. While Penn Station has been a huge draw and is likely to be a centerpiece in future community revitalization, the new homes are still abutted by blocks of long-vacant properties.

"You get in some instances, a little ahead of the redevelopment curve," Kortecamp said.

Campbell says the goal is to offer homes for rent until the for-sale market rebounds.

"The for-sale market will at some point come back, and our goal is to rent them until that happens and get as many under the lease-to-own," he said. "We're still very optimistic. There's a lot of new families living there who weren't living there eight months ago."

[scando]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Unsold homes put up for rent
Development near train station feels real estate pinch
Station North Townhomes

Station North Townhomes, in the 1700 block N. Calvert St., was hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis. Buyers with contracts no longer qualified for loans, and investors -- about a quarter of the buyers -- dropped out. (Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / January 24, 2008)

By Lorraine Mirabella | Sun reporter
February 1, 2008

The Station North Townhomes had no shortage of pre-construction buyers, lured by the promise of luxury living near Penn Station in Baltimore's emerging arts district. Prices in 2005 reflected a red-hot market, rising tens of thousands of dollars with each batch of new contracts.."

Surprise, surprise. The houses are not attractive, the neighborhood is sketchy at best, they are right on a major traffic artery and the mortgage market sucks.

[dtzeigler]

It's unfortunate taht these homes did not sell but you pointed out a lot of the reasons for it's failure. But seeing these homes being constructed gave me some hope that the neighborhood around the train station was going to turn another corner for revitalization.

[PeterSmith]

More Station North news....



Where art has lived
A longtime home to painters, designers and makeshift galleries could be sold
Large loft

By Julie Scharper | Sun reporter
February 2, 2008

The Copy Cat building might be the only place in the city where a professional dancing banana could feel at home.

In one apartment, a tire swing dangles between a drum set and a bar. In another, food salvaged from garbage bins fills the refrigerator and a bottle of turquoise hair dye sits in the bathroom.

Everywhere you look in the former factory in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District there are interesting things -- an old wheelchair, a maze of hand-built walls, an orange cat named Fettuccine -- and countless works of art.

"I consider it my own personal playground," says Carabella Sands, 21, the dancing banana in question, who retreats there after a long day luring customers to a Timonium smoothie stand.

For more than two decades, the five-story brick building near the intersection of Guilford and Mount Royal avenues in Baltimore has been a place for hundreds of artists to live, create art and hold concerts and gallery openings.

But life at the Copy Cat might soon change.

Mt. Vernon Properties is considering buying and renovating the building, doubling the number of apartments and increasing rents, says Robert Persaud, an adviser to the company. Current residents would not be able to stay during the extensive renovation, he says.

Charles Lankford, the building's owner for more than 30 years, says the deal with Persaud is far from final, noting that it might be hard to secure financing. He says he would like to find a partner to help him improve the building.

Tenants admit that the building is rundown -- some pass notes to neighbors through holes in the floor -- but they say they like the Copy Cat as it is. And they believe that their presence is vital to making the arts district thrive.

"We're all kind of experimenting and expressing ourselves in ways we wouldn't be if we didn't all live here together," says Brady Starr, a 26-year-old painter who lives with several roommates in an apartment, studio and gallery called "Page 5."

His upstairs neighbor, 20-year-old Michael Farley, is trying to organize tenants to buy the Copy Cat themselves, as artists at two nearby buildings have done.

"I love it, despite the inconvenience of the Middle Ages," says Farley, his cowboy boots clicking across the floor as he leads a visitor into two joined apartments he shares with seven people, a few cats, a dog, a dozen bicycles and a ghoulish figure made of cotton gauze.

In the kitchen, several twentysomethings talk around a large wooden table, a single light bulb casting shadows on their faces. Some smoke, tapping their cigarette ashes into a white goblet labeled "Holy Grail."

Farley, a sculpture major at Maryland Institute College of Art, sticks his head in the refrigerator and pulls out a pastry box. "Who wants Dumpster cake?" he asks, explaining that some residents pull expired, but edible, food from garbage bins behind grocery stores.

Many furnishings are salvaged from the trash or were left behind. In the largest room, a series of walls -- some curved, some set at sharp angles -- were built by previous tenants.

In the bathroom, a bottle of "Tripped Up Turquoise" hair dye sits on a shelf, and someone has scrawled, "Let's all be postmodern" on the side of the shower.

"My mom calls it 'the set of Rent,'" Farley says, referring to the '90s Broadway musical about struggling East Village artists.

The artists say they flourish in the building's laid-back, do-it-yourself atmosphere. Huge windows let in lots of light, and high-ceilinged loft-style spaces can be shared by many people, keeping rent within a starving artist's budget. The chipped paint, spotty utilities and hissing, cantankerous radiators add to the creative atmosphere, they say.

The boxy building was constructed in the 1890s as part of a factory complex for the Crown, Cork and Seal Co., the originators of the bottle cap. It is nicknamed the Copy Cat after a printing company billboard that long stood on its roof.

The building is showing its age. In one hallway, the ceiling sags around a pipe. Outside, a sea-green graffiti tag, as complicated as a Celtic knot, is painted on one wall. A gargoyle leers over the satellite dishes that sprout from windows like flat-topped mushrooms.

Persaud, of Mt. Vernon Properties, says that his company is studying whether it would be profitable to repair the building and renovate it and a sister property. They envision doubling the number of units in the building -- from 75 to 150 -- and renting for $700 to $950. Currently, residents who share the large spaces pay, on average, a couple of hundred dollars each per month.

"We feel we can do some good up there," says Persaud. "With careful investment and planning, that area has wonderful potential."

Lankford, 64, says he's proud that he's managed to keep the building going all these years, helping so many eclectic young artists.

"Some day I might write a book about it," Lankford says by phone from his Florida home.

For decades, the blocks around Penn Station languished, despite being sandwiched between the cultural hubs of Charles Village and Mount Vernon. Since being designated an arts district in 2004, several galleries, restaurants and nightclubs have opened, according to David Bielenberg, executive director of a nonprofit group that promotes the neighborhood.

Bielenberg and other community leaders are exploring housing options for the residents if the building is renovated.

"We're doing everything we can to let the current residents of the Copy Cat realize how important they are to the district," he says.

Joe McNeely, director of the Central Baltimore Partnership, says he is encouraging Persaud to renovate the buildings in sections so that the residents are not displaced. He admits that many residents won't be able to afford higher rents.

It's a familiar pattern, sometimes called the "SoHo effect," McNeely says, referring to the New York City neighborhood: Artists move into a rundown area and spruce it up, but then get priced out.

Whether or not the deal goes through, the building needs serious work. "Either some developer is going to buy it and do this or the building is going to deteriorate to a place where it's going to be closed," he says.

But residents worry that renovations will destroy the life they've built together.

At the space called Page 5, Starr, with a smudge of gray paint on his cheek, points out walls he and his roommates have built to section off a studio and gallery for shows and weekly figure drawing sessions. He absent-mindedly taps on a piano, awakening a family of mice nesting inside that begin to squeak fiercely.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, volunteers with a group called "Food Not Bombs" prepare vegetarian meals to give to homeless people.

Each living space has its own distinct character. On the top floor, Web designer Kevin Blackistone, 29, and his roommates frequently host parties and concerts in a loft that has a stage, drum set, sound system, tire swing and wheelchair. A spotted cat, named, appropriately, Natty Boh, stalks across a bar that the roommates built from scrap.

Downstairs, Farley and his friends rattle off some of what makes life in the Copy Cat unique: The canvas the roommates paint together. The transvestite prostitute on Guilford who offered to protect them from thugs. The time a resident's car was stolen and later found totaled with only a gold wig and a Bette Midler movie stolen.

The residents feel comfortable in the neighborhood, despite occasional muggings, broken car windows and huge alley rats. They look out for each other's safety, the same way they critique each other's art and share food.

Many former tenants say the happiest years of their youth were spent at the Copy Cat, says Lankford, the owner.

Or, as Farley says, "It's like Neverland but with more rats."