Baltimore Neighborhood Discussion Thread

[PeterSmith]

It's probably good for the general development of the neighborhood - many of those properties are probably going to need to be rehabbed/gentrified before much new construction begins, but it's disappointing that a place like the Copy Cat, which embodies so much of what Station North is supposed to be about, has to bite the dust. Hopefully the artists can find a new home in the neighborhood.

[21230]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

It's probably good for the general development of the neighborhood - many of those properties are probably going to need to be rehabbed/gentrified before much new construction begins, but it's disappointing that a place like the Copy Cat, which embodies so much of what Station North is supposed to be about, has to bite the dust. Hopefully the artists can find a new home in the neighborhood.

It's hard to replicate something as successful as the Copy Cat building. It's an integral element to the arts community in Baltimore. It would be a shame to see it go.

Besides my sentiment, I don't know how advisable it would be to convert the building. The neighborhood is frightening at best once the sun sets. I doubt they'd be able to fill so many apartments... especially for the price they're expecting.

[PeterSmith]

This was posted in another thread, but I thought it could spark some good discussion here, as the topic of a new Baltimore chinatown always seems to draw some interesting opinions. What do you think about the Station North area for the new Chinatown? I'd love to see it work, but the idea of Station North doubling as an arts district and a chinatown seems like it might be trying to do a little much.



http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article...4314&type=UTTM
A new Chinatown for Baltimore?
ROBBIE WHELAN
Daily Record Business Writer
February 11, 2008 6:48 PM
When most people look at the area surrounding the intersection of North Charles Street and North Avenue, they see vacant row houses, a few large condemned buildings, a fried chicken restaurant and cracked, buckling pavement.

When Tony Cheng looked at it, he saw Chinatown.

The Washington-based restaurateur and businessman, who once owned a restaurant near Mount Vernon Place, has been buying up property in the Station North area of the city with the intention of attracting Chinese and other Asian business owners to a redeveloped arts and entertainment district.

Cheng, who owns two Chinese restaurants in Washington, has purchased 10 properties so far, according to his Annapolis-based attorney, Dennis McCoy.

The list includes the former Bank of America building on the corner of North Avenue and North Charles, an ornate stone structure that once housed state Sen. Catherine Pugh’s campaign headquarters.

McCoy declined say how much Cheng has paid, but according to tax records, the properties are worth at least $2 million. And that does not include several parking lots that Cheng has also acquired.

“Mr. Cheng has decided to invest a not inconsiderable amount of money in the area,” McCoy said. “He has a number of projects in mind, including the development of an Asian community expanded beyond the small Korean community that is already there, and perhaps to establish more of a Chinatown than Baltimore has had for some time.”

In December, Cheng’s son, Anthony Cheng Jr., opened MVP Bus, a “Chinatown bus” service that offers discounted rates between Baltimore, New York and Washington, in the Hyundai Plaza building at 1910 N. Charles St.

Buses bound for New York and Washington will leave from the parking lot facing the ticket office, meaning that if Cheng’s plans go through, Baltimore’s Chinatown would be directly connected to those of Washington and New York.

Most Chinatown bus lines that pass through Baltimore now stop at the O’Donnell Street Travel Plaza in Southeast Baltimore.

The bus station shares the building with a Korean takeout restaurant, but Cheng plans to move a new, white tablecloth Chinese restaurant, called Tony Cheng’s, to the site.

Other plans include the conversion of the Bruning paint supplies store at 2011 Maryland Ave. into an art gallery, several more Chinese restaurants and an Asian grocery store.

Cheng’s vision is meant to dovetail with the nearby development of the Station North Arts District.

“What I understand he’s thinking about is not so much a community that focuses on Chinese customers, but Chinese merchants,” McCoy said. “Since this is an arts and entertainment district, I think he has in mind developing some Chinese restaurants, some art galleries that have a Chinese flavor, and drawing in some other types of art businesses … and maybe blending in some high-tech startup businesses.”

The former Bank of America processing center, a hulking, six-story concrete structure at North Charles and 21st streets, could house “an incubator for art-type businesses, or a place that would facilitate hi-tech or biotech type business in an artistic setting,” McCoy said.

Paul Dombrowski, the Baltimore Development Corp.’s project manager for Station North, said Cheng’s project would help encourage reinvestment in a neighborhood that had fallen prey to vacancy and neglect, but that in the last two or three years has begun to attract attention for developers.

“We have to remember that there is already a really strong Asian community within that area,” he said. “To my knowledge, most of that Asian heritage is Korean, but we would like to encourage development any way we can … to establish a new identity.”

Kapyoung Park, president of the Korean Liquor and Grocery Store Association of Maryland, said there are about 20 Korean-owned businesses, including at least five restaurants, in the immediate area, and about 500 Korean-owned businesses in Baltimore.

“I think [a Chinatown] would be helpful because we can get more attention from the local government if we’re all in the same area,” he said. “But when they say they’re going to create a Chinatown, where are the business owners going to come from?”

Cheng’s son said his father has been courting Chinese business owners from as far away as New York and Virginia, but that they will reach out to local Korean-American business owners as well.

“A lot of the Chinese he’s talking to are immigrants and they need a place to plop their feet down, and my father thinks that Baltimore is a hidden gem,” he said. “Development is creeping up at a snail’s pace and coming to a dead stop at North Avenue. … We need to see that neighborhood pop a little bit.”

[Coldspring]

Originally Posted by jamie_hunt

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!

Thanks. One thing that is a little of a surprise to me about Baltimore is the lack of development along the Light Rail particuliarly along the northern stem with the exception being Woodbury/Clipper Mill and Mt. Washington Village. At my stop...Coldspring, there seems to a lot a wasted opportunity with the hodge podge of quasi industrial facilities to the Northern District Police Station. I read an old MTA Plan that identified Coldspring as the location for additional parking and the Jones Falls Plan noted that this was a good location for a mixed use/transit oriented development. However; nothing happened because, as I understand it, a property owner i.e. BG&E did not want to sell its property which is the tower that is abandon on the site.

THat combined with Loyola College building an athletic field and sports complex in 'woodbury woods' and a proposal that I read from the BDC to do some townhomes off Greensprings in woodbury... It just seems like there is little or no cooridinated efforts to bring some of these ideas concepts to fruition in manner that allows for some development while preserving and opening up some of these natural areas for further access. One positive step in that direction is the expansion of the Jones Falls Trail, which will pass through these areas as it moves from downtown up towards RE Lee Park.

[MasonsInquiries]

i agree. that area should be developed more.

[StevenW]

I'd love a new, better, bigger Chinatown. But how big would it really be? And how would the Chinese people be lured here?

[scando]

Originally Posted by Coldspring

Thanks. One thing that is a little of a surprise to me about Baltimore is the lack of development along the Light Rail particuliarly along the northern stem with the exception being Woodbury/Clipper Mill and Mt. Washington Village. At my stop...Coldspring, there seems to a lot a wasted opportunity with the hodge podge of quasi industrial facilities to the Northern District Police Station. I read an old MTA Plan that identified Coldspring as the location for additional parking and the Jones Falls Plan noted that this was a good location for a mixed use/transit oriented development. However; nothing happened because, as I understand it, a property owner i.e. BG&E did not want to sell its property which is the tower that is abandon on the site.

There isn't much there that's very desirable for development, except in Woodberry. The Cold Spring stop is a no-man's land, almost subterranean, in the Jones Falls Valley flood plain, near Poly but otherwise not near anything else. Mt Washington is as well developed as anybody in the neighborhood wants it to be. The Falls Road stop is also in a flood plain and the vacant land next to it is either park land or a private holding that may be toxic.

[PeterSmith]

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v...ryID=8012&on=1

Rewrite of zoning code could help York Road

02/20/08
VIRGINIA TERHUNE
Email this story to a friend

City Councilman Bill Henry sees the pending rewrite of the city's outdated zoning code as an opportunity for redevelopment along main corridors such as York Road, which he represents.

Henry said he will wait to see what ideas citizens, businesses and others generate during the 18-to-24-month overhaul of the code, and expects to add some ideas of his own.

"I will point out, though, that I ran on a platform which placed great importance on the revitalization of our commercial corridors and shopping districts," he said in an e-mail.

"I expect to support zoning changes that will make it easier to positively redevelop those corridors and districts."

Last updated in 1971, the 493-page zoning code regulates the size, type, structure, nature and use of land or buildings, as well as parking and signs, city planners said.

The planning department will host a meeting Tuesday, Feb. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute to explain how citizens can get involved in the rewrite process.

(The rewrite of the zoning code is distinct from the rezoning process, which involves changing the type of zoning on a piece of property.)

To help with the rewrite process, the city plans to hire a consultant, expected to cost $350,000, to work with planners and residents to identify problems and solutions.

The first task will be to draft a list of current problems in the code within the next few months.

"If we have no agreement on what the problems are, we won't get to the solution," said Laurie Feinberg, an Oakenshawe resident and chief of the planning department's comprehensive planning division, during a community meeting in downtown Baltimore on Feb. 13.

The hope is that by the time the updated zoning code is adopted in the fall of 2009, it will be more user- friendly, understandable, enforceable, predictable -- and shorter.

"We don't want the book to get fatter, hopefully," she said.

Preserving character

One of the goals of the zoning code update is to preserve the character of existing neighborhoods while guiding redevelopment and new development, Feinberg said.

There might be opportunities, for example, to create commercial "nodes" along York Road, similar to the redeveloped Belvedere Square shopping center at York Road and Belvedere Avenue.

North Baltimore is also home to medical and college campuses, such as Sinai Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola College and the College of Notre Dame, which are changing, or might change in the future, their mixes of housing and services.

Planners did not predict major changes to single-family zones in north Baltimore, but some community leaders, including those in Bellona-Gittings and Hampden, say they are worried about the establishment of group homes for disabled people in residential zones.

A bill before the City Council would allow group homes with more than four people in certain zones without council approval. The city's Planning Commission was scheduled to review the bill Feb. 21.

City offices were closed Feb. 18 for Presidents' Day and city planners could not be reached for comment about how the group homes bill, if adopted, would be affected by the zoning code rewrite.

Karen Stokes, executive director of the Greater Homewood Community Corp., said open space and code enforcement issues might surface, based on a recent workshop.

Karen DeCamp, president of the York Road Partnership, said she didn't know much yet about the process and planned to attend the Feb. 26 meeting at Poly.

Planners hope residents, groups and businesses get involved by signing up for e-mail updates and commenting on proposals via an interactive Web site to be developed.

Residents will have a chance to participate in work groups organized by topic and an advisory council appointed by Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Feinberg also anticipates "visioning" projects to help neighborhoods focus on what they would like to see in their areas.

She described the process as, "Here's a blank map, and here are your colors. Tell me where you want to be."

The time has come

Even if the city's recently completed master plan didn't require an overhaul, people would push for it anyway for a variety of reasons, according to planners.

* Parts of the cluttered code are anachronistic, including a reference to where S&H Green Stamp redemption centers can be located. (Green Stamps, which peaked during the 1960s, used to be acquired through grocery purchases for redemption at stores for appliances and other products. Now they're redeemed over the Internet.)

* The outdated code also makes it tougher to facilitate the trend toward mixed-use transit centers and retail-residential "villages" where people can live and walk to stores and services, such as Cross Street and Mount Vernon.

Neighborhoods might support a small storefront business, such as a hairdresser, but zoning in some cases won't allow it, according to one planner.

* Requests for relief from the cumbersome code are adding significantly to the workload of the city's Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals. In 2007, the board dealt with nearly 1,100 variance requests, 600 of which were for row house additions, Feinberg said.

* Over time, developers and others have found ways to work around the code, resulting in more than 200 overlay districts, which include urban renewal districts and planned unit developments, Feinberg said.

* Cases of nonconforming uses are also on the rise. Four out of five houses in the R-8 zones do not conform to the code, which says they must be at least 16 feet wide.

But times have changed, and the code needs to change with it, planners said.

"Row houses sell for $400,000 today and are no longer considered substandard," Feinberg said.

For more information, go to www.baltimorecity.gov/government/planning.

[PeterSmith]

Planning under way for Old Town makeover

Edward Gunts | Architecture
March 3, 2008

It has designed new housing to replace Church Home Hospital on Broadway and laid the groundwork for the biotech park taking shape north of the Johns Hopkins medical campus.

Now a nationally prominent team of urban designers has been hired to recommend ways to revitalize another large swath of East Baltimore - the Old Town renewal area and surroundings.

Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh heads a group that was selected this year by Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration to create a master plan to guide redevelopment of 400 acres that lie between downtown Baltimore and the medical campus.

The area has become a repository for some of the harsher elements of urban life, including prisons, way stations for the homeless and abandoned buildings surrounded by barbed wire. But because it's so close to downtown and Hopkins, it also attracts interest from developers.

The city is seeking a vision for transforming the area into a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood or series of neighborhoods with businesses, shops, housing and public spaces, and using the transformed property to create a stronger connection between downtown and the Hopkins campus.

As part of the study, city officials also want to know how to provide better access to the area and take more advantage of assets there, including Dunbar High School, Sojourner Douglass College and the restored houses on Stirling Street.

"It's a case of addressing a variety of issues by putting them in a broader framework," said city planning director Doug McCoach.

"If you look at any one parcel, you get solutions in scale with that parcel," he explained. "If you look at the whole area, you can look at bigger ideas - mixed-use strategies, high-quality open spaces. It's a way to reshuffle the deck a bit and identify opportunities that might be hidden in plain sight."

Old Town is one of the three original sections of Baltimore, along with Jonestown and Fells Point. Because it is not on the waterfront, it has largely been bypassed by the rebuilding activity that has helped rejuvenate the Inner Harbor and Fells Point shorelines.

Planners describe the area as a "hole in the doughnut" because though much of the land is relatively underused, the area is surrounded by strong institutions and neighborhoods.

Some changes are already in the works. The Baltimore Development Corp. has selected a group headed by Continental Realty to build a grocery store and other commercial space in Old Town. In recent months, developers have unveiled plans to build three moderate-priced hotels on Fallsway just south of Gay Street. The Housing Authority of Baltimore City plans to raze a public housing complex, Somerset Homes, to make way for new development.

The Old Town study area is bounded roughly by Fallsway on the west, Fayette Street on the south, North Broadway on the east and East Madison Street on the north.

Urban Design Associates is nationally known for creating master plans for mixed-use communities in urban areas. It was selected from among eight groups.

The planning effort will take about six months; the city's budget is about $300,000. Other members of the Urban Design team include the Cobalt Group, an economic analyst from Pittsburgh; Marks Thomas Architects of Baltimore; and RK&K, a Baltimore engineering firm.

A public meeting has been set for 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Pleasant View Gardens Community Center, 201 N. Aisquith St., to launch the planning effort.

McCoach said the team was chosen in large part because the selection panel was impressed with the team members' knowledge of the city and vision for the area.

"We were struck by their notion of how all the different pieces of the puzzle could come together to create something that's bigger than what's there today," he said. "They understand the synergy we're looking for."

Paul Ostergaard, a principal of Urban Design, said he believes the area has strong potential though it has suffered from lack of investment.

Ostergaard said his team plans to meet with stakeholders to gather information about the area and to conduct two charettes - intensive, short-term planning exercises - as it develops its master plan. He applauds the city's leaders for wanting to look at the big picture.

From a "smart growth" perspective, he said, "this is the most sustainable form of growth you can imagine, because you're taking part of a great city and recycling it. We can see a lot more people living there, a lot of jobs created there. It's an amazing location."

Monumental Life tour
As part of a yearlong celebration of its 150th anniversary, Monumental Life Insurance Co. is opening its headquarters in the 1100 block of N. Charles St. for the general public to tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The open house is a rare opportunity to explore the building, which is filled with antiques. Visitors will also be able to see the old treasury vault that has been buried under Charles Street since 1939. Monumental Life's actual anniversary is Wednesday.

ed.gunts@baltsun.com

[Exrexnotex]

I like the idea of a new chinatown ! I did not even know that , at one time , there was a chinatown in Baltimore.

[PeterSmith]

There are still remnants of the old Chinatown here and there. Mostly faded signs on the sides of brick buildings. I like the idea of a new Chinatown. Chinatowns, although fairly generic, are still cool. They tend to be very visual with lots of public art and interesting architecture. They also tend to have a higher than average density of places of interest - restaurants, shops, theatres... the kinds of things that get people on the street just wondering around. I think either the proposed location for the new Chinatown or the old location of the former Chinatown would be an ideal spot for a higher-density, high-interest neighborhood. As it stands right now, Baltimore gets less and less "interesting" the further away from the harbor you go. It would be a huge boost if we could build a highly attractive, highly desirable neighborhood north of the harbor right in the middle of the Charles Street corridor. With Station North and a new Chinatown, it could create a very unique atmosphere. A lot of potential there.

[PeterSmith]

Since the Baltimore Development thread is active these days with transit and 10IH news, I figured I'd transplant one project in particular to this thread. After all, I did create this thread with hopes that it could be used to discuss the smaller, neighborhood-transforming projects around the city.

Anyway, here is a project proposed for the intersection of Howard and Madison:

M on Madison








Looking at this project, this seems to be the kind of project that the city is hoping we'll see more of throughout the Westside - mid-rise, mixed-use residential. I personally think the city has the right idea here. I think if the Westside can be filled out with projects similar to this, it will become the most active area of the city, and possibly one of the most desirable.

Unfortunately, Peter Fillat has a tendency to post projects on his website that are either dead or are projects for which his firm was not selected, so it's difficult to say whether this project will ever come to fruition. The developer is Oak Street Developers, but I can't find a website for them. Nonetheless, I hope we see this project and many more like it. I think it's great.

[PeterSmith]

actually it has its own website. www.monmadison.com looks like it is a go.

[Ty Doggie]

Oldtown NEEDS to be redeveloped. It's basically a barren area. With what was there I can see a mixed use project there. Maybe even a community recycling station to boot.

Also that area betwee Woodberry and North Avenue (on the light rail) NEEDS to be redveloped. When you ride the light rail going south, you see a lot of vacant buildings that could be of use to businesses and/or home owners, i.e. the Mount Verning Lighting building. That place is nothing but empty and could/should be either reused or rebuilt.

[Coldspring]

Originally Posted by Ty Doggie

Oldtown NEEDS to be redeveloped. It's basically a barren area. With what was there I can see a mixed use project there. Maybe even a community recycling station to boot.

Also that area betwee Woodberry and North Avenue (on the light rail) NEEDS to be redveloped. When you ride the light rail going south, you see a lot of vacant buildings that could be of use to businesses and/or home owners, i.e. the Mount Verning Lighting building. That place is nothing but empty and could/should be either reused or rebuilt.

I totally agree. It seems that things are slow to develop along the Light Rail Corridor outside of downtown, though there seems to be progress around some major projects like the State Center, Westport, and Clipper Mill in Woodbury. There would seem to be opportunities at the North Ave Light Rail Station if the parking lot and "air rights" above the tracks could be sold and developed...possibly as an continuing expansion of MICA. They are completing a nice facility next to 1-83 and Mt Royal. I also thought there was a development proposal for a project on the UB parking lot at the Mt. Royal Light Rail Station that included apt. and retail. Then there is of course my favorite stop (Coldspring) which is yet to reach its potential though it is certainly constrained. With all the investment that Loyola is putting into their new athletic complex next to the Northern District Police Station. I would love to see the creation of a small commercial node similiar to Mt. Washington Village or the small retail district along Coldspring in Roland Park created near the light rail stop that could serve both activities at the stadium and the surrounding communities.

[DrzBrooklynChulo90]

I just love how the 21224 district is one of the largest in the city and yet, they have all these forgotten neighborhoods like O'Donnell Heights and Dundalk,where I live.They really need to put life around here because its so boring around here.I mean the diversity has sprung up dramatically over the years, since back than it was basically all old white people..but they need to develop something around here.Its just dead around here.I'd appreciate if they build a park or something!

[PeterSmith]

Punctuating debate over Fells vs. Fell's Point
Jack Trautwein

By Rob Hiaasen | Sun Reporter
March 25, 2008

You can't keep a stubborn apostrophe down.

To this day, people milling about the funky waterfront neighborhood of Fells Point note for themselves the roving apostrophe attached to the town with the grammatically split personality. Consider: Fell's Point Visitors Center, Fells Point Development Corp., Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell's Point, Fells Point Historic District, and the Fell's Point Citizens on Patrol. What's a grammarian to do?

"It makes me wince because I'm an English major," says Ellen von Karajan, executive director of the Fell's Point preservation society. "We stick to the traditional apostrophe because to our way of thinking, it was the point of the Edward Fell family."

English Quaker William Fell sailed into Baltimore's Northwest Harbor 278 years ago (give or take a month) and bought the marshy land surrounding the point. His son, Edward Fell, carried on the singular family name by establishing the harbor area as a separate city in 1763. Hence, the cape was named after the Fell family. Fell's Point, right? It's always been Bertha's Mussels and The Cat's Eye Pub, after all.

But history does not always excel in English or, perhaps, the area's historic nomenclature was never intended to mark ownership. It didn't help the apostrophe cause when William Fell first named his purchase "Fells Prospect."

This is really old news.

"No, the issue continues to be raised, and I don't think the debate will end," says von Karajan. "Everytime we turn around, there's an omission of the apostrophe." To put an exclamation point on her point, an Interstate 95 sign at Exit 57 directs motorists south to Canton and Fells Point. The preservation society's director (and English major) winces at the sight of the highway slight. And she is not the only one.

Mark Walker is a community activist and writer for The Fell's Pointer newsletter, which is unapologetically pro-apostrophe. This past week, Walker dropped a bombshell on The Sun, which has consistently eschewed a Fells Point apostrophe.

"We now have proof," Walker said.

At a preservation society meeting in December, town crier and historian Jack Trautwein delivered a presentation on his preliminary research into a book about the founding Fell family. All very interesting. An hour or so into his speech, Trautwein tossed in a tantalizing aside. Trautwein (occasionally seen around the point, in costume, announcing news from 1812) found perhaps the earliest official mention of the area. In 1792, Edward Fell placed an ad in the Maryland Gazette for the sale of property in "Fell's-Point." Never mind the phantom hyphen, note the spelling of Fell's, Trautwein told the preservation society. He also produced Gazette ads from that era where the hyphen was dropped but not the apostrophe in question.

"We all laughed - then we applauded," Walker says. "We've been trying to put this to rest, and now it's definitive."

Definitively maybe. Jennifer Etheridge, then-president of the Fell's Point Homeowners' Association, shared a story on the town's Web site. When she moved to the area, she bought a tobacco jar-style lamp from Brassworks. The store asked if she wanted an apostrophe on her lamp. She consulted the preservation society, which strongly recommended the additional punctuation.

Etheridge bought the lamp and apostrophe.

"I was, and am, happy with my decision, as I believe proper usage of the English language needs to be preserved, not butchered," she wrote.

On Thames Street, Claudia Towles and her husband, Thomas, faced down the apostrophe issue before naming their business. A fact-finding Google mission ensued, then the verdict: In recognition of the Fell family, the Towles family named their toy store aMuse of Fell's Point. There, the dashing apostrophe! No community backlash lashed back at them, although amusing comments keep coming, Towles says. Seems there are two kinds of people in this two-named town.

"We're a neutral party. I don't advocate an apostrophe. I don't lose my mind like some people do if I don't see it," she says. "I'm just among those who tend to overanalyze and really think about things thoroughly."

But the devil remains in the details. Martha had her vineyard, and Fell had his point. In grammar, possession is also nine-tenths of the law - which doesn't settle the local matter one bit.

"You have to have a little controversy in life, don't you?" Trautwein says. "And this controversy will go on - but the other side of it doesn't have a leg to stand on."

He wants to make "Fell's Point" official - maybe a town proclamation! Or, as the town crier also says, he might take the matter straight to Baltimore's City Hall. But the federal arbiter of all named geography remains a stickler for Fells Point. In fact, the little-known U.S. Board on Geographic Names has always discouraged the use of the possessive form.

"The Board's archives contain no indication of the reason for this policy," according to Frequently Asked Question No. 18 on its Web site. "Myths attempting to explain the policy include the idea that the apostrophe looks too much like a rock in water when printed on a map, and is therefore a hazard." Early cartographers didn't need the typographical hassle; neither did early boaters.

President Benjamin Harrison established the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 1890 to settle contradictions and inconsistencies of geographic names in the Western territories after the Civil War. In 1911, the board made national news by restoring the "h" to Pittsburgh. The board has also validated the name-splitting " Glen Burnie" and "Bel Air." Working with federal and state agencies, the Reston, Va.-based board continues to make binding decisions as the "central authority" for name problems and changes.

Since its inception, though, the board has approved only five apostrophes, including Martha's Vineyard ("after an extensive local campaign"), Ike's Point in New Jersey ("it would be unrecognizable otherwise") and John E's Pond in Rhode Island (because it would be confused as John S Pond). So, Martha, Ike and John get apostrophes but not William or Edward or any other Fell.

Oh, wouldn't things be so much simpler if it had been Edward Fells? Wait - the possessive would then be Fells' Point. Or, according to Rule 1 in The Elements of Style, the Baltimore neighborhood would be known as Fells's Point.

Try naming a toy store that.

[dtzeigler]

The Greater Hillendale Community Plan

Are there things you want to see happen in Hillendale?

What would you like to change, preserve, or create?

Want to help improve your Community?

Then come get involved in the Greater Hillendale Community Plan!

First meeting will be Wednesday, April 2nd, 6:30pm at Halstead Academy in the Cafeteria, 1111 Halstead Road
Baltimore, MD 21234


Contact us for more details:

Michael Lynch: 410-887-2909, mlynch@baltimorecountymd.gov

Donnell Zeigler: 410-887-3480, dzeigler@baltimorecountymd.gov

[PeterSmith]

BioPark drawing home buyers west
ROBBIE WHELAN
Daily Record Business Writer
April 1, 2008 7:22 PM
At the ceremony for the opening and groundbreaking for the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s two new BioPark buildings, U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings recalled serving on the association board of the nearby Poppleton neighborhood, in 1979.

“Back then, the biggest fear was that the University of Maryland would come across Martin Luther King [Boulevard],” Cummings, a Democrat, said Monday. “But then there came some visionaries. …There are visionaries on both sides of MLK.”

Ever since local developer Wexford Science and Technology broke ground on the BioPark in 2004, public officials, community activists and real estate agents have been asking questions about what the new development means for the blighted West Baltimore neighborhoods that surround it: Poppleton, Hollins Market, Union Square and Washington Village.

What will happen to real estate in the area? What kinds of new people and businesses will move there? Who, if anyone, will be displaced?

University officials expect the BioPark, when its 10 buildings are completed in 10 to 12 years, to create 2,000 jobs and generate about $500 million in capital investment, and much of it is expected to trickle down into the community.

Already, the university has signed deals with Baltimore City Community College and Goodwill Industries to provide educational and work force development services to benefit nearby low-income populations.

But for others, the BioPark means that wealthy, well-educated scientists, engineers and businesspeople will be moving to the area, and it may be a good time to buy and rehab a house or open a business.

Despite the soft residential market, local real estate professionals have seen a marked increase in home prices in Union Square and Hollins Market, including dozens of stately, Civil War-era brick row homes.

“I think that the housing was taking off regardless of the BioPark, and we first noticed that change around six years ago,” said Sam Bassi, a Hollins Market resident and property manager with Pantanel Properties, which specializes in real estate in the neighborhood. “But the BioPark accelerated that process. The fact that there’s going to be a consumer base of 2,000 employees is really going to accelerate the commercial activity in the area.”

Bassi noted that two restaurants — Zella’s Pizzeria and Baltimore Pho — have opened in the last year there, and that this month, UMB will begin running a shuttle service directly from the BioPark to Hollins Market.

Debbie Kuper, an agent with Prudential-Carruthers’ Federal Hill office, said that in 2001, she sold three adjacent rowhouses facing Union Square park, each in the $150,000 price range. Now, she said, the same houses average about $100,000 more.

“Housing is going to be an issue once biotech really gets moving,” she said. “People are feeling better about the neighborhood, thinking that there will be better people over there. … Everyone’s still a little nervous with the market, but the word ‘biotech’ is helping turn things around. A lot of people who come to me say they’re looking for a 10-year investment, and that’s smart.”

The value of homes sold in Union Square, Hollins Market and Washington Village has increased by an average of 53 percent since 2004, according to Live Baltimore, a nonprofit urban marketing group.

But Poppleton provides the most stunning example of a housing market jump-started by redevelopment. Park Square, a city-subsidized mixed use development of more than 500 properties, is scheduled to break ground in 2009, and the Poppleton Co-Op, a 90-unit Section 8 housing complex adjacent to the BioPark’s north side, is undergoing a multimillion-dollar private renovation by the Hampstead Group, which will convert some of its units into market-rate homes.

Last year, four houses in a row on the 1000 block of West Fayette Street, less than two blocks from the BioPark, sold for an average of $371,000 apiece, helping to account for a 588 percent rise in the median home sale price in the neighborhood. In 2004, the median price of a home sold in Poppleton was $59,500.

Audrey Robinson, president of the Poppleton Co-Op, which is subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said local residents are already reaping the benefits of UMB’s investment in the neighborhood.

“We’re feeling so far so good, as long as we don’t become displaced,” she said.

But Robinson said that she and her neighbors have been treated “very well.”

“We are friends with the University of Maryland,” she said. “We have talked with them, and since the builders have been up there, we’ve had a lot of protection from the University of Maryland police department. They’ve treated us very well. That’s been a plus. … It’s cleaner, we have nicer people coming through here, there’s less crime.”

[PeterSmith]

I'm really excited to see the rejuvenation of these West Baltimore neighborhoods. There are so many great areas in such a relatively small space that have been neglected over the years. It'll be great to see the improvement over the next decade.