Updates

Last week I conducted an oral history interview with Jazmin S. In our pre interview I learned a lot about the way that spaces have changed in the neighborhood from the perspective of someone that lives and works in the changing area. In regard to the changing businesses and public spaces it seems that at one point in time there was a lack of communication among the business owners themselves about how they could support each other and create multiple spaces that the community could use. 

In the early days of this class one of the questions that I had and something that I still want to know is where the children and teens fit into the redevelopment plans. Somewhere between our conversation, interview, and talk in class Jazmin made an interesting point. Almost all of the spaces in SNAE are catered to older or young adults. There are a lot of spaces that sell alcohol and many spaces with age limits, but not a lot of spaces for children and families to come together. I realized that this aspect really bothers me. Jazmin mentioned some of the spaces where she knows children hang out, but the idea that there are so few of them bothers me. In the 10 years that SNAE has been working in that area has there ever been a discussion about a community center, or more a space where whole families can come together?  Are there any community centers in Station North or Greenmount West. A community center in an arts and entertainment district that possibly focused on art and entertainment activities seems like a great idea. A community centers that work to engage the community would probably be very beneficial for almost any community. I'm sure I'll have about 100 more questions once I finish transcribing Jazmin's interview. I hope to have that done by Friday or Sarurday. 

Invest, Disinvest, Reinvest, Repeat

The rise of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District (SNAE) is over ten years in the making. Our assignments this week provided me with a little more context and some insight into the relatively current climate of the discourse on SNAE. The assignment included two articles from the Baltimore City Paper-"Your Art Here" Jenson, B. (2003, July 30) and "Can Station North Save the City" Woods, B. (2013, July 3), and a July 2013 podcast from a Marc Steiner Show Discussion that was based off the "Can Station North Save the City” article. In addition to providing insight into the types of discussions that are surrounding SNAE's progress this week’s assignment served as link between the events of the Pivot in Perspective chapter in Baltimore 68 and present day SNAE. 

One point that really stood out to me in both the article and the discussion was the point made about the cycle of disinvestment and reinvestment that has existed in Baltimore for decades. Mr. Woods talks about how the city is stuck between disinvestment and investment. Where disinvestment puts people like Dwight H in troublesome positions because living next to a vacant house means your homeowners insurance gets canceled, and too much investment means that renters get priced out. Baltimore 68 illustrates how In the years before the Baltimore Riots of April 1968 took place the City was already working on redevelopment efforts that included some merchants and excluded others. The North Avenue Market went under due to blockbusting and declining property values and residents and business owners were being displaced (or scheduled to be displaced) before the riots razed area businesses. From the discussion that took place about about the "Can Station North Save the City" article it feel as if the cycle is still spinning along. The planning for SNAE began in 2011 from what I've been reading it seems like the interests of long term residents were not included or considered. 

Baltimore's minority and low income populations have continuously been left out of the conversation. In the discussion Michelle Antoinette, AKA LOVE the poet, poses a question about intentions of the city's developers and if this exclusion is intentional. I agree with what Marc Steiner's response. I would like to believe that there is no group of men twirling their mustaches whilst plotting to leave certain populations-that are already feeling disenfranchised- out of the redevelopment processes and then intentionally pushing them out. I see it as symptom of another flaw in the system where where cities and developers are so wrapped up in their bottom lines (and keeping the city afloat) that they forget that there are actual lives and livelihoods at stake. This is not a problem in Baltimore alone, post industrial cities across the US seem to be struggling with it. As the guest on Steiner's show were speaking I kept recalling the controversy surrounding NYC's Department of Housing Preservation and Development's (DHPD) approval of Extell Development Company's high rise plan that included what many were calling a "poor door". The backlash that ensued from city politicians to discourse among social media outlets and news sources makes you ask the question: who was in the decision boardroom of the NYC DHPD? And who overlooked the potential backlash that such a decision would cause? Maybe they came up with some sort of sound explanation as to why the plan was approved, but I haven't come across it. In my mind that means the boardroom must have been missing someone who thought critically about the positive and negative implications of their decisions. So while I do not think there is a room full of men plotting to disregard the needs of the city’s residents, I do think there are several rooms full of men (and maybe a few women) that are making decisions with minds are not in tune with the majority of the people that their decisions impact.

This brings me back to Baltimore and SNAE. In the discussion on the Steiner show Ben Stone essentially says that he would like to see residents becoming engaged in the process before so much time has passed that SNAE ends up like the other gentrified neighborhoods and we all end up asking “what happened?" But it seems like they weren't included at a crucial time- the beginning. So what can we do now, to include them in the planning and redevelopment process? It's been two years since this particular conversation has occurred and my biggest question is what has been done to include the community in the process. 

Project Planning: 

This week helped me shape my potential project. I really want to know what long term residents and artists are thinking about the buzz surrounding SNAE. I would love to do some oral history interviews to get more perspectives from the residents. 

Questions for Ben Stone: 

In your opinion what are some of the biggest strides that SNAE has made towards including all residents (not just artists) in the redevelopment process? 

What is the most frustrating aspect of your position as executive director of SNAE? 

If you had to boil your work down into one clause or statement, what would you want Baltimore City Residents to know about your vision for SNAE? 

(panoramo.com)

Babin, J. (2014, July 30). New York Skyscraper's Separate 'Poor Door' Called A Disgrace. In NPR.ORG News . Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://www.npr.org/2014/07/30/336322608/new-york-skyscrapers-separate-poor-door-sparks-outrage

Elfenbein, J., Nix, E., & Hollowak, T. (2011). Baltimore ’68: Riots and Rebirth in an American City. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Jenson, B. (2003, July 30). Will the Station North Arts District Paint a Brighter Future for Midtown?”. In City Paper . Retrieved February 13, 2015, from https://web.archive.org/web/20130322013708/http://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3328

Pomorski, C. (2014, August 27). The worst thing about the ‘Poor Door’ might be its Naysayers. In Observer/Real Estate: Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof . Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://observer.com/2014/08/the-worst-thing-about-the-poor-door-might-be-the-nay-sayers/

Segar, M. (2014, July 21). Tale of Two Cities: NYC approves ‘poor door’ for luxury high-rise. In Russian Times: Question More. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://rt.com/usa/174532-nyc-poor-door-luxury-apartments/

The Marc Steiner Show (2013). Can Station North Save Baltimore City? [Online podcast]. Baltimore : The Marc Steiner Show. Retrieved from http://www.steinershow.org/podcasts/local-and-state-politics/can-station-north-save-baltimore-city/

Woods, B. (2013, July 3). “Can Station North Save the City?”. In City Paper . Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.citypaper.com/news/features/2013/bcp-cms-1-1514525-migrated-story-cp-20130703-featu-20130703,0,6682549.story

Blog 1: The “G” Word.

When I began to hear the term gentrification used in academia it seemed like it was surrounded by an air of prohibition. It struck me as odd that so many people seemed to speak about it in the same hushed tone that they would normally reserve for other undesirable and uncomfortable topics like racism, as if it was too risqué to talk about publicly. It seemed that people would skirt the conversation around gentrification when it was mentioned, and I would often see terms like terms “urban development”, “neighborhood revitalization”, or “urban renewal” used synonymously for it in conversations and texts. Replacing the term "gentrification" with a term like “urban renewal” makes me uncomfortable though, because I feel that it is misleading. When I hear gentrification I think of displaced communities not revitalized communities. For our projects I am interested in learning more about the role that art can play in gentrification or community revitalization. I don't have any project ideas at the moment but I do have questions. How do public spaces change when neighborhoods are gentrified? Does gentrification reduce the amount of free public spaces? Is there a place for public/community art in gentrified neighborhoods?

Community In America: A brief Introduction

My name is Nailah. I am a Social Work and Media & Communications Studies major. Welcome to the second installment of this blog. My last post on this blog was December 5th 2012. (It's crazy how quickly time can fly!) I'm excited to get started and see how our projects grow. I'm also looking forward to reading some of the Adventure Blogs. 

Reflection Draft

As I scanned the 1^st floor of the Polish Home Hall I smiled to myself thinking “wow, I can’t believe it’s finally here”. Just a few hours earlier my classmates arrived, questioning how the day’s events would unfold. The hall was essentially empty with stacks of folded tables on the floor.  We got to work quicly and the set up time flew by.  When I stopped to look around the place looked much cozier than we found it, and everything felt ready. The tables were arranged, the bar was stocked, and the floors had been swept. The three pillars that segmented that space had been wrapped in a festive garland.

One o’clock still seemed far off when our guest began to trickle in. I was surprised, my biggest worry was that we wouldn’t have a good turnout. Those doubts were quickly stashed when that trickle of people turned into a steady stream of people waving money in Elaine and Haley’s faces. Working the food station gave me a sense of how many people actually came. The line of people appeared endless, but the food had to have been delicious because more than one community member approached us asking questions along the lines of “what do I have to do to get you to give me some more of that pulled pork… it was amazing”.

While the food line was dying down I could see and feel that the event was flowing well. I enjoyed hanging back several times just to see everything that was going on. It was nice to see my class mates engaging with the people around them smiling from ear to ear, and even while I was doing my scans people would approach me to ask about my experience in the class, and to congratulate us on the event.

Below is my list  of Maryland/Baltimore media outlets. I added hyper links to their contact pages and if the site had clear event posting instructions I added those as well. 

The City Paper

Please e-mail all events info and photos directly to City Paper at: calendar@citypaper.com

 Place an ad

Contact Us

Baltimore Brew

Contact Us

To reach the editors of Baltimore Brew:
Email us at editors@baltimorebrew.com or call 410-802-4990

Baltimore Guide

http://baltimoreguide.com/http:/baltimoreguide.com/whats-on-your-calendar-let-us-know/

Contact Us

The Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/about/bal-about-sun-contact2,0,172607.htmlstory

Explore Baltimore MD

http://baltimore.exploremd.us/events/

Explore Baltimore County/The Baltimore Messenger

explorebaltimorecounty.com

The Maryland Gazette

Community News

News Submission Form

WYPR

Submit Event

Contacts

Other Updates

Buttons Have been ordered, they should be ready soon, Commonvision Should call me. 

For my write ups in addition to Griber's I'm working on Fred & Margies and the Cozy Corner Tearoom.

On Friday I did my first oral history interview. I think it went well. I'm a tad worried that it's too  much like a regular interview. I tried to ask "descriptive" questions like Linda Shopes suggested. I guess that either way I think it was a good interview. Over all, I'm glad I decided to collect an oral history, while I was recording I realized how much I really enjoy hearing peoples stories.

Friday was also the grand opening of Chesapeake Compost Works.  It is great to see such a positive themed industrial like business come to Baltimore. I think that this is a great example of how "good business" can actually add to the community and support the environment.  I can't wait to the see their progress. 

Progress and Updates

I can't believe that our event is less than a month away! Where did the time go?
Even though I was only gone for two classes, it feels like I've missed so much. Which on the bright side means that we've really been making progress with our tasks and projects, and that is both exciting and encouraging. It feels like everything  is coming together, and that's a great feeling. Here are a few of my updates for the week.

Buttons: I sent Commonvision our order for 100 buttons with the lovely images that Jennie and her dad did. They said it was good to go however they emailed me today saying that they still needed the templates. I was confused as to what they were talking about, so I went to The Commons for clarification. Apparently they want us copy all of our images onto the template for every button that we need. It was mildly annoying because, no one explained that to me. I thought we just needed to use the template for sizing. Would anyone be able to do this with photoshop?

Tickets: We need a design for the tickets so we can send them off . for 200 black and white tickets we should only pay around $10.75.
                                                                                 
Brochures: I meet with a manager at Commonvision and she's supposed to be sending me quotes for different brochure options. For our ideal printing they'd need to have College Park print them because they don't offer that type of fold at UMBC, so we may want to look into some other Baltimore options.

Oral History Stuff: 
So I have my oral history interview scheduled with Jason Reed for Friday Nov 9 at the Filbert Street Garden. I  reserved a camera to tape my interview but I'd like to use the tape recorder as a back up. In our pre oral history interview Mr. Reed gave me some great background information on the garden and the role that he plays as its steward. He also passed along the information that he gathered from Linda Bardo, the woman  who was a big agent in the second installment of the garden. She said she game him all that she knows/remembers would it be too invasive to reach out and ask for an oral history interview?
Mr. Reed also said that he might be able to help me secure some interviews after our meeting if I have time to walk over to the school and meet some folks.
I plan to go to the grand opening Chesapeake Compost Works to get some b roll footage.