Two points of light

Monday editions of the Baltimore Sun often carry the roundup of the weekend's crime stories. One can often catch up on accounts of murders over the weekend that did not make it into the papers. Monday last week was no different. It painted a grim picture of the city's life.

I witnessed two events on the way to work that week which tilted the city's civility meter a few more degrees to the positive end.

Walking south on Charles Street (south of Lombard) on Tuesday morning, I saw this Honda sedan swerve round the corner from Pratt charging northbound in the center lane. About fifty yards into Charles and after straightening out its course after a couple of wags of the tail-end, the car swerved to the left lane and pulled up abruptly in front of a man in a wheelchair and holding a cup in his hand. This man is a regular downtown and I had seen him a number of times before. He was an amputee. As the car pulled to a stop and the driver-side window and an hand reached out to the wheelchair bound man and dropped in a couple of bills into the cup. He then pulled away from the curb and tore away. (I got a feeling that this is the way he normally drives.) I wondered what prompted his act of charity.

A couple of mornings later, walking down Light Street towards my office, I decided to stop by the Dunkin Donuts to pick up a bagel.
this is the store that frequently has a line of customers stretching out onto the side walk but not this morning. As I stepped into the store, the young lady behind the counter beamed me the widest and brightest smile I had seen in a long time. In fact, the two counter crew(I think they were from India or the Middle East) seemed determined to spread good cheer to everyone who stepped into the store. They were engaged in a friendly rivalry of being the first to snag any customer who entered. "I got him!" punctuated the store lending it a definite festive ambiance. I just stood there, jaw just about hanging, marveling at the sight of such enthusiasm behind a counter I had, until then, not seen in Baltimore. You could tell by the greetings that many were regular customers and I wondered how many of them were there for a regular dose of morning cheer as much as the coffee.

That reminded me of George H W Bush's thousands points of light. Hokey as it sounded when he uttered it, I nevertheless wonder what would happen to Baltimore when these two encapsulations of positivity were repeated five hundred times daily across the city.

The No. 5 bus

The 7:17 run of the number 5 bus from Mondawmin to Federal Street or Johns Hopkins/Cedonia takes me downtown to my office. It usually takes about 25 minutes to arrive at Charles Street where I alight compared to the 7 minutes or so that the subway takes. But I stick with the 5 for a number of reasons.

The bus is seldom crowded and I am usually able to get a seat. It is a good time to take a nap or meditate while the bus meanders towards downtown. I am usually the only passenger who is not African American but after a couple of years, I am no longer self-conscious about it. However in the past year, an Anglo woman is usually on the bus when I board it. Her demeanor suggests that she has had a hard life.

The ride is relaxing and I find pleasure in the predictability of the 5. MTA drivers work on their routes for a few months at stretch before they switch and so I enjoy greeting the same driver each morning. When I am late to arrive at the bus stop, they will even stop for me when they see me dash from the house to the bus stop. When I take the 7:17 run of the 5, I also see the regular riders get on and off. On most mornings, the same middle aged couple gets on two stops further down the route and greets everyone as they amble down the aisle. I wonder what their stories are as they do not appear to be headed for work. Then there is the sullen high school student who tries to have the seat to himself by placing his pack next to him and only removes it when asked by newly alighted passengers. Perhaps he is sleepy and needs his space. When it is lacrosse season, he usually has his stick with him. I wonder what his story is. A couple of Latino guys get on the second stop on North Avenue and it seems they are on their way to some kind of construction work although they do not carry any tools or equipment. They usually get off after a short ride about 5 stops on Druid Hill Avenue and I wonder why they do not walk. It would have taken them ten or fifteen minutes. I also wonder where they work since they have been riding this route the last couple of years. In the past year, a former colleague of mine at LIRS who now works for the State Education Department has started getting on the 5 and it was good to reconnect with him.

When I ride the 5 gives I get a sense I am part of a neighborhood that has its own rhythm. I probably won't feel if I drove to work. (Automobiles, like houses, can isolate us from our surroundings This is especially true for us since we live in a stand alone house with its own parking area.) Sure, Reservoir Hill is not Mr Roger's Neighborhood. Nonetheless I am re-assured that Reservoir Hill is not all boarded up homes and drug dealers. It becomes clear to me that this is a community where people live purposeful and productive lives.

Mass for one...not counting Fr Tom

Service at St Francis this morning was a brief affair. Ellen was away at the Women Retreat at North Baltimore Mennonite Church and the rest of the congregation did not show up. It is made up of mostly elderly folks or persons in poor health and it doesn't take much to prevent them from showing up. So it was just Fr Tom and me. It was in a way meaningful and intimate to be the only person receiving communion. One day when I remember to I will ask Fr Tom why he labors on year after year with his little flock...

Meeting more neighbors and caring for your neighborhood...

I walked down to the Bolton Hill Garden Club plant sale this morning and returned with a red sweet pepper and a purple sweet pepper plant. On the way back, I walked by a two gentlemen who were chatting outside their row house on Eutaw Place, a couple of blocks south of RHHP. One of them, whose name was Mike, was preparing to do some yard work. He noticed my pepper plants, and decided to aske me for some gardening advice. He wanted to know how to tell the weeds from the flowers in his little flower bed which had a clump of day lilies and some cosmos seedlings. The three of us entered into a pleasant conversation ranging from the pleasures of eating fresh vegetables to the differences between Seattle and Baltimore. Mike turned out to be the owner of the building and the other gentleman, Peter, was a tenant in Mike's building. Peter had relatives in Seattle and extolled the beauty of Seattle.

Somehow the conversation drifted to the subject of the Baltimore police. Mike recounted the time when he was approached and questioned by a police officer while he was dropping a bag of garbage in the can in the alley behind his building. The officers asked him for his identification and wanted to search him because he fitted the description of a black male wearing a white tee-shirt and there was report of someone of that description prowling the neighborhood. Mike was resigned to the incident and recognized that police officers had difficult jobs. I am happy to have met two more neighbors.

In the afternoon, I swept the carpet of flowers and pollen shed by the tree on the corner of our lot. As I did so, it occurred to me that it was almost a lost cause as more flowers and litter would soon carpet the sidewalk again. As I contemplated this sisyphean challenge, it occurred to me that it important for us to continue to keep our parts of our neighborhood tidy. One way to improve our neighborhood is for more residents to show that they care about their neighborhood. I believe a neighborhood is healthy not because of the wealth of its residents but because enough of them care for the place they call home. If this is true, then there is hope as I see more people in Reservoir Hill (mostly newcomers) out there in front of their houses tending to their yards and cleaning the sidewalks. One such person is Brian who lives one block away on Linden. On his own initiative, he keeps his block clean. He also mows the vacant lot across the street from his house every two weeks. Inspired by him, I mowed the vacant lot on the southwest corner of Linden and Whitelock and will adopt it as my ongoing project. I hope that there will soon be enough of us to form the critical mass. I think effort of many individuals can make significant changes to a neighborhood. Gentrification and affordability of a neighborhood is a whole different discussion.

I hope that through our own modest effort that we can be North Baltimore Mennonite Church's contribution to the community. Instead of merely taking advantage of the cheap real estate, NBMC is actually participating in Reservoir Hill through Ellen and myself.

Meeting more neighbors

Today is the neighborhood clean-up. Father Tom, Ellen and I were there but the organizer was no where to be seen. It was a beautiful morning so I decided to mow the overgrown vacant lot across the street on the southwest corner of Whitelock and Linden. While mowing, a couple of men were loading building supplies onto their truck. One of the men turned out to be the owner of the house across the street on Whitelock. We commiserated on the burdens of home ownership. He then asked me where I lived and I gestured towards RHHP. He inquired to the nature of the and I explained the relationship of RHHP to the North Baltimore Mennonite Church and the residents. He said that he is Ethiopian and that his wife went to a Mennonite college in Virginia 25 years ago. I suggested that it might be Eastern Mennonite University which jogged his memory. He said that his name was Akele and introduced me to his son Adam and Jose who appeared to work for Akele. Small world.

My First Roach

My name is Beth and I am an RHHP resident. I am living in Baltimore this year doing Mennonite Volunteer Service. I am a recent graduate from Seattle Pacific University, and have experienced some significant changes in moving from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast.

A few weeks ago I had my first cockroach sighting of Baltimore, which, if you talk to others, is incredible that I have only seen one my entire time here! Let's be honest... I was kind of dramatic immediately after spotting it. Here are some pretty funny notes that were exchanged on the kitchen counter.

More Easter Eggs

More photos from our Easter egg dying.

Some residents dyed eggs for their first time, while others have done this every year since they were young. We sat around the table discussing different egg dying techniques. We also talked about Easter egg hunts, and the different traditions that our families have!

More pics from the RHHP Garden

The beginnings of a garden...

More police activity

When I got off the bus one evening last week, there were a few marked and unmarked police cars surrounding another car outside our parking lot. It appeared to be a drug bust - of either buyers or dealers. The subjects were white and male and female so I can safely conclude that they are buyers. (I couldn't tell how many there were since there were a few plainclothes cops and I didn't want to stand and gawk.) It has been an ongoing complaint that Reservoir Hill and other neighborhoods around here are the markets for white folks from other neighborhoods. Father Tom, who is the neighborhood fixture and historian, recognizes some of the frequent buyers. The police department appears to be responding to community pressure to crack down on buyers by carrying out such busts. A responsive city hall is encouraging but residents also recognize that such measures merely drive the buyers to other neighborhoods. That is not so encouraging. In the long run, the suppression of the drug trade through police action does not seem to be the answer although I must say it feels good when it is my neighborhood the dealers and their customers are staying away from. It conjures up the image of people going around with shovels to pound down gopher hills. The critters will simply pop up elsewhere in the meadow.

Aaron's 23rd birthday celebration.

We had cupcakes following tonight's monthly house meeting to celebrate Aaron's birthday yesterday.

Introducing Father Tom Composto and the Saint Francis Center in Reservoir Hill

Ellen and I attend church at the St Francis Center where Father Tom Composto conducts mass. He lives in an apartment above the center. A retired college professor in his seventies, Fr Tom has resided in Reservoir Hill for over 45 years and has seen the neighborhood through all the changes with the times. The congregation is small and made up of primarily of African Americans from the neighborhood as well as those who used to live in Reservoir Hill.

His masses are brief and to the point. His homilies are even shorter and he has his notes in his trademark yellow pad. He plays the organ with a flourish. The hymnal is a binder of 60's hits such as "We may never pass this way again" and "Put your hands in the hand". We are in an out in less than 40 minutes. He will hold service for as few as one as in a number of occasions when Ellen is out of town and no one else is present. He and I will sing duets!

The center is a block from RHHP and is home to tutoring programs, a computer lab and occasional Narcotic Anonymous marathon group sessions. Neighborhood groups also use the center as a meeting place.

He makes it his business to keep an eye on the goings on in the neighborhood including the drug dealers who ply their trade along Whitelock Street. On weekends, Fr Tom plays a baby grand piano and sings show tunes at Vinny's Cafe, an Italian restaurant in Dundalk, a blue collared neighborhood in east Baltimore. He also hires out for parties.

Eutaw Place row houses

Beautiful row houses

The trees are in full bloom

RHHP romance moves to the next level

More signs of renewal and hope

Tonight Ellen and I attended the monthly meeting, at Saint Francis Center, of the newly formed Reservoir Hill Neighborhood Association which was formed by a group of formerly disaffected members of the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council. There were about 15 of us present. The focus was on tapping into a federal Healthy Neighborhood fund that could potentially be worth up to $5 million dollars. The goal is for the group to identify a number of houses in Reservoir Hill for rehabilitation and sold to new residents. Some ideas for recruiting prospective buyers. We also discussed the upcoming Reservoir Hill Garden Tour and the neighborhood clean up preceding that.

On an even more positive note, the trees I mentioned in the previous post were put into the ground. It looks nice.

There was a bit of an excitement a bit past midnight this morning. A fugitive involved in a high speed chase by the police hit another car at the corner of Eutaw Place and Whitelock, right outside our house. The car that was hit was pushed onto the sidewalk and took down the corner post of the fence that was just recently repaired. The fugitive tried to run but was wrestled down by some cops. The unfortunate driver of the other car had to be taken away in an ambulance.

Veggies from last year's garden

New signs of change and renewal

Springs brings about new growth as well as renewal. Signs of renewal in Reservoir Hill are popping themselves along Whitelock and Eutaw Place and beyond. Some activities are of the city investing in this neighborhood. Walking around the neighborhood, we see trees with root-balls wrapped in burlap getting ready to be planted along the sidewalks. There are also signs of new neighbors and residents reclaiming the areas in front of their houses. I was encouraged yesterday to see a neighbor across the street sweeping the sidewalk and street in front of his brownstone. I feel we have another partner in the effort to reclaim the neighborhood one beer can, one wine bottle, one fast-food wrapper or one used condom at a time.

Garden on Eutaw Place corner of yard

Getting to know the neighbors

Ellen and I have lived in Reservoir Hill for almost two and a half years and it seems that we are just beginning to get to the neighborhood. People seem to be reserved but given the right opportunities, they will reach out. I discovered it accidentally this past summer and fall while working in the garden. A number of people, overcome by their curiosity, asked about the vegetables in my modest garden. In particular, some asked about the red Swiss chard with its striking red and green foliage. Many had never seen or heard of it. I had the opportunity to give some to a sister of a neighbor who visits often and we discuss different ways to cook this vegetable. In the course of a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, three different people stopped by to ask about the garden and about the house. A young couple who lives in one of the brownstone across the street were out walking their dog and stopped by to ask about the house. The husband works for the Voice of America and was acquainted with asylum seekers. His wife was interested in the Mennonites and was surprised that the Mennonites have a presence in the city. Shortly after, Glynice, a neighbor who lives in one of the row houses to the north stopped by to ask for advice about her little garden in front of her house. She was also interested in the Mennonite connection and said that her nephew in Jackson Mississippi attends a Mennonite church. I offered her some of my extra parsley and she accepted my offer. I look forward to many such encounters with the neighbors and to know the neighborhood better.

Article about the original owner of 2401 Eutaw Place - you may also download this article.

Ernest Schmeisser - original owner of 2401 Eutaw Place

Article about the original owner of 2401 Eutaw Place

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/32863704/Ernest-Schmeisser---original-owner-of-2401-Eutaw-Place

Please cut and paste the above link to your browser and read the article. Sorry I don't know how to make it easier to read this article.