Pretty in pink for city's northeast Belair-Edison blushes every spring in snug rowhouse community

Spring in Belair-Edison is synonymous with azaleas.

The flowers bud throughout the square mile that constitutes this Northeast Baltimore neighborhood, their vibrant pink clashing with the more sedate red brick used to build most of the homes.

From the neighborhood's major intersection, where Belair Road and Erdman Avenue meet, rowhouses march outward until they bump into Herring Run Park to the north and east, Clifton Park Golf Course to the west and Sinclair Lane to the south.

A sprinkling of single-family homes and duplexes -- about 1.5 percent of the neighborhood's 6,900 homes -- sit in a clump by themselves. The entire neighborhood is punctuated at regular intervals with small businesses -- doctors' offices, dry cleaners and restaurants.

"It's very affordable," said Renee Travis, who moved to Belair-Edison in 1995. She owns one of the few single-family homes in the neighborhood.

"I wanted to live in the city, but I wanted nice neighbors," she said. "Here it's relatively peaceful, but still very convenient. My son can play in peace."

The same things that drew Travis to Belair-Edison almost four years ago appealed to Dorothy Bence 45 years ago.

"It's such a nice neighborhood with good neighbors and friends and easy access to downtown when I want to go," she said. "My neighborhood is terrific."

The oldest homes date to the 1930s, but the neighborhood was not established until 1940. Back then, it was outside the city, in an area dominated by the now long-defunct Brehms Brewery. Houses were built in Belair-Edison through the 1950s.

"This used to be the suburbs," said Barbara Aylesworth, director of Belair-Edison Housing Service Inc., who added that the average price of a home in the area is $55,000.

Diverse mix

Now the neighborhood is a diverse mix of original residents and newcomers, people of many races and religions, white- and blue-collar workers.

Recently, the residents have banded together to fight a businessman who wants to put a rubble crusher on a landfill that he owns on the edge of Belair-Edison.

A fading debutante of a neighborhood, Belair-Edison is struggling to reconcile its past to its present -- and to plan for the future.

Bence and Travis acknowledge the problems but are willing to defend it and keep their community safe.

"We have come together [to fight] what needs to be fought," Bence said. "The neighborhood is really standing together."

And then there are those such as Kip Kunsman, who are part of that fight but are discouraged.

"I love the neighborhood. I love my home. I don't like what's going on in my neighborhood," he said. "It's kind of distressing."

Kunsman and his partner bought their house for $66,000 in May 1991. Though discouraged with some of the neighborhood problems, Kunsman believes he could not afford a similar house elsewhere.

His red brick rowhouse has hardwood floors, stained glass and a view of Herring Run Park, where Kunsman walks his dog.

"They don't build homes like this anymore," he said.

Belair-Edison is a neighborhood at a crossroads.

It retains a charming gentility -- people chat on their front porches in the evening, wave to neighbors and watch children playing in the yards and riding their bicycles.

It is a place where an anonymous resident organizes an Easter egg hunt for children at Herring Run Park; where community association meetings draw dozens of people every month, and where residents participate in a vigorous Neighborhood Watch program.

Landfill sore point

Yet, on the outskirts sits that contested landfill.

"For the most part, I think the neighborhood is still a very nice neighborhood. It's just a matter of getting folks motivated," said Kunsman, who is active in the Belair-Edison Community Association, which was established in 1948 and touts itself as the oldest continuously operating community association in Baltimore.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the community is planning a festival and flea market in Herring Run Park this weekend.

The Belair-Edison Housing Service will hold its sixth annual community open house from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. today. Its office at 3412 Belair Road (410-485-8422) will offer light refreshments and maps.

The community association is very active -- organizing tree plantings and park cleanups, leading the charge against the rubble crusher and mediating disputes among residents and scores of other activities.

"There's so much quiet good going on here," said Kelley Ray, the community association president.

"Belair-Edison really is a great place to live."

Belair-Edison

Population: 1,500

Commuting time to downtown Baltimore: 10 minutes

Public schools: Brehms Lane Elementary, Furley Elementary, Sinclair Lane Elementary, Northeast Middle School, Thurgood Marshall Middle, Lake Clifton/Eastern Senior High

Points of interest: Herring Run Park, Clifton Park Golf Course

ZIP code: 21213

Average price of a single-family home: $55,000 *

* According to the Belair-Edison Housing Service Inc.

Pub Date: 4/26/98