A living tribute to area seniors In the past several...

A living tribute to area seniors

In the past several months, Baltimore has witnessed an almost endless barrage of negative articles and comments against "Stadium Place," the affordable retirement community proposed for the Memorial Stadium site.

The community has been told this is no place for subsidized housing. To call Stadium Place just "subsidized housing" is like calling Camden Yards just another grassy field.

Stadium Place is not just housing and the housing won't all be subsidized.

The development's plans include homeownership, market-rental housing, tax-credit housing and HUD-supported housing, along with a full-service YMCA and an interfaith chapel.

It will be an open community serving all ages, faiths and ethnic groups, with housing that offers supportive services and affordable assisted living.

Stadium Place offers Baltimore the opportunity to show other cities how this "graying nation" should care for its seniors: not by ignoring them or isolating them, but by integrating them into lively communities where security and care are assured.

The need is great. We continue to see seniors living in poverty and isolation; we see widows become victims of violence on our streets and in their homes; we see lives cut short and stripped of dignity.

We also see middle-income seniors who have no chance of passing the financial entrance requirements of the typical retirement community. They worry about security and adequate medical care.

The church communities and neighborhood associations of Northeast Baltimore chose to do something about this. The Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. (GEDCO) pulled together a partnership that has the experience and the financial backing to make this vision a reality.

Who would imagine that elected officials and commentators would try to sabotage this effort?

But they have -- and if they succeed, it will be tragic.

It is even sadder that they use the issue of the war memorial as an excuse to sabotage an effort to care for the most needy veterans in our midst.

Stadium Place will be a "living memorial" providing care for and preserving the dignity of veterans and widows of veterans who have served our nation.

It will be a place where what Tom Brokaw calls the "greatest generation" can live out their lives in the dignity they deserve.

It is time to move on and build both monuments: the living one, Stadium Place, and the new proposed veterans memorial at Camden Yards.

The Rev. John R. Sharp, Baltimore

The writer is president of the Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. (GEDCO).

Keep old stadium a place to gather

While we bemoan the loss of the underpinnings provided by familiar surroundings, we pass death sentences on structures that represent our heritage and our fundamental principles. When the victim is a sound and eminently usable building, the waste is greater.

Its builders envisioned Memorial Stadium as a lasting monument to local heroes, and heroes of another stripe played sports here. We don't, as a rule, raze monuments and should not begin now.

The economic issues are equally striking. Close to Johns Hopkins University, the stadium is ideal for conversion to academic research and administration.

Other sites are equally appropriate for senior residences - sites not burdened by the cost of demolishing a substantial building.

Because of Preservation Maryland and others we have an opportunity to reassess the stadium's fate ("Demolition of stadium delayed by state board," Nov. 30).

I hope that the mayor and City Council will agree with me and thousands of other native Baltimoreans that Memorial Stadium is too precious and too economically advantageous to destroy.

Ronald W. Pilling, Baltimore

If new proposals emerge for creation of a technology center or other uses that retain parts of Memorial Stadium, I also urge consideration of a plan that might also allow the preservation of the athletic field in the middle of the stadium and the reinstallation of a minimal amount of stadium seating.

To pay homage to the great sports history of the 33rd Street site, it would be great if, as part of a multi-use redevelopment of the stadium, a more intimate 5,000- to 10,000-seat venue could be fashioned out of the stadium shell.

While I wouldn't create a busy events center that detracts from the residential character of its environs, there could be a conservative calendar of 10 to 15 sporting events on the site each year.

Maryland's numerous minor-league baseball teams could each be invited to play one or two home games on 33rd Street that could be presented as the "Memorial Stadium Summer Baseball Series."

In addition, a modest schedule of high school football games could be hosted.

Such a plan would allow Memorial Stadium to continue to be celebrated as a community gathering place.

Glenn R. Bucek, Chevy Chase

Edison Schools serves city well

Kalman Hettleman's recent column "Edison's 3 schools must reveal costs" (Opinion