Imagine if they tore down the venerable Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes and 139 years of horse racing tradition in Northwest Baltimore.
Park Heights shopkeeper Marcus Melvin has pondered the possibility. He'd support a shopping complex as a way to bring needed jobs to the "devastated" neighborhood near the track.
No thanks, say Larry and Vicki Kloze, who live a block north of Pimlico. A shopping mall would probably fail, they argue. Far better would be a sedate office park with lots of green space.
Especially at Preakness time, it may border on sacrilege to ponder Pimlico without its storied oval or famed Triple Crown leg. But amid uncertainty hanging over the track because of its owner's bankruptcy and the sorry state of horse racing, neighbors in all directions have been thinking about just such a future.
As they muse, eyes remain surprisingly dry.
"Every dog has his day," Larry Kloze said, "and racing's day is gone."
To be sure, Pimlico may well enjoy many more years as a horse track. Owner Magna Entertainment Corp. has postponed plans to auction Pimlico, the Preakness and Laurel Park this summer. And state lawmakers handed Gov. Martin O'Malley the power to seize the tracks and Preakness, if need be, to keep them in Maryland.
Meanwhile, Pikesville developer Carl Verstandig has backed off his provocative statements about possibly seeking to raze the track and build a shopping mall.
Still, Pimlico's long-term viability remains in question, even with voters' approval of slots as a revenue source to help save the horse-racing industry. And so, nearby residents feel there is ample reason to reflect on Pimlico and its future.
The track and its neighbors have long had a complicated relationship. Many residents are proud to host an internationally recognized event in their backyard. At the same time, grumbling about Preakness traffic and drunken behavior on residential streets is routine.
And while some love the sight of horses on the track, others point out that Pimlico resembles a ghost town much of the year, with little to see and few jobs to be had.
Overlaying this is the reality that the track separates two very different neighborhoods. Greater Park Heights, with more than 30,000 residents, suffers from chronic high unemployment, crime and serious blight. Mount Washington, by contrast, is leafy and prosperous, and its 1,600 households reside in roomy single-family homes.
