Neighborhood Association

Most neighborhoods with strong or improving reputations have at least one thing in common: a vibrant neighborhood association or community group. These groups often help stabilize neighborhoods that were teetering, experts say, preventing further slides and turning around a community's outlook. Through beautification efforts, public safety groups, newsletters and festivals, associations often help boost neighborhood pride and exposure among homebuyers and others. "We're no longer talking about stemming decline," said Cheryl A. Casciani, programs director of the Baltimore Community Foundation, a charity organization.

The funeral procession for Matthew Hersl crawled through the tight streets of Southeast Baltimore, moving past the Milan restaurant, the Inner Harbor Travel agency and the Little Italy parking garage. Steve Hersl, Matt's brother, blared his car horn as he inched along. A blue passenger van with a Baltimore Orioles hat resting on the dashboard led the convoy through the 45-year-old city finance supervisor's neighborhood. As the procession passed his home, Steve leaned out his black Hyundai and yelled, "I love you, Matt!"

The funeral procession for Matthew Hersl crawled through the tight streets of Southeast Baltimore, moving past the Milan restaurant, the Inner Harbor Travel agency and the Little Italy parking garage. Steve Hersl, Matt's brother, blared his car horn as he inched along. A blue passenger van with a Baltimore Orioles hat resting on the dashboard led the convoy through the 45-year-old city finance supervisor's neighborhood. As the procession passed his home, Steve leaned out his black Hyundai and yelled, "I love you, Matt!"

There are signs of renewal around Hollins Market, the west-side neighborhood whose fortunes have flowed and ebbed over the past few decades. The old Mencken's Cultured Pearl space on Hollins Street might be getting a new tenant soon. The Cultured Pearl flourished in the early 1990s, the neighborhood's heyday, and finally closed in 1998, after the demise of Gypsy's Cafe, the Market Cafe and the Tell Tale Hearth. In 2008, a Hollins Market booster opened Baltimore Pho in the Cultured Pearl space, in an effort, he said, to bring activity and interest back to the neighborhood.

Forty-three Baltimore community leaders were honored yesterday for working to improve the places where they live -- from organizing baseball teams for children to forming food banks for the needy.The 43 received plaques from state Sen. Ralph M. Hughes, a Democrat whose 40th District includes Park Heights, Waverly and Charles Village, in a ceremony at Coppin State College. Hughes hopes to hold the ceremony annually."Senator Hughes believes there are many individuals in Baltimore who have not given up on this city," Hughes' wife, Mary, acting as mistress of ceremonies, wrote in a statement.

To Jerry O. Pittman, the dilapidated 148-year-old mansion known as "The Mount" offers an opportunity for staff members of his nonprofit group home provider to come together under one roof in an isolated corner of West Baltimore. But Pittman's plans to restore the mansion - fixing its slumping roof and gutting its interior to create office space for about 30 employees - is running into fierce neighborhood opposition. Many residents of the Fairmount community charge that his idea, particularly his proposal to build a community center on an adjacent piece of property, will bring in unwarranted traffic, noise and other unwelcome hazards.

It was, the auctioneer said, "a very unusual opportunity" - 12 renovated rowhouses in and around Baltimore's Patterson Park neighborhood, for sale in whirlwind back-to-back auctions. But then, the reason they were up for grabs is very unusual, too. They belonged to the Patterson Park Community Development Corp., a nonprofit group that helped the East Baltimore neighborhood take a stunning U-turn from rapid decline into a hot place to live. The group countered blight and flight by snapping up vacant homes, rehabbing the properties and selling some while renting out others.

In an attempt to distinguish Loch Raven Village from what residents see as the urban sprawl of Towson, the neighborhood association has put up a series of colorful banners to give the area an identity.On light poles along busy roads, including Putty Hill Avenue, Pleasant Plains Road and Glen Keith Boulevard, hang 34 banners identifying Loch Raven Village -- an unusual, county-funded effort to make the community stand out from the surrounding areas of Towson and Parkville, which residents feel threaten to overshadow it.There's a tendency to see suburban neighborhoods "all as one great sea of homes, and yet they're not," said David Nielsen, member of the Loch Raven Association's board of directors.

Helen M. McMahon, a volunteer and founder of the Poplar Ridge Neighborhood Association in her former Anne Arundel County community, died of a heart attack Feb. 25 at her home in Merritt Island, Fla. She was 76. Born in Baltimore and raised in Locust Point, Helen Merstof attended city public schools. She worked in the accounting department of the Procter & Gamble plant in Locust Point from 1940 until 1954. A longtime resident of Poplar Ridge, Mrs. McMahon helped establish the neighborhood association during the 1950s.

Alonzo D. Lamont Sr., a retired U.S. Postal Service employee and neighborhood activist who was a founding member of the Callaway-Garrison Neighborhood Association, died July 21 of a degenerative nerve disorder at his Northwest Baltimore home. He was 74. Mr. Lamont began his career as a mail clerk in 1953, and rose through the ranks until being named an employment opportunity specialist for the Chesapeake Region in 1964. He worked in Washington until retiring in 1983. However, his home, family and the Belle Avenue neighborhood where he lived for 40 years were the center and focus of his life.

Younger members of Gail L. Dener's neighborhood association suggested a neighborhood website in the '90s, but older members didn't see the point. Who needed to go online when you could just go right outside? There was no easy way to set a site up, either. "We tried to get some help in establishing a website for county neighborhoods, but could not connect with anyone who had the expertise," Dener wrote me in an email. Well -- the once-robust association for the Parkville neighborhood since died "with a whimper.

Janset Nahum, a registered nurse and neighborhood activist who was known as the "Unofficial Mayor of Sugarville," died March 9 of lung cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. She was 79. Janset Aranlar was born in Adapazari, near Istanbul, one of three children. After her father died when she was 2, her mother was unable to care for her, and she was put up for adoption. "She was adopted by a wonderful couple who adored and raised her," said her husband of 50 years, Dr. Albert Nahum, a retired internist and former chief of staff at the old Church Home Hospital.

Baltimore County police have charged a 49-year-old city man with attempted murder, assault and burglary in connection with the robbery of a Towson home early Sunday morning. Bradford Steven Holup of the 4000 block of Corse Ave. in Hamilton was being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He was arrested about 4 a.m. Sunday, after police found him in a car at Bosley and Chesapeake avenues in Towson. A 65-year-old man had returned to his home about 1:30 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Allegheny Ave. whem he discovered a burglary in progress, police said.

I read with great amusement the recent article regarding the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association ("One man has control of neighborhood association," Dec. 21). The histrionics, the ridiculous over-the- top accusations, and the childish pettiness, while laughable, are all to common with these so-called "associations," unfortunately. After living in two different neighborhoods in the Baltimore area, and having to deal with similarly idiotic demands by the two "associations," I have had the misfortune to have to deal with, I have come to the conclusion that this sort of infantile behavior is not at all uncommon with the board members of these quasi-legal juntas.

A dispute that began over the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association's handling of Baltimore Grand Prix funds has escalated, with the volunteer neighborhood leaders attempting to oust one another from power, consulting lawyers and accusing each other of libel in widely circulated emails. Only one member of the board - Ryan Hada, the association president - remains after three others were removed by ballot Tuesday night, as an outside parliamentarian guided planned motions through the voting process.

The Baltimore Grand Prix's turmoil has spread to the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association, with residents demanding the resignation of several board members over their handling of race funds. At issue is a struggle over $10,000 in community impact funds that financially beleaguered Baltimore Racing Development Inc. gave to the neighborhood association as compensation for inconveniences the race caused the neighborhood. Several board members, including past president Paul Robinson, have proposed giving the funds back to Grand Prix organizers as they struggle to pay millions back to lenders and vendors, or freezing the funds until the racing company has paid back its $1.5 million-plus bill to the city - a move fiercely opposed by new association President Ryan Hada.

Opponents of the proposed Carroll County Regional Airport expansion have ramped up their efforts to derail the project in advance of this week's scheduled vote by the county commissioners. One citizens' group sent a letter to the commissioners urging a six-month delay of the decision date, while another met with county officials last week to discuss its concerns. The commissioners are expected to vote Tuesday on one of four options for the airport expansion. "We'll deliberate," said Commissioner Michael D. Zimmer.

There are signs of renewal around Hollins Market, the west-side neighborhood whose fortunes have flowed and ebbed over the past few decades. The old Mencken's Cultured Pearl space on Hollins Street might be getting a new tenant soon. The Cultured Pearl flourished in the early 1990s, the neighborhood's heyday, and finally closed in 1998, after the demise of Gypsy's Cafe, the Market Cafe and the Tell Tale Hearth. In 2008, a Hollins Market booster opened Baltimore Pho in the Cultured Pearl space, in an effort, he said, to bring activity and interest back to the neighborhood.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled Monday that a Federal Hill magic bar will be allowed to keep its live entertainment license, despite objections from the 300-member neighborhood association. The Federal Hill Neighborhood Association challenged Illusions Magic Bar & Lounge's live entertainment license, which was granted by the city in June, claiming that residents' lives have been disrupted by the noise, parking and crime from Illusions and other nearby bars and clubs. Ken Horsman, who owns Illusions with his son, Spencer, applied for the license last year under the city's new live-entertainment zoning rules in order to host vaudeville-style acts, such as jugglers and comedians, he said.

Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood has 34 bars in a three-block radius, and on weekends those add up to one big party. There's dancing, drinking, and, inevitably, fighting and clashes with police. At the outskirts of this alcohol-infused blur is a magic bar. With chandeliers and leather seats, Illusions Bar & Lounge might seem an unlikely target for the ire of the local community association, when compared with the rowdy behavior of some of its neighbors. Yet Monday, Illusions and the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association will be headed to Baltimore City Circuit Court as the association attempts to get the bar's entertainment license revoked.