Row Houses

Five people were injured yesterday when two West Baltimore row houses that were being renovated without proper construction permits partially collapsed and the debris fell onto two adjoining homes, city officials said.The partial collapse of the two structures in the 500 block of McMechen Street damaged or weakened four nearby houses, and city officials decided last night to order their occupants to temporarily move out. The Red Cross was working to find shelter for the families from the evacuated structures -- two adjacent row houses on Division Street and two adjoining row houses on McMechen Street -- until they are again deemed safe.

There are a couple of small, predictable joys that occur daily during my workweek - and probably yours. It's likely you haven't noticed them properly before, nor the subtle influence they have on your mood. Fortunately, I have penned this opinion piece to help you understand why, against all odds, you are happy in Baltimore. The first experience happens on my morning commute around 7:30; it's that initial glimpse of the Howard Street Bridge after emerging from the tunnel. There is something ridiculously uplifting about the sight of the massive, festive, green-and-yellow painted structure.

IT MAY SEEM ODD, but the current Iraqi crisis could have a silver lining for Baltimore city.If the simmering conflict escalates, more than just Kuwait and Iraqi oil could be taken off the world market. Oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Iran and the other Persian Gulf states could have their production reduced or even stopped.How could this help Baltimore? Think back to the oil crisis of 1974-1975. In response to lines at gas pumps and larcenous prices for home heating oil, energy-efficient homes and public transit use came into vogue.

Most people, unless headed to a specific address, will simply drive past the two-story row houses that line the curb along Fleet Street in East Baltimore. Few are wider than 15 feet; their only mark of individuality is usually found in the variety of front doors. Many of these houses, dating to 1910, are examples of exterior brick restoration, while others still bask in the Formstone glory of 1940's exterior home improvement. Alex Dyadyura, a computer programmer with Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, purchased one of these houses less than a year ago. Secure in his position after almost three years of service, the time was ripe for moving from his rented house in Patterson Park.

After two weeks in Baltimore, I have found precious jewels obscured in sadness: The city's beautiful row houses. These grand dames line the streets of Harford Avenue, Biddle Street and East North Avenue, to name just a few locations. But the life has been expelled from them. You may wonder why a stranger from Kansas would care so much for broken properties. First, I love architecture and find beauty in the cut and curve of a building. And I have been in search of a place to call home.

Most people, unless headed to a specific address, will simply drive past the two-story row houses that line the curb along Fleet Street in East Baltimore. Few are wider than 15 feet; their only mark of individuality is usually found in the variety of front doors. Many of these houses, dating to 1910, are examples of exterior brick restoration, while others still bask in the Formstone glory of 1940's exterior home improvement. Alex Dyadyura, a computer programmer with Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, purchased one of these houses less than a year ago. Secure in his position after almost three years of service, the time was ripe for moving from his rented house in Patterson Park.

Because of ex-President Jimmy Carter's personal involvement, a volunteer blitz to renovate 10 dilapidated row houses in West Baltimore has gotten ample publicity. Yet it is easy to miss the magnitude of what an alliance of churches and non-profit organizations is trying to do in Sandtown, with the aid of federal, state and city governments. As row houses are rehabilitated and new town house developments rise next to such landmarks as the old Frederick Douglass Senior High School (now an apartment complex)

This essay is selected from the work of Johns Hopkins University freshmen in the course "B'more Innovative: Studying Change Through Charm City." The course explored how ideas and innovations spread through society using case studies associated with Baltimore (e.g., Johns Hopkins Medicine, Project Love — Baltimore, The Afro Newspapers, B&O Railroad). The final assignment required students to propose an innovative project and describe how they would spread or "diffuse" it. These essays summarize key concepts from several proposals.

First came a study in November suggesting that high-rise public housing in Baltimore has proven a failure as a place for young families to develop. Now comes evidence that one of the few alternatives -- so-called "scattered-site housing," consisting largely of renovated row houses in poor, inner-city neighborhoods -- is also in trouble. Yesterday The Evening Sun's Joan Jacobson reported that some 300 units owned by the Housing Authority currently are vacant, and that many have been so severely vandalized they lack plumbing, aluminum windows and even the plywood planks the city installed to board them up.To put the figures in perspective, the 300 row houses in question represent only a relatively small fraction of the city's 18,000 public housing units, which include high-rise projects, senior citizens' housing and conventional low-rise developments.

Seeking to duplicate the success of the "Nehemiah" housing development in Baltimore's Penn-North and Sandtown-Winchester neighborhoods, a non-profit partnership headed by the Enterprise Foundation and the Housing Assistance Corp. applied yesterday for $2.175 million in federal funds to build a $13.3 million low- and moderate-income housing development on the east side of town.The federal funds would enable HAC/Enterprise Nehemiah Development Inc. -- a joint venture of Enterprise and HAC, working with the city housing department and the state Community Development Administration -- to build 150 new and rehabilitated residences for sale to low- and moderate-income residents in three East Baltimore neighborhoods -- Johnston Square, Oldtown and Oliver.

After two weeks in Baltimore, I have found precious jewels obscured in sadness: The city's beautiful row houses. These grand dames line the streets of Harford Avenue, Biddle Street and East North Avenue, to name just a few locations. But the life has been expelled from them. You may wonder why a stranger from Kansas would care so much for broken properties. First, I love architecture and find beauty in the cut and curve of a building. And I have been in search of a place to call home.

We've come to the end of the trail, you and I. It's been more than 11 years since I laced them up and asked you to come with me on a hike. I can tell you now, but you probably guessed it: I didn't know where I was going. Not a clue. The outdoors has always been a part of my life no matter whether I was in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire or Maryland, where I arrived almost 24 years ago, a brand new wife. It's funny that I landed here. Opal and Ernest Starner, a steelworker at Sparrows Point, raised two girls, Nancy and Betty, in row houses on Conkling Street, then Hudson Street, then a house "in the county" on Fait Avenue, No. 7302.

Just as houses come in all different designs and sizes, so do the families that live within them. The large, end-of-group rowhouse in Federal Hill that belongs to the Johnson family shelters multiple generations. "We are three generations of women, a poodle and two goldfish all living in this home that we decided to make 21st century," laughed Gilda Johnson, who lives there with her 94-year-old mother, Carlyn Johnson, and her 16-year-old daughter, Ce Ce Johnson. This family of women own three residential properties and five parcels of commercial property in Federal Hill.

With grown 29-year-old twins out of the house, empty nesters Noreen and Eric Victor found little need for their five-bedroom Colonial home with a pool on a half-acre in Prince William County in Northern Virginia. "We wanted the city," Noreen Victor said, as sure of herself now as she was in 2005. The couple read a newspaper article on the neighborhood of Fells Point and decided to check out all that Baltimore had to offer. Their exploration led them to Canton and a newly built block of four rowhouses just off of the urban hum of O'Donnell Square.

In the second row house fire in Baltimore in two days, an elderly woman and her daughter were hospitalized after their two-story Hampden home went up in flames Monday morning. A man who rescued one of the women was slightly injured. A spokesman for the Baltimore Fire Department said the fire occurred at about 9 a.m. in the 3300 block of Elm Avenue. A man from the area, who remained unidentified, forced a door open and was able to bring one of the two women out of the brick structure, said the spokesman, Chief Kevin Cartwright.

This essay is selected from the work of Johns Hopkins University freshmen in the course "B'more Innovative: Studying Change Through Charm City." The course explored how ideas and innovations spread through society using case studies associated with Baltimore (e.g., Johns Hopkins Medicine, Project Love — Baltimore, The Afro Newspapers, B&O Railroad). The final assignment required students to propose an innovative project and describe how they would spread or "diffuse" it. These essays summarize key concepts from several proposals.

Everyone knows Waverly as one of the two city neighborhoods that borders Memorial Stadium -- the other neighborhood is Ednor Gardens -- but not everyone knows much about the area.There are actually two Waverlys.The Waverly neighborhood recognized by the city of Baltimore's planning department generally runs east of Greenmount Avenue and north of 33rd Street. On the north, 39th Street is the border. This is the area that is the concern of the Waverly Improvement Association.Better Waverly, however, designates the neighborhood as the area running south from 33rd Street to Loch Raven Road.

Just what is progress anyway?It is amazing what politicians can do when we trust them with a little of our money.I remember many moons ago we had prehistoric vehicles called street cars. They certainly did a good job when most of us old guys were young, but, after all, we want progress. So what do we do -- we pay millions to scrap the street cars, pull up the tracks and convert everything to buses. They do a fine job except they increase pollution and use up excessive amounts of fuel.Now, after many years of busing, one of our greatest politicians, with a great amount of foresight and lots of our money, decided that we needed ''light rail.

City is without basics for a young familyFour years ago, my family and I moved from downtown Baltimore to a suburban neighborhood just over the city-county line. We put that off as long as we could, and what finally forced us out was the poor quality of schooling offered in even the best neighborhoods.But just as important, maybe even more so, to our decision to abandon the city was our growing frustration with the lack of basic resources offered to a family with three young children.Given the city's single-mindedness on developing tourism rather than residential areas, it was apparent that these problems would not be addressed anytime soon.