It was cold out and I’ve got a little cold, but sometimes you just need to ride your bike, so I decided to put on my fancy wool top (thanks, Pops!), tights, long sleeved socks, and some gloves (thanks, S.!) and pedaled over to campus. The sun was out and I traced my regular route, thinking about my first visit to Baltimore. Continue reading
blight
Blighted Houses on Druid Hill Park Drive and Linden
I just haven’t been getting my bike rides in lately, what with trips and visitors and hard rains, and it is starting to grate on me. I mean, I need to ride my bicycle, and I need rides to stop these terrible dreams about losing my bike from waking me up like one did this morning. The weather report promised rain, as did the sky, but after a lovely and lazy morning, I managed to get on the bike and pedal over to Druid Hill Park for a trip around the reservoir. Continue reading
Blighted Building at Gilmor & Lafayette
It was a beautiful day and the sky was the color of what you think a blue sky should be, and I wrote my words, listened to my songs, got to meet withthe folks who I think think like me, and had plans for my evening, so all that was left was a bike ride. I happily pedaled to campus, feeling good, through West Baltimore. And then there are scenes like this, everywhere, the burnt-out abandoned houses of a city in decay. It’s complicated, to live in a city and pay attention.
Old Town Mall From the Parking Lot at Orleans & Forrest
Today’s ride took me over to Hampden for brunch and some time reading about the history of Hampden–trippy. It was a mill town, set apart from the rest of the city, populated by native-born rural whites who moved there to work in the mills, live in company housing, and shop at the company store. And then there was a strike, and they lost, because the mill owners just flat out refused to bargain. There’s more, about how public space is controlled as a way to control labor, for example, but then it was time to get back on the bike and ride on streets I’m not used to, hoping to end up vaguely downtown. Continue reading
Burned Out House on Georgetown Road & St. Marks
I had one morning meeting up on campus and nothing else on my schedule, so I figured it was high time I take the bike on the commute. I left myself two hours to go the ten miles, fully expecting to get lost/get a flat/get so tired I’d have to walk. Well, I did get lost, but I’ve been memorizing streets on my drive over the past couple weeks for just this event, so I knew Saratoga crossed Monroe, and once I was on Monroe I could follow the same route I take in the car. Voila! Continue reading
Block of Empty Rowhouses at Oliver & Brentwood
I woke up this morning to gray skies and the promise of rain for the rest of the weekend, so I hopped up, sucked down a breakfast smoothie (thanks, E., for the gifts!), and took the bike over to Collington Square Park to meet Odette Ramos, candidate for City Council from the 12th district for a bike tour of the district. Continue reading
Cinderblocked Vacants on Calvert & 21st
I really, really wanted to go on a long bike ride this afternoon, but just as I finished up my work for the morning the skies opened up it started raining sideways. Sigh. I spent the afternoon running errands by car until riding to Mt. Vernon to meet V. for dinner. Man, riding in the post-rain cool evening air, flying downhill, feels so, so good. It’s uphill on the way home, but I ak already used to that part. I took Calvert tonight, and stopped at 21st to snap a picture of these vacant row houses. The blight here is intense, and it changes block by block–just a couple blocks either way from this one are fully populated, but here, lots of empties. Usually they are closed up with plywood, but this cinderblocking seals them off so completely, they are like ghosts. I wonder when the blight will seem like a normal part of the background, or if it will always feel a little bit like a ghost town here.
Stay Tuned For Something Special At Louisiana & St. Charles
Tonight’s ride took me to Carrollton to meet M., K., and J. for dinner. I wasn’t much in the mood for a ride, but I knew that was all the more reason to take the bike. The sky had that look about it, so I wasn’t surprised to get caught in a shower. It wasn’t the kind of rain that makes you have to pull over for safety, more the medium setting on the nozzle at a hotel. And then all of a sudden it eas over and the asphalt was dry. Nice. After dinner I sped down St. Charles as fast as I could, enjoying the feel of the slightly cooler air. I stopped to take a picture of this banner promising exciting new things at the empty hull that used to be Border’s, built with millions in Go Zone dollars, open for about fifteen minutes, and now empty again. But something special is going to be here soon. Maybe it won’t be a big box bookstore or funeral home, but surely it will be something special, which mostly means somewhere to buy something that’s not actually really special at all. For M.’s sake, I hope it’ an H&M. Pedal, pedal, pedal, froyo with S. that helpfully returned my eyes front, and then home. Yep, I needed a bike ride.
Empty Lot For Sale at Prytania & Josephine
Today’s ride took me up to the office and back, with a couple stops along the way. It started with sun, but by the time I got Uptown the skies had that steely blue thing going on, and I could mostly just think about my car down on Frenchman, parked in a spot still wet from earlier in the week, and you know what that means. I wonder what it’s like to live in a place with an infrastructure you can trust not to flood in a hard rain. Those places exist, right?
Anyway, I wrote a couple of recommendation letters and threw the rest of my office stuff in to one more box before pedaling home as fast as I could to beat the rain. Annnnnd the clouds were breaking up. Phew. I slowed my roll to enjoy the ride and stopped to take a picture of this lot for sale at Prytania and Josephine. There was a beautiful old church here until January when the place burned down. It had been empty and for sale since Katrina, but I guess there’s not much of a market for a church. The fire was intense, but walls and rubble were left strewn about the place. That lot was cleared in record time, and now here it is, just the ironwork sign and a leaning tree on empty land. Sometimes the bulldozers move quick; we’ll see if the property does. I continued on my way, happy for a day without rain.
Blighted House Over a Fence at Chartres & Marais
I was so worn out yesterday that I went to sleep far in advance of my summer bedtime, and still I woke up exhausted. I spent most of my day waiting to go to sleep, except for an interview with J. for his documentary project (I committed to film my strong opinion that democracy rules, and if you really read our Constitution and Bill of Rights, it’ll blow you away). I fully expected to stay off the bike, but once I got out on it, it was just good to pedal. I can’t believe that after riding a bike every day for years, it still never fails to lift my mood. I did a spin around the Bywater–man, I love some bike infrastructure–and stopped to visit L. and S., two dogs, and a passel of mosquitoes in L.’s backyard. I snapped this picture, dark as it is, of a blighted building over the fence. That’s New Orleans–there are signs of decay and blight over the fences, but on the other side is somebody’s backyard with dogs and projects and picnic tables. Yep, you’ve got to keep your eyes peeled.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 