Today’s ride took me over to campus for the program’s end-of-the-year picnic, this time with dogs. I took my regular route down the hill, but I decided to stay on Dolphin, just to see where it would take me. The city isn’t in the kind of grid I’m used to, so I’m not always sure which streets are running which directions, but I had a hunch that if I stayed where I was, I might end up on Harlem Ave., which seemed increasingly likely as I crossed Eutaw and Druid Hill and Pennsylvania. Continue reading
West Baltimore
Fluid Movement Parade at Howard & Lexington
Today was the last day of my spring break, and oh, it was a delightful one. I hardly did a lick of work, except insofar as visits to museums sort of count as “research.” I got in a visit with my sister, lunch with friends, eyefuls of flowery trees, a whole bunch of visits to museums and historic sites, and even more bike rides. Today featured a long morning in bed, a little reading, coffee with a friend, and then a bike ride over to Howard and Lexington for Fluid Movement‘s Howard & Lex, the perfect end to a positively lovely vacation. Continue reading
Scaffolding on a Row House at Fremont & Lanvale
It was sunny and clear out when I woke up this morning, but S. called me up after she left my apartment to warn me that it was cold and windy and not to be fooled by the lighting. You see, I have a tendency to dress aspirationally, for the weather I want rather than the weather I have, and that gets me into trouble sometimes. Continue reading
Blighted Row House at Fulton & Saratoga
I needed to get a bike ride in today, but I had an early meeting and a late meeting followed by evening plans, so…I put the bike on my car, drove to work, and rode the bike home. It was bright and sunny when I headed to work, but gloomy and sputtering when I left. Never start a ride in the rain is my usual, but if I dodnt get a pedal in today, I was most certainly not going to be good company tonight, so I hopped on the bike with my bare legs and hoped for the best. The rain kept falling faster, so I spent most of my ride concentrating on. Safety-break carefully and not on shiny bits (road striping, metal grates, etc.) and assume cars can’t see you. By the time I took my left on Fulton I was ready to concider sidewalks, what with the soggy rush hour. I noticed this broken door at Fulton & Saratoga as I slowed down in search of a curb cut. I peeked inside and it looked like the whole place had just caved in on itself. I wonder when this happened. Was anyone hurt? Was someone sad in that way you get sad when home is suddenly nowhere? What’s the story here? Every one of these vacants has a story, at least 58,000 of them, and I only noticed this particular one because I was on bike, looking. Yep, even in the rain the bike was a good choice today. I continued on, made a stop for wine with friends, and then rode on home, feeling pretty lucky that I get to ride a bike in this place.
Crumbling House on a West Baltimore Corner
It was another beautiful late winter day in Baltimore, sun shining and just a little bit warm, so I treated myself to a bike ride to campus. I had plenty of time, so after wooshing down the hill and taking a right and then a left through Bolton Hill, I followed some new streets through West Baltimore as I vaguely angled toward Arbutus. I was stopped at the light at Lafayette and Argyle, I think, and watched a little police profiling go down. Continue reading
Looking Up the Hill at Mt. Olivet Cemetery at Frederick & Parksley
Today’s ride took me over to campus to fetch my car after its exciting weekend parked in a lot. The day was ridiculously sunny and the sky a wild blue and I was feeling like quite the lucky duck, with my free afternoon (meetings cancelled!) and my sweet ride. I took a slightly different route since I didn’t have to hurry and rode down Maryland, past the library, and took a right on Saratoga. Continue reading
Matthew 27:28;35 at Gilmor & Saratoga
Oh, Baltimore, thank you for the balmy Tuesday in late January! I had already been despairing that I might be freezing from now until May, but today’s sunshine and 50+ degrees was a welcome respite. I layered up, just in case, and took the bike down the hill and west toward UMBC. Continue reading
Row House Held Up By Wood Contraption at Hollins & Fulton
Today’s ride took me from Charles Village out to UMBC for another day of my winter session class. I was in a good mood after a productive morning, so I pedaled happily along, using that easy peasy gear for hills into the headwind and reminding myself that I wasn’t in a race, not at all. I decided to vary my route a bit to avoid Monroe’s speedy traffic, so I took a left on So. Carey and a right on Hollins. I stopped to catch my breath and take a picture of this row house just before Fulton that is all strutted up so it doesn’t fall in the street. Construction is a seriously creative endeavor! This street mostly looks like Brooklyn to me, and few of the houses look like vacants to me, though the surrounding streets certainly have their fair share. A woman stepped out of her house and asked me if I was just in the neighborhood to take pictures of vacant houses. We struck up a conversation–rehabbing this house has been on hold for months due to danger of collapse, her wife just quit smoking, I quit smoking years ago, isn’t it great, do I want a ride, etc. Turns out she runs a life coaching business and is putting together a mentorship program for girls at local schools, and I have a bunch of students who might make great mentors and who also might be in need of some life coaching. I sense a win. I got back on my bike and thought about how these sorts of encounters and contact are impossible in cars. Walkable and bikeable neighborhoods are just better for life itself. I got to campus, choked down lunch, taught about globalization, economic restructuring, and the production of poverty in the Third World before getting back on my bike and rolling past the detritus of Baltimore’s own structural adjustment on my way back home.
Row House Held Up By Wood Contraption at Hollins & Fulton
Today’s ride took me from Charles Village out to UMBC for another day of my winter session class. I was in a good mood after a productive morning, so I pedaled happily along, using that easy peasy gear for hills into the headwind and reminding myself that I wasn’t in a race, not at all. I decided to vary my route a bit to avoid Monroe’s speedy traffic, so I took a left on So. Carey and a right on Hollins. I stopped to catch my breath and take a picture of this row house just before Fulton that is all strutted up so it doesn’t fall in the street. Construction is a seriously creative endeavor! This street mostly looks like Brooklyn to me, and few of the houses look like vacants to me, though the surrounding streets certainly have their fair share. A woman stepped out of her house and asked me if I was just in the neighborhood to take pictures of vacant houses. We struck up a conversation–rehabbing this house has been on hold for months due to danger of collapse, her wife just quit smoking, I quit smoking years ago, isn’t it great, do I want a ride, etc. Turns out she runs a life coaching business and is putting together a mentorship program for girls at local schools, and I have a bunch of students who might make great mentors. INteresting! Let’s talk! I got back on my bike and thought about how these sorts of lovely happenstance meetings are impossible in cars. Walkable and bikeable neighborhoods are just better for life itself. I got to campus, choked down lunch, taught about globalization, economic restructuring, and the production of poverty in the Third World before getting back on my bike and rolling past the detritus of Baltimore’s own structual adjustment on my way back home.
Empty Lot and Row House at Lafayette & Fremont
We had another unseasonably warm day today, at least in my estimation, so after a busy morning, I hopped on my bike and headed to campus to take advantage of what they keep telling me is one of the last few warm days before winter really gets here. I flew down the hill and then made the Park Avenue climb to Lafayette and took my left. It’s amazing how quickly the neighborhoods change along this street. Once you cross Eutaw Place, for example, it’s like you’ve entered a different universe. On the ride back I was struck by how once I left Marble Hill for Bolton Hill, the asphalt turned that smooth black of brand new road. When Crossing Pennsylvania Avenue into West Baltimore is even more pronounced. All of a sudden the trees disappear, as does the stately red brick, replaced by row after row of abandoned row house. I snapped this picture of a row house at Lafayette and Fremont (which is not the same as Fulton–I made that mistake once, and it took me a looong time to correct it). This empty side suggests another row house used to be cuddled up next to it, those patches maybe marking windows, or just the shared walls. Off in the distance more and more of these vacants line up, but some of them are redone and occupied. How hard it must be to share the neighborhood with these, and the empty lots filled with crumbled buildings and trash that dot the neighborhood. So often when I’m riding around Baltimore I wonder, where did everybody go? I know, I know, the suburbs, but where did everybody go, and what are we going to do with all these empty and decaying blighted properties? I continued my ride, and when I got to Arbutus, just a couple miles further, I was reminded again of how many different cities are all butted up against each other in this place, some of them just ghosts.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 