Off The Threshold

I remember when I was in college Z used to talk a lot about urban sprawl. I understood what it meant in principle, but not in reality. I spent most of my childhood years in Manhattan where there isn’t any possibility of urban sprawl. Being an island the only sprawl was upwards and so tall buildings were the way Manhattan spread. So, it’s been a real eye opener to travel to all these cities and see how sprawl has affected them. Portland certainly seems to have concern about sprawl and has actually set an urban growth limit in an attempt to force a regeneration of the more central areas. Baltimore, on the other hand, seems very prone to sprawl. I think until recently anyone who could afford to would move out of the city and into the suburbs. Maybe that was part of the appeal in Portland.

I’ve been thinking more about Baltimore. It was strange. I felt so suspicious as I wandered the streets. I felt kind of racist too. When I saw a group of young black men walking down the street, I did cross the road. Was this all from all my time spent watching “The Wire” or was this about reality? Would that sort of behaviour and thinking leave me if I moved there or would I just end up being someone I disliked?

Its something to think about…

But for now I’m in Boston, with Z and K, spending some time with her cute little monkey A. Good times…

When K first recommended Baltimore my brain flashed to scenes from “The Wire,” which, if you haven’t seen it, I say you should stop reading this blog immediately, get yourself to the nearest film store and watch all 5 seasons before continuing to read. It’s freakin’ brilliant tv. It also shows a very gritty, drug-filled world of Baltimore. I also remember all the strets of boarded up row houses I would pass while on the Amtrak train up and down the East Coast. Not ideal, but I figured since I’m going a million other places why not stick it on my list as well.

I arrived on Friday morning. I wandered around Mount Vernon, with the first monument to that great man, George Washington and up through Midtown, Station North and around the art college, Maryland Institute College of Arts, MICA. Cute. Sort of a refurbished posh Baltimore. I could get used to that. Friday night I met up with D, who is a huge proponent of the Baltimore art scene. She drove me around North/North West Baltimore, Hampden, Charles Village, and took me to an exciting art opening. Then she drove me around bits off the main drag in Station North.

Station North is the new up and coming area in terms of art in Baltimore. On the main drag there are a few restaurants and bars, a theatre, a cinema, etc. Off the beaten track are the artist studios, some affordable artist houses and…well, a few streets of abandoned boarded up row houses and blinking blue lights from the light posts announcing CCTV cameras. Gulp. I don’t think my mother would be happy with me moving in here, was one of the first thoughts that flashed through my head. D assured me that she goes to events here at all hours of the night and that her son lives in that building just there. Did I mention that her son is 6…6’5″? or maybe it was 6’9″…

Saturday I decided to go down to the Inner Harbor and wander through those neighborhoods. How strange. It’s like another world away from the Northern part of town. It’s touristy and plastic. The houses are cute, but they’ve all been sandblasted and look like they belong in DC or Boston, not Baltimore. Granted Federal Hill has the American Visionary Art Museum, an outsider art museum complete with giant statue of Divine, but where’s the…Well, where’s the John Waters Baltimore in the inner Harbor.

It’s like Baltimore has multiple personality disorder. I think it wishes away some of its crime and grittiness with its touristy, yuppie in the worst sense of the word downtown. It’s got me thinking a lot about city planning, “white flight” and sensitive regeneration. More thoughts to come…