image via woody1778a at Flickr

Little can be said here about the recent loss in Haiti. You’ve hopefully found a way to offer some gesture or small contribution to people there. Maybe you’re one of the brave and qualified few who’ve traveled there to help in person, though why you’d be reading this blog eludes explanation. If you still feel, like I do, basically sad and impotent in response to what you’ve seen in the news, then I can recommend a site you may find somewhat useful. My godfather has worked with this group and others in Haiti for years. They are practical and very efficient: www.foodforthepoor.org.

Of course, the ubiquity of Haiti on television, radio, and the internet can, like any well-documented disaster, distract from ongoing pain close to home. While Baltimore’s thankfully not suffered any natural devastation lately, it is a city not wanting for poverty. If the various solstitial celebrations have left you overstuffed with plenty, consider hauling a load of your underused goods to one of the following:

1. The Salvation Army isn’t just about Santa guilt-tripping you into dropping your change in a big, red bucket, it’s also happy to come pick up your donations. For the Baltimore branch, call (410) 525-0530. There are four locations inside the city.
2. Goodwill also has numerous locations in Baltimore, and it’s worth knowing a little more about their model. Goodwill collects, repairs, sells, and distributes various goods with the goal not simply of giving things away, but rather of creating and sustaining jobs for those with disabilities and other obstacles to regular employment. Their slogan: “Not a charity, but a chance.”
3. Finally, if you’re a stubborn localtruist, then you may prefer to donate to the Baltimore Free Storein West Baltimore (1413 W. Baltimore St.). This is exactly what it sounds like, and the guys behind it are still doing good work for the city, but due to an in-process move, they’re not currently accepting donations. You can, however, e-mail them (bmorefree@gmail.com) to find out how you can help.

What will you give away this week?

image via bitchplz on Flickr

Rachel’s in the Holy Land, and Danny’s still in Kansas, so it falls to me belatedly to address our predicament. It’s a long story, and like most long stories it is dull and involves money. In lieu, then, of a thorough account of UDL’s past year, I’ll just say this: Urban Discoveries Blog exists and will continue to exist, albeit with some changes. We’re still going to write about Baltimore news, events, and perhaps even gossip. This is because we love all of these things and want you to love them just as much. We won’t, however, be spending quite as much time addressing Baltimore real estate.
This is not because we don’t love it. We just think it’s time we both explored some different opportunities. We wish Baltimore real estate nothing but happiness and personal fulfillment. Really. But the most important person here is you. We’re still going to make time for you. We’re going to be at all those games and plays and graduations. We just might be sitting in a different row than Baltimore real estate and her new cardiologist boyfriend who works out. We’re glad they’re both able to make such mature decisions about their lives now.
Back to you. Thank you for reading. We appreciate your curious eyes whether or not you ever leave a comment, but if you do plan on continuing to read this new, slightly… let’s say cozier Urban Discoveries Blog, then this is a meaningful time to let us know. We’ll keep writing if you keep reading. Thanks again.

Photo via jayunsplanet at Flickr.com

The good news is you already know how to celebrate New Year’s Eve––by drinking champagne which you get to call champagne because you live in America, by making jokes about kissing someone at midnight while you search desperately for someone to kiss at midnight, and by claiming the role of the earnest keeper of resolutions adrift in a world of cynics while you drink champagne to forget last year’s neglected resolutions. The other news is Baltimore will still be here on New Year’s Day, humoring your headachey daydreams and wiping away your swiss-cheese memories of the night before.
The Maryland Science Center in the Inner Harbor (601 Light St.) welcomes all circadian traditionalists and their underage companions to join in the Midnight Noon countdown. From 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, local kids and parental science-lovers will observe the changing of the calendar with face-painting, puppets, and the puerile rhythms of the children’s band Milkshake. Admission is free to members. Pricing for non-members varies . I have nothing sarcastic to say about this event.
The city presents its free New Year’s Eve Spectacular at the Inner Harbor Amphitheater (at Pratt and Light Streets) starting at 7:00 pm with soothing a cappella hits from Part Harmony and continuing at 9:00 pm with the generically ambiguous sounds of Blues Therapy. At the precise start of 2010, the sky above the crowded, icy harbor will explode in a terrifying display of recreational firepower. Still-Mayor Sheila Dixon will host the countdown to the New Year, which will be marked not by a dropping ball but rather by cannon loaded with confetti.
For a simultaneously extravagant and martial evening, cough up $75 for admission to the deck of the U.S.S Constellation in the Inner Harbor (Pier 1, 301 E. Pratt St.). In addition to a clear view of the fireworks, your pricey ticket will get you champagne (see above), fancy food, noisemakers, special tours, and so forth. 10:00 pm to 1:00 am. Acquire a ticket here .
Where might we find you next year?

photo by flickr user Cheungs4Niger

I don’t know why everybody says it’s impossible to live without a car in Baltimore. I have been living here carless for three and a half years now, and only once was I stranded at the dollar store in Timonium.

There are both obvious and crafty ways of getting around:
1. Walking is pretty obvious, but has unexpected benefits. You’re already saving on insurance and gas and parking and the car itself, but additionally, you save because you can’t get to the mall as often. And because you have to carry all your groceries home, you end up buying less and therefore meeting your weight loss goals. The company Front Seat ranked Baltimore as the 12th Most Walkable City in their WalkScore report. And, you can enter in your address at walkscore.com to find your home’s walkability, and it provides you a map of conveniently-located amenities. My apartment, for example, has a walk score of 88 out of a 100, which means it’s Very Walkable.
2. Free shuttles abound around college campuses. The Hopkins shuttle, which transports folks from locations around the Homewood campus to the JHMI campus, with stops in Mount Vernon. It’s technically supposed to be for Hopkins staff/students only, but no one ever seems to check or care. Then there’s the Colltown Shuttle, where if you’re a college student, staff, or faculty at one of the participating colleges, you can ride not only to school, but also to Towson Town Center, Belvedere Square, or the Inner Harbor. And keep watch for the Charm City Circulator, the long-promised, soon-to-be-running, free, eco-friendly, downtown bus. Even the bus itself is jazzy – the ECOSAVER IV Hybrid. You will be sure to see my face smiling at you from its window.
3. When you first move to Baltimore, everybody says not to take the public transportation, but they are wrong. There are three buses I can think of that go near Towson Town Center. And that way, you won’t have help your car-owning friend decide which jeans she should buy at The Gap. And just because you’re carless doesn’t mean you have to take all your dates to the same, sad restaurant you found on WalkScore. Take the Light Rail to Mount Washington, buy fancy cheese from the Whole Foods, and snack on it while admiring the pretty houses.
4. And finally, if you despise sitting next to strangers, get a Zipcar account, the vehicular equivalent of the one night stand. Try a different car every every day!

3131 Abell Avenue
Ever wanted to live next door to your very own UDL blogger?  Or where
one used to live and now haunts with a ghostly vengeance? Well move
into this three-bedroom, one-bathroom rowhouse neighboring my former
residence and find out.  Step out onto your spacious front porch for a
breath of fresh air and find my spirit-imbibing spirit on the adjacent
porch arguing fiction and playing German board games.  Seek refuge
from me indoors amidst the comfort of hardwood floors, a breezy living
room, and a lower level family room and you’ll undoubtedly be haunted
by strains of indie rock and raucous laughter from next door.  Perhaps
the only way to avoid my gruesome phantom is run through the
landscaped backyard to your garage (complete with automatic opener)
and drive far, far away from your newly painted rowhouse and the
coolest neighborhood this side of the Mason-Dixon.  But it’d probably
be easier to come over and hang out.  My ghost is cool like that.
Priced at $209,500, poltergeists included.

3108 Brentwood Avenue

This two-bedroom, one-bathroom rowhouse was completely renovated just this fall. New maple floors (they look cool), new kitchen (with concrete counters!), new paint, new appliances, and new central air conditioning (because Baltimore summer’s can get just a bit muggy). Brentwood is a quiet street too; a bit off the beaten path, but still super-duper close to all the amenities of Abell. A house you can call home… and with all the brand-new features, you’ll kind of be the first to do so. Priced at $124,000.

2610 Guilford Street

Okay, so this three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom townhouse isn’t technically in Abell. Whatever, we expand the neighborhood boundaries on a whim, we’re bloggers! And if we get to write about houses like this – with its recent restoration maintaining much of the original detailing – we’ll consider it justified. We’re laying odds that you’ll forgive us too once you get inside, since the renovation touched every corner inside and out – from the granite countertops in the kitchen to the upper level back porch – ensuring an immensely livable home. Priced at $294,000.

  The money is specifically for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program  (NSP), one of the countless acronymic offspring of last year’s Economic Recovery Act. NSP is meant to help local communities to defibrillate properties that are flatlining as a result of foreclosure, abandonment, or general blight. It’s a whole government program aimed at making cities not look like the set of The Road.

  Through the NSP, independent organizations including Habitat for Humanity, the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, Empire Homes, and People Encouraging People  will renovate and develop old and new affordable housing. It will be good to see some moribund parts of Baltimore given new life. It will be particularly good if this can be done without scattering all the struggling residents.

  What are your hopes for Baltimore’s new year?

photo by flickr user miladus

I’d meant to write a post tonight about where to go sledding in Baltimore, but then this weekend, the answer to that question appeared to be: the ground. Small, cackling children skidded down every street and sidewalk in my neighborhood, gurgling a blend of real and imaginary languages, trailed by their proud, apologetic parents. The snow filled me with wonder (I’m from Atlanta) exactly until the minute Sunday night when I began to shovel my car out of it.  An hour and a half later, I crept onto the first of a series of suddenly one-lane streets and suspected that the blizzard had provided a microcosm for Baltimore’s essential charm.

  Because the basic strategy my roommates and neighbors and I had embraced was: call friends, hoard booze, and hunker. We poked a couple times into the numbing waste––to smoke or lend a shovel or visit the (thank you) somehow open mini-market. But mostly we kept to our sliver of Baltimore, as most people seemed to be doing, at least until the roads became passable and the public world resumed its nagging. This cozy cellularity, rather than depriving us of the city’s basic quality, reminded us of what that quality is.

  Baltimore may not, at the moment, serve as a shining city on a Federal Hill, but it can claim plenty of hyper-local specialties, some of which are uniquely ours, others we make our own: Arabbers, corner bars, arts festivals, drag shows, duckpin bowling, Berger cookies, medicine, roller derby, DIY theatre, club music, lacrosse, and crab cakes. It may even be fair to say that, aside from our avian sports teams, Baltimore has no mainstream culture, but rather a cluster of independent subcultures. At our best moments, these separate lives are symbiotic, though perhaps not very often.

  Neither Southern enough to skip the snow altogether, nor Northern enough to be prepared, we survive, shut away for the time being in our little neighborhoods, cooking up a way of life.

708 Port Street

Not only does this  Canton four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom townhouse have bamboo and concrete floors, an open floor plan that’s Zen times ten, and modern styling throughout its three stories, but it also has one of the best terraces we’ve ever seen. Huge, with views looking over downtown and the harbor, a built-in shower and grill and a wet bar just inside, this terrace is perfect for hosting parties, lounging in the afternoon sunshine or just being outside. So, so nice. And did we mention the two-story waterfall? We didn’t? How’d that slip our minds? Curious. Priced at $1,175,000.

3901 Saint Paul Street

This seven-bedroom, four-bathroom brick Colonial in Guilford recently underwent a million dollar renovation and it shows. The rooms are uniformly large and comfortable; the kitchen is beautiful with dark wood and new countertops; the fireplaces are surrounded by granite; the back patio is stone and open; the library is warm, inviting and perfect for reading… we could go on. Maybe our favorite part of the house is the sunroom, with its floor to ceiling Palladian windows, its expansive view of the half acre lot, its space. Priced at $1,680,000.

16 East Mount Vernon Place

Just across the street from the Peabody Institute and the Walters Museum is this four-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom Mount Vernon rowhouse. Embassy-esque in its outward appearance, you might actually feel like a diplomat when you enter as well. And why wouldn’t you. with luxuries like a butler’s pantry, a sauna, a steam shower, and some truly enormous walk-in closets? All of those things may be afterthoughts, as the rooms are plenty large enough for entertaining and the décor is understated, but lovely. Carriage house in back also available. Priced at $1,800,000.