Quietly Awesome

One of the most under-appreciated things about Baltimore is out park system.  Baltimore was on the leading edge of the urban parks movement in the 19th century and it shows today. However, many of these beautiful parks were a little too “urban” for the middle class at the beginning part of this decade.  The gentrification in Canton led to the rediscovery of Patterson Park as “Baltimore's Backyard.” In South Baltimore, Riverside Park is now a popular dog-walking location in the evenings – a far cry from the drugs and crime that troubled the South Baltimore area 10-15 years ago.  Still, if your world revolves around communities that border on the harbor, you're only seeing a fraction of the green space that Baltimore has to offer.

I think that most people have noticed that Baltimore has some pretty big parks.  However, I also think that a lot of people don't spend a lot of time exploring in Baltimore.  Yes, it's a slightly dangerous city, but large swathes are safe for exploring.  I recommend bicycling around the city more, it's a great way to learn where streets go and explore neighborhoods.

Still, I didn't realize how much Baltimore doesn't suck at public parks until I spent some time on the website of The Trust for Public Land.  They have a lot of facts and reports about the state of public parks in America.  What I found interesting is that for cities with a high population density, Baltimore ranks #3 in acres of parkland per resident. Here's the top ten list:

Park Acres per 1,000 Residents
(City Population Density: High)
#1 – Washington, DC – 13.1
#2 – Boston, MA – 8.5
#3 – Baltimore, MD – 7.7
#4 – Philadelphia, PA – 7.6
#5 – San Francisco, CA – 7.2
#6 – Jersey City, NJ – 6.8
#7 – Los Angeles, CA – 6.2
#8 – Long Beach, CA – 6.1
#9 – New York City, NY – 4.6
#10 – Chicago, IL – 4.2

Now, obviously, there are two factors in this equation. The total number of park acres and the total number of city residents. In Baltimore, park acres are fairly constant (except for when some vacant lot is deeded over to the Department of Parks & Recreation by another city agency). The fact that Baltimore has lost a lot of city residents over the last couple of decades really helps bring that number up. I might be crazy, but I am anticipating that the population of Baltimore is about to stabilize and turn around. If we want to stay ahead of Philadelphia we might want to consider building some new parks. Next time we redevelop something like Harbor East, let's set aside a few acres for a park.

One factor that I think is good is that Baltimore gets on the list of park acres per 1,000 residents with a lot of smaller parks, not one large park. Baltimore barely cracks the top 100 on largest city parks (#89 – Gwynn Falls / Leakin Park). That's good because it means that the city parks are spread across the city and more people therefore have access.

Finally, Baltimore has two of the oldest city-run parks in America:

23rd Oldest Public Park – Patterson Park, 1827
55th Oldest Public Park – Druid Hill Park, 1860

So, if you haven't checked out some of these parks, I highly recommend that you do some exploring.   There are some really great parks in parts of the city that you normally don't go. Carroll Park, Lake Montibello (with a great bike loop around the lake), and even Middle Branch Park are great places to go and just be outside on a nice summer day.

Once you visit those parks, you'll probably ask yourself the same question I did - “How did we not screw this up?”  The answer actually lies pretty far back in history.  In 1859 the mayor of Baltimore decreed that no railroad would be given franchise to operate in Baltimore unless they paid 20% of gross income to the city for park building.  That's an incredibly high tax, but railroads paid it because Baltimore was such an important port at the time.  So from 1859 until the 1940's, the parks had this incredible source of income for operating costs and capital improvements.

All that history can be found in a really interesting report from the Baltimore Parks and People organization.  It's called "Discovering Baltimore's Parks" - if you're at all curious about parks in the city of Baltimore and their histories (collective and individual), then you should check out that report.

More Random Things Found While Cleaning Up

Here are a few more things I found when I cleaned up today.  Two more "contractor-sized" heavy duty garbages of crap and now about 30 yards along the sidewalk are clean (at a depth of 5-10 yards).

1st Generation PlayStation Console

Old Cadillac Hubcap

Back Support to an Office Chair

It's just amazing how much trash in this area.  I mean, I am finding areas where literally square feet of ground are covered in plastic bags.  It's no wonder there are only vines growing here, there's just no open area to put down roots.

A Little Public Service

So I took today off from work and just had a relaxing day.  Around 4:30 I took my garbage out (I live in Mt. Vernon/Mid-Town, and must adhere to the draconian trash and recycling rules).  I realized that it was a beautiful day and I had a couple hours before the trash people would come, so I could pick up some trash around the area!

I often walk near the sort-of park like trees and brush that border I-83.  I decided to take some heavy-duty garbage bags that I have and clean up some of the trash that gets tossed into the brush.  I found lots of plastic bags, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans.  I also found this:

That's right, I found a donut tire on a rim.   I also learned that spiders of all shapes and sizes LOVE living under and in tires.  Pretty crazy.  Here are some other things I found:

• A half-full bottle of Ken's Caesar salad dressing
• 2 un-used condoms (still in the wrappers)
• An Adidas gym bag that was home to ~1,000,000 ants
• A piece of rebar (instrumental in transferring the ~1,000,000 ants in a gym bag into my trash bag)
• A couple dozen 24 oz. cans of Steel Reserve... I sort of wonder if there's not just a guy who follows a routine of buying a beer somewhere and just always finishing it in that block
• An empty bottle of prescription medicine from 2003  (seriously, if you're going to litter, why do it with something that has your name and address on it??)
• What was probably, at one time, a can for paint thinner or some other noxious chemical (it had a spout) - it had long since lost the bottom to corrosion and leaked any harmful chemicals into the ground

Honestly, though, I get that stuff.  I mean, you're walking along and you finish your beer or get tired of carrying your plastic Coke bottle with your chicken wing bones in it and you're sort of a douchebag, so you toss your trash in the brush.  

Here's what I don't get: I found lots of plastic bags with dog poop in them.  

Really?  You're going be responsible enough to take a plastic bag out with you when you walk your dog.  You're going to pick up the dog's excrement in this bag.  Once you've got all that dog poop cleaned up, you carefully tie off the bag (so the poop doesn't get out, I guess).  Then you toss the plastic bag in the brush and walk your dog back home.   This is something you do?

Seriously, if I hadn't found multiple bags of dog poop in the brush, I wouldn't have believed it.  Who is this person that's like "I can't leave dog poop in the grass for my neighbors to step it, it's better to throw a plastic bag on crap on public property!"  What is the rest of their life like?  Maybe they're very careful to lift the toilet seat before peeing, but then pee all over the stall?   They let you merge on the highway but then tailgate you for the next six miles?  They offer to pass the potatoes, but sneeze in them on the way?  They offer to get the next round, then come back with warm Miller High-Life Light?

Anyway, I think these people suck.  I can't decide if they're worse than people that don't pick up their dog poop.  It's gross and unsanitary.  It's bad enough that you live downtown so your poor dog has to poop on the same small strip of grass as 30 other dogs - for the sake of your dog clean up after it.  And the sake of consistency, don't turn around and litter with your bag o' poop!