Final Stretch

Last week Rachel and I attended the SoBoNet meeting, thankfully it was not like the networking happy hour. There was more representation from non-profits and we were able to hear from the senator and his delegates. We passed out the postcards to everyone in the room and the senator took a picture of it with his phone, not sure what that meant but Rachel and I concluded that if he wasn't interested in it he would not have taken the time to take a photo. (We were hoping that he was sending the information to his assistant, possibly he'll come!) We received good feedback and a lot of interest, a couple people asked where they could buy tickets before they even read their cards.

This past week I have also been working on the Mary Rosso transcription as well as my archival work. I have what I can get done on the program until I receive the stories and letters. I also need the people who have purchased ad's and digital copies of what is being used for the ad's so I can finish that up.

So Many Donations!

I spent my day canvasing last friday, I received many no's. But, I also received a good number of yes's. Knowing we are trying to avoid gift cards I tried to push towards other things, but if a gift card was all they were willing to give I didn't say no. So in all I have a $10 gift card to Cy's Swimwear, a $50 gift card to a boutique that not only sells merchandise but also does tanning and waxing, a pair of sun glasses, a silent auction alcohol (yet to be determined what kind), and 4 tickets to an Orioles game (10th row behind the O's dugout). I also spoke to a few companies that needed to discuss with the owner before they could give me any final answer, there were a few food donations that seemed very promising! I will be following up with these businesses later in the week.

As well as canvasing I also contacted a local printing company about our brochures, she is quoting the final price for us and is looking into 100% recycled paper.

Community Unite!

On Thursday Rachel and I attended the CBIA meeting, we got a chance to speak to the community members about the event. Many had reservations about transportation to the event, thankfully Jason Reed was there to explain that we are getting a school bus to shuttle community members to the event and back. We also learned that the community center as well as the park surrounding it is now under video surveillance, money for the cameras was donated by CSX. CSX also funds the GED program at the community center.

During the crime statistics report one of the police officers explained that car thefts were occurring in the area on late model cars, and to report any suspicious activity to police immediately. Many were concerned about ending this trend and the officer explained that there was a good chance it wouldn't stop, but if people report it they will be more likely to move away from the neighborhood and do their business elsewhere.

The police officer also announced that their station is getting remodeled and they are asking for volunteers to help clear out the station of all the old stuff. The days are April 16th and 17th from 8am to 4pm. Food and drinks will be provided. The address is 10 Cherry Hill Road.

Truck traffic was a concerning issue and they announced that tolls for trucks on 895 has dropped from $24 to $12. They are planning on returning Pennington back to a 2-way street so that truck traffic will be completely eliminated within the town. If this is to occur the residents would like to have another crossing guard to assure their children's safety walking to and from school.

We were also told that Habitat for Humanity is working in Baybrook to help lower the number of abandoned homes in the area.

I also talked with Cailin Benson from the Council President's office and have her number should we need to contact her. Rachel and I also spoke with Pat Wills about working through her to get our printing done.

So Many Ask's, So Little Time

As a committee we need to work on getting together the green space brochure and the program booklet.  We have separated the work out, I am working on putting together the program. I will need an introduction, stories, ads, possibly even images of art. Once these become available I will be able to better estimate how many pages the booklet will be.

I sent out a good number of asks, I have been looking up more businesses that were not on the list and begun to contact them. A couple of the businesses that I was supposed to contact were not allowing me to e-mail them, it immediately sent my message back announcing it was viewed as spam. These businesses I will contact either by phone or in person. For those that I have contacted I am hoping for a quick response, if not I will be doing follow ups.

Scheduling and Planning

I have begun to work out a schedule for the event, who will be doing what when? I need some information about the plan for the evening; what time will bands be performing, how long will the sets be, do we want to limit the time on the silent auction, etc. For now though I have only received responses from 11 classmates about their job preferences, I would like to have all of them before I get started but if need be I can just put them anywhere.

I'm still thinking on the asks, because I would like to know if we are strictly sticking with local businesses, Baltimore City based businesses or are we spanning out to the surrounding county as well. If county is included I have a couple ideas as where to start. We need to get solidified in our concepts a little more before we start at it.

Chit-Chat with Marc

The dinner at Tavern on the Hill gave us a chance to talk with Marc Steiner. I found this to be incredibly helpful, we were able to not only bounce ideas about the radio show off other students, but we were able to get direct feedback from Marc. We were able to arrive at a couple different ideas, but they need to be developed. The meeting on April 5th should help to clear things up even further.

I have begun to dig into my own resources to get started on my archival organization i will be doing this semester. The hardest part so far has been trying to find a basic outline that everything fits into. I hope once I get Nicole's files things will start to fall into place.

Off Roading

This weekend, since it was nice, I thought I would drive through the main streets and see if I could find any spots that were hangouts for the locals. A good amount of people were outside but none were very congregated to one place. That is, except for the park. People of all ages were in the park between Curtis Ave and Pennington enjoying the nice weather.

I was not trying to appear creepy so I avoided taking pictures of people. But I did want to explore a little further then I ever have. Pretty sure there were points in my adventure that I was "trespassing."

You probably remember seeing this on our way into Fairfield on our drive through. This is the old location of the FMC Corp, what is now the location for the trash incinerator.

As you can see, even though they say that work has started on building the incinerator, the lot remains empty.

This picture and the one below are signs I've driven past many times but never stopped to read them. If you look closely at the bottom right sign you can see the millions of dollars being put into the Waste Water Treatment Facility and where it comes from

These two images (above and below) were taken on Asiatic Avenue, right down the street from the Waste Water Treatment Facility. This and one other building are all that stand on this property which runs up to the water. The lower picture shows the dirt, smog, and mess that industry causes.

In the direct center you can see the top of the water tower that sits next to the Filbert Street Garden. This view is from Fairfield Road in Wagners Point.

Tony's Diner was surrounded by empty lots and storage tanks on Vera Street. I'm looking into the years it was opened and operating.

The images with street signs are the two instances  in which I felt like I was trespassing. Although the streets are clearly still marked as public roads, they are shut off in many parts and there is little to no pavement on any of the back roads in Fairfield. The image above is at the corner of Tate and Brady. The image below is at the corner of Tate and Carbon. I was driving around just snapping pictures and did not even realize that both images were on Tate, I was turning around and around because of the damaged roads and barriers. Hint for anyone who wants to take this drive, don't do it unless you own or can borrow an SUV, I'm honestly surprised that I got out of there with no damage to my car.

 This house looks like it was quite nice in earlier years but now its state of disrepair makes it look like the scene of a horror film.

Weekend Update... Not the same without Seth Meyers

So my research is coming along slowly, I was unable to find either the full transcription or interview with John Jefferies. Other things require a bit more research, I am finding a lot of names attached to stores and store names but locations aren't clear.

The history committee has begun to come up with ideas on how to present our research at the event. After the trip to the 2640 some ideas are becoming less plausible and others are beginning to surface.

This couch area could open up an opportunity for a chat between residents or anyone who has a story to tell during the event. Or a small group question and answer session.

I am willing to participate at the table for the craft fair but do not have anything to contribute.

The trip to the 2640 proved to be very helpful. This picture is from the stage =>

This picture is facing the stage from the balcony

The hall has a bar with two bar fridges and a half box fridge. They all work and are available to us.

There is a large kitchen that is available to us, some things are not to be used but most of it is.

The grill burners work but the flat top does not.

The space seems very promising, it is large and open. It is easy to find and parking was not a problem. We have enough space to have what needs to be available; tables and chairs, art space, research productions, etc.; as well as other things such as the couch corner or other discussion space. They have tables and chairs for us to use as well as art walls. While we can't hang things on the wall there is a lip on the wall where we can lean things against. A silent auction would sit nicely around the edges where people can view and bid while exploring the space and other table set ups.

Mission Impossible

Having had previously taken this course and done research in the community Saturday was not my first introduction to the area. However it has changed quite significantly in such a short period of time, proven by the fact that Dr. King and I both got turned around a couple times. Just as it did for me in 2012, the trip fueled ideas and solidified others. I'm still putting things together in my head but I am glad I took the tour for a second time.

I have begun to look into the gardens in Fairfield and have found a few articles but I am continuing to delve into different sources, along with those that I used previously. Knowing that my topic will not produce many sources, I am ecstatic with the fact that I have found some without delving too deep. So far I have only been able to find newspaper articles, but I have discovered that the sources I would be most interested in are going to be the hardest to find. The Baltimore Museum of Industry holds a vertical file on BethSteal and the Fairfield Ship Yards, within this file I found many sources that could possibly help me if not by anything more then steering me toward another possible source. When I chose my topic I understood that it would be a difficult task to complete but the excitement that comes over me when I find something I thought would be impossible to find. This will definitely be a paper that grows over the span of the semester.

Listening to Linda Shopes for the second time has cleared up questions that have arisen between the first time and this time. I was glad to have held onto so much of the information, realizing that I knew what she was going to cover before she started talking. While the information was not new for me, it was good to have a recap so that I am well aware of what I am supposed to know.

Teamwork makes the Dream work

In 2012 we worked very minimally with the art students. I'm excited to be working closely with them this year. Not only will the cooperation help with the design of the t-shirt but we can also come up with designs for buttons and other things to sell. I would also like to gain a deeper understanding of artwork that both originates and represents the community and its past. If it is possible the art students could work to make stories come to life, maybe create an animation that depicts parts of an oral history. If we are able to find photos from different eras of the same thing, a time lapse photo could be created.

Connections will be helpful in terms of the fundraiser, not only do we have history type information we have art that opens the door to an entirely different group of people. More avenues for the word to get out and a wider array of things represented at the event will help us have a more productive fundraiser.

I hope the ideas, no matter how crazy, keep coming!

Ode to Fairfield

My capstone paper revolved around the WWII shipbuilding industry in Fairfield and how it affected the local residents as well as the community as a whole. For the duration of this semester I would like to keep Fairfield as my main focus, but this time around I would like to see what I can find so that I may better understand the environmental and food aspect of this community. I would like to look in to the use of gardens within the area as well as the presence, or lack there of, of grocery stores. I would like to discover whether the gardens and local food stores had any effect on the community and if they possibly helped the community thrive. 

Having done prior research on the Fairfield area, I find many connections with the Love Canal debacle. In both situations they set themselves up for failure. If you know something is so incredibly bad that it has to be disposed of in such a manner, as with Love Canal, then who in their right mind decides to put a community on top of it? Fairfield did similar things, knowing they were zoned for heavy industry they went ahead and built homes within spiting distance of dangerous plants. I researched industrial accidents in the area and there were quite a few times in which the was an accident at the plant that directly effected residents, yet they did nothing to try and fix this problem. While Baybrook does not sit quite as close as Fairfield to the industry, they are still being greatly impacted by it. While on the tour in 2012, as well as many other trips I took to the area, I was repulsed by the smell of sewage. There is currently a waste water treatment facility on the peninsula that has a stench that not only hovers over the area in which it operates; but also is pushed out into the neighboring communities, including but not limited to Brooklyn and Curtis Bay. This sewage as well as other waste is not safe for human interaction so they pump or dump it where someone has declared it to be much safer to handle. To bad that idiot doesn't have to wake up every morning in the middle of it all, maybe then he'd gain a better understanding of how these communities have seemingly been looked over all these years.

This is all that is left of what used to be a great place to live.

Weedon Street in Fairfield

We meet again.

While the goal of this class is to raise money to help sustain the Filbert Street Garden, the social mission is to provide a collaborative gathering between people to remember the past, connect with the present, and preserve for the future so that growth is possible.

While this class is meant to focus mainly on the areas of Brooklyn and Curtis Bay, I have found in my previous research that the neighboring community of Fairfield has mirrored the growth and break down of Baybrook. I wish to further my research within the community of Fairfield and see what I can learn about the use of gardens. This would continue into attempting to gain an understanding on whether or not the use of local and community gardens, as well as the amount and location of grocery/dry good stores, helped Fairfield. Understandings like these might give us incite on why the Baybrook communities need community gardens and how it can be used to not only grow flood, but also help grow the community. Chris Landers' piece about the Baptist church and the community that flocked there every Sunday even though no one lived in the area anymore shows that people want somewhere to go and to be together. While a church and a garden are two very different things they both bring people varying benefits. We want this garden to be loved and invested in by the community's residents. So much so that even if they leave the neighborhood they still feel a connection that will either bring them back to the garden or entice them to continue the tradition elsewhere.

In order for this event to succeed we need to take a page from Delores Hayden's book on place memory. We need to create the opportunity for events to happen that will forever stick in a persons mind. Whether they are 6 or 56 we want them to say "Remember that fantastic day at the garden? We should make that a weekly thing." Simply by introducing an idea and giving it back to the public the concept of the garden can stick and years from now people will be taking their kids and their grandkids to the garden with the hopes that they too will fall in love with the place.


Children learn best with use of reward, and what is more rewarding knowing that you are able to enjoy something you created all on your own? Teaching kids to garden is not only convenient, since the garden is right next to the school, but it will also teach them how to garden and eat fresh. (The only reason I was willing to try green beans when I was little is because I helped grow them in our families garden and now they are one of my favorite veggies.)

I know I am jumping ahead a bit but thinking forward to the event I wish thinking about the possibility of having people (not only kids) plant seeds to take home and start their own gardens. May be a possible income option?
Also a garden and park clean up would be nice again this year.

Chris Landers, "The Church at the End of the Road: First Baptist Church Of Fairfield Ponders Giving  Up The Ghost, But Not The Spirit,” City Paper, February 14, 2007 

Delores Hayden, “Place Memory and Urban Preservation,” in The Power of Place: Urban Landscape as Public History (Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1997) 44-78.