Feedback

Transit line a burden, not a boon, for thriving, car-centric Canton

September 2, 2009 at 8:21 am 2

  • Story Link
  • 2

Categories

Ben Rosenberg, of Baltimore's Canton neighborhood, opposes the surface Red Line.

Moved by the wrongness of the Red Line for Canton, Ben Rosenberg (shown here on Boston St.) has become an activist. (


Neighborhood Voices on the Red Line Route:
BEN ROSENBERG
Baltimore’s Red Line mass transit project has been Ben Rosenberg’s induction into civic engagement — and protest. An attorney, he spent years at a prominent law firm before he and three other guys went out on their own. He’s a litigator, which means he can be tied up for weeks in court; he’s raised three children and has been busy in recent years enjoying his three grandchildren. Five years ago, he and his wife left Ruxton for a town house with a harbor view in Canton.

Until now, he says, “I never had the inclination or time to do something like this.”

The “this” is Rosenberg’s activism against the MTA’s proposal to build a surface rail line through Canton.

“You have a narrow city grid of streets that was never designed for this type of transit and Boston Street, unfortunately, is still a major east west artery on the south side. It’s the only way people, until you get to that O’Donnell Street, get to 95 and if you are taking the Fort McHenry tunnel, it’s the only way (there),’’ he says. “That traffic isn’t going to go away. To put this incredibly huge structure, which is really what the light rail is, in the middle of that is just a prescription for disaster. This plan doesn’t fit the streetscape.”

An anti-Red Line banner in the 2500 block of Boston Street, in Canton. (Photo by Ann LoLordo for Baltimore Brew.)

An anti-Red Line banner in the 2500 block of Boston Street, in Canton. (

Rosenberg, 64, should know – he lives right off Boston Street. Since the spring of 2008, he has been out front and outspoken about the direction of the Red Line. His growing opposition has taken him to community meetings where, he says, MTA officials did little more than give people their 90 seconds to speak. He’s met with local political leaders who pledged their support.

A couple of weeks ago, he was standing on Edmonson Avenue, waving a sign that read: No Surface Light Rail on Edmonson Avenue. (His last memory of that area? As a child, traveling with his mother to get a haircut at the Hess Shoe store in the Edmonson Village Shopping Center.)

After attending a large community meeting at St. Casimir’s Church in April, Rosenberg volunteered with others to help develop a strategy to put a halt to a surface rail project in Canton. The group wanted “to at least get the MTA to come up with some kind of alternative that was less intrusive and more likely to result in a more efficient transportation” system, he says.

The group recognized that economics and federal funding guidelines were driving the scope of the project. But resident requests to develop alternatives never gained any traction with local officials, he says, if they meant slowing down the project.

“4c was the choice of the powers that be,” says Rosenberg. “It was their choice but nobody seemed to be considering what impact this would have on Canton, a dynamic vibrant neighborhood. There’s nothing about this that makes sense except the governor and mayor see this as a billion dollar project and that’s a lot of jobs.”

A week ago, he was among neighborhood residents invited to City Hall to meet with Mayor Sheila Dixon to talk about their concerns over the Red Line. “She gave us an hour and half with no interruptions,’’ which Rosenberg appreciated. He and others at the meeting persuaded city transit officials to prepare for Dixon a graphic of the portal that will be built on Boston Street so she can better visualize its scale and impact.

Nevertheless, he remains opposed to a surface line in Canton.

- by ANN LOLORDO

Ann LoLordo is a longtime reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun.

Tomorrow, more voices, pro and con, east-side and west side, on the Red Line.

BREWED RECENTLY ON THE RED LINE….
-today-
“Transit Line Could Uplift a Struggling Baltimore Community”
-previously-
“Time for Some Myth-busting on Baltimore’s Red Line, Says a Believer”

“Baltimore’s Red Line? Better for Developers Than Transit Riders.”

Baltimore Brew is a moderated site that encourages the free and open exchange of ideas in a climate of mutual respect. We reserve the right - but do not assume any obligation - to delete or withhold the publication of comments that violate our standards. Comments that are obscene, libelous or defamatory, or include vicious personal attacks will not be published. Racist remarks, sexist remarks, disgusting stuff, blatant commercial self-promotion – you get the idea – if it crosses our line, we’re not going to run it.

  • resincanton

    I disagree with the notion that Canton is ‘car-centric’ since it is a fantastically walk-able neighborhood. Canton is no more then one-mile from one end to another. Within that space anyone can easily walk to O’Donnell Square, Patterson Park, the Canton Waterfront, and shopping (including the grocery) at the Can Company. Furthermore, Highlandtown and Fells Point are only a few blocks beyond the borders of Canton. I think Canton’s walk-ability is one of the greatest aspects of the neighborhood, and that further infastructure like the Red Line can only further enhance that by making even more of Baltimore easily accessible from our already great neighborhood.

    I too live right off of Boston Street, and it is interesting to me how two polar opposite views of our neighborhood and the direction it should take exist between the likes of me and the likes of Mr. Rosenberg. If Mr. Rosenberg wants to continue to drive everywhere, then, so be it. However, I wish he would respect that others may prefer alternate modes of transportation, and that he respects that desire. I’ll let him drive. He can let me ride the light rail. No significant harm done to either of us.

  • http://www.baltimoreredlineunderground.org Marty Taylor

    “Resincanton” – I also live in Canton, and I’m usually running or biking where I’m going. If this boondoggle gets built and you do ride the light rail from Canton, my bike and I will be there long before you: it’s just that slow.

The Daily Drip

  • May 21, 2012

    • The Baltimore Board of Finance today closed its monthly meeting to the press and public in order to discuss $35 million in tax increment financing for the proposed expansion of Under Armour’s Locust Point headquarters. Steve Kraus, clerk of the board and chief of the city’s bureau of treasury management, invoked an exemption to Maryland’s [...]

  • May 20, 2012

    • ((May 21 UPDATE – Jerry Nelson said this morning that L furnace is back in operation, at what capacity and for how long he did not say.)) Production at the Sparrows Point blast furnace was halted Friday due to a shortage of raw materials. Jerry Nelson, general manager of commercial sales for RG Steel, and [...]

  • May 18, 2012

    • May 19 UPDATE: RG Steel’s Jerry Nelson says “everything’s on the table” and “people have expressed interest” in buying RG Steel plants, according to Wheeling, W.Va., newspaper. Also, scrap dealers reluctant to sell to Sparrows Point and Warren, says American Metal Market. [See AMM story below in Comments.] Industry newsletter Steel Market Update reports that [...]

  • May 16, 2012

    • The idea of pushing Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to regularly audit the books of Baltimore city departments got a (literal) airing yesterday on the Marc Steiner Show, as former city Recreation and Parks Department Director Chris Delaporte and three City Councilmen came on the program to discuss it. (Podcast here.) Listeners calling in provided perhaps the [...]

More of the Daily Drip »

Below the Fold

  • May 18, 2012

    • _________________________________________________________________________ BIKING!! That’s at least the takeaway message we got from the photos that were snapped of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake this morning during Bike To Work Day. Rawlings-Blake was beaming in pretty much all the shots we got of her from Meredith Mitchell of Baltimore Bicycle Works, where the mayor and city bike czar Nate [...]

Twitter

Facebook