Chester Street and most of the rest of Butchers Hill have now had a year to get accustomed to BACK-IN ANGLE PARKING. But I haven’t. To my knowledge, this is a Baltimore “innovation”, and it should go back onto the scrap heap before it has a chance to spread.

First of all, it’s ugly. Our streets now look like parking lots. Rows of cars all pointed outwards creating a discomforting aggressive look, as if they’re all poised to jump off the starting line at Le Mans.

Backing up while turning is an exceedingly unnatural activity, like bending over backwards. Joe Flacco can’t do it behind the Ravens’ offensive line and neither can I behind the wheel.

First of all, you’re aiming for a very small opening, only nine feet wide stripe-to-stripe. You’re steering with your wheels to the rear, when you’ve spent you’re whole life steering with the front wheels. You’re steering angle is indeterminate. It’s quite different from backing up to parallel park, which is more of a pivot off your left shoulder (practiced by all NFL wide receivers) than an actual turn.

You can’t use your rear view mirrors for any of this, because they are aimed to reflect straight, not for turning. And you can’t see the stripes that delineate the spaces, unless you open your car door while turning, which I do.

But thank goodness they put in the stripes, because if you simply judge your angle by the cars next to yours, you’ll screw up as badly as they probably did. This will cause a chain reaction of cockeyed cars parked every witch-way. And in any event, the chances of the car to your left and right being parked at the same angle are slim. So you have to either try to split the difference, or you can try to re-establish normalcy by using the stripe as your guide – concede to the status quo or re-establish the straight and narrow. That’s a metaphysical decision you must make each time you park. Often, it’s best to resign yourself to accept mediocrity and park as poorly as your neighbor, especially if you don’t want your car whacked by his door next time he gets in his car.

Finally, there is the possibility that a small child may stray into your vehicles path during all this. As I said, since you can’t see behind though your mirrors and since this whole process can take up to five minutes, it’s a distinct tragic possibility.

Yes, back-in angle parking probably reduces the number of fender benders since you are no longer backing up into traffic flow, but it increases the possibility of a serious accident with a little one. And since this kind of parking can can only be accommodated when street lanes are very wide to accommodate the turning maneuvers, traffic speeds increase, further endangering pedestrians who remain hidden as they walk out from between the parked cars. Unlike fender benders, these kinds of accidents are too rare to readily emerge in statistics.

Still, we hardcore urbanites can get used to anything. We got used to alternating-side street cleaning parking restrictions. And we’ve learned how to interpret or ignore the arcane snow emergency parking laws as necessary. But I pity the folks who’ve had to deal with back-in angle parking in commercial areas like Hampden, where parking turnover is frequent and includes lots of inexperienced unsuspecting suburbanites and such.

And beyond all this, Butchers Hill still doesn’t have enough parking. So now we’re considering residential permits. Yikes !!!!!!!!

2700 Harlem Avenue West Baltimore Today I counted 32 houses full and 29 vacant It appears that living in this neighborhood with a high concentration of African Americans is associated with greater alcohol availability and promotion—especially of malt liquor, as I walked to the corner to purchase a bag of pretzels (needed the fix after the Supperbowl Party Sunday) and the entire corner was hawking drugs and single cigarettes, inside the store the drug activity continued and was clearly accepted by the merchant as he did nothing but sell me my bag of pretzels and go back to reading his paper , as I went back home about 800 yards away the blue camera light blinks ,but I wonder is it on as the commerce of drugs and “loose ones” continual ……………………..Just another day in the Neighborhood of West Baltimore “STAY TUNE”

A week in the life of the 1400 block of Boyle Ave, between Key Highway and Fort Ave.

Monday: About every other rowhouse has a canine resident, and on the morning walk we see broken glass scattered on Harvey Ave where a car was broken into the night before, but none of us were awoken by it. Most of us have beloved parking pads and this is likely some unfortunate schmuck from the block over. No one is really worried about it.
Tuesday: Neighbor Don hangs out his extensive jam collection to dry…he’s got Miller Light ones and ones with dogs riding surfboards. They are colorful and hang proudly along the length of his parking pad, punctuated by one pair of underwear.
Wednesday: Us and the neighbors on the end of the block are from the Midwest and we run into each other outside. We discuss the other neighbors on the block and admit that sometimes we have trouble understanding the accents of ones that have lived here forever. There are at least 5 that have lived here since the 60′s. Everyone else seems to be working 20-30 year olds who have lived here for at least a year.
Thursday: Incessant banging from the house being renovated across the street. They are adding a rooftop deck and we are surprised. This is the first active construction we have witnessed in a year. The house next to it has old chipped baby blue painted formstone.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: The block is loud with idots yelling outside the two bars at the end. The tiny street is choked with cars from people eating or drinking on Fort (we don’t have permits or parking restrictions). The constant whine from the fire station (Engine Co 26, Truck Co 6) is sometimes overwhelming…and makes for a hard fought night of sleep with the addition of police/medic helicopters. Peace is elusive, but can be found: up on the roof, looking out over the harbor lights, drink in hand.

Ednor Gardens – 3700 Block
Love my neighbors, we shovel together, celebrate holidays together, or just stand out front and talk. We also look out for one another. Bring in papers if any are lying out front. Feed/walk dogs. My neighbor Tony, along with a neighbor from another block, pushed my car out of the ice the other day! If our neighborhood is changing, we are getting more great people. I know that a lot of us wish there was a coffee shop in walking distance. Development at 33rd street/Stadium place might bring us that. The YMCA is great. The playground is wonderful! The new little league baseball/football stadium is beautiful and I can’t wait for it to be used this Spring/Summer/Fall. The crime in our neighborhood comes in waves. The positive thing is that after each incident that I know of, there was a strong police presence on our block immediately following. Visit EG in the spring – daffodils & azaleas on Elkader in early April….wonderful mature azaleas on Rexmere in May…you’ll love it!

I’ve lived on the 4900 block of Ross Rd since 1982. I was a year old at the time; my parents moved here to take care of my great grandmother who moved here when the house was built back in the 20s. Ross Rd is a small street of detached houses in Northeast Baltimore, it consists of two blocks and I live on the dead end part. It’s a quiet block without much traffic, there’s an alley to the east that allows parking for the houses on that side while a number of houses on the west side having parking pads; parking is rarely a problem here.

When my great grandparents owned the house and my grandparents lived here they called the neighborhood Hamilton. I’m told before that they called the area Lauraville. In the 40’s a community association was established that named the neighborhood Waltherson. Now some people say we live in Lauraville area and others say we live in the Hamilton area or they combine the two and say we live in Hamilton-Lauraville. I just say I live in Hamilton; it’s what the postcards I found in my garage from the 40s said.

My great grandfather actually died in my house back in 1949 in what is now my dining room. I still have his death certificate in the house. We blame him whenever something goes bump in the night. He used to live on Mulberry Street but that house is now a highway to nowhere. The whole family seems to have moved up to Northeast Baltimore in the 20’s. Two of his daughters lived on the 4900 block of Ross.

My great grandfather was into urban gardening. I believe back then it was just called gardening. He grew beans, lettuce, sweet bantam corn and a variety of other vegetables. My grandmother and great aunt still rave about eating the vegetables he grew to this day. Urban gardening is now becoming popular in the area though the efforts primarily (it would seem) of Arthur Morgan and the Hamilton Crop Circle. I plan to start my first garden this year.

A couple decades ago, sometime after 1966, they were planning to build some townhomes on Southern Ave just next to the dead end at Ross Rd. There was a lot of opposition from the community but the homes were built anyway. To this day there is a fence that blocks our street completely from the townhomes. The kids who live over there just jump the fence; back in the 80’s they just cut through it. I don’t much understand the point of it.

Last year one of my neighbors moved out. After two or three years she got fed up with the snow response from Baltimore City. She was complaining about it even while she was moving out last fall, “I gotta get out before the snow starts falling” she said. While I was growing up it never even crossed my mind that it was unacceptable that we had to shovel our street out each snowstorm since it was just what you did. Snow doesn’t bother me to much because I have the ability of working from home if I need to. I don’t know anyone else on the block that has that luxury. Our street can be tight though which is one of the reasons I think we are often overlooked. In the 90s, a trash truck totaled my dad’s Geo Metro coming down our street. No complaints there though, his new car had airbags which later saved his life.

Crime has been mostly absent here over the years until recently. A few houses have been broken into in the past five years and we’ve had one burglary so far in 2011. Prior to about 2005 that the only crime I knew of was a bike that was stolen when I was in elementary school. The break-ins are particularly frustrating in that even if you catch someone in your neighbor’s yard and chase them off they just come back a few days later. It’s an entirely new phenomenon and, I believe, our biggest challenge.

Recently the surrounding area has seen a lot of new restaurants. I was oblivious to this until about the time Clementine and Hamilton Tavern were moving in. I never noticed Chameleon and Red Canoe until I started looking at stuff nearby online. That’s mainly because I never drove on Harford Rd between Walther Ave and Southern Ave to notice them. However, I know they exist now and I love what I have available within walking distance to my home and look forward to the places opening soon like Hamilton Bakery and Green Onion. I find the street to be very charming which is primarily why I moved back after college when my parents were talking about leaving. All in all I’m optimistic for the future though a little frustrated at the moment, without the occasional crime I’d say my block is about perfect.