There was a fascinating piece in Sunday’s Washington Post magazine about alley-gating in Baltimore.

Baltimore residents have been allowed to do this for a couple of years now:  basically, you cut off access to the alley with an iron gate, give keys to people whose backyards face the alley and voila, you have an urban oasis.

Picture planters with zinnias and basil, neighborhood parties and kids playing safely.

So is this good: helping families who would like to not have to worry about their kids encountering used condoms and junkies in the alley? Or is it bad, antithetical to what cities are supposed to be all about: creating a gated community for affluent gentrifiers?

Some of those Stephanie Shapiro interviewed, like Rafael Reyes, found the idea distasteful at first.

But after suffering two rear-entry break-ins, one while he and his family slept, “everything changed.’” He bought a gun. And he no longer opposed alley gates.

Shapiro, a former veteran features writer for The Baltimore Sun, updates a story The Baltimore Urbanite did back in 2006, when the idea was first taking off.

It’s worth reading her nuanced piece to find out how the trailblazing greened alley at North Luzerne and North Glover Street, near Patterson Park, fared in the intervening years. And you’ll get a thoughtful look at the challenges faced by the other would-be alley gaters who followed.