Green Spaces do not necessarily make a happy community

Below listed is a comment that we received from a neighbor, Joan Floyd, with respect to a recent "Central Baltimore Committee" meeting she attended,  and where the "26th Street Playground", a neighborhood playground, was discussed.  We are quoting the comment in its entirety in order to show how things are reported to the community:

"I attended the meeting and heard an architect describe the basketball court as "controversial."  There was no mention of the fact that the court was just recently renovated.  Nor was there any mention of the Department of Recreation and Parks.  The architect's drawing showed the court being moved away from the street by a significant amount, to accommodate a new landscaped area. "

We find that the architect, who was apparently employed by Central Baltimore for the Homewood Community Partnership Initiative, has more than likely not visited the basketball court (or did so several months before the court was completely refurbished), but based his comments on some earlier plans proposed by Greater Homewood Community Corporation which was what they decided this community wants, not which is already completed and enjoyed by the community.

As previously stated, the basketball court was recently refurbished to the delight of adults and children alike and represents an important asset to the community.  [See my recent article "This is our Kingdom"] An earlier attempt of creating green spaces in the court's adjacent children's playground failed miserably.  Broken wooden planters now grace the playground area, and the bagged remains of the soil that was never used sit rotting where they were initially placed beside the planters. Sometimes children make up a game of jumping in and out of the boxes, but when the condition of these large planters deteriorates any more they will fall apart.

Additionally, between the basketball court and the children's playground is a large garden which various neighbors tend.  Then there are the front and back gardens in all the properties throughout the Charles Village neighborhood as well as all the tree-lined streets and other pocket gardens such as exist on the Margaret Brent School property right next to the City's basketball court and children's playground.

Foundations can become self-serving since their income is often derived from a portion of any grants they can obtain.  So grant writing becomes a major goal for sustaining themselves and their jobs. Currently popular is the concept of "GREEN".  If you green this, the world is saved.  If you green an area that will immediately mean that investment will come.  It's true that rows of cement streets are hot, may be desolate and uninviting.  But just putting in a tree and tree-well does not mean that the tree will survive or that the weeds will be kept down in the wells.  Taking play space from a city child living in a neighborhood already abounding with gardens, lawns and trees does not make that child happy.  But it makes grant writing easier.  Writing a grant for another basketball court with it's hard play surface is not today's fashion and may be extremely difficult to obtain, even if it is more important for the well-being of that child.

A few years ago enlarging libraries was one of those popular ideas that was taken up by foundations eager for grants.  The result was that many of the small libraries, available to greater numbers of people, were closed throughout the country so that bigger, more elaborate ones were built.  These proved highly expensive to run and were largely inaccessible to many in the city.  Buzz words and conforming to the latest ideas may look good on paper and attract money for foundations but the end result may only be an asset to the foundation and not those they claim to benefit.

This is just one of those incidents in which the Foundations have apparently decided what no one wants in this small track of land and that is more green space.  As I've described above, we are fortunate in this community to have a lot of green space.  Walk around the community and go over to Wyman Park Dell.  Visit one of your neighbors and see what they have done in their backyards.  Walk up and down the streets of our community and see with your neighbors have done in their front yards; many are quite beautiful and all are green.  Greater Homewood Community Corp., Central Baltimore Committee and Homewood Community Partnership do not need to destroy the only basketball court in Charles Village to plant another flower that will likely die from the lack of care and water.  Let the children have their basketball court and if you want to do something positive for this community, get some more basketball courts in the community so that the children and adults have an opportunity to really enjoy living here.

Green space is lovely and important but in a city children are not supposed to trespass on other people's property nor are they encouraged to play ball of any kind near houses or car windows.  So, if they cannot run, jump and throw basketballs into hoops with an abandonment that comes from spacious, designated courts, an over-abundance of green space that denies the city child the play he/she needs and deserves becomes a negative influence, emotionally and physically.

This is our Kingdom - A child's view of his basketball court

My wife and I returned home recently from a brief trip to New York City to visit relatives.  When we stayed in the Big Apple, we decided to stay in a hotel close to where I once lived on the Upper West Side of the City.  It was a great experience walking the same streets I once did many years ago when I was much younger, but what caught my immediate attention on Riverside Drive was a playground where during the evening we would sit and catch the breezes from the Hudson River.  There, shuttered between the West Side Highway and Riverside Drive, was this magnificent place where children and adults played.  Within the borders of cooperatives and condos costing many millions of dollars and rents starting at $3,124. for a studio apartment was this sacred garden of pleasure.  On one half of this playground children laughed, ran in and out of water jets to escape the heat and on the other half young and old played basketball in four full courts.  I wished I had my camera with me to take pictures of the courts so that some of the people in Charles Village could see how  the sport of basketball was in fashion and demand by the New York City elites, young and old, enjoying very vigorous exercise with sons and daughters, friends and classmates in this well-to-do part of this magnificent metropolitan city.

Upon returning home to Baltimore, a neighbor with whom we chatted during a visit to our home recounted a story about two Dominican brothers who were recently visiting various areas of the neighborhood in the hope of building their parish community.  When they passed the basketball court on 26th Street and St. Paul they met a group of youngsters happily tossing "hoops".  In explaining his enthusiasm for the beautiful new court one young man threw his arms out wide and exclaimed to the brothers "This is our Kingdom!"  Then he ran to join in with his other companions there, at the only basketball court in our community of Charles Village. The sound of that child's voice, as described by my neighbor who was present at that incident, still resounds in my brain and forces me to write this little item about a basketball court that some are planning on making smaller and moving to another location.  All I can think of is the joy and happiness that this Baltimore City basketball court gives this young man and so many other neighborhood children and adults, where it is and as it is, a spacious and precious space.

What is so offensive in it to some people that the joys of adults and children do not take center stage over some plan to destroy or change a place that is so special, so important to our City's children?  This "Kingdom" is here, it is now and it is a place that celebrates all those who come and enjoy their energy and freedom.  There is no need to remove it.  There is no need to destroy it by diminishing it.  It is a tribute to the children and adults of this community who love the sport of basketball and which costs very little for any of them to participate in.  Surely our children are as important as those in NYC's Upper East Side.  Leave it alone, and let the boy who spoke to the Brothers enjoy his kingdom now and in the future.  If you tear it down, you will destroy yet another hope of another person who thought he could dream, who thought people cared about him and his friends.

Charles Village BASKETBALL COURT IN JEOPARDY

This morning we received a telephone call from an individual who attended the Central Baltimore Partnership meeting last evening at St. Marks Lutheran Church on St. Paul Street. At that meeting she learned that Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore City Public Schools endered into an agreement involving Margaret Brent Elementary and Middle School and under this partnership the refurbished basketball court would be torn down and moved. As you know we reported earlier the success we had with the City in getting the basketball court newly refurbished to the delight and enjoyment of our neighborhood.

 The playground was dedicated in the 1970's by then Councilwoman Clarke as the "26th Street Playground" and it was for the community as a whole.

One side of the 26th Street Playground consisted of a basketball court being constructed and used by the community for many years, but it needed to be refurbished which was accomplished last year. On the other side of the playground was a section that had swings and other play equipment for the children of this community which the City refurbished just a few years ago.

 This playground is not part of Margaret Brent Elementary and Middle School, but sits on leased property owned now by CSX Railroad, which in purchasing the property owned previously by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad has become now the owner of this property. The property currently is on lease and has been for decades to the City of Baltimore and unless there is now an agreement to change the property from the City of Baltimore to Baltimore City Public School's jurisdiction, which if this has happened did occur in some secret negotiations not known by the community.

Why would one reasonably destroy a newly refurbished basketball court that is being enjoyed continuously by the community and move it to WHERE? Why would you want to take from the residents of this community their "playground"? Who approved this? When the CVCA started calling the neighborhood playground the Margaret Brent playground I reminded a member of the CVCA, Ms. Sharon Guida, that it was not the Margaret Brent playground but the "26th Street Playground", to which she responded, "I know, but the CVCA wants to call it that." I couldn't stop her from calling it by that name but I registered my complaint to the Homewood Community Partnership Coordinator, My Joseph McNeeley, at which meeting this discussion took place.

Let us not destroy the only basketball court we have in Charles Village as it represents a respite for our children and adults and let's put a stop to the constant attempt to destroy something that is very important to this community. To destroy this source of athletic and social interaction in this community will do the community, both children and adults, much harm.