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.
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