Contemplated physical changes to St. Paul and Calvert Streets

Last night we attended a City meeting for the community which addressed potential changes to St. Paul and Calvert Streets .  The meeting held at Sts. Philip and James R.C. Church was attended by a significant number of residents.  These included what the City representatives called “Stakeholders” (unidentified and who began this push two years ago along with “institutions”) of a Steering Committee which requested the City’s study on this project and obviously in favor of the changes, and residents who supported the changes, along with those who did not.  In all of the years that we have attended meetings, this appeared to me to be one of the largest gathering of individuals on any single cause to attend any meeting in our community.

 

The meeting did not go as planned in that many of the community members in the audience were incensed about the fact that there is every possibility that there will be greatly reduced, perhaps no parking allowed on North Calvert Street and St. Paul Street in order to accommodate this plan.  The engineer and City representative did not deny this nor the deep concerns of home owners that the sidewalks and their front gardens may have to be reduced in size to accommodate these change, reduced along these corridors although the engineers said there were no plans currently to take yards or streets (however they did not deny that this would not be included) but parking was an issue.  And further, they mentioned bus discharge street-cuts (possible changes to bus routes are also under consideration).  Where the residents and business operations in existence will park their vehicles is anyone’s guess.  Another resident who reported that he had a photograph dated in 1925 showing that Calvert was always one-way traffic but this was challenged by Mr. Charles Duff of Jubilee Baltimore, Inc., a development enterprise, who reported that Calvert Street’s two-way direction was original and that it was changed in the 1950’s (there was no mention that before the 1950’s there were significantly fewer cars on the street).  One neighbor expressed great concern that if the area allowed for two-way traffic it would have terrible negative effects on ambulances traveling on North Calvert bringing the sick and wounded to MedStar Union Memorial hospital.  The response from the engineer that they are contemplating ways to move this traffic to another corridor.  (When one considers that these ambulances carry people with heart attacks or some other serious condition and seconds and minutes apply, this did not seem reasonable at all.)

One woman expressed tremendous concerns about two-way traffic on St. Paul Street because of the existence of two schools and the library (the VLP) within a very short distance on St. Paul and how most of the children cross that street and North Calvert Street at all times of the day.  She was certain two-way traffic was truly dangerous and would result in children being hit by cars.  (All you have to do to understand her concern is to go to one of these school closings and see how the Crossing Guards attempt to cross the children now where they stand strong, facing the one-way travelling cars.  You can only imagine how they will have to attempt to address two-way traffic unless two crossing guards were placed on each intersection, one facing each of the two-way traffic.  On many occasions we have witnessed vehicles honking their horns and attempting to cross the street while she or he was working to safely move the children across the street.  How could one person control cars going both ways?)

Mr. Duiff said his office faced one of the streets under discussion, but did not specifically state that he lived in Mount Vernon or that his home faced either St. Paul or North Calvert Streets (and therefore his concern is different than that of a resident of a community).  He explained his vision by way of an explanation that in those neighborhoods people cannot make friends with others who live across the street because of one-way traffic.  He said being able to cross in the middle of a two-way street would result in a truly residential community of interacting neighbors. (Strangely enough we have friends all over the community and we often have to cross streets to visit with them – or even to mail a letter for that matter.  Do I even have to say this?)

At one point Councilwoman Clarke asked the panel from DOT to name the individuals who were on the Steering Committee but they refused to do so and only released the names of the organizations on this committee, which in part consists of the CVCA, Charles North, the City Health Dept., Mt. Vernon/Belvedere, Central Baltimore Partnership (CBP) (whose website listed the requestor of the study by the DOT as Eric Dymond of Remington), Johns Hopkins University.  (We also know that the CVCBD, represented by David Hill, has been a part of the CBP but little of anything contemplated there has been shared with the community the CVCBD claims to represent and of which he is an employee.  These are decisions with which impact the community, whether you live facing St. Paul or North Calvert or live on other streets in the area.)

 

Overall, it appeared that residents on North Calvert Street were not in favor of this two-way traffic to run past their homes and seemed quite shocked and distraught by both the suggestion of this plan and the $150,000 cost to the taxpayers for the study.   Residents of St. Paul Street, many of whom were not present at the meeting last night, but the few that were appeared to be were considering the various options and concepts. 

The engineer also said that this study would be using today’s volumes and not looking into the future except for estimating an approximation of % of potential changes going forward to 2020.

In closing, this study will also include the other major streets within the community and will address changes within those streets due to the proposed changes envisioned by DOT at the request of the CVCA Vice President, Mr. Dymond, and Mr. Duff who said that this has been a dream since 1987.

If you wish to express your opinions to the DOT, e-mail Stephanie.Yanovitz@baltimorecity.gov phone number 410-396-6865.  If you wish to see the Central Baltimore Partnership Meeting “Exploring Two-way Traffic Conversions in Central Baltimore, October 8, 2014” goggle “Central Baltimore Partnership”.

If this message is taken down by the “leaders” please go to “other voices from Charles Village.blogspot.com” and you will find a repeat of this message there.