Light City 2018, Baltimore, April 21, 2018

For the third year in a row I went to Light City in Baltimore (which is also the festival’s third year). (You can read about my previous visits in 2016 and 2017.) The first year I went I basically just took the Charm City Circulator bus as far as the Shake Shack (which is located across from Harborplace) and I underestimated how big this festival was. The second year I had an animation that was showing at Light City so I took the Charm City Circulator until I got to a stop that was as close to the On Demand area (where my animation was being shown along with other film shorts) and I still have memories of sitting outside for two hours waiting for my animation to show up on screen as the temperature kept on getting colder and colder as time went on.

This year I decided not to submit anything to Light City so I could begin my tour anywhere. I also ended up going on the last night of Light City. I couldn’t get there earlier in the month due to scheduling conflicts so the final night was my first and last time that I visited Light City 2018.

I drove my car to Linthicum and stopped at a Royal Farms store so I could pick up a chicken dinner and a diet soda for only $7. (I know from previous years that many of the restaurants, fast food outlets, and food tents tend to draw very long lines during Light City. It was easier to just bring my own food to Light City.) I parked my car at the North Linthicum light rail station and took the train to the Camden Yards station.

I had the idea of taking the Charm City Circulator bus all the way over to the other side of the Inner Harbor near where Little Italy is located. When I arrived I found that this area has been heavily built up. There’s a new complex called Harbor East and I took some photos there along with some photos of Little Italy. I took so many photos that day that I decided to break up this year’s Light City entry into two. Yesterday I wrote about Little Italy and Harbor East. Today’s blog post is about Light City itself.

This year I shot video footage of some of the Light City exhibits. Here is the resulting video showing the highlights of that festival.

Here are the still photos I shot at Light City. When I arrived at the Inner Harbor the first thing I did was to eat the Royal Farms chicken while viewing the Harbor East marina at the beginning of a sunset.

I walked along the Inner Harbor where I saw the beginnings of Light City.

There were Fireflies Pedicabs that provided a service to give people a ride along the eastern end of the Inner Harbor. They were very colorful to look at.

I arrived at the first Light City structure called Pulse Portal by Davis McCarty. Even though it was still light outside when I was there, I managed to have fun shooting the Inner Harbor at sunset through the colored glass of the structure.

When I was there a couple were preparing to get married by that structure.

Mr. Trash Wheel was docked along the Inner Harbor.

The Herd by Kelley Bell consists of a flock of inflatable blue creatures floating in the Inner Harbor.

Octopus by Tim Scofield, Kyle Miller, and Steve Dalnekoff is a giant animatronic octopus whose tentacles were slowly moving while it was changing colors and playing very calming electronic music. I found it pretty mesmerizing to watch in person.

This Coffee Bar tent was one of many tents that served refreshments to the general public at Light City.

I came upon the On Demand area, which brought back memories for me. Last year I had my animation, The March of Liberty, shown in that area. I still have memories of sitting outside freezing in one of those adirondack chairs for over two hours waiting for my animation to be shown. I was so thrilled when it was finally shown that I shot this quick reaction video.

This year I didn’t submit anything to this festival. It was partially due to laziness and partially because I still have less-than-thrilling memories of sitting outside in the cold for a very long time. Even though I was ultimately happy when my animation was shown, it didn’t really lead to any further opportunities for me. (I had hoped that the showing of my animation at Light City would lead to some kind of a job or career breakthrough for me but it didn’t work out that way.) In contrast to last year, I didn’t spend much time in the On Demand area. I hung around just long enough to shoot these two pictures.

There were a few giant screens that were placed throughout the Inner Harbor that showed random video clips.

Something in the Water by Post Typography + PI.KL + Figure 53 featured some underwater lights that flashed just below the surface of the harbor.

I came upon the Institute of Marine & Environmental Technology (IMET) where a few of the Labs @ Light City were held. I arrived on the last night of Light City so the building was closed when I was there, which is why I was only able to get a few external shots.

Here’s the installation As of a Now by Elissa Blount.

There was another underwater installation called What Lies Beneath by Formstone Castle.

A drummer and a dance troupe performed outside of the Power Plant.

Many people walked through the bridge-like Synesthesia by Surcreative.

There was this line standing outside of the igloo-like The Eighth Art that was so long that I decided to skip it.

There were a few street performers playing for the Light City crowd.

Sun Stomp by the Sun Stomp Collective was this animation that required people to stomp on these nearby metal bleachers. The effect was pretty neat but it provided noise that was so loud that I had to leave quickly before I developed a headache.

This year Light City had something called Mini Light City, which was geared towards families. This elephant balloon graced the entrance to Mini Light City.

There was a tent sponsored by Future Makers where parents and children could make simple projects that involved light. That area was very crowded.

The Mini Light City area had another tent that was easier to get inside. It was sponsored by The PURGG Project and it included hands-on demonstrations using robots and drones.

A WJZ-TV (Channel 13) van parks at Light City.

Light City in Baltimore drew such huge crowds that Harborplace was packed with people. This photo shows why I decided not to buy anything from It’s Sugar that night.

There were some psychedelic-like effects at the installation Colour Moves by Rombout Frieling Lab.

There was a small carnival consisting of a ferris wheel ride (known as The Big Wheel) surrounded by concessions stands.

Many people have fun with rotating the giant prisms that made up the installation Prismatica by Raw Design, Atomic3, Jean-François Piché, and Dix au carré/Production: Quartier des Spectacles, Montreal.

Here’s the bird-like installation On the Wings of Freedom by Aether and Hemera.

The big HMO giant Kaiser Permanente sponsored something called a Thrive Garden, which, as far as I could tell, was a place where people sat down on benches.

Here is Elantica by Tom Dekyvere.

Some vector animations were shown on the outside of the Maryland Science Center.

Club Light City was an outdoor bar and dance area that was very crowded.

And last, but not least, here is the installation Drone Prix.

This year, for the first time ever, I managed to visit the entire Light City area in the Inner Harbor. The key to my success was that I took the light rail to Camden Yards then I walked to the nearest Charm Circulator bus stop where I took the Orange bus to the Little Italy stop then walked through Harbor East in order to get to the very far eastern end of the Inner Harbor then walked west back towards the Maryland Science Center. While I managed to see most of the Inner Harbor attractions, I didn’t see all of Light City. This year the festival expanded to a few outlying neighborhoods such as Fells Point and Federal Hill. I wasn’t able to attend any of these other Light City events due to tight finances and scheduling conflicts. Maybe next year I’ll make an effort to visit at least one of these neighborhoods hosting their own portion of Light City.

As I left the Inner Harbor to go back to the Camden Yards light rail stop I saw this sign announcing a special Lyft pick-up spot for those who went to Light City and decided to use Lyft’s services.

Light City, Baltimore, April 1, 2017

I went to the Light City event in Baltimore on its second night, which fell on April Fool’s Day, but this event was definitely no joke. I wrote a previous post about that night where I wrote about what it was like to see my own animation, The March of Liberty, being shown on a giant screen at such a popular event like Light City while posting a reaction video I made. I’m finally getting around to sharing the rest of the photos. (I took a bunch of pictures that night so I ended up having to make decisions on which photos to use.)

I arrived before sunset because I wanted to find where the On Demand area was located. As you can see in the pictures, it was a very cloudy day.

I took a few pictures of Camden Yards when I was on my way to transferring from the Camden Yards light rail stop to the Charm City Circulator heading towards the Inner Harbor. Opening day would take place just a few days after I took these pictures.

Here’s a statue of Cal Ripken’s retired number.

Here’s a statue of famous baseball player Babe Ruth, who was born in Baltimore.

These painted baseballs on the sidewalk near the statue leads the way to the nearby Babe Ruth Museum.

The street banners proclaim that this year is the 25th anniversary of the day that the Baltimore Orioles began playing their home games at Camden Yards.

I ended up traveling way out to Pier 6 in the Inner Harbor. I took a few pictures while I was blundering around, starting with one of the Harborplace pavilions, which is currently undergoing remodeling and renovation.

Here is what one of the Light City art pieces looked like in broad daylight.

I walked past the Power Plant, where I noticed the guitar-themed railing that’s currently located outside of the Hard Rock Cafe.

Located opposite the Power Plant is a tropical-themed bar known as Dick’s Last Resort.

Some lights resembling birds roosting in trees outside of the Pier 5 Hotel.

A whimsical display that looks like something out of the film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory outside of an office building.

McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant at its Pier 5 location.

Three umbrella-filled boats floating in Baltimore Harbor.

I decided that I needed to take a break so I found a bench where I ate my dinner. (It was a fried chicken dinner with thick fries and a roll that I purchased at a Royal Farms store located in Linthicum before I took the light rail into Baltimore.) While I was eating this immigration rights protest march had arrived at the Pier 5 area of the Inner Harbor and the protesters walked right past the bench where I was eating my dinner. I took the opportunity to take some pictures.

The marchers made their way to the Inner Harbor Lighthouse, which was being used as a display area for a Light City exhibit about immigrants. A post-march rally was held next to that exhibit.

I finally found the On Demand area. I took a photo of the sign.

I even took a closeup of the area of the sign where my name was printed.

Here’s a shot of the On Demand screen, which was showing another video, along with a glimpse of the backs of the adirondack chairs that were provided for people to sit in before sunset.

Here’s another shot of the On Demand screen, showing a different video, at night.

Like I wrote in a prior entry, I waited outside in the cold for over two hours until my film was finally shown. When it finally appeared I got very enthusiastic. I shot a short reaction video. I also shot stills of my film being on screen. Maybe I shot too many stills but it was such a rare opportunity to see my video being shown in a public venue like this that I felt like I had to document it from all angles (including some shots of people sitting in the chairs) so I can prove to other people that one of my videos was actually shown in public like this.

As for how the people who were there responded to my video, I wasn’t able to get any kind of an accurate gauge as to whether people liked it or not. I didn’t get any boos. But I also didn’t hear any cheers. I saw a few people sitting in chairs watching it when I was there. By the way, you can view that animation, The March of Liberty, right here.

After my film was shown, I left the On Demand area. I had sat in the cold for so long that my body felt stiff. I also had to start making a move towards the nearest light rail station so I can catch one of the last trains out of the city. I managed to take a few more pictures of the other Light City exhibits as I made my way back to the light rail station while wading my way through the massive crowds at the same time. (Yes, the second annual Light City was just as crowded as the first year was.)

Even a few Baltimore police officers blended in with Light City.

Here is one of the bar tents that were set up at the event. As you can see in the picture below, it drew a lot of people.

The last photo shows one of the Light City exhibits being reflected in the back of a bus stop terminal.

There were more to Light City than what I shot but between fatigue and trying to make the light rail, I wasn’t able to see it all. I had planned to making one return trip but the first night I had scheduled—which was two nights before the final night—it rained very heavily. So I put it off until the following night, which was the night before the final night, only to have a very cold front with heavy winds replace that heavy rainstorm. I wasn’t able to make it the last night because I went to the annual Sakura Matsuri festival in Washington, DC and I really couldn’t physically handle two festivals on the same day.

A Birthday Trip to Baltimore and Glen Burnie, December 15, 2016

 

 

 

 

Last year I planned on going to Baltimore to celebrate my birthday at Christmas Village in Baltimore. I had to scuttle those plans because my birthday fell on a Tuesday and it turns out that the place was closed on certain Tuesdays including my birthday. (I ended up going to Tyson’s Corner instead and I still had fun last year.)

This year my birthday fell on a Thursday so I decided to go to Baltimore, just like I planned last year. I was determined to go there despite the fact that the Polar Vortex had just arrived in my area so the temperatures plunged to below freezing. (I basically wore a heavy winter coat and a hat so I was able to brave the deep freeze.)

On the way to Baltimore I stopped off at a local Jo-Ann’s Fabrics & Crafts store to check out the recent sales. I found a bundled pair of slipper socks. The original price was $9.99, which would’ve been a decent price for two pairs of thick socks. But they were on sale for half-price, which meant that I paid $5 for the bundle (or $2.50 per pair).

I took the light rail into the city. I initially went by Harborplace where I saw this ice skating rink.

Since my last visit to Harborplace, I found that the store It’s Sugar had moved from one pavilion to another. (It is now located next to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium.)

I purchased a few things for myself on my birthday. Here is this cute gingerbread man cookie I bought.

I purchased this Pez dispenser featuring Badtz-Maru, one of Hello Kitty’s friends.

I bought myself this Guinness Luxury Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar. It was very delicious.

I took a few photos of other items in that store but I didn’t buy any of them.

After my visit to Harborplace I took a couple of photos of the Inner Harbor area at sunset.

I eventually made my way to the Christmas Village in Baltimore.

I’ve been there other years (see the photos I took in 2013, 2014, and 2015). Some of the same vendors were there this year while there were others whom I had never seen before. I also saw some empty booths but I had no idea if fewer vendors signed up or if it was because I came on a Thursday night and some of the missing vendors only worked on the weekends. I had been looking forward to eating some bratwurst with sauerkraut for dinner followed by a Belgian waffle topped with hot fudge and whipped cream for dessert. Unfortunately the waffle place wasn’t there this year, which was a big disappointment. The German food booth was still there so at least I was still able to eat the bratwurst and sauerbraten platter.

I purchased only one item. It was a pack of incense that I got from the large Käthe Wohlfahrt booth that was located at one end of the main tent. I’ve been lighting the incense each night since then so my home can smell like Christmas. (LOL!)

On my way back to the light rail stop, I saw this homeless person laying down under a thin blanket outside the Baltimore Convention Center. Usually I wouldn’t pay this person much notice other than the fact that the Polar Vortex had arrived and the temperatures were forecasted to dip under 20 degrees Fahrenheit over night. (The following morning my AccuWeather app on my smartphone registered 18 degrees Fahrenheit.) I felt that this person should really be indoors but I didn’t know where to turn since I live 30 miles south of Baltimore.

I took the above picture and frantically did Google searches on my smartphone for homeless organizations in Baltimore. I texted the photo to a couple of organizations while indicating where the person was located. For added measure I texted the photo to the Baltimore Police Department. I even uploaded this photo on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts using people to forward this to anyone who could help bring this person in from the cold. I don’t know if my efforts helped or not other than the fact that for the next few days I did a Google search for any recent homeless deaths in Baltimore outside the Baltimore Convention Center only to turn up empty-handed. I guess this person somehow survived the Polar Vortex but I’ll never know for sure.

Once I reached the North Linthicum Light Rail Station (where my car was parked) I drove over to Glen Burnie. Last year I found out about this overdecorated house on Delmar Avenue and I saw it for the first time on Christmas Eve. This year I decided to check it out again and, yes, it is still just as heavily decorated as it was last year.

The only difference I could tell between this year and last year is the next-door neighbor’s lighted sign that said “DITTO” with an arrow pointed to the other house. (That neighbor’s house didn’t have any outdoor lights at all other than that “DITTO” sign.)

By the way the house on Delmar Avenue has its own Facebook page that you can view to get the latest news and photos about that house.

Last year I shot a bunch of still photos of that house. This year I decided to shoot a video so you can get a sense of the flashing lights (including an animated laser display that’s shown on the garage door) and the constant Christmas music.

I headed home after visiting that house so that was it for celebrating my birthday in Baltimore and Glen Burnie.

Baltimore, October 5, 2016

The day before I got an email from out of the blue from an employment agency in Baltimore saying that one of the recruiters had seen my resume that I posted on indeed.com and she felt that I would be qualified for a position right in the heart of downtown Baltimore. It would’ve involved administrative work but at least it would be located near the tourist area and it would’ve served as a decent day job so I could pay the bills while spending my free time on my arts and crafts.

I initially expressed reservation because I would be commuting from outside Washington, DC into Baltimore and the recruiter countered with her claim that she has an employee who lives in College Park and she takes the MARC train into Baltimore so commuting would be no problem at all. The recruiter really wanted me to show up in person so I agreed.

Except after I arrived, went through the effort to fill out an application form, took a computerized test to see how capable I was at simple math problems and English grammar, and spoke with the recruiter in person, she told me that the client was located in the lower level of same building as the employment agency. She also admitted that she told the client that she would send a list of the 10 candidates (including myself) to the client and the client would select three finalists to interview himself. Basically the employment agency would call me two days later if I made it among the three finalists.

I’ll admit I was pretty peeved because had I known that there was a 70% chance of not getting hired, I would have never made the long commute to Baltimore—especially since it was an administrative position with a company I had never heard of before. (Needless to say I never heard anything back from that employment agency.) The only solace is that it got me out of the house and it was a beautiful sunny autumn day. I managed to arrive in the Inner Harbor area about a couple of hours before my scheduled job interview. I arrived at Harborplace first. I thought about visiting that McCormick World of Flavors store. I visited that store the first time when I went to Baltimore back in 2013 just hours after my appearance in divorce court and I snapped this picture.

I would browse that store every time I found myself at Harborplace, most recently back in June when I checked out a cosplay photoshoot then I walked around the rest of the city visiting various places including that McCormick World of Flavors store. Sadly I found out that the store is now history because I saw an empty storefront in its place.

I later looked online and I found this Baltimore Sun article announcing that McCormick decided to close the store but it will still continue to sell its spices online. I’ll admit that I never purchased anything from that store partly because of finances and partly because most of the grocery stores in my area sell McCormick products and it’s just easier for me to purchase the spices locally.

The employment agency itself is located just a few blocks north of Harborplace with a Light Street address yet the building’s main entrance is located around the corner on Water Street. Light Street is your typical modern city street with a paved road, traffic lights, and rushing cars. But just walking around the corner on to Water Street I saw this little side street that is paved with cobblestones and the buildings are smaller than the taller high risers surrounding it. I felt like I had just stepped back in time into Baltimore circa 1870-1920.

This street’s charm comes complete with a wine store known as The Happy Grape.

Everything on this side street seemed so laid-back compared to Light Street just around the corner. People basically meandered around very leisurely. It was like time has slowed down to a crawl.

Not everything about Water Street was so quaint. I saw this guy rifle through one of the dumpsters. (I suspect that he’s a homeless person who was probably looking for wasted food to eat.) Then, again, the Industrial Revolution had its share of social problems stemming from extreme income inequality not unlike today.

One of the restaurants on Water Street, Supano’s Steak House, had these nice looking doors with painted murals devoted to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

If I wasn’t so cash poor these days, I would’ve treated myself to a light meal at that restaurant. Instead I walked towards Harborplace where I saw a sign that said that the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant was having a happy hour special where shrimp only cost $1 each but one had to order at the bar in order to get that special price. I ordered five shrimps along with a diet soda. The bill came to $10 (including tip), which wasn’t too bad. There were also other menu items available at special happy hour prices but I had to watch my money really carefully because it would’ve been very easy to spend up to $25 even at happy hour prices. It brought back memories of the time that my then-husband and I went to that restaurant’s DC location with a bunch of friends of ours from our church and we all enjoyed ourselves. (Basically the food is very good but it’s also expensive, which was why I went for the happy hour shrimp in the first place.) The biggest downside of not getting that administrative job is that it was located within walking distance of that restaurant and I saw myself going there for the happy hour food at least once a week after work. I would’ve loved have tried the other happy hour menu items. Oh well.

Baltimore, June 18, 2016

Like I wrote in my previous post, I did other things in Baltimore besides take pictures of cosplayers next to a fountain that has since been closed down. I took a little walk around the downtown area, starting with these police motorcycles parked outside the Baltimore Convention Center.

These street drummers outside the PNC Bank building could be heard throughout the surrounding blocks.

This marker shows where a series of riots took place in Baltimore during the Civil War. Maryland was one of those border states that nearly seceded to the Confederacy until Abraham Lincoln offered a compromise where Maryland could still keep slavery legal in exchange for the state remaining in the U.S. Had Lincoln not done that and Maryland became a Confederate state, Washington, DC would’ve ended up being in the geographically awkward position of being the U.S. capital located inside of the Confederate States of America.

I briefly stepped inside Harborplace but there are so many empty storefronts in both pavilions that I no longer make a special shopping trip there. These days I only go to Harborplace if I’m in the Inner Harbor area for a different reason and I feel the need for some food, drink, or to use the restroom. There are just a few stores left that I felt was worth photographing, such as McCormick World of Flavors.

I also stopped briefly at the giant candy store It’s Sugar, which sold sexy underwear for both men and women made from candy.

It’s Sugar also sold some election-themed stuff like party masks and toilet paper featuring Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I had sticker shock when I saw that each roll of toilet paper costs $6. (I could buy a 12-pack of toilet paper at Aldi for $1 less than that.)

Like I wrote before, there are a lot of empty store spaces in both Harborplace pavilions. Someone tried to cover one of the spaces with this nice looking ceramic art.

Across the street from Harborplace is The Gallery, which is yet another shopping mall. The Gallery has more stores than Harborplace but most of the stores are chains (such as Game Stop) which already have stores located closer to my home so I don’t really need to drive all the way to Baltimore to shop. The Gallery had this interesting vending machine that I’ve never seen before—it sells rollable flats. That’s right, it’s a vending machine that sells shoes. I thought it was pretty interesting but I don’t know if it’s the sort of thing that will catch on in other shopping malls in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area.

There are a couple of interesting sculptures at the fountain that’s located near the entrance to The Gallery.

Walking north of the Inner Harbor one can find some interesting things to photograph.

I walked along East Baltimore Street until I hit The Block. Historically that area was a place where burlesque performers did their striptease act while comedians performed there as well. By the 1950’s The Block became a full-fledged red light district with strippers who took all of their clothes off replacing the more demure burlesque performers and X-rated movies replacing the comedians. It was and still is the epitome of sleaze. As a child I can remember my father once loaded up the car when some relatives from Ohio came to visit and he gave a driving tour around Baltimore. He drove through The Block, which was lit up at dusk, while my Ohio relatives just oohed and ahhhed. He didn’t stop the car in The Block because even then it was way too sleazy for families to walk around in.

I had a misadventure at The Block when I was 19. I was attending Anne Arundel Community College as a freshman at the time and things between my then-boyfriend and I weren’t going too well. My boyfriend’s best friend, whom I’ll just call “John,” who was also a student at the same college, suggested that the three of us check out The Block. So we all loaded into his car and drove down East Baltimore until we hit that area.

John took us around to a couple of strip bars. The strippers weren’t all that attractive and I remember one of them looking like she weighed at least 250 pounds. We also checked out some peep shows, which were porn movies that were shown in individual booths. Basically you dropped a quarter into this slot and you saw the movie for about a minute or two then it would stop. If you wanted to see more of that same movie, you dropped another quarter, then another quarter, then another until you reached the end of that movie or you’ve had your fill of it (whichever came first).

At the time the legal drinking age was 18 so I drank a few beers and got drunk in the process. I remember the last thing we did was to go into these individual rooms that had a glass partition that was covered with a curtain. There was a phone next to this pay box that asked for a quarter. I picked up the phone receiver, dropped a quarter into the box, and the curtain was drawn to reveal this scantily-clad woman on the other side. I was totally blasted by then and all I could do was laugh hysterically. The woman was pretty patient about seeing this drunken teenage girl just laughing her ass off like a hyena and I think she asked if I was okay and having a good time. The curtain abruptly closed after a couple of minutes and I staggered out of that room.

I was totally hung over the next day. My boyfriend and I went our separate ways, I transferred to the University of Maryland at College Park the following year, and I basically focused more on my studies and campus life in general and less on visiting red light districts. When I was married I think my then-husband may have driven briefly through The Block once or twice on the way to someplace else in Baltimore but I don’t remember.

My devout Roman Catholic grandmother used to tell me that good girls don’t go to The Block. My grandmother is now deceased along with most of my older relatives, with the exception of my mother (who’s currently struggling with multiple sclerosis), so there’s no one around to warn me to not to venture near The Block because I’m a good girl. Heck, I’m divorced so I don’t have to worry about protecting my virtue and innocence anymore since it’s all gone, baby, gone.

I haven’t really explored The Block since my brief misadventure when I was 19 and seeing it now just looks sad. The X-rated movie theaters and peep shows are now gone (thanks in large part to the advent of home video and the Internet). There’s strictly an emphasis on live performances by strippers and selling sex toys. The Block is also way smaller than I recall. (The Wikipedia says that at its height The Block stretched several blocks long. I think I remember The Block being around two or three blocks long when I was there at 19. Nowadays The Block is literally one block long.)

These buildings on the edge of The Block are being renovated into office buildings although, to be honest, I can’t imagine any corporation or medical practice or any kind of straight-laced businesses (like insurance companies or travel agencies) wanting to put its offices next to strip clubs and sex shops. But, then again, Disney did take a risk in New York City when it decided to pour money into renovating the historic New Amsterdam Theater in Times Square, which led to other companies following suit and ultimately pushing out the strip clubs, peep shows, porn theaters, and sex shops. Maybe that’s what Baltimore is hoping: Disney or some other straight-laced company decide to invest in that area while leading other straight-laced businesses to relocate to The Block and ultimately purge the area of its burlesque and porn past. Maybe it’ll happen once the ugly memories of Freddie Gray and the Baltimore Uprising recedes further into the past but that’s going to take a very long time. (LOL!)

Around the corner from The Block is The Grace and Hope Mission. That’s right, it’s a Christian church and/or mission that probably caters to the people who work there. If one considers the fact that Jesus reached out to the prostitutes and other societal outcasts in his day, one can say that The Grace & Hope Mission is really being very Christian by emulating Jesus.  If one were to look at the upper left corner of the photograph below, one would see what looks like apartments or condominiums. (The balconies are a definitely giveaway.) I’m not sure if I would even want to live so close to The Block given the fact that it’s a very high crime area. I would be especially afraid to go to or from my apartment/condo at night.

The crown jewel of The Block is the historic Gayety Theater. Not only did burlesque performers like Blaze Starr performed there but comedians like Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton used to have shows there whenever they came to Baltimore. It has a lovely facade that was restored not too long ago.

Today the Gayety houses Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, which features entertainment that’s a far cry from Jackie Gleason’s comedy routines of yore.

The Hustler Club also has a sex shop that not only features all kinds of sex toys but there are even signs advertising something called “the official pleasure collection” that’s inspired by the controversial Fifty Shades of Grey book trilogy and movie.

I came across something that I didn’t expect to see at The Block. Apparently the Hustler Club had something called “WTF Weekend” that featured Mama June from that controversial TV reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which was abruptly cancelled by TLC despite its high ratings a few years ago after Mama June left the father of her youngest daughter, Honey Boo Boo, for an old flame. Except it was revealed that this old flame had just finished serving time in prison for child molestation involving a young girl. Worse, before he was arrested and convicted for that molestation, he was accused of sexually abusing Mama June’s oldest daughter, who was a child at the time. Basically Mama June threw away her well-paying job as a reality TV star for hooking up with a convicted child molester despite having minor daughters still living at home (including Honey Boo Boo) while alienating her now-adult oldest daughter in the process. So now Mama June is reduced to making a living by doing live appearances in sleazy places like The Block with Little Sassee Cassee, a two-foot tall woman who’s billed as The World’s Smallest Entertainer. That event had just passed a week before I showed up yet that poster was still up.

The whole area of The Block just looked like a sad shadow of its past self. Unlike my last extended visit at 19, I didn’t even bother going inside any of the buildings because I had a feeling that the interiors would look even sleazier and more depressing than what I saw on the outside. Plus the people who were going inside and outside these buildings just looked like the kind of people I just don’t want to make even small talk with. Some of these people just oozed sleazy vibes on first sight. You’re definitely not going to find anyone like Richard Gere’s suave wealthy character in Pretty Woman. (Hell, I can’t imagine anyone from the 1% venturing anywhere near The Block, especially when they have the money to pay for a high-priced escort service to make house calls.) It was just as well that I didn’t go indoors because I was spared what goes on in these establishments, as described in this article.

Not only did I not bother with entering any of the nightclubs on The Block, I didn’t even bother with entering the few non-sexually oriented businesses either, such as Subway. (Shoot, I don’t even remember any corporate chain fast food places on The Block when I went there at 19.)

The 2 O’Clock Club is one of the few original businesses left on The Block. Blaze Starr got her start as a burlesque performer there and she even owned the place at one point. She sold it and retired from her burlesque career when The Block went from being an area that featured burlesque shows to showing porn movies and peep shows. That place was the site of a brutal murder not too long ago.

I can remember when the neon signs on The Block would especially stand out at night. Given the crime that frequently goes on these days, there is no way in hell I would ever walk in that area at night to see the lights in their full glory, even if I was with other people.

Right where The Block ends is a carry-out place called Mandi Kitchen that serves Halal dishes.

Right next to The Block is a police station. Seriously! Anyone who becomes a crime victim on The Block would only have to walk a few feet to get a police officer for help. It’s been said that the police station is there so the cops can keep a close eye on The Block, although given the crime that still goes on, I can’t say that they are watching that area too closely.

Across the street from the police station is a building that probably had a business that was once a part of The Block. The side edge of this building still says “KS Film Game Room,” even though that business has long since closed.

The building now houses offices of a business that specializes in retirement savings plans.

I have to admire The Block for still tenaciously hanging on when red light districts in other U.S. cities (such as the intersection of 14th & U Streets, N.W. in Washington, DC and Times Square in New York City) have long since fallen to gentrification, home videos, and Internet streaming. But The Block seems like a cancer or AIDS patient who is still alive but the body has dwindled to skin and bones and the patient is mostly bedridden. Only time will tell whether The Block will still be around for the turn of the 22nd century or if it will ultimately be something that one only reads about on the Wikipedia.

I got away from The Block and I walked past the historic Shot Tower. This particular photograph has some very subtle delicate cloud formation in the sky.

I briefly walked into Little Italy but I only walked about a half a block in the area when I felt my feet getting really tired. I managed to stay long enough to admire some of the building facades but I decided that I’m going to have to explore Little Italy another day.

I walked back to the Shot Tower Metro Station and took the subway to Lexington Market. I thought about going inside to get a soda but I arrived 20 minutes late because the building had already closed for the day by then. I ended up taking a photo of the outside before walking to the Lexington Market light rail stop. I took the light rail train out of the city and to North Linthicum, where my car was parked.

Baltimore, December 24, 2015

I’ve learned a long time ago that the best places to do any kind of last-minute Christmas shopping was to go downtown in either Baltimore or Washington, DC. That’s because so many other people in the suburbs tend to crowd into the shopping malls so you have this crazy phenomenon where the shopping malls in the suburbs are crammed with cars in the parking lots and huge crowds shopping inside while the downtown shopping areas are practically empty.

I decided to spend Christmas Eve in Baltimore for the first time since 2013. What made me decide to go there was a few factors. First, there was a bunch of hype about how the weather in the area was going to be an usually balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I initially thought about maybe spending Christmas Eve at the National Zoo in DC. But what the meteorologists neglected to mention that this warmer air was being accompanied by a series of nasty rain storms. It rained really hard on December 23. By the 24th the rain had stopped but there were these gloomy clouds and more calls for rain. So I jettisoned the National Zoo idea. Then I learned that not only was the Christmas Village returning to Baltimore but it was going to stay open later until December 27 (instead of December 24 like in previous years). I wasn’t able to go to the Christmas Village sooner because I got distracted by Artomatic so I finally decided to check it out for the first (and last) time this year on Christmas Eve. The next picture shows my light rail ticket that shows the fact that I purchased it on Christmas Eve.

I wore a t-shirt, which was unusual for me on Christmas Eve. (The only other times I’ve ever worn t-shirts at Christmas were when I was visiting my late mother-in-law and her second husband in Phoenix.) Even though the day was cloudy, it had only rained once when I was in Baltimore. It was a brief shower and I found myself feeling glad that I decided to bring my umbrella with me.

As I was walking from the light rail stop to the Inner Harbor, I felt a sudden urge to go to the bathroom so I went to the Sheraton Hotel that was along the route. The hotel lobby had all these fancy Christmas decorations.

Like I wrote earlier, the weather felt more like spring than winter in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. In fact I saw flowers that were in bloom, such as this one in the next picture.

Here is what it was like to spend Christmas Eve in the Inner Harbor. There weren’t a lot of people around and everything seemed quiet and peaceful.

I finally made my way to the Christmas Village. I initially checked the outdoor decorations and vendors.

I eventually made my way to the indoor pavilion. Since Christmas Eve fell on a weekday, I didn’t have to pay the usual $5 entrance fee (which was only in effect on Saturdays and Sundays). There weren’t a lot of people inside so I could leisurely browse the various tables.

I ate a bratwurst and sauerkraut platter for lunch. I also decided to eat a Belgian waffle with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, which is shown in the next photo.

I bought a few last-minute presents, many of which were marked down in price (mainly because the Christmas Village was going to close for good soon). Once I finished shopping, I decided to walk around Harborplace.

This next photo shows how crowded Harborplace got on Christmas Eve.

I even stopped by The Galleria that’s located across the street from Harborplace. There were more people there than at Harborplace but it was still far less crowded than going to any suburban shopping mall on Christmas Eve. The next photo, taken in The Galleria, shows the weird juxtaposition between this festive gift-bearing train on the right and the sign on the left urging shoppers to be on the lookout for suspicious unattended packages because they could signal a potential terrorist attack.

On my way back from Baltimore I stopped in my old hometown of Glen Burnie to check out this light display on someone’s private home that’s so extensive and over-the-top that it really warrants a separate entry.

May Day Protest in Baltimore (May 1, 2015)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to eventually do a proper blog post expressing my feelings and impressions of the day that I participated in the May Day protest in Baltimore (which is now known among some circles as the Baltimore Uprising). Since I didn’t originally start this blog as a news blog (other than news about what I’m doing regarding my arts, crafts, and photography), I decided to just link to the photos and videos I had taken in that previous entry while taking my time to digest what I had witnessed before writing this post for posterity.

That May Day protest was one of many that were called in the wake of the murder of Freddie Gray by six Baltimore City police officers. A few hours before the protest happened, the chief prosecutor Marilyn Mosby announced that the six officers will be indicted. While that was good news, the protest still went on as scheduled because there was a 10 p.m. curfew that was still in effect (which was ultimately lifted on May 3) and there were still a bunch of issues that the protesters also wanted to focus on like police brutality against young African American men, and income disparity. Here is my own personal story of what I saw and photographed on May Day.

The night before the protest, I created a protest sign where I used this famous saying of Holocaust survivor Pastor Martin Niemöller.

Unfortunately I learned the hard way that it was hard for me to hold the sign while taking pictures at the same time. On top of it, my sign had a lot of words that required people to stop and read while the other protestors had signs with simple slogans that one could read in two or three seconds. Well, that’s a learning experience for me. (LOL!) I ultimately put that sign back in my recyclable Aldi shopping bag that I brought with me.

I drove my car to the North Linthicum light rail stop. The next photo shows the light rail pass I purchased. I decided against driving all the way into Baltimore because I feared that finding affordable parking would be a problem.

Once I got off at the Baltimore Convention Center stop, I decided to take the Charm City Circulator bus towards the far end of the Inner Harbor. On my way to the nearby bus stop, I saw the first of many police officers wearing riot gear on the corner of South Eutaw and West Pratt Streets.

I ultimately got off at the stop closest to the Power Station. I originally intended to treat myself to a meal at Phillips Seafood Restaurant because I hadn’t eaten there since before my husband walked out on me in 2011. But then I saw that all the stores and restaurants in the Power Station were closed earlier than usual on a Friday.

I decided to walk back towards Harborplace. I passed the Baltimore World Trade Center where I saw more police officers in riot gear guarding that building.

I shot the next two photos of these giant barriers next to the World Trade Center—which were erected to deter car bombs—that had flowers planted in them.

I eventually walked across the street where I found a Shake Shack that was one of the few businesses in the Inner Harbor area that was still opened. There was a sign posted on the door stating that it was going to close earlier than usual due to the 10 p.m. curfew that was put into effect just a few days earlier in the wake of the rioting following Freddie Gray’s funeral. At least I got to eat dinner (which was very good, by the way).

After dinner I walked back across the street towards Harborplace, where I saw more police officers in riot gear and police cars parked everywhere.

Both pavilions in Harborplace were totally closed, which is very unusual for a Friday that didn’t fall around a major holiday (such as Christmas Day).

The whole area was totally fortified with a phalanx of Baltimore police officers, Maryland state troopers, and members of the Maryland National Guard. It was totally surreal.

What was also surreal was the police from other parts of the state also helping out in Baltimore as well.

One of the vests in the next photo said “Laurel Police.” I happened to live near Laurel so I know how far these particular officers had to travel in order to get to the Inner Harbor.

When I first arrived in Baltimore, I felt a little bit intimidated by all these armed police officers and National Guard people, some of whom had their guns out and looked like they were ready to fire their weapons at any moment. I initially took my photos from far away using the zoom function on my smartphone.

But then I took some minor risks where I took closer photos. Then I took photos that were closer. As I took the photos, nothing happened. The armed people basically ignored me as I took these pictures.

When I recounted this to an African American friend at my Unitarian Universalist church two days later she said that I was ignored because I am a white woman. Then I finally realized the full extent of white privilege. For the last few years there have been dedicated activists at my UU congregation—both black and white—making a dedicated effort to wipe out racism while examining the phenomenon of white privilege. For years I secretly protested the idea that I was even using white privilege in any way because I usually gone to great lengths not to have a ME! ME! ME! entitlement personality.

But after what happened in Baltimore, I realized that there’s more to white privilege than white people acting like they have a ME! ME! ME! entitlement personality and expecting special treatment because of being born with white skin color. It’s also how others react to your presence. Even though I tried not to act as if I was entitled while I took those photos, it was the people in those photos who decided to ignore me because I was a white female. If I was an African American man the same age as Freddie Gray, I think there’s a strong chance that the outcome would’ve been different. Ditto if I had been a Middle Eastern man with a bushy beard.

White privilege is multifaceted because while I can control myself in not acting in an entitled way, I can’t control the actions of others in how they perceive me anymore than Freddie Gray could control how the police officers decided to treat him because he was a poor young African American man. The only person I can control is myself.

I know it’s not fair that I managed to emerge from taking photos of people with weapons unscathed because of my race and gender while a male person of color wouldn’t be so lucky like I was. Unfortunately I don’t have any answers.

I finally found the protest rally that was gathered at McKeldin Square next to Harborplace.

At first the protest rally seemed relatively small until another contingent from other protest marches that were held elsewhere in the city earlier in the day arrived to McKeldin Square and the protest rally suddenly surged in number.

At one point I even shot some video of the whole march. I ultimately spit the video into two short videos. This video focused on the phalanx of armed people guarding the Inner Harbor, the rally in McKeldin Square, and the initial march down East Pratt Street past Harborplace and the Inner Harbor. It’s raw footage with minimal editing.

Once everyone was gathered the march started. The protesters initially walked down East Pratt Street.

At one point the protest march turned left on to Gay Street. I was in the back of the crowd, which wasn’t so bad because I found Britney Girl Dale, the same person whom I saw along Ritchie Highway during my massive day-long tour of Baltimore and Glen Burnie last summer. Since that time she had become the subject of a new short documentary. It was just pure luck and chance that I happened to come across Britney Girl Dale and her friend, Anthony (who’s also in the documentary), as they were flirting among the police officers who were watching the protesters while following the march route.

The protesters kept on walking along Gay Street while passing the outermost perimeter of Baltimore’s notorious red light district known as The Block.

The marchers kept on Gay Street until we reached City Hall, which was a mix of protesters, media people, and all kinds of security people with their guns drawn. For added measure, there were even cars passing by while the drivers were honking their horns. It was surreal to say the least.

In case the still photos don’t do enough to convey how surreal the scene was, here’s the second of the two videos that I shot on that same day. Like the other video I posted earlier in this entry, this one also consists of raw footage with minimal editing. This video begins with Britney Girl Dale getting a photo with one of the police officers providing security during the march up Gay Street. Then there is the scene of City Hall that’s filled with a mix of protesters, Baltimore police officers, Maryland National Guard people, media people plus cars passing by while the drivers were honking their horns. The video ends with three musicians playing John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” while armed National Guard people are standing nearby.

Located just across the street from City Hall is the historic Zion Lutheran Church. I had only been there one other time and that was to check out the Christkindlemarkt that was held there last November.

The gates were locked this time but there was a maypole with a little tree on top indicating that the church did the traditional May Day ritual of dancing around the maypole.

There were a few dedicated protesters who wanted to continue farther north all the way to the intersection of North and Pennsylvania Avenues (which was Ground Zero for where the riots broke out after Freddie Gray’s death just a few days earlier). I briefly thought about it but I decided against it because I was already tired. I had already done a lot of walking—starting with that one block walk I made from the Baltimore Convention Center light rail stop to the Charm Circulator bus stop. From there I took the bus to the far end of the Inner Harbor. I walked over to the Power Plant, saw that it was closed, then opted to walk along the Inner Harbor back towards Harborplace and McKeldin Square. Once the march started, I walked along Pratt Street then followed the crowd up Gay Street until we reached City Hall.

There was also talk via Twitter of protesters staying out past 10 p.m. and defying that curfew. As for me, I decided to obey the curfew for two reasons: 1) I drove my car to the North Linthicum light rail station and took public transportation the rest of the way into the city because I was uncertain about available parking. I made the right decision since there were cop cars and military vehicles parked all over the place around the Inner Harbor and City Hall. But if I wanted to get back to my car, I had to take the light rail and I was afraid that service would’ve ended earlier than usual because of the curfew. 2) Money is pretty tight with me now and I’m not sure if I could even afford a decent lawyer to get any charges against me dismissed. (It turned out that 50 activists were later arrested that evening outside City Hall for defying the 10 p.m. curfew.)

Basically I ended my May Day protest by resting on one of the benches outside City Hall for a while then I started to walk along Fayette Street towards the nearest light rail stop (Lexington Market). In the process I walked past two Baltimore Metro stops, which I didn’t know too well compared to the light rail line. (I later learned that I could’ve saved myself some walking time had I simply taken one of the Baltimore Metro trains to the Lexington Market stop then transferred over to the Lexington Market light rail stop. D’OH!) All that walking made me tired and sore for the weekend and I didn’t feel fully recovered until Monday. But, on the other hand, thanks to my walking along Fayette Street, I managed to take a few more photos showing the effects of that 10 p.m. curfew and how bad Baltimore has gotten in terms of deteriorating buildings.

The last three shots show a coffee shop with a recently busted front window. I have no idea if that window was broken by looters in the wake of the Freddie Gray incident or if it was simply an unrelated robbery done by a criminal taking advantage of the situation in Baltimore to steal some money and valuables while the cops were busy dealing with violent protesters. I also don’t know why anyone hadn’t tried to clean up the debris from the broken window. Leaving broken glass on the ground like that is a potential health hazard.

Back From Baltimore

I saw some eye-opening things at yesterday’s May Day protest march in Baltimore. I’ll eventually get around to writing a proper blog post. This morning I’m pretty stiff and sore from all that walking so I’m just going to spend my Saturday doing some household chores then head off to the local STEM technology center for a short workshop in doing origami. In the meantime, here are some photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr. There’s also an article in The Guardian about yesterday’s protest.

I also shot some video footage, from which I ultimately made two short videos. Both contained raw footage with minimal editing. The first video focuses on the Inner Harbor.

The second video was shot after the marchers moved from the Inner Harbor to City Hall. It starts off with a surreal scene near City Hall. Britney Girl Dale, who has gotten to be a bit of a local celebrity recently and is the subject of a new short documentary, showed up where this person posed with some of the cops who were there looking for any signs of rioting and looting. It moves on to City Hall itself, which was filled with a mix of protesters, media people covering the protest, passing cars honking their horns in approval of the protesters, and a phalanx of armed people that included members of the Baltimore police and the Maryland National Guard. It ends with another surreal scene where three musicians perform John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” outside City Hall near some armed Maryland National Guard people.

Baltimore Lives in Denial

Last night a curfew went into effect in Baltimore and it seems to be holding so far. But this Friday will be May Day and the start of the weekend so anything can happen then. Which is why the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race that was scheduled for this Saturday has been postponed. Ditto for the “Work Dat Bawdy” burlesque class that was scheduled for tonight.

But not everything in Baltimore has come to a grinding halt. The Institute for Policy Studies’ “People and Planet First Agenda,” which is a day-long conference dedicated to the celebration and exploration of the creation of a new economy, is going on at the University of Baltimore this Saturday as originally scheduled. [UPDATE (April 30): That conference has since been postponed to a later date with organizers urging would-be attendees to support this current protest in any way that they can.]

I came across another video from Ed Schultz this morning where he expressed his frustration with Baltimore City officials as they kept on acting surprised at all of the rioting following Freddie Gray’s funeral. They basically said “This IS not our city!” while Schultz said, “Yes, it IS your city!”

I’m not surprised by the level of denial. It’s the same mindset that was responsible for developing Harborplace while, in the process, allowing so many hotels taking over what were once public parking lots near the Inner Harbor that the area became overdeveloped and overbuilt. The rationale for all of this overdevelopment was that it was supposed to bring more jobs and it would provide a kick in the pants for Baltimore’s economic development. But the new jobs that the whole Inner Harbor project created were retail and other service jobs, which provided low pay and few benefits. Those jobs were expected to replace the once better-paying jobs in manufacturing and steel that were ultimately shipped to Third World countries. That was a failure because people were expected to switch from working higher wage jobs to lower wage jobs, which meant that they had less money in their pockets that they were expected to live on.

Basically Harborplace and the nearby Galleria were little more than glorified shopping centers with the same type of corporate chain stores that one would find in the suburbs.

I’ve gone to both places in recent years only to discover that many of the stores that were once there had left. It’s not uncommon to see empty storefronts. The situation at Harborplace had gotten so bad that half of one of its two pavilions was converted to a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium.

What made matters worse was that as city officials decided to put all their economic development eggs in one basket with redeveloping the Inner Harbor, they neglected to provide other types of economic development besides jobs in retail and the service sector. There could’ve been a better effort in providing vocational training for jobs that actually pay a living wage, such as auto mechanic. They could’ve focused on economic development in other areas of the city besides the Inner Harbor. But, no, Harborplace was expected to be the economic savior that, in reality, wasn’t. Let’s face it, Harborplace didn’t stop young people from believing that their future is so bleak that they have little recourse other than to riot two days ago. As Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, “a riot is the language of the unheard.”

I was a kid when Harborplace was being planned back in the 1970’s and it was touted as being an economic savior. There were a group of activists back then who questioned the idea and they even managed to gather enough signed petitions that it was going to be voted on in the midterm elections that year. One of the activists happened to be a woman who was one of my mother’s coworkers. That woman’s photo made it to the front page of The Baltimore Sun along with an interview and my mother pointed that fact out. My mom disagreed with her coworker because she loved the idea of a shopping area in the Inner Harbor. The pro-Harborplace people advertised heavily and they had deeper pockets than the activists so their message got out more than the other side’s. On Election Day the pro-Harborplace folks won. The day after, my mom talked about how her activist coworker was absent while joking that she was in mourning.

I remember that coworker left her job soon after that defeat. I tried searching the web for that original Baltimore Sun story to find out who she was but I got nowhere. (I think it’s because the article in question came out in the 1970’s and no one has gotten around to scanning it.) If she was here facing me today, I would tell her that she was right. Harborplace has failed in providing the kind of economic development needed to provide jobs with living wages to the residents. If it weren’t for the arrival of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium, Harborplace would be a dead mall right now with all of the empty storefronts in both pavilions.

The city officials stubbornly believed that Harborplace will cure all of Baltimore’s woes and they are now stubbornly believing that the riots are some kind of bizarre occurrences and not something that have grown out of chronic unemployment or underemployment, mass incarceration of people for non-violent drug charges, police brutality, underfunded public education, and inadequate housing. If these officials would get their heads out of their asses for once and do some actual soul-searching (including actually talking to ordinary residents), maybe some kind of a real solution could be found that’s grounded in reality and not in some pipe dream like Harborplace.

Baltimore and Freddie Gray

I’m sure you have heard the news of what the hell is currently going on in Baltimore as of this writing. Here’s a video of one of the riots that was posted three hours ago.

It’s the latest and most violent in a series of protests that have sprung up because the police have decided to do to Freddie Gray what Ferguson police did to Michael Brown and what the NYPD did to Eric Garner—murder an unarmed African American man who wasn’t doing anything violent. Except what the Baltimore police did to Freddie Gray makes the murders of Brown and Garner seem humane by comparison. Here are some of the details:

An attorney for his family said his spine was “80% severed” at the neck and his voice box was crushed.

If you think that’s hard to read, someone made a video of the police essentially crushing the hell out of Freddie Gray’s spinal cord. This video is NOT for the faint of heart.

What’s more, one of the officers involved was previously accused of domestic violence.

And that’s not to mention the neighborhood where Freddie Gray grew up and died in. Apparently that neighborhood, Sandtown-Windchester, is really bleak and economically depressed by Baltimore standards.

I was born in Baltimore and I grew up in nearby Glen Burnie. I wish I could say that I’m shocked at what is happening but I’m not. For all of its vaunted progressivism, its rich history, its past as an industrial and maritime hub, its quirkiness (such as the giant painted murals at the Station North Arts District), and its reputation for producing iconoclasts like John Waters and H.L. Mencken, there is an ugly legacy of slavery and Jim Crow that gets swept under the rug. For decades the Baltimore City public schools have been in shambles no matter who is the mayor. There are boarded up buildings that are literally crumbling and they should be condemned and razed. (Personally I’d rather see an empty lot than an abandoned building.) It’s not for nothing that, not one, but two series dealing with Baltimore crime—Homicide and The Wire—have been aired.

I remember when the city’s idea of revitalizing Baltimore was to build Harborplace, which turned out to be little more than a glorified shopping mall.

Harborplace’s initial success failed to trickle out to the neighborhoods who could’ve used the extra funds spent building Harborplace to do things like build playgrounds or clean up the streets or other types of neighborhood improvement. Even Harborplace didn’t turn out so well in the long run. So many stores have left that half of one of the pavilions have been turned into a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium.

And, if you think Baltimore is bad, you should’ve seen Glen Burnie (located just south of Baltimore), which was full of would-be racist wanna-be rednecks, people (especially white people) who had no problems with making racist and homophobic remarks, and people who were quick to disrespect you if you said or did anything that was perceived as different.

There were times when drunk people would make crank calls at our home after 2 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday morning (when the bars would close). I had been threatened and attacked by bullies both at school and in my neighborhood more times than I care to recount.

My high school cared more about its star athletes than anything else—including any academically gifted students. I had white classmates in high school who became mothers before graduating. One girl in my class got married midway through our senior year and she was six months pregnant by Graduation Day.

I wouldn’t be surprised if any other white cop/African American male incident happens in Glen Burnie, to be honest. In fact, I’m half expecting it. I left that town as soon as I could and I don’t regret it at all.