Butchers Hill

What a great July pot luck picnic! A big thank you to everyone who helped out. A good time was had by all!

Fluid Movement's famous water ballet is returning! Please note the location has been changed to Riverside Park. The troupe, with several Butchers Hill people in the cast, will be performing "Postcards From the Deep End: The Flurry Family Vacation" on August 6 and 7 at 5 PM and 7 PM. Come and see your neighbors in this uniquely entertaining show.

As a part of the comprehensive rezoning that the City Council is undertaking, there is a proposal to make much of Southeast Baltimore a CHAP district by act of council, bypassing the petition process. At our August meeting, representatives from the City's Commission on Historic and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) will talk to us about becoming a local historic district.

Also at the August meeting, representatives from the city's Transportation Department will be on hand for a discussion of two-way traffic on Pratt Street and Lombard Street. Both of these issues will affect the neighborhood for many years to come; I hope you will join in the discussion.
-Dave Dyer

"If you can read this after 8•2•74, U R Driving the WRONG WAY" So said signs on Pratt and Lombard streets 31 years ago during the great switch, when the two streets exchanged one-way directions. Lombard became westbound at that time and Pratt became eastbound. "The whole length of the two streets," reported The Sun, "will be reversed from their eastern terminus at Patterson Park Avenue to where they run into Frederick Street in west Baltimore."

That change in August 1974 was the most recent before our current discussions on making Lombard and Pratt two-way between Broadway and Patterson Park Avenue. It was an obscure fallout from the defeat of the cross-harbor expressway, and involved a $5 million program to widen Pratt and Lombard downtown, make President Street a connector between Eastern (and later Fleet) and Lombard, and build a new $754,000 bridge to carry Lombard over the Jones Falls. This change, according to Paul Burns, the Assistant Commissioner of Transit and Traffic at the time, would allow cars and trucks from east Baltimore to merge smoothly with Lombard Street, rather than turning west at Pratt.

This was not the first switch in direction for Lombard and Pratt. West Pratt from Frederick Road to Light Street had become one-way eastbound in 1950, while Lombard was made one-way westbound from Gay to Frederick in 1954. But by 1956, Baltimore's legendary new traffic commissioner, Henry A. Barnes, had determined that even though one-way streets improved traffic flow, most one-way designations that predated his tenure were in the wrong direction! His plan to make Charles Street south to north instead of north to south outraged Baltimore's carriage trade.

Pratt and Lombard may have been easier propositions. In 1956, a pair of city ordinances established Lombard as one-way easterly and Pratt as one way westerly, both designations including the portions of the streets out to Patterson Park. At that time, the ordinance establishing one-way traffic on Pratt explicitly had to allow the B&O Railroad to operate engines and cars on the street in either direction from midnight to 6 AM, while it moved freight for the still-active Pratt Street commercial piers.
-Rick Gilmour.

Block Rep/Crime Prevention: Wednesday, August 17th, 7 p.m., 2105 E. Baltimore St. The committee meets monthly to share information from our block representatives and to coordinate action. New block reps wanted; if interested e-mail or call Carolyn: c.boitnott@verizon.net , 410-522-4991.
Crime tip: Keep your alley and sidewalk weed-free and planters well maintained. Not only will the neighborhood look better, but you have eliminated drug hiding places.

Butchers Hill Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.) Butchers Hill Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.) has been regularly patrolling the neighborhood for over three years, and conducts its walk-arounds on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. We meet at 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of Patterson Park Avenue and Lombard Street. All are welcome. For more information, please contact Evan Helfrich at 410-342-2148 or via e-mail, ubik14@netscape.net.

Community Representative, School 27 School Improvement Team: Carolyn Boitnott, 410-522-4991.

Education Committee: August 11th, 7 P.M., 124 S. Patterson Park Avenue. Contact: Martha DelPizzo 410-522-6046, e-mail mdelpizzo@comcast.net . A special thanks to Craig Thompson and Bo Forrest who donated generously to the Education Committee's "Locks and Clocks" project for Commodore John Rodgers School. We are pleased to announce that we have the funds needed to complete the "locks" portion of the project and hope to complete the "clocks" as well. Also, BHA members, PLEASE plan to attend the Adopt-A-Teacher breakfast, from 8 to 9 AM, on August 26th at the White House in Patterson Park.

Land Use: Tuesday, August 30th, 7 PM, Patterson Park White House, near Patterson Park Ave. & Lombard Streets. The Land Use Committee reminds homeowners in the 2100 and 2200 blocks of E. Baltimore Street and the 2200 block of E. Pratt Street that you live in a City historic district. All exterior work and painting must be submitted to CHAP and Butchers Hill. We are always happy to help with any questions you may have. Contact Virgil Bartram: 410-327-4964. CHAP's number is 410-396-4866.

Marketing Committee: Tuesday, August 9th, 7:00 PM, 2120 E. Pratt St. (Please note change of location.) Contact Liz Elliott (410-558-0158) eelliott@qis.net or Rick Gilmour (410-342-7061) gilmour@qis.net .

BHA Executive Committee: Tuesday, August 23rd at 7 PM, the White House, 27 South Patterson Park Ave. Contact: Dave Dyer (410-342-7655) or dave@viacapital.net .

Streetscape Committee: Wednesday, August 17th, 7:30 PM, 124 S. Patterson Park Avenue. Contact Jeff Gabriel: jgabriel@ubalt.edu . Due to a full agenda for the August General Meeting, the mural site presentation will take place at the September meeting, following presentation to the Executive Committee in August.

Newsletter: The deadline for SEPTEMBER is Saturday, August 27th. Contact Steve Young: young@umbc.edu .

Dog owners, please be good neighbors and clean-up after your dogs. It is evident along a number of our sidewalks and tree pits that some of owners are not cleaning up after their dogs. A recent new area where this is occurring is the sidewalk around our elementary school (School #27). The school's custodial staff should not have to clean up after neighbors'dogs.

Coffee & cookies, 6:45 p.m. Meeting 7:00 p.m. St. Andrew's Church hall, corner of Chester & Lombard Sts. (entrance on Lombard). Contact DAVE DYER, 410-342-7655.

AGENDA: PRESENTATIONS BY THE CITY'S COMMISSION ON HISTORIC AND ARCHITECTURAL PRESERVATION (CHAP) AND TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

"I don't mind streetcars, except that they run on streets. We finally got rid of [them]." So said Baltimore's Traffic Commissioner, Henry A. Barnes, about what he saw as a traffic impediment. Nor did he just rail against railed mass transit. (Buses, he thought, were more "flexible.") With the backing of Mayor Tommy D'Alesandro, Barnes took on "wrong-way" streets, parking, monuments that he considered "monumental traffic hazards," venerable trees planted alongside the street and in median strips, and even the redoubtable ladies who ran the Flower Mart.

Barnes was Baltimore's traffic czar from 1953 to 1961. He had served previously in Flint, MI, and Denver, and would go from here to New York City. Self-educated beyond grade school, Barnes nevertheless brought a thorough professionalism to his job, insisting that D'Alesandro take care of politics while he took care of traffic.

It was a time of deep social change. The Baby Boomers were being born, their parents were buying automobiles in unprecedented numbers, and the suburbs of every city were becoming bedroom communities for folks who worked in town. It was becoming less important to move folks within the city and more important to move them to and from the city.

"There is a lot of traffic control in a paint bucket," Barnes observed, initiating a program to paint traffic lanes on city streets. (Lines had appeared only at intersections before that.) He intensified Baltimore's one-way street system, and achieved some notoriety by changing the direction of many one-way streets established by his predecessor. Finding traffic signals controlled by a small switchbox in a police-station men's room, he commissioned a $225,000 traffic-control computer-largest in the country at that time. And he seemed ready always to sacrifice parking to gain another traffic lane.

As trucks began replacing rail for port traffic, Barnes enforced a series of truck routes through the city, smoothing car traffic elsewhere. He experimented with the "Barnes Dance" for pedestrian movement: traffic both ways was stopped, giving pedestrians access to the whole intersection.

Baltimoreans occasionally confounded him. He couldn't understand double and triple parking outside a popular crab-cake restaurant, but eventually had to settle for control only of the triple-parkers. He sometimes thought Baltimore was a "town even Rube Goldberg couldn't invent."

Times change. Now medians and trees are reappearing in streets like Boston and Fayette, traffic lanes are being converted to parking, trolleys are being reconsidered, and one-way streets may revert to two-way. Henry A. Barnes, surveying the city from his radio-equipped 1954 Packard sedan, would probably disapprove.
-Rick Gilmour (My sources include Barnes's Autobiography The Man with the Red and Green Eyes, and a longish article in the Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol 94, p. 220.)

For neighborhood residents only. No electronics, batteries, paint, hazardous materials, or appliances. The dumpster arrives between 8 and 10 AM and leaves when full, around noon. Please fill from the back of the Dumpster. Can you volunteer for a neighborhood clean-up? Meet at the dumpster at 9. Questions? Contact Streetscape chair Jeff Gabriel: jgabriel@ubalt.edu .

Please note that the dumpster will no longer be available on Saturdays: The city delivers dumpsters for same-day pick-up on weekdays (about 8 AM until it's full), or Friday drop-off for Saturday pick-up (there is no Saturday delivery and pick-up). Since the dumpster fills in a few hours, the Friday drop-off/Saturday pick-up option was not working: the dumpster would be overflowing by Saturday morning. Thus Friday dumpsters only.

JOIN THE FRIENDS OF PATTERSON PARK!
Each week throughout the summer, we email you with a range of fun, educational and informative happenings in Patterson Park. If you aren't a member of the Friends of Patterson Park, please consider this an invitation to join us.

It's never been easier! Join online through our secure website-simply go to: http://www.pattersonpark.com/Friends/Store-1.htm Your support will allow us to continue to provide events, programs and volunteer projects throughout the year. If you have any questions, please email us at friends@pattersonpark.com or call 410-276-3676. We look forward to hearing from you. -Kini Collins.

Mercy Medical Center Presents Music in Patterson Park

Produced in partnership with WYPR 88.1FM
Concert times 6:30-8:30 PM, Pagoda Hill, Lombard St. entrance.

Tuesday Aug. 2. Patrick Alban and Noche Latina. (Rain date Aug. 3rd)
Sunday Aug. 14 Blue Moon Cowgirls. (Rain date August 16).
Tuesday Aug. 23 Al Maniscalco Quartet (Rain date August 24)

Please keep streets and sidewalks clean! In the summer heat, please don't forget the street trees! An old tip from our May 1995 issue: During dry periods, water street trees-10 gallons, twice a week. The best way to water is slowly: take two 5-gallon joint compound buckets and punch two rows of holes around the base with a nail. Fill the buckets with water, and let the water seep into the pits.