Posted by gregwalsh on Oct 26, 2008 in City Living
This video illustrates why I didn’t get to sleep until 3AM early Sunday morning.
I think it is great that we have the rec center and that it gets used. But, I’d like to see the city rent it out to groups that respect the neighborhood. For some reason, Baltimore City Parks and Rec rents out the Virginia S Baker Rec center to groups that stay until after midnight. Usually, the bass from the music is so loud that we can FEEL it in each room of our house. It makes sleeping hard and earplugs don’t work because it is bass.
Please watch and rate the video so someone at city hall notices.
I know I don’t update this blog often and I know that I don’t write about food ever…but holy cow, did I go to a good fast food restaurant today. While we were headed for Target in Middle River today, we went looking for a place to eat lunch. We stumbled onto Original Fish & Chips.
It was really good. I had a combo of fish, chicken and chips (it included hush puppies, too)…Ann had the chicken. We both liked it and, although not nutritious per se(trans fat free), we like supporting local businesses.
If you go to the website, you can check out the history.
Posted by Greg Walsh on Nov 20, 2006 in City Living
Some towns in Europe are taking the bold move of removing all street signs in order to foster personal responsibility and increase courteousness while driving.
What’s more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion.
I doubt the US could follow due to our tort laws and income generated from parking tickets/ traffic violations.
One downside to living in Baltimore is the lack of a shopping “district” for normal day-today things like clothes, electronics…just stuff. We always find ourselves driving to either White Marsh or some other suburb which kind of defeats living in a city. Hopefully, one of the new proposals that will enter the contest to redesign Pratt St will include a shopping area that is nice enough for a tourist area but not so upscale no one really shops there…it should be a functional part of the city.
My suggestions would be:
Consider a Pratt St/Lombard St corridor
Use a free or cheap (25c) circulating bus to ride up and down the corridor
This is very odd. While we were walking home from the O’s game, Ann and I saw this sign. At first, I didn’t think anything of it, maybe it was part of Baltimore’s new Get In on It campaign. After looking at it, I’m guessing its some sort of experiential art project.
Here’s what it says:
Interstate
Interface
Mon - Sun 3pm
Face this direction
and I will face you
so we may share a
moment together
Send a photo with its date to interstateinterface@gmail.com
and I will send you one in return
Very odd. See the other sign posting for continuing oddities.
Location: 500 or so steps from the SE Corner of Light and Pratt before you cross to the Harborplace side.
Another (I’m guessing) art project sign designed to blend in with the surroundings. This one is an illustration showing the “Hypothetical Urban Wind Turbulences” at an intersection. The grey in the picture is typography that says things like sneezing, hyperventilation, coughing.
I’d like to find more of these signs to document them.
Location: About 520 steps from the SE Corner of Light st and Pratt St on the Harborplace side.
Posted by Greg Walsh on Aug 9, 2006 in City Living
From the “I’m not angry, just disappointed” file as written by HJC:
I had a little run-in with one of my neighbors.. Apparently, 1 Lemoncello Martini + a couple glasses of wine = liquid courage. It was around 10:30…when I saw both of my suspected foul mouthed neighbors that told off Mo, I confronted them and “hey, did you have a discussion with one of my friends who accidentally parked in front of your house on Sunday?” they said that they were frustrated and had missed their nephew’s birthday etc… No cursing was really used in our discussion and they were pretty calm, so I apologized for the confusion with a caveat that I didn’t appreciate the way it was handled, especially the language. I told them that next time feel free to knock on doors to find out who’s car it is, they said they had already called the city for a tow, but they were taking forever to get there, so then that pissed me off, welcome to the city assholes, where there are lots of people and lots of cars! It ended with HJ giving them a big disappointment lecture and letting them know that I was ashamed to have them as neighbors, and their behavior was completely unacceptable…They said that I didn’t need to worry about being ashamed of them, but I said I still was.
Posted by Greg Walsh on Aug 1, 2006 in City Living
Wow. It’s hot. It’s been hot for a few weeks but this week is really hot. I didn’t remember it being this hot since I moved to Maryland in 1998 but then I read this in today’s Baltimore Sun:
For example, the summer of 2002 saw 44 days of 90-degree-plus weather at BWI from June 1 through Aug. 31, including one unbroken stretch of 11 August days with temperatures in the 90s. It was among the worst heat waves in recent memory.
The next summer, 2003, saw just 14 days in the 90s.
