downtown baltimore

07/12/2000 -- i went downtown today for an eye exam. i grabbed a whole bunch of quarters before i left to feed the parking meter, then left them sitting at home. grrrrrr... i ended up paying $9 to park for the afternoon at this deathtrap of a parking garage.

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never seen this before. there's only one steep, twisty ramp going up and down, and it's only wide enough for one car. as the sign says, you have to turn on your lights to make sure you're seen, and honk your horn before you go up to make sure no one is coming down. if the person about to come down doesn't honk back, you can meet in the middle, as i and some courteous driver did. you then have to try to back down the ramp. hence the scuff marks on the wall.

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the view from up in the garage. i went for my appointment at united optical, 200 west saratoga street, the building just past the church. someone forgot to add my appointment to the schedule and they spent a whole bunch of time on the phone before accepting that yes, my blue cross blue shield coverage does include vision benefits, but the optometrist was the best i've ever had -- really knew her stuff, answered questions very well, and came to the conclusion that my previous doctor wrote too strong a prescription for my right eye. she added a lens over the one in my glasses that made a world of difference. i'm excited to get the new pair with her prescriptions.

if you're in the market for an eye doctor, give her a try -- united optical, doctor whitaker.

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took this photo just 'cause it was there. this is the charles towers, which had a very frightening fire on one of the upper floors last winter.

05/31/2001 update: someone wrote to say:

Hello...I looked at your site about Charles Towers...I wanted to inform you that my grandmother, Johncie Montgomery was the only fatality in this fire...maybe this information can enhance your web page...just wanted to tell you that....she was 72.

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now here's the reason i whipped out my camera.

after my eye exam, i took a walk, got some lunch, and put in a few hours on the laptop. (the cafeteria in university of maryland hospital has a booth with a power outlet under the table -- yes!) on the way back, i passed through the western section of downtown that has been the center of a lot of controversy in recent years.

the background: like all cities, baltimore used to have a thriving downtown. look at the old photos, and you'll see the sidewalks teeming with people in their sunday best going in and out of shops. also like all cities, baltimore saw its downtown dry up as people moved to the suburbs and shopping malls started dotting the landscape.

stewart & company is one of the huge old department stores still sitting in a commercial district that has died around it.

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here's a side view of the building. it just goes on for days, and it wasn't the largest store on the strip.

some of these old monsters have been bought and put to other purposes. this one looks as though it's completely unused upstairs; all you can see looking through the windows are stacks of junk. there's a sign on the far side offering "[some ungodly amount of floor space] for sale".

now the controversy is this: some developers want to overhaul the neighborhood and make it into an attractive place to go shop again. there was a citypaper issue devoted to this a long time ago. i don't remember all the details, but it involved giving a facelift to all the run-down buildings and something about a super walmart (seriously).

the problem is that there already are mom & pop stores all over the area, and the proposals related to the development were pushed through the city government so secretly that the first they heard about it was when they got the letter saying how much they would be reimbursed when they were moved out...

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but there's another side to the story... some of these stores are old and respected businesses, but a lot of them are just pawn shops, check cashing places, dollar stores, etc. there's no reason for anyone to ride the light rail down here to go shopping.

the once grand stewart & company has been reduced to an empty shell with eyesores like this on the ground floor. what a pity. still, the developers could have been more open about what they were doing. the area merchants are fighting them now; we'll see what happens...

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hutzler brothers was once the largest and most elegant place to shop downtown. it looks awful now. it's being used as offices for the department of human resources, iirc.

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a closeup of one of the entrances, with the lettering ripped off.

08/13/2005 update: someone wrote to say:

Great photos thanks for sharing, but those letters on the Hutzler's building were not ripped off. They were etched in a very Art Deco manner when the store was built in 1931.

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08/02/2000 -- i walked over to the pratt library. this is the basilica of the assumption across the street from it, the oldest roman catholic cathedral in the united states (why didn't the spanish build one out west first?).

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and there's the library itself. this is the main branch (with the rocking audiobooks section); there are branches all around the city.

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a wider view. on the horizon is the hotel formerly known as the peabody, where dave (see my san francisco photos) was a doorman for many years.

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headed back home. here's howard street, and the light rail, which makes traffic slightly more bearable when there's a ball game downtown.

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trinacria, a great italian produce store.

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looking down toward the gold dome of the b&o railroad museum on the horizon.

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the jehovah's witnesses kingdom hall around the corner from me. this is why you peak out the second story window to see who's knocking before you go down and answer the door.

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new rowhomes that were erected on the site of the old highrises. i hope they do some good, but i think they're just window dressing put there so people driving up and down martin luther king boulevard don't have to see what a mess the neighborhood is on the other side of them. i wish the city would instead put its efforts into improving the neighborhood, then rehabbing the vacant houses that are already here.

unfortunately, that would first require ending the prohibition on drugs, which i don't see happening until it's much too late.

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warren came through on his east coast train tour, so i went to pick him up. here's penn station.

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looking across the jones falls expressway toward the maryland institute of art. this construction has had charles street blocked for a long, long time now.

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inside the station.

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