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bmore t1_j6zu09c wrote

Reply to comment by munchnerk in Roadway will remain open at base of the Roland Water Tower by locker1313

With the tower road closed to cars but open to walking, biking and rolling, there were two ways to get from the majority white neighborhoods to the majority white neighborhoods (let's be real on what historically Black means) by car and one way if you were using a mobility device. Now there are three ways by car and zero ways by mobility device. The older residents who own cars may win, but the residents with mobility challenges or without cars who were entirely invisible in this second process of privileged organizing under the banner of equity may as well continue to not exist.

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munchnerk t1_j6zuxs6 wrote

Here's the fascinating thing though - this park doesn't really provide extra pedestrian access to HH. No matter which way you slice it. I move on foot through 21211 and honestly without any actual changes made to the roadway things are exactly the same for pedestrians as they were during the closure. There are still crosswalks and lights where there were crosswalks and lights before. If anything, the street closures were dangerous for our (again, largely elderly) neighbors because they *don't* walk due to mobility issues, drive instead, and had to deal with legitimate driving hazards to get out of here. This is the feedback that was given at our community meetings and it was remarkably unilateral. You can still walk through the park, and the park will still get a redesign. And FWIW the neighborhood is still predominantly Black, please take your erasure of Black Baltimoreans elsewhere. Historically Black acknowledges that this is a neighborhood that has been a safe haven for Black families while surrounding neighborhoods blocked them from residence.

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bmore t1_j6zw1s3 wrote

Try doing it in a wheelchair and I think you'll see the difference between having that cut through as access or trying to navigate to the intersections drivers are complaining are too far to drive and too dangerous to cross.

It's simply not safe as a shared street in present condition.

And there's no erasure here. Maybe look at the census.

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munchnerk t1_j6zx8ts wrote

Yeah, ever heard of Heathbrook? If you look at the census info, the Heathbrook subneighborhood is where all the white people live (on Roland Heights and Wood Heights). Evans Chapel is the street with the access problems. That's the original parcel passed down by Grandison Hoes. That's where all the Black folks still live, and Hoes Heights as a historic neighborhood is still predominantly Black. The Census has awesome information if you don't try to wield it like a sledgehammer.

The closed street was entirely blocked with concrete (then plastic) barricades. It's a coarsely paved and then-unmaintained road that wasn't designed or suited for folks in a wheelchair. The opened street is moving forward with a park redesign to improve pedestrian access and make it safer. I'm sure you've also noticed the extensive road-diet changes on 41st which, as a pedestrian resident, have genuinely made it safer to move around here without a car. It is actually better to get in and out of the neighborhood on foot than it was before, and that has fuck all to do with the road around the tower.

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bmore t1_j6zy0qu wrote

The traffic calming is great. Sucks neighbors have been advocating to get it ripped out.

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jojammin t1_j72yc3v wrote

>and had to deal with legitimate driving hazards to get out of here

If grandma can't navigate turning from Roland to 41st to Evans chapel, then she needs to hang up the keys.

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chmod744username t1_j741yxb wrote

This is incredibly ageist and ableist.

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jojammin t1_j7439jv wrote

You think people who aren't capable of turning right.... should drive? Okay boomer

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chmod744username t1_j743nau wrote

I care about the mobility of my neighbors. And I take exception to people dismissing their needs as defects rather than accommodations for our neighbors. And I’m 34. I just possess a modicum of decency and concern for the welfare and safety of others.

The ability to do something and the safety of doing it are also two different things. But I understand that the 20 something gentrifiers in surrounding neighborhoods who don’t actually live in this neighborhood feel incredibly entitled to lecture to the folks who have lived here forever because “green space”.

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jojammin t1_j74495s wrote

>And I take exception to people dismissing their needs as defects rather than accommodations for our neighbors

I agree that people who can't drive down the block and turn around are defective.

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chmod744username t1_j744qiy wrote

Spoiled Hampdenites don’t get what they want and throw a fit, trash their supposedly progressive values and resort to ableist and ageist insults because boo fucking hoo they don’t have another place for their dogs to take a shit. Big surprise.

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chmod744username t1_j6zum9o wrote

Most of our neighbors here are Black, but go off, Remington lol

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bmore t1_j6zw40z wrote

Idk if you've looked at this thing called the census, but you could give it a try.

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Douseigh t1_j71ftyd wrote

Typical out of touch take to use data instead of on the ground knowledge

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