Photo by Liz Donadio

Open Space, one of Baltimore’s most-treasured arts spaces, was hit with a two-alarm fire last evening. We’re glad to report that, aside from a firefighter who was sent to the hospital with minor injuries, no one was seriously hurt, and the living and music-recording spaces suffered minimal damage. One resident’s pet pot belly pig is also fine. The fire was mostly confined to the auto body shop that shares the building with Open Space; no word yet as to the damage there.

Anyone who wants to help Open Space deal with the fire’s aftermath is welcomed to stop by the building (2720 Sisson Street) today before 5 PM armed with “trash bags, boxes, moving supplies of any kind, transportation, storage, and… helping hands.”

Was it all a well-lit dream? We called them and they came to our house last week, free of charge: a young man and woman with energetic minds, energy-efficient ideas, and a big, fat supply of compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They sweetly complimented the art on our walls. Then they walked about and worked quietly for 45 minutes, politely surveying our place and tweaking our technology to help us use less water and electricity without missing the lack. The next day, we still had our CFL bulbs in place! So clearly these bright-eyed lightbulb kids were real. Wait, it gets better. Read More →

In the last few years, urban gardening has taken hold as the new must-do for anyone who’s living in the city and lucky enough to have a small patch of grass in which they could plant something. We’re growing tomatoes, herbs, and zucchini (so many zucchini), and the more adventurous of our neighbors even keep bees and the occasional chicken. And if you’re lucky (or a skilled gardener, rather) you may just end up with a bumper crop—an abundance of fresh food that really ought to be preserved, so that come winter you can still enjoy the fruits of your spring and summer labor.  One of the oldest preservation methods (and one that almost every culture practices in some form) is pickling. And who’s the local master of this ancient form? Well, when a local pickle company has as actual fan club (and they do), you probably need look no further… Read More →

Ernest Hemingway, a man who certainly knew a good deal about drinking, once wrote, “Night life is when everybody says what the hell and you do not remember who paid the bill…Night life comes out of a bottle and goes into a jar. If you think how much are the drinks it is not night life.” Well, the guy would probably have taken a  real shine to W.C. Harlan, the new, and super-hot Remington bar that’s turned the neighborhood into a destination for those looking for just such a nightlife. We’ve heard tell of this kind of place—a tiny, hole-in-the-wall spot that oozes atmosphere and well-considered furniture and décor. The drinks are interesting, seasonal, and mixed by an appropriately credentialed mixologist. Sure, we’ve heard of these places, but we never thought we’d have one right in our own backyard. Read More →

Woodberry Kitchen

The controversial development of Remington continues as Amy and Spike Gjerde, the duo behind the unintentionally Al Borland-themed farm-to-table restaurant Woodberry Kitchen, have signed a lease at what used to be a tire shop across from Charmington’s.  Read More →

If you’re an optimist, you might see it this way:  the Johns Hopkins-spearheaded Homewood Community Partners Initiative (HCPI) will leverage the university’s power to transform the neighborhoods surrounding the school (officially designated as Abell, Barclay, Charles North, Charles Village, Greenmount West, Harwood, Oakenshawe, Old Goucher, Remington, Wyman Park, and parts of Waverly) with safer streets, more restaurants, better schools, and fewer boarded up houses. And if you’re a pessimist, this is Hopkins’ bold plan to extend its domain over increasingly large swaths of Baltimore.
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This month, Live Baltimore will host a series of free pop-up events to introduce potential homebuyers to untapped areas of the city while preparing them for the home-buying process. The casual gatherings lead up to Buying into Baltimore West on Saturday, May 12, an event to give homebuyers a chance to connect with neighborhood residents and see each neighborhood from a local’s point-of-view.

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Contributor Joseph Martin, a Remington resident, analyzes the Baltimore neighborhood’s controversial conversion.

Baltimore’s love for urban rehab can feel unseemly; veil of chic aside, Woodberry’s broken windows still conjure the blight of hard times past.  But neighborhood reboots also do a world of good, often throwing each area’s innate style and aspirations into sharp relief.  When the Inner Harbor and Harbor East began to rebuild, they peppered the waterfront with tourist bait, such as swank cineplexes and paycheck-chewing eateries.  Meanwhile, Hampden and Fells Point have both staged boutique revolutions, transforming their quiet storefront strips into bustling meccas of quirk and class.

Still, some neighborhoods beg a subtler facelift than others – Remington, for example.  A residential salad of schools, parks, and playgrounds built around a core of auto shops, the area has long been a model of nondescript living, housing blue-collar families and lifers, as well as a persistent (if nonviolent) mix of daylight drug deals and boarded buildings.  Neither a Wire-style war zone nor a bustling nexus of commerce, Remington kept to itself.  So when gluten-free bakery Sweet Sin arrived in 2010, it raised many a local eyebrow.

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