Baltimore Green District

Hey Michel,

I just noticed that you posted this. Hmm, I'm not sure if I have ideas to offer yet on how to further green spaces in Baltimore, but I do have some observations on the shifting culture that I see in the city. It was really exciting to hear Anna speak on Midday with Dan Rodricks last week. Increasing Baltimore's awareness of cycling and the benefits of cycling is so important, and may be essential to the progress of furthering green spaces in this city. On Midday, Anna spoke as a representative of the Bloomberg School of Health but she also spoke as a member of Velocipede. Baltimore can be quite a dangerous city to bike in, as you surely know better than me, and it's great to see the cultural consciousness beginning to expand around this issue. The ads on the back of buses that promote cycling do a lot to educate drivers too. I think greening Baltimore may first begin with the roads, how we negotiate with and connect to them. The more people take to biking instead of the burning of fossil fuel, the more people connect with the city by navigating its streets instead of taking the beltway, the further along we've come toward to having actual citizens of the city who are rooted in, and aware of the space they inhabit. This is essential. The coming of the Red Line that will connect the east to the west of the city is also a very promising step. Right now, I think that it's easy for people to ignore some of Baltimore's most fundamental problems because the car breaks up the continuity of the living environment and their experience of it. People shuttle between safe zones, which only furthers the compartmentalization of Baltimore's neighborhoods, instead of integrating themselves into the mesh and weave of the whole city experience. I guess greening Baltimore begins first with changing the way that people navigate through the city. Bike lanes, rail lines, and neural pathways may need to be the avenues from which we open the space to grow green and grow change.