Baltimore: My overlooked new hometown

CHARLES NORTH: I need to be honest, I am not cool enough to live in Charles North. Not even close. Along with Greenmount West it forms the Station North Arts District and has become the neighborhood where all the trendy artists, musicians, students, and their followers go to have a good time. In keeping with the comparison to Brooklyn, it reminds me of Bushwick or maybe even Bed-Stuy, a neighborhood that had lovely buildings but had fallen so far into disrepair that many wrote it off only to see it rise into one of the coolest (or whatever term the kids are using these days) neighborhoods in the Baltimore. The nearby prestigious arts school MICA has a large footprint in the neighborhood, with galleries, theatres, workspaces, etc. revitalizing the neighborhood. Moreover, where you find artists and their patrons you find hip restaurants, bars and clubs. The lovely but formerly dilapidated housing stock seems to improve by the day and more and more development of artists studios, lofts, and commuter flats is bringing many people into the area. Penn Station, located within the neighborhood, attracts many Washington commuters to live here. Years ago when visiting Mount Vernon, just to its south, and heading to Charles Village, to its north, I was shocked at the stark contrast of this decrepit area between the two established neighborhoods. That contrast still exists, but in a different kind of way. People from Mount Vernon & Charles Village now head here for fun and excitement. Artscape, the largest free outdoor arts festival in the country, attracts tens of thousands of people every year, in the blazing heat, who witness the coming of age of this still up and coming neighborhood. Like its Brooklyn counterparts there is still a lot of the old grit and you need to be aware of your surroundings at night. However, what you will probably encounter are many people much too cool for me.

HAMPDEN: One thing I love about Baltimore is its quirkiness. It is a city that lets it freak flag fly proudly. Few neighborhoods in Baltimore exemplify this trait more than Hampden, where glimpses of John Waters locales and Baltimore Hon culture can be seen while the famous Bawlmerese dialect can be heard. Mount Vernon might be Baltimore’s center of high culture, but Hampden is the center of local culture & myth. Its focal point is “The Avenue” (or 36th Street on a map) with a collection of all sorts of mom & pop stores featuring unusual treasures, intermingled with many eateries, bars, etc. It is a very popular place to take a stroll. Hampden hosts- shall I say unique- events including HonFest (where proudly tacky vintage-clothed women & queens, donning beehive hairdos, parade around), the Mayor’s Christmas Parade (featuring the “mayor” of Hampden, not the city), and the Miracle on 34th Street where a whole block of rowhomes are decked out for Christmas in the brightest and most locally flavored way possible. However, do not let the colorfulness of the community and its preponderance of pink flamingos let you think Hampden exists as purely tourist kitsch. It is a vibrant and increasingly popular area to live. When I was apartment hunting many people suggested I look into Hampden as well. It has one of the city’s many microbreweries and its old mills have been repurposed as business incubators. As a former mill town the neighborhood is pretty self-sufficient and quite walkable. Rowhouses, many with porches, are very common. It is near Johns Hopkins University, Wyman Park, & Druid Hill Park which gives it a little bit of bucolic isolation. Still, it is easily accessible to Downtown by highway, bus, and light rail, (which runs just across its western border). I’ve even walked to Hampden from Mount Vernon. Like Mount Vernon, its location away from the waterfront seems to have kept housing prices from getting too high, making it quite affordable. Its relative isolation (as we are still very much in the city) and community spirit has made it a safe area to live. When I am ready to buy a small home with a porch Hampden is definitely an area I will consider, even though I am bald with no hair to put into a beehive, nor will ever consider owning a pink flamingo!