For the Beautiful Willow Tree on W. Cross St.

For the 11 years I lived in Pigtown, one of most beautiful things about it was the massive willow tree on the 12th block of W. Cross St. When it seemed that I had had enough with the neighborhood, that glorious leafy waterfall kept me sane. It was just breathtakingly beautiful.

Tragically, on a visit to Pigtown in June 2018, I was horrified to notice that the once-massive willow had been hacked and chopped down to resembling a palm tree. It was so horrific, my mind still can't process it.

In memory of its greatness, here are a few pictures of that mighty willow in full glory.

Tree hacking should be a felony.

Going, going, gone. Parting Words...

Although I never got this blog up and running with bountiful posts, I couldn't end it without leaving some insight in closing.

I left Pigtown within 1 year of having my son, and I moved to a Baltimore city neighborhood where I now have a nice little yard, no passerby trash in front of my home, and peace and quiet--a boring, uneventful neighborhood, basically. At this point in life, I love it. With a growing child who needs space to run and play, my needs surpassed what Pigtown could offer. Nonetheless, Pigtown has some great things going for it (Main Street is on the up and up!) and some amazing, diverse, caring, and fine neighbors--you never know who you'll find; one is best to abandon presumptions.   

For those who are really excited about the possibility of moving to Pigtown, I'd say you're a good fit if you:

--want a reasonably affordable neighborhood in southern Baltimore near downtown/Federal Hill;

--want the best commute to DC from Baltimore city;

--aren't rattled by city living (tight parking, loud passerby walkers; trash in alley/gutters/your stoop); 

--don't have children or teens (namely because of neighborhood preying/bullying and schools);

--want to help revitalize the neighborhood--activists are awesome, especially those who care about disadvantaged people, feral cats, social justice, and/or community beautification/redevelopment.

--are okay and easygoing with the odds that you'll have at least one neighbor within your block who may play loud music, socialize loudly outside, doesn't clean up trash from the front of his/her home, or who sits on the stoop (sometimes all day);

--understand addiction and are not willing to enable it. Addicts are everywhere, but many travel specifically to Pigtown to get drugs, sometimes on your block, in the care parked in front of your house, etc. If you want to help strengthen Pigtown, it's a good idea to report drug activity.  

Always visit any neighborhood in day, night, and weekends--particularly the block in which you hope to move. One block can be completely different from the next. 

Good luck, and all the best!

Living Solo in Pigtown (April 3, 2011)

Last week I saw a blue VW Jetta depart with my now ex, one of our pets, and their belongings bound for California. Although we prepared for this transition (and parted as friends), it is a difficult situation that is bringing unwelcome change.

So, it's back to living solo in Pigtown. Back to sleeping with the light on, the home security system activated at all time, and my weapons loaded and ready to blaze. Ok...joking! Well, not really. There is no doubt that coupledom saved me from some creepy ass situations, and combined with a healthy amount of paranoia, I'm not one to underestimate an area where home invasions can and have happened--7 rowhouses down across the street in Dec. 2008. It's not to say that you stop living your life, but staying aware is a must.

Anyway, let's see if my blog posts get meatier with me becoming more vigilant and all.

Maybe I'll get a roommate. Hmmm.

A Gentler, Kinder Pigtown Perspective

Making lemonade...

It's 2014, and I'm still in Pigtown--and 8 years here at that. The neighborhood is getting better and better--thanks to great activist neighbors, changes in perspective, and community improvement--there's so much to discuss. I'll be posting full swing by spring 2014. Stay tuned.

Surprise, Surprise

I'm still here. In Pigtown. Yeah, yeah...I talked a lot of trash and was 99.99% sure that I would have relocated by now, but let's say I was made an offer that I'd be nuts to refuse. So, although I may move and rent the house out eventually, I won't be leaving Pigtown this year.

However, the neighborhood's garbage and miscreants are still out of control, and it's a matter of making lemonade out of the lemon that Pigtown is.

So, if you can't change something, you change your perception, right? Anyone reading right now that has had any luck with that?

Pigtown Drug Violence

On the morning of July 1, just as I was reading a neighbor's concerns about a shooting that had happened earlier that day, I heard 6-8 canon-like booms right beside my home. Minutes later I peeked outside--saw neighbors running and an abandoned "drive-by" bicycle in the middle of the street. Three doors down and around the corner, a young man lay, writhing in pain. Blood was gushing from his back as he lay on the concrete face down.

By the end of the afternoon, a third shooting had happened, all within 4 hours and blocks of one another. Drug feuds, no doubt.

Although shootings can happen anywhere, their quantity in Pigtown is too dangerous to ignore. There is little regard for human life--makes me feel so disgusted...and afraid. Until Baltimore City changes its approach on crime, I have no choice but to relocate.

Time to go. I tried.

Here is an article in the Baltimore Sun that describes this chaotic day: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-city-shootings-20110701,0,4127607.story

Cleaning out my camera...September/October 2010 in photographs

Better late than never! Pigtown, in pictures, last September-October 2010. Enjoy!




Man, unknown, getting a questionable-substance-induced nap mid-day.


Gallery 788--art galore--undoubtedly the coolest thing in Pigtown EVER.


...and even cooler Eduardo Rodriguez, manager of Gallery 788.


Todd and Nelson running.




Was really surprised the city came out and removed the hideous graff tags on the corner bar near me in just one call. Not bad, Bmore!




A commemorative graff to Pigtown, of the cool kind, on my back fence. Thanks Todd!


My favorite house on the 11th block of Cleveland.








Green Pig Commons Project Block--great concept; too bad it's not duplicated throughout Pigtown.


Flash flood--crazy. Two minutes before this pic was taken, the water was above the curb. Drain blockage? And like that, it was gone.


When I was thinking about starting a garden/consignment shop last year, I was hoping to take over the lease from the African Braiding salon. How in the world do they stay in business? Braids haven't been popular since the 1990s.


Great architecture going to waste. I'd love to rehab the boarded building into a loft co-op for artists.

Cleaning out my camera...Musings from April 8, 2011

Scenic views from my Pigtown window last April. Of course I'm nosy so I lifted the window and listened in. The perp: "My teeth are missing" and "I swear [cocaine/crack] is not mine!!!" The officer: "Then why did you run?" "See what happens when you run." Wow...you gotta love getting a scene from The Wire right from your own backyard.

My Other Life in Cecil County

Evidently, I'm a woman of extremes. I love the convenience, progressive minds, and pace of city living, but I need to see major green acreage every now and then. So, to escape the urban chaos that comes with summer in Baltimore--I was pressed enough to buy a very humble "weekend" cottage smack dab in the middle of a Tea Party-packed [gulp] campground community in Cecil County, Maryland.

Yes, I'm crazy. Find it here.

Where's the Beef? and June is here!

Yes, the posts are few and far in between. Sowry. I had one heck of a May--try planning your friend's wedding reception at a mega nightclub and see what I mean--but I'm back.

Anyway. Back to Pigtown. We lost our one and only coffee shop, Perfecto. Will we ever have viable mainstreet commerce?



Worse, awesome neighbor and interior design/lifestyle blogger extraordinaire Meg Fairfax MOVED to another neighborhood. Fortunately, she's retaining the "Pigtown" part of her famous blog title (http://pigtown-design.blogspot.com/). All the best, Meg!

$2M Inner Harbor Park to Break Ground Next Month

$2M Inner Harbor Park to Break Ground Next Month

G'Bye Troublesome Trees!

Initially I blogged that Baltimore city was behind the tree cutting, but it appears that it was just another pre-rehab clearing. Nonetheless, what contractor cuts trees on Sunday at 10am? I dig treehugging and all but I was super pleased to see two oddly overgrown and gargantuan trees--the kind that crash through your bedroom and wipe out all the power on the block for 2 weeks--getting trimmed. I had no idea they'd both be a complete and distant memory within 3 hours--they seemed nearly impossible to climb. Dag on it...I missed seeing how they did it.



Check the brave soul in the tree.


Wow. Trees all gone! Coincidentally, the house where the trees were chopped is the same one where the poor dog named "Scoobers" was being neglected (and I blogged about him).



Everybody loves the sunshine!!! Plus, no pesky leaves clogging up my gutter.

Is This the End?

Pigtown's horrid housing market depreciation (due to its ridiculous overinflation) is affecting me to the point of grief. I love my home, and have put so many of my resources into it, but it's all for naught. Zillow.com is estimating my home's value at 60% of what I paid in 2006. All my closest neighbors--who were proud homeowners--have left. Of the rehabbed homes that don't remain empty, transitional students and section 8-vouched renters abound. The neighborhood's open-air drug market has decreased significantly (thanks to the vigilance of great community activism), but this gem of a neighborhood is still too rough to truly enjoy.

Washington, DC beckons my return...to be continued.

UPDATE THE NEXT DAY: Just toured a $1200/month Capitol Hill apartment (a good deal for the area) with supposedly 650 square feet (more like 400), and the pic below is HIGHLY flattering compared to reality--you wouldn't believe the bathroom. Well...looks like I'm staying in Pigtown--I'll take the comforts of a newly rehabbed home over a craptacular roach condo. If I can't live within walking distance to work, it takes just as much time getting around DC as a 45-minute drive to Baltimore.

Pigtown or Pigsty?

Illegal dumping and Pigtown go hand in hand. Casually discarded computer parts, scrap metal or a couch rest easy on sidewalks off Nanticoke St. So today, I decided to meddle after seeing a guy toss several old air conditioning units on the street and begin demolishing them. He had no room in his pickup truck, so his intent seemed pretty obvious. I asked him if he had plans to leave his junk, and he said he wasn't "going to answer that...I wouldn't be so disrespectful because my grandmother lives across the street".

Riiiiiight.

Pigtown Bird Has Chutzpah

Two weeks ago, I was walking my dogs when we stumbled across a small bird chirping from the bushes. It emerged old and feeble, and its wings were out of commission. Amazingly, it puffed its feathers and charged me and the dogs. Whatever makes a small, defenseless creature so brave--if not mad--is endearing and just as impressive as the boldest human in the face of overwhelming obstacle.

I returned solo with my camera and the bird charged me again, strangely allowing me to pick it up--didn't peck me either. Was it daring death? Normally I take sick animals to to the Humane Society, but instead left birdie-badass on the little stump in the bush.

I went back to find it a third time, but no chirp or trace. I imagined it charged the other dogwalker with pit bulls or fell prey to one of the numerous feral cats in our neighborhood. RIP, sweet little kamikaze bird.

Springing into Home Projects

With Spring approaching, it's time to get busy. No more putting off the house due to cold weather! Here ya go...

Project #1: The BM Bittersweet Chocolate living room phase is over, and I hope you all enjoyed it. I'm going back to light walls, i.e., au naturale vanilla bean. As much as I'd like to think I can do dramatic colors, dramatic colors just don't do my house.

Project #2: New rugs and window treatments for living room/dining nook.



Project #3: Going chinoiserie on the powder room with this wallpaper:



Project #4: Re-tiling MAIN bedroom in basic subway or pennyround tile (the builder basic faux stone tile has to go). Here's an idea (taken from http://www.remodelista.com/products/dal-penny-round-tile):

Project #5: My ambitious grassy patio didn't work out beyond the fall, so I'm filling it in with gravel and pavers (much to the chagrin of Nelson & Sophie).

Pigtown Snowpocalypse: February 6-10, 2010

Nelson's first blizzard...awwwww.



Nelson and Sophie.


My snowmobile.






Feb. 6, 2010.

Doggone...

Gorgeous Williams Sonoma ceramic lantern (and part of a pair).

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Guilty party.

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Damn, damn, damn!!!

Living Room Teaser

I promised living room photos over a month ago, and I'm truly sorry for the delay! However, I'm having the toughest time completing home projects, and the living room is still in transition (note: I'm still undecided about painting the chair rails chocolate brown or a pop-out white, and you'll see both versions in the room). Nonetheless, I wanted to share a few photos. Here goes...