The Harris Creek Watershed Project summed up.

How to sum up aWatershed Project that you have been working on for over a two to three year period of time?   To do it Justice,it needs to include the many Elements that were present and helped to shape the Final Plan.  Perhaps the Best Way to appreciate it would be to view it as a Journey,because that indeed is what it turned out to be.......I say that because early in the effort,we decided to begin by seeing this Project as a "work in progress"......and that we would be open in listening to the Community of 17 Neighborhoods.......even though these Neighborhoods were connected by storm drains beneath the surface of the street,they were diverse as can be.......ex. 5% unemployment  vr  50-70%, medium income 42K vrs 7K,65% African Americans vrs 10% etc..... What opened this up for this was the eye opener that had us see the injustice that was seen in the Trash Dumping taking place on vacant lots and back yards of vacant houses. Increased Trash removal was very much needed and Code Enforcement needed to be Enhanced.We were able to coordinate this effort in a targeted area within the Watershed 246 with the idea to move out into the rest of the Watershed. This is well underway... and needs to clean out as much chronic collected trash as possible to make a significant reduction of Trash going into the Baltimore Harbor at the Outflow Drain in Canton (5 Tons each month).

   Since the Purpose of this Project was to develop a Watershed Plan to implement best management practices to reduce storm runoff that picks up the trash and takes it down the drain system. However,we realized that this could never be achieved unless we created the conditions or the chemistry that would unite the Citizens of the 17 Neighborhoods.   We realized that when we were able to see the injustice in the trash issue,we were uniting with the citizens.....and that the missing ingredients were  the strengths shown to us  by the citizens...their Faith,Trust and sharing Justice.......The Concept of a Journey....a Journey of Hope that would take us to where we needed to go......but not accomplishable until steps before it had been solidly accomplished........that we had to work through relationships that enabled us to move forward with our watershed projects.

    Perhaps,the Most Important Contribution that we were able to introduce was the "Humane Metropolis Baltimore Initiative" at the end of the Journey. What is this about?  Basically what this Initiative states is that Metropolis  (City-State) usually talks about it being Exploding (Sprawl),but here we are talking about a Humane Metropolis which states that we should makib    e the most of what we have but in a Humane sense. In the Harris Creek Watershed,we are on a Journey to do that which is right......cleaning up our neighborhoods of chronic trash that should not be there....promoting green community gardens....developing the chemistry that is needed to moveahead with best management practices that provide storm water manaagement.....and reaching to get even better....with what we call as the Humane Baltimoire Initiative........providing more green,engaging gathering spaces that areafe,efficient and equitable.....that will result in creative,communicative and artistic spaces.     Connectivity and Sustainability are the Goals of this Journey..to be continued
     Is this Mission impossible?  

              


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Urban Ghettos in Baltimore
The genesis of Urban Ghettos lies in unintended consequences from Government Actions,but the continued presence of them today has become our problem and the need for City Government to work to undo their existence. What happens if we fail to do so? We allow a festering unrest of unfairness to take place that fosters a different type of living for citizens.......leading to all the problems that we have in"the inner city".......crime, illegal drug use,educational drop outs....leading to a high rate of poverty,unemployment etc....affecting mostly the African American Community (65%). We have created and continue to maintain two kinds of Baltimore for the residents.

What does this have to do with Watersheds? What does this have to do with the Health of our Baltimore Harbor? Well,I will tell you. It has a lot to do with both. The Harris Creek Watershed is composed of 17 very diverse neighborhoods that are connected below the street surface with many inlets and drains that go down into the Baltimore Harbor. We are finding ways to connect above the street surface and in doing so found out that there is much more Trash laying on the streets,piled up on vacant lots and clogging our storm drains. With Trash,there are Rats and there are plenty of them....and all kind....not safe for our young children or us. We know that there are many vacant lots and vacant buildings in the poverty strickened areas. There is unfairness when we allow Trash to pile up in large piles (how large,try 10 yards by 10 yards by 3 yards high ....and there for a long period of time....try 3 months or longer). We are finding this out now as we do a Major Trash Sweep through a targeted area within the Watershed and working with a coordinated effort of Housing code enforcement and DPW trash removal. What we are finding does not exist in neighborhoods elsewhere. We are seeing two Baltimores and we don't like it. Unfair practices continue to undermine our making the City of Baltimore better and our Baltimore Harbor clean and safe. As we continue our Harris Creek Waterhed Project,we will report out what we see. The Project is designed to help introduce best management practices for storm water,but it will never be able to do so unless we address the services that we provide our citizens. We will try and introduce "greener"ideas that result in community gardens,small farms,rain gardens etc but these must go hand in hand with trash removal,rats taken away and fairness in City Services.... to these seemingly forgotten areas of our Baltimore City.

It is true that City Government has less and less funds to attack these problems,but we should not stop there. We must raise the Question WHY? Here,we might turn to MLK who came to the conclusion that the way to have people work themselves out of Ghettos is with Jobs,Jobs and more Jobs.....and Poverty is made worse with Wars. Wars steal the money needed for Cities to make comebacks. Wars make Inner Cities "third world countries" If this be the case,we have to ask the Question,why don't we have money and when we come to this conclusion,we have to question why we have Wars and Why our Leaders get us into a situation of stealing from our Cities. Less we forget,our Military Budget is 550 Billion dollars a year (China 50 Billion,Russia 50 Billion). It is estimated that Povety throughout the World can be reduced significantly with the use of one-fifth of this Military Budget.

Why do we have Poverty and Ghettos and Two Baltimores? Perhaps,unanswerable for some,but for me,it has to do with the decisions our Leaders make. Let's hope that we can get back on the right tract. It is not unpatriotic to wish for this. Raymond.D.Bahr BHWA