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?
s
The Journey to the Harris Creek Watershed Plan
Creating Community by promoting Justice
Monday, July 12, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Cleaning up Trash in Baltimore City and Baltimore Harbor
Trash,Trash.Trash everywhere....on the street....in the gutters....down the corner inlet and drain.....and down into the Baltimore Harbor. Has it reached a point of no return? Are we helpless to do anything? Will the unsightly Trash Problem always be with us? Hell "no"!
Where is this Trash coming from? We know that there are too numerous to count vacant lots and houses in the middle of this Watershed and many are just filled with Trash. Could this be the Source of the 5 Tons of Trash that enters the Baltimore Harbor through it's Outflow Drain? We will know shortly. We have set up a Plan with the Baltimore City Code Enforcement Office and the DPW Solid Waste Trash Pickup Section to aggressively clean up the Trash in a targeted footprint in the middle of the Watershed and keep it cleaned for at least ten weeks to try and see if we can reduce the Trash coming into the Baltimore Harbor (June 14 through August 30,2010). We are also beefing up Community Participation in this Effort. The second part of the Plan is go after "hobt spots" in the rest of the Watershed and reduce Trash even moreso.
We are able to measure the amount of Trash because we have a Trash Interceptor that collects and measures what comes to it. Trash is not the only Pollutant,but it is the most visible one. Reducing Trash will bring about a Safe and Healthy Baltimore Harbor that can become one day fishable and swimmable. Come,Watch our Progress and help us to create a Cleaner,Greener and more Humane Baltimore. It is Doable with your Help! Best,Ray Bahr MD
Where is this Trash coming from? We know that there are too numerous to count vacant lots and houses in the middle of this Watershed and many are just filled with Trash. Could this be the Source of the 5 Tons of Trash that enters the Baltimore Harbor through it's Outflow Drain? We will know shortly. We have set up a Plan with the Baltimore City Code Enforcement Office and the DPW Solid Waste Trash Pickup Section to aggressively clean up the Trash in a targeted footprint in the middle of the Watershed and keep it cleaned for at least ten weeks to try and see if we can reduce the Trash coming into the Baltimore Harbor (June 14 through August 30,2010). We are also beefing up Community Participation in this Effort. The second part of the Plan is go after "hobt spots" in the rest of the Watershed and reduce Trash even moreso.
We are able to measure the amount of Trash because we have a Trash Interceptor that collects and measures what comes to it. Trash is not the only Pollutant,but it is the most visible one. Reducing Trash will bring about a Safe and Healthy Baltimore Harbor that can become one day fishable and swimmable. Come,Watch our Progress and help us to create a Cleaner,Greener and more Humane Baltimore. It is Doable with your Help! Best,Ray Bahr MD
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Harris Creek Watershed Project Update May 22,2010
The Harris Creek Watershed Project is about to enter an important phase of its Project. From the beginning,it's goal was to complete a Watershed Plan with the help of the Center for Watershed Protection,the Parks and People Foundation and the Community of Neighborhoods (17) in the Watershed. Information obtained from the residents indicated a great deal of illegal trash dumping on vacant lots within the Watershed. As a result of this information,the BHWA has set up a Plan of Action that will consist of a Major Trash Cleanup in a targeted footprint in 246 that will include the Code Enforcement Office of City Housing,the DPW Trash Pickup Team and the Community Residents . This will take place starting June 12 with a Kickoff and go through August 30,2010. We hope to see a Major Reductiuon in Trash being delivered to the Harris Creek Outflow Drain on Boston St.(presently it is 5 Tons of Trash each month). If so,we plan to offer this Model to the other direct watersheds emptying into the Baltimore Harbor. Along with this Trash Sweep will be the Second Workshop (June 5th) that will introduce Storm Water Management Practices within the Harris Creel Watershed. Stay tuned for more to come. Ray Bahr MD BHWA
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Community Organizing of the Harris Creek Watershed
The Harris Creek Watershed Project has come a long way,but it still needs to go much further. It was helped greatly this week with a meeting that focused on the amount of illegal trash dumping on vacant lots,especially in the middle of the 246 Watershed. Input from over 400 completed Survey Questionnaires as well as input from listening to residents from the 17 Community Neighborhood Associations identified this as their number one problem. Despair from inability to do anything about the chronic problem was to be a concern that the 246 Watershed needed to address. Yes,this is a Watershed Project with a Stormwater Plan when completed....and Yes,we want to prevent the trash from coming down into the Baltimore Harbor........but,even more important,the 246 Watershed is interested in going after this illegal trash dumping as an Injustice to the Community and Advocating for a Program to quickly clean the trash up and to develop aggressive measures to prevent it from happening. Plans are under way to coordinate the efforts of many to bring this about. Engaging our Citizens at a deeper level of committment is a way to strenghen the Community of 17 Neighborhoods needed in this 246 Watershed Effort. The Clean "Harbor" comes only after we prevent permanently the illegal trash dumping from taking place on vacant lots and in vacant buildings in the Harris Creek Watershed. We are deeply appreciative of the role of Baltimore City Housing Department and their Code Enforcement Division as well as the Baltimore City Department of Public Works and their Cleaner,Greener Program,Solid Waste Program,Community Education Program etc As initially stated,we still have a long way to go......but the Direction is now clearer.
Respectfully for the Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association,the Parks and People Foundation,the Center for Watershed Protection,Raymond D.Bahr MD Harris Creek Watershed Program Coordinator
Respectfully for the Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association,the Parks and People Foundation,the Center for Watershed Protection,Raymond D.Bahr MD Harris Creek Watershed Program Coordinator
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Trash HearingsCity Hall March 9,2010
Trash in the Baltimore Harbor was the Topic of Discussion. The Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association (BHWA) presented evidence that 5 Tons of Trash was being delivered each month to the Baltimore Harbor at the Outflow along the 2700 block of Boston Street (across from the Safeway). To investigate this,the BHWA obtained Funding to do the Harris Creek Watershed Project (HCWP). This includes 17 Neighborhoods and 2 great Parks and covers 1270 acres and has a population about 44,000 residents.
The Question that we raised was,"How do we bring about a Community of these Neighborhoods to address this Pollution of the Harbor? How do we deal with the tremendous Diversity existing in these Neighborhoods medium income 44K vrs 6 K unemployment 6% vrs 40-50% African American population of 10% vrs 65% ? This is and always will be our Challenge. Intetresting enough,these 17 Neighborhoods are connected beneath the surface of the street by 55 miles of storm drains that lead down into the Baltimore Harbor.
This Problem would seem like a "slam dunk" to solve. Reduce the Trash and find ways of recycling as much as possible. Find ways to get the storm water to go into the ground rather than onto impervious surfaces (concrete and asphalt streets). Could we change culture by education alone? No,and we knew that going into the Project. We planned to "Listen to the residents" to see what their Issues were and what their Priorities were. We prepared a Survey Questionnaire to get this Input and we went further by going to all the Community Neighborhood Association Meetings and listened further to their Issues.
What did we find? We found out that the Input from the 400 completed Questionnaires that Trash was their number one concern and that it was more than Trash,bur Illegal Trash Dumping on Vacant Lots and Buildings within their Neighborhoods. We began to study this and took photos of this Illegal Practice. We were amazed at the amount of this Trash Dumping and that the"crys for help" were often times neglected or treated lightly and with disrespect. We remembered the saying that'"Bad things happen to poor people". They get dumped upon. They are most vulnerable and their voices are not often heard. They needed people to advocate for them. This is a form of Environmental Injustice and should not be tolerated. We needed to correct this in order to get the trust of the residents if we wanted to clean up the Trash in the Harbor. How can we do so?
It was our initial plan to develop the concept of a "landkeeper" who would be the middle person between the residents and the City,but we discovered that the City through the Housing Department had already began an aggressive approach to this Illegal Dumping. We pointed out that this was Great but it could be greatly improved with a few changes. We are planning now to work and tweak this a little to do even a better job. We are very optimistic about rapidly accomplishing our Goal to reduce significantly the Trash going into the Baltimore Harbor.
"Veni,Vidi,Vici" We have found where a major part of the Trash to the Baltimore Harbor is coming from. It is coming from the middle part of the 246 Watershed where their are many Vacant Lots and Vacant Buildings.....and it is coming from Illegal Dumping of the Trash on these sites. We hope to now work close;y with the Housing Department and Department of Public Works to put into place a Plan that will aggressively attack this Problem. If so,we should start to see a significant reduction in the 5 Tons of Trash each month entering the Baltimore Harbor. Ray Bahr MD Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association
Coordinator Harris Creek Watershed Project
The Question that we raised was,"How do we bring about a Community of these Neighborhoods to address this Pollution of the Harbor? How do we deal with the tremendous Diversity existing in these Neighborhoods medium income 44K vrs 6 K unemployment 6% vrs 40-50% African American population of 10% vrs 65% ? This is and always will be our Challenge. Intetresting enough,these 17 Neighborhoods are connected beneath the surface of the street by 55 miles of storm drains that lead down into the Baltimore Harbor.
This Problem would seem like a "slam dunk" to solve. Reduce the Trash and find ways of recycling as much as possible. Find ways to get the storm water to go into the ground rather than onto impervious surfaces (concrete and asphalt streets). Could we change culture by education alone? No,and we knew that going into the Project. We planned to "Listen to the residents" to see what their Issues were and what their Priorities were. We prepared a Survey Questionnaire to get this Input and we went further by going to all the Community Neighborhood Association Meetings and listened further to their Issues.
What did we find? We found out that the Input from the 400 completed Questionnaires that Trash was their number one concern and that it was more than Trash,bur Illegal Trash Dumping on Vacant Lots and Buildings within their Neighborhoods. We began to study this and took photos of this Illegal Practice. We were amazed at the amount of this Trash Dumping and that the"crys for help" were often times neglected or treated lightly and with disrespect. We remembered the saying that'"Bad things happen to poor people". They get dumped upon. They are most vulnerable and their voices are not often heard. They needed people to advocate for them. This is a form of Environmental Injustice and should not be tolerated. We needed to correct this in order to get the trust of the residents if we wanted to clean up the Trash in the Harbor. How can we do so?
It was our initial plan to develop the concept of a "landkeeper" who would be the middle person between the residents and the City,but we discovered that the City through the Housing Department had already began an aggressive approach to this Illegal Dumping. We pointed out that this was Great but it could be greatly improved with a few changes. We are planning now to work and tweak this a little to do even a better job. We are very optimistic about rapidly accomplishing our Goal to reduce significantly the Trash going into the Baltimore Harbor.
"Veni,Vidi,Vici" We have found where a major part of the Trash to the Baltimore Harbor is coming from. It is coming from the middle part of the 246 Watershed where their are many Vacant Lots and Vacant Buildings.....and it is coming from Illegal Dumping of the Trash on these sites. We hope to now work close;y with the Housing Department and Department of Public Works to put into place a Plan that will aggressively attack this Problem. If so,we should start to see a significant reduction in the 5 Tons of Trash each month entering the Baltimore Harbor. Ray Bahr MD Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association
Coordinator Harris Creek Watershed Project
Friday, February 26, 2010
Workshop Outcome of the Harris Creek Watershed Feb.20,2010
The Workshop was successful in addressing Trash that was coming from Illegal Dumping on Vacant Lots and in Vacant Houses. Most of this was taking place in the middle part of the Harris Creek Watershed. The Community of 17 Neighborhoods appears to be coming together to be a spokesperson for this injustice. Calling 311,even though considered by the City DPW the procedure to do,just does not seem to be working. This Information was obtained from over 400 Questionnaires completed within the Watershed. It was learned that the City Housing Department has hired a number of Code Enforcement Officers whose job it is to go after Trash Violators. The number of Citations has more than doubled within the last six months. Community Leaders are asking that residents be able to directly work with these Housing Inspectors to get better results in cleaning Trash from our streets. We will attempt to do this at the next Trash Hearings at City Hall under Councilperson James Kraft's direction. This may turn out to be a Win-Win-Win situation. What is very much needed in these Neighborhoods is to restore the Trust that was lost by inaction and abuse over the years. It is the Plan of the Harris Creek Watershed to regain this Trust by action steps that will bring about Environmental Justice. The Community of Neighborhoods will then develop into a strong Watershed Association that can address Trash in all aspects and give Sustainability to the Watershed Project. We are gathering and asssessing the feedback information from the Workshop and shortly will be setting up the second Workshop to be conducted in about six weeks. Stay tuned in! Respectfully,Raymond D.Bahr MD BHWA
The Workshop was successful in addressing Trash that was coming from Illegal Dumping on Vacant Lots and in Vacant Houses. Most of this was taking place in the middle part of the Harris Creek Watershed. The Community of 17 Neighborhoods appears to be coming together to be a spokesperson for this injustice. Calling 311,even though considered by the City DPW the procedure to do,just does not seem to be working. This Information was obtained from over 400 Questionnaires completed within the Watershed. It was learned that the City Housing Department has hired a number of Code Enforcement Officers whose job it is to go after Trash Violators. The number of Citations has more than doubled within the last six months. Community Leaders are asking that residents be able to directly work with these Housing Inspectors to get better results in cleaning Trash from our streets. We will attempt to do this at the next Trash Hearings at City Hall under Councilperson James Kraft's direction. This may turn out to be a Win-Win-Win situation. What is very much needed in these Neighborhoods is to restore the Trust that was lost by inaction and abuse over the years. It is the Plan of the Harris Creek Watershed to regain this Trust by action steps that will bring about Environmental Justice. The Community of Neighborhoods will then develop into a strong Watershed Association that can address Trash in all aspects and give Sustainability to the Watershed Project. We are gathering and asssessing the feedback information from the Workshop and shortly will be setting up the second Workshop to be conducted in about six weeks. Stay tuned in! Respectfully,Raymond D.Bahr MD BHWA
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