A Different Kind Of Belair-Edison (Baltimore, Catonsville: renting, low crime, houses)

[Calvert Hall '62]

No vacant houses. Lower middle or "upper lower" class for the most part. Two parent households. Nobody owned two cars; a significant number of folks owned none. Moms mostly stayed at home. Dads were either blue collar, e.g., Sparrows Point shipyard, or white collar clerks in downtown offices, some attending Univ. of Balto. at night in the hopes of "movin' on up." Many rented out their top floors to young singles starting out.


Schools were filled with baby boomers and the one depicted in the article below had up to 90 kiddos in a classroom. And you could hear a pin drop. Note the picture in the article below featuring kids crossing Belair Rd. Note the crossing guard. Crossing guard my ass. This woman was more like a USMC drill instructor at Parris Island. You didn't play grab ass when crossing under her watch. There're some kiddos walking outside the lines. Betcha when the cameraman finished clicking she reamed those kiddos a good one.


Yep, a different brand of Bel-Ed.
_____


Have to laugh. My lifelong bud called that particular crossing guard a bastard. She was on him like white on rice. Grabbed him by the back of the collar and marched him down to the school, screaming at him all the while, and occasionally twisting his ear. Talking about a 13-year-old, not some 1st grader. She encountered a nun who referred him to the principal. Unable to find the principal, she marched off to the rectory and confronted none other than the monsignor himself, loudly venting to him. My poor buddy, otherwise a well-behaved, do-the-right-thing student, is still semi-traumatized by that event to this day.


The Catholic Review > Local News > Shrine of the Little Flower

[Calvert Hall '62]

Addendum: That cop lady would probably be convicted of child abuse or some other such social injustice today.

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by Calvert Hall '62

No vacant houses. Lower middle or "upper lower" class for the most part. Two parent households. Nobody owned two cars; a significant number of folks owned none. Moms mostly stayed at home. Dads were either blue collar, e.g., Sparrows Point shipyard, or white collar clerks in downtown offices, some attending Univ. of Balto. at night in the hopes of "movin' on up." Many rented out their top floors to young singles starting out.


Schools were filled with baby boomers and the one depicted in the article below had up to 90 kiddos in a classroom. And you could hear a pin drop. Note the picture in the article below featuring kids crossing Belair Rd. Note the crossing guard. Crossing guard my ass. This woman was more like a USMC drill instructor at Parris Island. You didn't play grab ass when crossing under her watch. There're some kiddos walking outside the lines. Betcha when the cameraman finished clicking she reamed those kiddos a good one.


Yep, a different brand of Bel-Ed.
_____


Have to laugh. My lifelong bud called that particular crossing guard a bastard. She was on him like white on rice. Grabbed him by the back of the collar and marched him down to the school, screaming at him all the while, and occasionally twisting his ear. Talking about a 13-year-old, not some 1st grader. She encountered a nun who referred him to the principal. Unable to find the principal, she marched off to the rectory and confronted none other than the monsignor himself, loudly venting to him. My poor buddy, otherwise a well-behaved, do-the-right-thing student, is still semi-traumatized by that event to this day.


The Catholic Review > Local News > Shrine of the Little Flower

Interesting.. I am surprised Catholic Schools have declined in Baltimore. They represent an excellent alternative in many cases to some area City Schools. Belair Edison is an interesting area.. I don't know all of the history except that it transitioned from what appeared to be working class whites who "moved up" from East Baltimore (where they may have grown up) to the next ring of "interburban" development.. Here and further out in Overlea thus along the streetcar lines. I would guess 1950s to 1960s were its hey day? Once these folks aged and died or moved on.. their children reached further NE or into the County and the area was "backfilled" with working class African Americans in the 1970s and 1980s. I would imagine the area followed a similar life cycle but when some of these early African Americans began to die off/move on there was no one left to "backfill" thus leaving some parts of the area vulnerable to investors and slumlords who began renting out properties to various folks. That combined with the redevelopment of East Baltimore has placed Belair Edison in a precarious position in terms of what direction it takes. Its a fairly large area so you have some blocks that are still very stable and some that aren't....As is the case in many neighborhood commercial areas in this town.. Bad or subpar retail establishments can wreck havoc on a neighborhood. What should be a walkable amenity becomes a magnet for crime if populated with check cashers, bars, and liquor stores.. which also impact the adjacent neighborhoods.....

[Calvert Hall '62]

Originally Posted by Woodlands

Interesting.. I am surprised Catholic Schools have declined in Baltimore. They represent an excellent alternative in many cases to some area City Schools. Belair Edison is an interesting area.. I don't know all of the history except that it transitioned from what appeared to be working class whites who "moved up" from East Baltimore (where they may have grown up) to the next ring of "interburban" development.. Here and further out in Overlea thus along the streetcar lines. I would guess 1950s to 1960s were its hey day? Once these folks aged and died or moved on.. their children reached further NE or into the County and the area was "backfilled" with working class African Americans in the 1970s and 1980s. I would imagine the area followed a similar life cycle but when some of these early African Americans began to die off/move on there was no one left to "backfill" thus leaving some parts of the area vulnerable to investors and slumlords who began renting out properties to various folks. That combined with the redevelopment of East Baltimore has placed Belair Edison in a precarious position in terms of what direction it takes. Its a fairly large area so you have some blocks that are still very stable and some that aren't....As is the case in many neighborhood commercial areas in this town.. Bad or subpar retail establishments can wreck havoc on a neighborhood. What should be a walkable amenity becomes a magnet for crime if populated with check cashers, bars, and liquor stores.. which also impact the adjacent neighborhoods.....

Yes, working class whites and veterans returning from WWII moved from the east side to the "suburbs" of Belair-Edison. Many of their kids who grew up in the 50s and 60s in turn moved northeast to Perry Hall, Belair, Sparks, and even Pa., especially York County.


Parochial school may be beyond the means of many city families. One political party wants vouchers which would allow choice. Unions and the other political party are dead set against vouchers. Frankly, I don't know enough about the issues to have a cogent opinion.


You're right on the money concerning East Balto. redevelopment exacerbating Belair-Edison problems.

[Woodlands]

Its unfortunate because Belair Edison has some of the same housing stock as the rowhouse districts of Catonsville. West Edmonson Village just over the County Line on Route 40 is a working class predoninately African American neighborhood that is identical to Belair Edison in terms of housing stock and demographics with the exception that its low crime and stable. West Village on Cooks Lane in the City is the same. Both areas are also adjacent to very stable neighborhoods like Hunting Ridge and Ten Hills which helps tremendously.

This is where I think the city often fails at community development. It should focus on areas that are on the brink like Belair Edison instead of extemely challenged areas that are decades away from redevelopment. Im not saying abandon those areas completely but its easier to save an area that is on the edge as opposed to one that has gone over it. Orchard Ridge near Belair Edison and Uplands near Ten Hills are good examples