r o b o t m i n i o n

South Baltimore Moment # 432

Sunset reflecting off Domino
Originally uploaded by emjones

Overweight Baltimoreans on Fort Ave. complaining about all of the neighborhood joggers in the evenings: "Why can't these people just get a treadmill? It's like this all night long!"

RIP Zach Sowers

We've been following the story of Zach Sowers since we moved her a year ago. Zach was about our age, lived in the city in what most would consider a "safe" area, and just seemed like a regular guy. He was attacked a few months after we moved by four vicious thugs on his own street and has been in a coma ever since. We didn't know Zach, but some of our friends did. A lot of people I work with knew him because we share an employer. When I went to meetings on Wednesdays, I would often see notes posted on his condition over the past few months.

He died Tuesday from his injuries.

From the Sun:

The attack resonated because he was an innocent victim in a city where most killings appear to revolve around drugs. Sowers and his wife were, in many ways, the faces of the new Baltimore, willing to live in neighborhoods that had struggled with blight but showed promise.

and

Anna Sowers told a reporter that she wanted politicians to do something about crime. "It's people like me and Zach who will make Baltimore a better city," she said. "I should be able to walk two blocks to my car at night and feel safe."

Who are you?

This morning as I was leaving my neighborhood I saw a silver Honda Civic with an Ohio State Sticker and an old City of Columbus parking permit sticker. It's my Doppelgänger!

JB said he saw the same car the other day. I want to meet them.

It is what it is

So.

Michael became Omar.
Dukie became Bubbles.
Sydnor became McNulty (Season 1 McNulty — not bullshit serial-killer McNulty)
Carver is on his way to becoming Daniels.
Slim Charles becomes Prop Joe.
And Marlo, who looked like he was on his way to becoming Stringer, not surprisingly proved instead to be cut from the same cloth as Avon — unable to walk away from the game.

Some things I particularly liked from the episode:
- Slim Charles killing Cheese (If you heard a group of white people in Federal Hill being too loud last night, that was us... we cheered)
- Michael becoming Omar (not that this was a positive development for his character, I just feel like we need an Omar to restore balance to the universe)
- Valchek (Valchek!) becoming the stats-faking Police Commissioner of Shelia Dixon Nerese's dreams
- the return of Freamon's near-blind stripper girlfriend Shardene
- Prez
- Chris Partlow befriending Wee-Bey (though I would've like to see Avon there as well)
- and Norman's inability to keep his shit together and not laugh

I also liked this bit from Slate's TV Club:

Instead, we got Jimmy and crazy Larry. I suppose this particular pairing was meant as grim commentary on the fate of the American city? Jimmy's final "let's go home" was intended to remind us—as if the previous 64 hours and 59 minutes hadn't—that only lunatics and hopeless romantics would want to make their home in Baltimore.

When Slate started running TV Club on The Wire I started reading Slate again. Guess I'll stop now.

We come not to praise Omar, but to hate on HBO On Demand

I was going to post about how much I hate HBO On Demand and how I think it's ruining America. Sunday night, my favorite show killed off everyone's favorite character. Omar, who has wondered around Baltimore dodging death for five seasons now finally got one to the head after ignoring the presence of an 11 year old hopper in a West Baltimore convenience store. He always did have a weak spot for kids. The first time we see him in season 5, he's handing out candy to the youngins on some Caribbean island (PR?) far removed from the game. But not far enough.

Earlier this season, before I realized what was going on with HBO On Demand, I wondered over to my favorite Wire blog. I sort of scanned the page to make sure there were no spoilers, but because I hadn't paid close attention to the episode numbering before I realized they were talking about an episode I hadn't seen, I saw one word. Butchie. And I knew. I knew something was going to happen to Butchie and I had to keep this terrible secret to myself until Sunday night. Instead of looking forward to watching the show that week, I just dreaded it.

Similarly this week, coworkers started buzzing about what a BIG episode this was and how mad they were. Well, since the last time we saw Omar he spontaneously and sloppily decided to end Savino's run as  Baltimore drug muscle and since that decision seemed the sloppiest thing we've ever seen Omar do, I think I knew this week would be the end of him. When Terry Gross interviewed Michael K. Williams on Fresh Air, in response to Omar's future, he replied "It's Baltimore baby!"

I think Omar was everyone's favorite character because he was the least believable and that is precisely why he had to die. The streets are no place for a romantic.  Omar shouts that "Marlo Stansfield is not a man for this town!" but I would argue that he is a man for this time.  And if there is one thing I've learned about Baltimore in the year we've been here, this place is teeming with Kenards. I also liked the banality of Omar's death. I think the hoppers raiding his pockets, his failing to make the paper, and the almost mix-up at the coroners office all served to underscore Beadie's speach to McNulty about what the lucky people get when they die. Some people have argued that the coroner at least knew who Omar was and corrected the tags because of that. I think that the coroner recognized that the other white dude wasn't the victim of a gunshot to the head and reversed that tags and smiled a little because of the obvious error.

On a slightly brighter note, HBO has announced that the last (the last!) episode of The Wire will not air ON Demand until after the regular broadcast.  And also for the record, while I enjoyed Omar immensely, my favorite character is the Bunk. 

Don't call me Dude

I go on my neighborhood "COP Walks" and generally love The Wire. That being said, this cop seems a little aggro. Kind of like the Baltimore Police Officer who yelled at my husband and I after our car was run into while parked outside of Trinacria's.

A driver went into a diabetic shock on Mulberry St. and used our car to stop against. When we came out with bags of groceries in our hands to see police and tow trucks surrounding our legally parked car, we were a little confused and weren't expecting to get yelled at for looking for the wheel cover. The officer got in my husband's face and yelled that we didn't have a wheel cover in the first place and "he sat there and watched the whole thing happen." (We did have a wheel cover!) It was a very "Welcome to Bawlmer" experience.

We had just watched the first three seasons of The Wire and were pretty emotionally invested in the Baltimore PD at the time. It kind of broke our hearts a little.

Life imitating Art imitating life

My husband looks at me while we're watching the Baltimore Mayoral Candidates debate last night and says: "You know, the thing about it is, I would rather vote for someone on The Wire rather than any of these people."

After another minute or so of grandstanding and not answering questions, he says: "Sheeeeeeeeit. I would rather vote for Royce."

The Wire Season 5

We've steadily been making our way through all four seasons of The Wire, which is one of the best tv shows in the whole world and set right in our new hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. We especially loved season 2, which takes place mostly in our neighborhood. The other night we had to go back and watch the first episode of season two after our neighbor told us that one of her best friends was featured as one of the dead Russian prostitutes. She also said her dog was in a scene they filmed one street over.

On Friday I had a quintessential Baltimore moment I've been waiting for since we moved. I was on my way home and stopped to get gas at the BP on Key Highway at the bottom of my street and who should I see filming as they drove a blue Crown Vic? Dominic West, aka Jimmy McNulty.

I knew they were filming season 5 now, but we hadn't seen them around yet. I used to live in NYC and I saw celebrities on a very regular basis, but right now we are so emotionally invested in The Wire's characters, you have no idea. I could barely dial my cell phone to tell someone. So look for a silver Honda civic at a gas station. Coming soon to season 5.

Does your city have a murder map?

Baltimore Murder Map 2006
Originally uploaded by emjones.

Good news!

Our new neighborhood, Locust Point, was murder-free in '06! Locust Point is located on the penninsula jutting out into the harbor.

Finally

It seems like we have been talking about moving for so long, now that it's actually happening, it's a little hard to get used to. We've been planning this for going on 2 years now. Almost exactly one year ago, we took a lease in an apartment that met our minimum requirements of being in our neighborhood and being flexible with the lease, but we intended to be there for a limited time only. It's located on a busy street and never really felt like home to us. For two people who are dedicated to city living like to be very connected with their neighborhood, this has been one of the hardest aspects of living with a never-ending sense of temporariness and uncertainty.

We are buying a house in Baltimore. The idea of being able to unpack boxes is very appealing right now and we've done a somewhat obsessive job researching where the best place for us to live would be. We started researching in February of 2006 and originally thought we would be looking in Washington DC. Justin's job is halfway between Baltimore and DC. Teeny-tiny apartments near neighborhoods like Adams-Morgan, with no green space were a mere 600K. I'm sure there's nothing surprising about that, but it wasn't appealing or feasable. I used to live in Manhattan. While that was cool, I don't want to repeat the experience.

When we started looking at Baltimore I felt pretty conflicted. The city is known for it's friendliness (nicknamed "Charm City"), quirky culture (see: John Waters), and violent crime. It's that last one that is the problem. Most of what I knew about Baltimore came straight from The Wire. We originally shopped for a house in an area of town alternately called Pigtown or Washington Village. Being originally from Porkopolis, I see nothing wrong with including a little piggy pride in your name. There were a couple of areas of Pigtown that were particularly appealing like Barre Circle with it's beautiful brick sidewalks and photogenic lampposts. But ultimately it was the crack whores shivering in the alley that led me to think Pigtown might still be an area that I didn't feel comfortable while walking the dog by myself after dark. After the housing slowdown this year, a lot of investors rehabbing rowhouses in Pigtown (and all over Baltimore) got stuck with houses they couldn't move. That increased our doubt about the speed at which Pigtown might be gentrifying.

Federal Hill and Fells Point are great little neighborhoods, but mostly out of our price range. They also felt a little cramped. Maybe this doesn't make sense because it's a rowhouse, but not all rows are created equally and I didn't want to feel like we were living on top of our neighbors.

We've settled on buying a house in Locust Point, a neighborhood we are really excited about. It's on the southern Penninsula of Baltimore's inner harbor between Federal Hill and Fort McHenry National Park. We actually saw the house last August and thought it was the best thing we'd seen. It needs a lot of love, and a lot less mint green and pink walls (!!!) but is still livable and has a roof deck with a view of the harbor, which makes it even more livable. From our house, we can walk to the harbor, to Federal Hill, to Riverside Park, and Ft. McHenry is less than a mile away. There's close access to I-95 for Justin and more parking than in some other close-by neighborhoods.

We close on the new house on my Birthday.