BMORENEWS.com

Historic Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore

By Doni Morton Glover, www.bmorenews.com, the news before the news where we uncover the truth

Dedicated to the Memory of Alvin Brunson 

(SANDTOWN – March 12, 2009) – I can remember then-Mayor Martin O’Malley perusing Historic Pennsylvania Avenue and The Avenue Market. The year was 2000, and he had just beaten Carl Stokes and Lawrence Bell for Baltimore City’s top post in the 1999 citywide election.

Prior, we had enjoyed 12 years of our first elected black mayor, Kurt L. Schmoke. During his tenure, back when Daniel P. Henson, III ran the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City – a big topic of interest was Baltimore’s Empowerment Zone and how to fix urban blight in East and West Baltimore.

Right in between these administrations was the re-emergence of the former Lafayette Market, proudly renamed The Avenue Market. At the time, I was blessed to be the editor of the Sandtown-Winchester ViewPoint newspaper. Essentially, what stands out was the hope and optimism a renovated Lafayette Market could and would mean for the neighborhood.
 

John Dicken’s owned a shop in the market, I recall. It was part of the Blimpie’s ‘fast food’ chain. He has since moved to Howard Steet at a gas station. Andre Bailey also comes to mind. He, and his wife, Mrs. ‘Lee’ Bailey, own Community Produce, home of ‘the Avenue’ smoothie and lots of wonderful salads everyday inside The Avenue. They have been at the market from the beginning.

Dicken’s and Bailey, both of whom are black, were a part of a larger effort to push black business in a 99% if not 100% black neighborhood.

Today, while Bailey’s eatery and The Gospel Corner remain – along with two black-owned cell phone stands, every other business is owned by either Asians or whites.

PARC
Back in 2000, an initiative was formed called the Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative (PARC). It was a ‘Main Street’ initiative, and its focus was to be inclusionary of Sandtown, Upton, Druid Heights, Penn-North and other communities surrounding Pennsylvania Avenue.

And there were other ‘Main Streets’ around the city, including one on Belair Road and one on Washington Boulevard. The goal was to strengthen inner-city shopping areas.

The point is that there have been some solemn attempts by the community – including churches – like Providence Baptist Church, Simmons Baptist Church, and Pennsylvania Avenue A.M.E. Zion – to transform the community.

After all, under the Schmoke administration, much attention was placed on the ‘transformation’ of the 72-square block community called Sandtown-Winchester.

Why not expand it?

Today, after all of the money spent, all of the consultants who came in and got paid … and left, and all of the non-profits that were created to suck the blood out of the community – those tireless soldiers in the struggle come to understand … despite the usury that is seemingly ubiquitously throughout, a universal truth that remains to be true: Nothing is going to change in the black community unless the black community is actively engaged in that process. Buildings can be transformed all day and all night; but unless the condition of the mind of the people is similarly transformed, nothing changes.

We saw that some 15 years ago in Sandtown. We saw new homes being built, young people getting G.E.D.’s and, more importantly, job skills. We saw lives literally being … ‘transformed.’

Today, 2009 – there seems to be, however, a terrible dissipation of stagnate thoughts, ideas, and action as it relates to places in this 100% black community ... like Historic Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a permeating mindset that things are supposed to remain the same way they are.

True, George Gilliam gives us a wonderful parade every year. Having lost his son on ‘the Avenue’, he has done a magnanimous job celebrating the life in the community. He, and his late wife, Stephanie, built a stellar monument on the corner of Pennsylvania and Lafayette avenues so as to reiterate the message that we are somebody, too. And he is responsible for building a very nice, grassy area across from the market and has named it Legends Park. Mr. Gilliam has done what no one else has done.

Yet, there is so much more that can and should be accomplished by now, particularly in such an historic black area as ‘the Avenue’ in a majority black city like Baltimore.  For those who don’t know, that is where black entertainers once ‘rocked’ and was considered an entertainment and cultural mecca of the nation’s black community. Eubie Blake, Billie Holiday (who’s statue on ‘the Avenue) was also recently renovated because of Gilliam and others), and Red Foxx were among the celebs that would frequent this north-south strip of thoroughfare through the heart of West Baltimore.

Today, this part of the world is still beautiful with wonderful people who have invested time and money and generations of love as a legacy, and who insist that love is the greatest power  in the universe. There are still those brave and daring souls who simply realize 'real' when they see it ... and when they don't.      

On ‘the Avenue’, blacks were at home.

Today, 2009, challenges, however, still remain. The scourge of illegal drugs is still an issue. A burgeoning unemployment rate, coupled with drug addiction, still ravage this community – one that has experienced urban blight for nearly forty years. The great minds have headed for Baltimore County and what’s left is the brave souls who call this place home – drug users, homeowners, working people and criminals alike.