Why does it keep getting higher and higher? Why is it ever harder to see through? Why is it just so hard to penetrate? I am speaking metaphorically about the divide that we find between Baltimore City and its surrounding suburbs. Two sets of people living very near each other but leading such different lives—there must be a wall that is separating. And it is truly preventing both sides from meaningful interaction.
Sure it is easy to peak over. My neighbors and I can watch the evening news and say, “That is too bad!” We can go to work in our hermetically sealed cars or take the Light Rail to a decidedly singular terminus. We can eat or be entertained but make sure to be home by 10:30! We can send in a can of soup or lasagna or some old pants but where is the real relationship that people truly thrive on?
I am struck by the willingness of my faith tradition to form partnerships with peoples from other countries, to develop meaningful relationships with them, to learn about their struggles, the food they eat, what makes them tick. But we have no such partnerships with our brothers and sisters from Baltimore. I’m afraid this is the Katrina syndrome—that we wait for a crisis before we reach out.
A 30 year resident of Baltimore County, I am as guilty of these indiscretions as any. I am working on changing this, though. As the new chair of the OSI-Baltimore trustees, I would invite you to join me and change your course, too. Get more involved with your civic or faith organizations. Urge, no insist, that they develop a relationship with a sister organization in Baltimore. Or if you are affiliated with a Baltimore group, make a renewed effort to become known outside the city limits. If you are already involved, kick it up a notch! Dedicated partnerships are win/win as both sides learn about the other and focus life through new eyes. As President Obama has stated so eloquently, all of us need to be involved individuals; we can’t just leave it to professionals.
What a wonderful time to do this! We are entering a time of change, the spirit of cooperation and hope is filling the air despite the economic clouds that hang low. The word “inclusiveness” is coming back to our lexicon. Surely we can develop passion for efforts that don’t require one to wear purple. Yes, just as a sports team can break down that wall, so can the need for compassionate relationship.
The world is indeed getting smaller. The better we know our neighbors, the better we will know ourselves and I can’t help but think that is a good thing.
Very encouraging article. I’m a new Baltimore City resident of 4+ years. I’d be glad to know via email of any existing groups or any that may form in which there is “real and free” dialogue and action.
Thanks for the encouragement
Bravo, Mr. Clarke and OSI for publishing an audacious idea that suggests real and specific action, not just rhetoric! Allow me to suggest another: Get involved individually with any number of Baltimore City’s fabulous nonprofit organizations as a volunteer. There is always a ‘need’ and a vast variety of types of service to suit the age, gender, faith, time commitment, and interests of the volunteer. I cannot possibly list all the many nonprofits that exist in our city (many serve both city and county constituents), but here’s a few of my favorites: Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland Association of Nonprofits, Friends of the Family, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore Outreach Services, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Everyman Theatre, Big Brothers and Sisters of Central Maryland, The Maryland Zoo, Walters Art Museum, Moveable Feast, The National Aquarium, The Maryland SPCA…I haven’t even begun! And so this is the merely the tip of a very large and welcoming community of nonprofit organizations where you can find the giving of your time as a volunteer can be the perfect Bridge over the ‘not-always-metaphorical’ Wall William Clarke acknowledges.
Do what you love to do, read aloud, serve a meal, dance, walk a dog, build, track data, particpate in events, teach, design – and reap the rewards that come from touching others and sharing needs. The distance, the wall, the divide, magically melts away and is replaced with real connection to and investment in yourself and your community.
I agree that there is also an obligation on the part of City organizations and programs to become known outside the City. This points to a real missing part of our social structure. We need to find common ground, or safe space where City and County residents of good will might even have a conversation about the possibilities of collaboration. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the push! I just met with Outward Bound and learned that over 70% of Baltimore police live outside of Baltimore creating a big potential for cultural misunderstandings. Outward Bound has launched a program that brings police and middle school kids together to foster better relationships and mutual understanding.
An always timely as well as “audacious” idea! Last week, the Baltimore Sun described the City’s efforts to conduct a census of the homeless population. Ironically, the article highlighted a suburban resident who sought shelter in the City after losing her suburban job and home (a fact that warranted no special notice in the article).
The “Wall” has always been open to poor and homeless residents of the suburbs seeking subsidized housing or shelter. Social workers in the counties still put their clients on a bus to the City because “that is where the shelter is.” And that is where almost all of the region’s subsidized housing is located. The “Wall” has always been permeable to this extent.
Many suburbanites drive to the City every morning, spending more waking hours inside the Wall than outside. And City residents comprise a large portion of the suburban workforce. So this Wall is really quite permeable. You can’t see it. Most of us pass through it without even slowing down.
Yet, many suburban residents cling to the notion that poverty, homeless and their manifestations are problems that belong on the other side of the Wall. They somehow “belong” to the City and are the City’s problem to solve. The Wall slams shut to block a more rational distribution of affordable housing that follows jobs and population growth. The Wall’s permeability is selective.
Hopefully, person to person and church to church relationships can help erode the Wall. But it would be even better if these relationships helped expose the Wall as an artificial construct that doesn’t really exist.
This is my favorite audacious idea. Maybe this current and broadly based economic crisis, which has been a lingering crisis of diminishing resources for Baltimore City for decades, will force our fellow citizens of this region to face facts. We are all in this together. We are all owners of Baltimore’s best assets, but also our most intractable problems.
There are other cities that have overcome the political challenges that metropolitan government can present to the status quo such as perceived loss of political clout. Denver, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Louisville and Portland have all found their way towards shared approaches to regional funding, governing and educating.