Monthly Publication of the Fell’s Point Citizens on Patrol 13 April 2013 4HHEE&ELLSS0OIINTERNTER Volume 15 Number 4

Flood Insurance Is Going Up, Happenings Plain Seemingly Pushed Back Preservation Society Awarded A Star-Spangled 1812 Grant . . . By Lew Diuguid The Preservation Society has won a $150,000 Star-Spangled For Fell’s Pointers who buy flood insurance, Banner 200th Anniversary Grant for including those in the federal flood plain who an exhibit and documentary film on must, their premiums almost certainly will go up the . It was awarded by on Oct.1 because of a law passed last year. But in a the War of 1812 Bicenten- seeming paradox, the newly redrawn map of this nial Commission. By Dave L. Christianson vulnerable community’s flood plain actually shows . . . 42nd House Tour Is May 12 From painting of off Ft. McHenry. it shrinking in comparison to the map that has The 42nd Historic Fell’s Point determined rates for the last 35 years. As a result, House Tour of the Preservation some homeowners now required to purchase the Society will be on Mothers’ Day, The War We Commemorate–XII federally subsidized insurance will have the option Sunday, May 13, 11AM to 5PM. Boyle’s Comet Cuts Swath; of forgoing it--although U.S., state, and city officials It includes the newly restored are unanimous in advising that they not do so. four-bay townhouse on Aliceanna Licensing of the Traitorous Indeed, if they retain a newly optional policy, their St. Tickets are $15 in advance at the Visitor Center, 1724 Thames By Geoffrey M. Footner premiums likely will diminish. St.; Long & Foster Realty, 1701 S. ’s second cruise in Comet These officials point out that the Point’s tidal Broadway; 410.675.6750 ext. 16, or proceeded at an intense pace. On Jan. 17, 1813, harbor and the bay are not actually an excep- www.FellsPointHouseTourHouse. he out-sailed a frigate, and a second frigate on tion to rising ocean levels that have contributed EventBrite.com. the 24th. On the night of the 26th the to catastrophic coastal storm damage recently. Energy Audit by Civic Works schooner eluded four warships, including a ship of Rather, high-technology flood plain measurement Fell’s Pointers with homes under the line. On Feb. 6, Comet came upon a convoy of has produced a new map that brings significant 3,000 square feet can now get a nine British merchant ships guarded by the Royal changes in the 1977 version. It had erred on the home energy audit worth $400 for Navy brig HMS Swaggerer, formerly the French side of caution. Heavy flooding here during Isabel just $100. The audit can include Bonaparte. Boyle managed to cut out in 2003 made the old map look prescient, said Ken the installation of energy-efficient several of the heavily laden vessels. He assigned Hranicky, flood plain manager for City Planning, light bulbs and insulation, worth prize crews to the brigs Alexis and Dominica Packet “but Isabel was a catastrophic storm” and not truly up to another $300, for no extra and an unnamed prize and sent them in. HMS Sur- reflective of the old map’s accuracy. Yet strictures cost. Two to three weeks after the prize, commanded by Thomas J. Cochrane, chased on waterside development based on the old map audit, homeowners will receive an Comet without success for four hours on Feb. 14. did limit damage in lower Fell’s Point, he added, extensive report on how to improve energy efficiency and save on bills. The Comet’s cruise ended safely on March and the intent is to keep them in place. The report will prioritize what will 17, although the schooner passed Cape Henry Concerned that low-lying neighborhoods be cost effective for owners and and stood into unaware that need to know the potential impact of the new provide a list of recommended Rear Adm. George Cockburn’s fleet had arrived insurance law and flood-plain map, Hranicky will contractors. there. The crew learned after docking that none present them at a public meeting at 5PM on April The audits offer, arranged through of the manned prizes reached a U. S. port. Boyle’s 30 in the War Memorial Building. “It’s going to be Retrofit Baltimore--a project of Civic principal contribution to the American war effort a county fair of hazards,” he said, urging that Fell’s Works, Baltimore’s non-profit ser- was the chaos his cruises created on the London Pointers attend. He also asked that residents with vice corporation--was presented at insurance market and the embarrassment he personal concerns or anecdotes about past flood- the April 3 Homeowners’ meeting in Bertha’s. They are paid for in part brought upon the Royal Navy’s Atlantic and West ing phone him at 410.396.9508. by the state through the Empower Indies squadrons. The federal insurance program, started in Maryland Act, which gets the money Commander Jim Dooly commenced a second 1968, mitigates losses to policy holders whether or from electric bills. Homeowners can cruise in Rolla after successfully negotiating the not they are in the flood plain. It can run down the contact retrofitbaltimore.org or call Royal Navy blockade at the mouth of the Bay on middle of a low street, requiring owners on the side 410.929.6139.--David Johnson. March 31. Two days after clearing Cape Henry, a closest to the water to buy a policy that is optional Arivederci Graffiti lookout spotted a large merchant ship showing for a neighbor across from him. But real floods In late March, six-foot-high graffiti British colors, as was Rolla--that being a common are not so precise, and no damaged policy holder lettering appeared on the wall of practice. The ship altered course and hove-up can expect to be made whole in a storm despite 910 Fell St., the former house of within hailing distance. The Briton requested per- the federal subsidy, explained David Guignet, the long-time resident and late activist mission to come aboard and introduced himself as state’s flood insurance coordinator. The program Lucretia Fischer. Following several Capt. Beasley of the Boston ship David Green. Bea- is now disastrously overdrawn, having (Continued) calls to 311, city workers inspected sley volunteered that he was waiting for a British the seemingly indecipherable writ- convoy to “protect him from American .” ing on April 5, and by the 8th He produced a Royal Navy license and informed the graffiti was Dooly that it allowed his ship to pass the Royal gone. --D.J. Navy blockade unmolested, since his owners were “well disposed towards His Majesty’s interest.” Water Taxi Dooly arrested Beasley, seized the ship and T h e s p r i n g accompanied it to Havana, where it was sold. Royal Guide confirms Navy ships issued licenses to American-flagged fares and routes vessels during the War of 1812, as the British army stay the same needed grain and American grain was of excellent as 2012: adults quality and fairly priced. Of course, a conspiracy re- all day $13, one- quires two, so licenses generally went to Americans way $7, children all day $6. Fre- who opposed the second war with Britain. Most of quent floater this antiwar sentiment originated in New England, passes $150- the stronghold of the Federalist Party, where the $250. City’s com- region’s commercial ties with Britain remained muter routes, too, intact, while Madison’s government (Continued) unchanged. Flood Insurance - cont. from front paid $7.5 billion in claims for Sandy coastal damage estimated at $52 billion--and with emergency fund- ing approved by Congress. Locally, that flooding 9,000 Trees Free was confined to curb level on the streets around From BGE and Thames St. Park. Arbor Day Group The Federal Emergency Management Agency Baltimore Gas covers 5.2 million policy holders nationally and & Electric, through monitors the Point from Philadelphia, where FEMA a partnership with information official Richard Sobota -ex t h e A r b o r D a y plained that no commercial company Photos by Lew Diuguid Foundation is pro- could afford to write flood insurance. Last October’s Sandy storm raised usual waters, hard by viding free trees to Still, the subsidized federal program fast-rising apartment project at Thames and Wolfe Sts. customers — first relies on private agents--who must use come, first served the official map as a basis--to sell and regulate concerned policyholders can call for names of alter- — to help save energy, reduce bills policies to homeowners. A spot check of Pointers natives to their current agents at 215.931.5514. and thicken the canopy. Customers can request up to two free trees suggests concerns about widely varying rates here. Sobota said rates will rise on Oct. 1 by an av- at www.arborday.org/BGE. They Sobota pointed out that multiple factors affect the erage 10% as a result of last year’s Biggert-Waters must call Miss Utility at 811 before rates for seemingly similar properties. “We have Flood Insurance Reform Act, intended--long-term- planting, to avoid damaging under- a referral service listing 80 to 90 companies with -to rescue the program, which the wags like to say ground utilities. agents selling the insurance,” he said, advising that is currently underwater. Schedules cont. from front Boyle’s Comet - Website Firms in Canton, Trash and Recycling Current days for trash pickup in Washington ruled with the fragile consent of ‘Point Among Tops in City are Tuesdays and for recycling are the nation’s several sections: north, middle and The Business Journal on April 5 listed the top Thursdays. Residents are limited to southern coastal. five “Largest Web design firms in the Baltimore setting out three 32-gallon cans of Freewheeling American merchants showed area,” ranked by 2012 revenue from website waste between 6PM on Mondays little concern for the central government’s regu- design work, and based on its own survey re- and 6AM on Tuesdays. lations, particularly laws that restricted trade and sults. Placing first was Canton Group at 2920 profits. Alex. Brown & Co. in Baltimore, a hotbed of O’Donnell St., with revenue of $10.5 million. Neighborhood Meetings anti-British sentiments, acted openly to sell grain Third was TBC, 900 S. Wolfe St. in Fell’s Point, Its Douglass Place: Third Tuesday of each month at Bertha’s, dlh411@ to Portugal, where the consignee was the Duke of revenue $5.6 million. “We defined “revenue from gmail.com. Wellington’s army of the Peninsular. The Royal Navy website design work” as revenue from websites Antique Dealers’ Association: Call issued licenses to this firm’s ships that shielded designed primarily to promote a company or 410.675.4776. them from capture. organization,” said the Journal. TBC’s chief ex- Alex. Brown ordered his Liverpool office to ecutive is Allan Charles. 410.347.7500, www.tbc. Community Organization: Second Tuesdays at 606 South Ann St., purchase a license and forward it to the ship us. Canton Group’s is Ethan Kazi. 410.675.5708, 443.791.1717. Armada, expected to arrive at Lisbon with flour www.cantongroup.com. from Ellicott Mills on the Patapsco River. Brown Main Street: info@fellspointmain- street.org or 410.675.8900. suggested that it would be wise to buy as many licenses as possible. When questions arose, Brown that one could conclude from New England’s Preservation Society: 410.675.6750 responded that he had cleared the transactions booming trade with Britain that the current war ext.16 or preservationsociety.com. with the U.S. Attorney General, although he was excluded the northern ports. Barney did not hesi- Residents’ Association: First aware that Congress had a bill that when passed tate to draw Monroe’s attention to Chesapeake Bay Wednesdays, 7PM, Bertha’s. would outlaw the practice. conniving, too. Licenses issued by the Royal Navy The anti-British Joshua Barney wrote Secretary “are granted in this [Narragansett] Bay, and in of State James Monroe from Rhode Island during a Baltimore,” he said. “Vessels are daily going to sea thanks! break of his cruise in Rossie, complaining that the with cargoes of flour having on board 4, 5 & 6,000 The all-voluntary Fell’s Pointer outbound dealings of New England merchants barrels deeply laden and without arms . . . , how thanks its four sustaining sponsors, with Britain “astound and mortify him.” He claimed can it be otherwise?” One-Eyed Mike’s Tavern, 708 S. Bond St., 410.327.0445; Duda’s Tavern, Thames and Bond Sts., 410.276.9719; Howie B Properties, commercial and residential real es- tate in Fell’s Point and throughout Baltimore, 410.375.4200; and Jim- my’s Restaurant, 801 S.Broadway, 410.327.3273. Design and layout are contrib- uted by Tina Fleming Warren of warrencommunications@comcast. net. Additional graphics support byJacquie Greff, TonalVision.com. Editor Lew Diuguid

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The Fell’s Pointer is published Flappers Deni Tabor and Jennifer Burk Holder monthly by volunteers of Fell’s take oyster break during March 23 Harbor Ball Point Citizens on Patrol, Inc. and pixie Silent Auction, right, at Polish Home. Questions, input and participation Beneficiaries were Preservation Society and in patrols and this newsletter are the Home. welcome. E-mail [email protected]. Online www.fpcop.com. Write P.O. Box 6137, Baltimore, MD 21231.