June 2014 – Review of Priority Objectives

Over the last four years we have been working to position Reservoir Hill Improvement Council (RHIC) and the community to be a partner in several major development efforts, which, together, we believe, have the possibility of catalyzing significant and positive change in Reservoir Hill, change that fosters an environment in which: 1. residents choose to remain in Reservoir Hill, 2. new folks choose to move in, 3. commercial, cultural, and recreational amenities are increased, and 4. the communities of Central West Baltimore nestled around West North Avenue reweave bonds of common community.

We believe there has been distinct progress, and that we are now in a transformational period in which new educational and cultural opportunities have the possibility of blossoming, and strategic investments can further reduce the number of vacant homes, create a more walkable community, open greater interaction with our neighboring communities, and create more amenities.

On the Precipice of Community Transformation – Where we are going

The strategies and projects outlined in this summary are rooted in RHIC’s focus on the development of an integrated community development strategy that has equity at its center. Equitable development is for us the idea that revitalization directly benefits all sectors of the community. We see a healthy neighborhood as one in which the systems that underpin any community are aligned: its physical environment, cultural, recreational, and religious character, social assets and needs, economic assets, organizational infrastructure, and educational resources. The programs we develop strive to address the needs and aspirations of Reservoir Hill in an integrated manner. Sustained investment by Healthy Neighborhoods , Baltimore Community Foundation , and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) have been crucial in allowing us to develop this integrated approach.

Many of the programs referenced below fall under RHIC’s approach to engaging community residents and partners in planning and design efforts, and building community leadership. We believe strongly that community members must contribute to decisions, policies and projects that impact their lives and ensure that design and planning efforts integrate local priorities and values, and model an equitable approach to planning. This may now be one of the strongest characteristics of our work. For instance, our School Design Action & Advisory Team has 12 – 15 members who have met every other week since July 2013, and have involved hundreds of people in designing a new neighborhood school facility. It’s a model of community engagement in design and building community leadership.

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Signs of Progress – How we know our strategy has been working

Recently a fairly new and very active resident commented on the chart of Hopes & Dreams that Reservoir Hill residents created in 1998, and which hangs in the RHIC office. He commented on how many items on that very wide ranging chart of objectives were actually being addressed, but he focused on one item that appears pretty vague and broad: “Create Sense of Hope.” He said that that was one where a lot of progress had been made because the only reason that people in Reservoir Hill take part in so many projects and devote so much time and create so many new things is that they have hope, and all the work we do builds that hope.

Over the last decade there has been a steady flow of new residents into Reservoir Hill. Many of those are now having children and want to raise them in the community they have come to call “home.” Many of our new residents have become highly active in the community, working closely with long-term residents, and fostering the growth of a very diverse and vibrant core of active residents. In 2013 more than 400 people volunteered over 7,000 hours to RHIC projects and events.

During that ten-year span of time, RHIC programs and support of resident-driven projects have resulted in cleaner streets, a dramatic increase in the tree canopy with more than 500 street trees being planted since 2009, the transformation of more than 60% of vacant lots into public spaces where neighbors interact, including the resident-driven Whitelock Community Farm and two new playgrounds, the attainment of Maryland Green School status by the neighborhood school, and the restoration of Whitelock Street to an active community hub.

Partners investing in Reservoir Hill have been the backbone of progress over the years. To date, Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc . (HNI) has invested $15 million dollars in Reservoir Hill in acquisition, rehab, loans, and community improvement projects. In 2013, Druid Heights CDC , as HNI’s development partner in Reservoir Hill brought 12 formerly foreclosed and vacant units back online. Part of the goal of this HNI-RHIC-Druid Heights CDC partnership has been to stimulate development through investment in the community that makes others want to invest and develop. And it has had a good effect. The median closing price of houses sold in 2013 was $138,000, the highest since 2009.

In 2012, Baltimore Community Foundation selected Reservoir Hill as one of two neighborhoods in which to begin its Target Neighborhood Initiative. By investing $300,000 over a three year period the BCF Initiative has permitted longer term planning at the community level at fostering community-based leadership, strengthening community institutions, creating equitable strategies for urban sustainability focused on access to education, arts, and healthy food, and enhancing the greening and walkability of the neighborhood.

The third partnership initiative that has strongly shaped RHIC activity in the last year has been the Transform Baltimore – Build Schools, Build Neighborhoods campaign. This grassroots, city-wide initiative (1) organized as Baltimore Education Coalition to defend against state cuts to education and lead the campaign to establish a new funding

2 mechanism that would allow for all Baltimore City public schools to be renovated or rebuilt over a 10-year period – Baltimore City Public School System’s 21 st Century School Facilities Initiative, and (2) is shaping and monitoring the implementation of school design and construction, and (3) as the Transform Baltimore Community Development Committee is leading a drive to partner with Department of Planning to implement planning processes in every community where a school is being built to strategically shape investment in the rest of the neighborhood surrounding the school.

As a result of four years of organizing, John Eager Howard Elementary School in Reservoir Hill is now scheduled for redevelopment in Year One of the 21 st Century School Facilities Initiative, a $ 30-35 million investment that will transform an entire block in the community. In addition, eyes are on Reservoir Hill as we shape a model for community engagement in the school design and construction process. The engagement initiative, guided by a team of 12, has involved more than 500 people in the process through one- on-one discussions, small group meetings, and public sessions.

The community was hit hard by investor foreclosures, but that investment has started to return. For instance, a firm acquired and finished two brick apartment buildings at Brookfield and Whitelock, and is looking toward other projects in Reservoir Hill. In addition, RHIC staff is in communications with developers with extensive experience in Baltimore development exploring three other possible projects in Reservoir Hill on Callow Avenue, Whitelock Street, and areas.

In another significant show of investment in Reservoir Hill, Baltimore Housing invested $100,000 partnering with RHIC to restore a playground and park as part of the revival of Whitelock Street as a hub of community. Healthy Neighborhoods, CDBG, Baltimore Community Foundation, and Abell Foundation funding combined to allow us to compete restoration if this park.

These are all very positive signs that new investment in Reservoir Hill is not a fluke but is here to stay.

A significant change in the community is that “Green culture” has caught on, more organizations are sponsoring greening efforts, and there has been a distinct increase in community activities sponsored by more organizations. Beth Am Synagogue is hosting the Eutaw Place concert series, which just concluded its second season. Child First runs a high quality after school program for 90 children. The newly formed Reservoir Hill-based Girl Scout troop added to the increase in community arts that developed over the last three years by creating murals in the renovated German Park.

On the heels of that steady progress, we believe there are transformative opportunities before us that will reshape the neighborhood for decades to come.

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Key Priorities: The Opportunities Before Us in 2014

Stimulating Investment & Redeveloping Vacant Houses

Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc. has now committed $2 million from the sale of NSP-2 houses and $500,000 in other funds to acquire, rehab, and sale to home owners at least eight vacant houses on the 2200 block of Callow Avenue to begin the transformation of the 2200 and 2300 blocks of Callow, the last blocks of vacant house blight in the community. Five houses have been purchased, and we expect 2014 to be a year of change on Callow Avenue, with work starting in the autumn. Having this concentration of vacant houses broken will send a powerful signal to other developers and buyers that Reservoir Hill continues to be an urban neighborhood on the rise.

Redevelopment of the neighborhood school and recreation center

The renovation of John Eager Howard School and the block where it and the recreation center are located will start in 2015 with the new facility opening in 2017. This will be a $ 30- 35 million dollar investment . Achieving this has been the result of a city-wide campaign organized through Transform Baltimore and Baltimore Education Coalition to modernize all Baltimore City public schools in which RHIC has been an active partner for four years. The close community-based working relationship between RHIC and Child First Authority has led to a significant community engagement initiative around the design of the new facility is being looked as a model for other communities. This engagement process reached over 400 people who took part is selecting a design that met community aspirations. At present, we have been informed by Baltimore City Public School System that the community-selected design has been approved. At present, we are community engagement over what programs or services should be offered in the community us space available in the redeveloped school.

The redevelopment of this block will be the largest single development project the community has seen in a decade. Once completed, the block will boast a new 21 st century school facility with a stand-alone auditorium that can house community cultural programs, state-of-the-art play areas, enhanced recreational opportunities, and other amenities available to the broader community.

The successful redevelopment of John Eager Howard Elementary School is not just important for Reservoir Hill. It’s important for ensuring success in phase one of school modernization in order to gain the funding necessary to complete all city schools, and to set a standard for community involvement in planning.

Making school redevelopment become neighborhood revitalization

The redevelopment the school and the block it sits on is the largest development project in Reservoir Hill in many years. We have pursued this campaign with such vigor because the redevelopment of this site will touch the lives of more families in Reservoir Hill than any other and offer significant community benefits.

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With $30 - $35 million invested in that block, RHIC believes we need a strategy for directing city investment in the rest of the community that will let school redevelopment springboard into neighborhood redevelopment. Through Transform Baltimore, RHIC helped advocate to the city for investment by the Department of Planning in working with communities to create such a strategy. This became the featured topic at RHIC’s 2013 Annual Meeting. RHIC has now partnered with Neighborhood Design Center to create a community investment strategy in 2014 to guide city investment in the rest of the community . The Mayor has committed resources through the Department of Planning to ensure such community planning can be done in neighborhoods with redeveloping school facilities. Again, achieving this kind of city attention to communities has been the outcome of working in Transform Baltimore and Baltimore Education Coalition to ensure that city neighborhoods have maximum benefit from school revitalization.

We will be working with residents and professionals from June through December 2014 to create a Community Investment Strategy for Reservoir Hill. This plan will encompass arrange of projects underway, such as fostering a vision for the vacant lots on Druid Park Lake Drive, creating better access to Druid Hill Park, and a host of street and sidewalk improvements intended to foster greater and safer walkability in and around Reservoir Hill. On the city level, we will be continuing to work with Transform Baltimore partners to ensure that the city remains committed to supporting this sort of strategic community planning.

Reimagining North Avenue

North Avenue has long been seen as a barrier between Reservoir Hill and the neighborhoods to our south. The stretch of North Avenue bordering Reservoir Hill is particularly challenging as it contains no homes and almost no entrances that front on North Avenue. In other words, it’s a stretch of road made for cars, not pedestrians. Drawn together by Councilman Nick Mosby’s office, RHIC entered into a partnership with Druid Heights CDC, Coppin Heights CDC, Neighborhood Design Center, and Baltimore City Department of Transportation to create a streetscape plan in 2014 for North Avenue from Charles Street west to Hilton by autumn 2014.

Outreach in the communities along west North Avenue has been ongoing throughout the spring of 2014. While outreach will continue, the project team has entered the design phase with the intention of a 30% completed design being available for review in later July 2014.

Strategic Use of Vacant Lots and Rebuilding the 900 block of Whitelock Street

We see vacant lots as an asset, space that can create new opportunities for community interaction and the reweaving of community identity. With the expected completion of the Whitelock Park in 2014, all but one vacant lot on the 900 block of Whitelock Street will be renovated, returning the old commercial center of the community to a new hub of community life – no stores at this point, but an urban farm, a playground, and a park fit for community events. The completion of this project also means that 73% of all vacant lots in Reservoir Hill will be renovated or under a renovation plan.

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Fostering Community Arts and Recreation

Reservoir Hill is becoming an increasingly diverse community, but there has been a long standing disparity in Reservoir Hill in access to art and recreation activities. A significant number of community families lack the financial resources and transportation that makes access to arts and culture easier. While newer residents with more resources and reliable transportation might access arts and cultural programs further afield, they are also looking for a vibrant urban community that has within it places to gather and engaging cultural opportunities.

Our community arts projects are designed to: 1. address the discrepancy in access to arts and culture in the community, 2. provide venues where different sectors of the community interact, and 3. provide amenities that make current residents want to stay and others want to adopt Reservoir Hill as home.

Incorporating music, art, dance, and song into its programming has long been a feature of RHIC’s community development approach. However, in the past three years more opportunities have been opening, and not just through RHIC. Just as the community has come to be characterized by its “green” activities to the point that we can say a green culture is emerging, so, too, the community coming to be known for its community-based arts.

For example, Beth Am Synagogue now hosts a concert series called Eutaw Place. There has been considerable mural work in partnership with Maryland Institute College of Arts in and around John Eager Howard School and John Eager Howard Recreation Center . The Whitelock Harvest Fest sponsored by RHIC and Whitelock Community Farm is an annual institution, as is St. Francis Neighborhood Center ’s Reservoir Hill Festival. A new mosaic mural created by over 100 residents and friends in collaboration with Mosaic Makers went up on John Eager Howard Recreation Center this past spring. RHIC and New Lens began this spring partnering on a Third Thursdays in Reservoir Hill event featuring Central West Baltimore artists and businesses. Our Reservoir Hill-based Girl Scout Troop partnered with Mosaic Makers to create mural in German Park. Child First runs a high quality after school enrichment program at John Eager Howard School.

Another factor affecting the development of this plan is the collaborative effort to design a new streetscape for West North Avenue from Charles Street west to Hilton. A principle goal of this project is re-create West North Avenue as a street that fosters connections between the communities that border it, and not serve as a wall between them. That concept is integrated into the planning process. The partners are Coppin Heights CDC, Druid Heights CDC, Neighborhood Design Center, Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, 7 th District Councilman Nick Mosby’s Office, and Baltimore City Department of Transportation . Even more so, we are looking toward activities that bring the communities along North Avenue together even during the planning process.

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Over 2014, RHIC will be working with arrange of partners to enhance and expand existing offerings, weaving arts and culture into community engagement in order to spark the imagination of residents and foster solutions that reflect their concerns and values. The redevelopment of John Eager Howard School will play a significant role in achieving this goal by offering improved recreation space, and space for cultural programs.

Re-thinking the Boundaries of Community

When you listen to long-term residents tell stories about life in the community, they describe journeys to Bolton Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue for shopping, recreation, visiting, and other activities. You get the sense that their community life ranged throughout Central West Baltimore. Two years ago RHIC began to promote a sense of community that expanded beyond the bounds Reservoir Hill, reweaving some of those connections. We did it in small ways, such as promoting businesses that were within walking distance, and in working closer with groups south of North Avenue.

This year we are involved in two principle efforts to further reweave these ties of community. 1. In collaboration with No Boundaries Coalition we will launch an online assets map that will show current residents and potential new residents where they can get pizza, or go to a bakery, or have coffee, relax in a park, access recreational opportunities, and more. We intend to launch the map in July 2014, and hope to make it a feature of organizations marketing Baltimore neighborhoods, such as Healthy Neighborhoods and Live Baltimore.

2. In collaboration with Druid Heights CDC, Coppin Heights CDC, 7 th District Councilman Nick Mosby, and Baltimore City Department of Transportation , we are creating a new streetscape design for North Avenue. See Reimagining North Avenue above.

Increasing Access to Healthy Food

In the communities of Central West Baltimore, you can purchase alcohol in 53 establishments, but buy fresh produce in only four stores or farmers markets. That was the finding of research by the No Boundaries Coalition . You can avoid this problem if you have transportation and sufficient financial resources to go elsewhere. That is the disparity in access to healthy food that we address. A healthy community requires that all of its residents can access affordable healthy food easily.

To this end, RHIC has supported the developed of Whitelock Community Farm , partnered with the Farm and a neighborhood corner store to offer fresh produce, built healthy food into the environmental curriculum we support at the neighborhood school, and conducted healthy cooking classes for youth.

In 2014, we will be continuing to build and promote use of the Whitelock Community Farm and Druid Hill Farmers’ Market , while also working with the Baltimore City

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Health Department , the Healthy Store Program , and No Boundaries Coalition to expand access to healthy food in our part of the city.

Marketing this Great Community

Over the summer of 2014, RHIC will be taking a series of steps to improve discrete parts of its marketing: 1. In July 2014 we will launch a new website that will be more streamlined than our existing site, better integrate our overall online presence, and better allow us to promote aspects of the neighborhood such as events, block club activities, and the work of individuals. We have found that one thing that visitors love about Reservoir Hill is how active and vibrant it is. Fostering a very engaged community is central to our work., The new website will allow us to show that better. Our blogs and Facebook page get over 1,000 visitors a week at present. We believe that will dramatically increase over the last half of 2014. 2. In July 2014, we will launch the Asset Map discussed earlier. The Asset Map will allow a potential new resident to see what amenities in Central West Baltimore they can access easily if they live in Reservoir Hill. 3. With the new website and Asset map launched RHIC communications volunteers will be more actively keeping other websites promoting Reservoir Hill, such as Live Baltimore, updated.

In addition, we have found that our events are good ways of letting people know about Reservoir Hill. During summer of 2014 we will developing a plan to maximize the promotion of events such as the Whitelock Harvest Fest and Annual Meeting that are held in the autumn, Eutaw Place concerts that re-start in the autumn, and next year’s Homecoming.

We hope this overview helps you better understand our organization, the opportunities we have before us, and the work in which we are engaged. Thank you for your interest in and support for our work. If you have any questions, please feel free to call the RHIC office at 410.225.7547.

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