Good News from down the Road, Hon!

From a great local blog, Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street News, comes this story:

Reading Grant Awarded to Red Canoe Bookstore

Red Canoe is pleased to announce the award of a grant from Parks and People. The purpose of the grant is to spend a year reading with a diverse group of middle school age children from the Lauraville and Belair Edison corridors. During the spring, summer and fall participants will meet once a week to read in Herring Run Park.

And there is more! The grant covers the cost of showing in the park the movie made from the book and it covers the cost of the soda and pizza to munch on while watching the movie. With the colder weather, the movies will be shown at the 4321 Harford Road movie house.

The Red Canoe's mission has always been to bring the power of literacy to building community. The award of this grant is fundamental to the goals of partnering children with the good stewardship of the great community resource that Herring Run Park is, as well as developing a genuine love of reading.

For more information, please contact Nicole at:

Red Canoe Bookstore Cafe

Well done, Red Canoe!

Stabbing: A NE Baltimore Trend?

I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I do find it interesting that in the last 6 months, there have been 4 murders committed along the Harford Road corridor between Hamilton Avenue and Taylor Avenue, and 3 of them have been stabbings. (Indicated in black on this map.)

The police recently sent out flyers for a "Person of Interest" in the killing of our Westfield member, Daniel Hoeck. Please download the .pdf file by clicking here to vist the WNIA website.

Also, don't forget that the next WNIA meeting will be next Tuesday, March 3rd, at the Holiday House, at 7:30 pm.

This map is from the Baltimore Sun, but you can also look up crimes at SpotCrime.com. You will see that although the entire city is struggling with crime and murder, stabbing deaths are relatively rare. So double check the locks, keep an eye out for your neighbors, and turn the porch light on ....

Glenoak Murder: No Leads?

Thanks to Harford Road Hon Heather for posting the story over the weekend about the terrible events of this last week. So far, there hasn't been much news coverage, and as time goes on, it will become even less interesting to the media, I'm afraid. There is one mention of this murder in today's Baltimore Sun, but I have a feeling the reporters are ready to move on to the next crime scene:

Neighbors were still reeling from the death of Daniel Lee Hoeck, a recipient of two Purple Hearts and identified by police yesterday as the man found fatally stabbed in his home Thursday afternoon. On his street, he was known as "Mr. Dan," a friendly man who could often be seen taking walks and feeding neighbors' dogs but who in recent years had been less visible as his health declined.

There has been discussion on the Westfield Wire about getting the word out to the neighborhood about the crime, and how to help police solve the crime. Last summer there were several shootings in the Federal Hill neighborhood. You had better believe those residents gave the police an earful and talked to reporters about it. I don't know if those crimes were eventually solved, but they sure had a lot more police officers patrolling the area as a result of the neighborhood involvement.

So have at it -- comments are open ....

troubling story of violent death in our neighborhood

My boyfriend just discovered this story of a man killed inside his own home in the 6100 block of Glenoak.