Hamilton Festival 2010 -- it's today, hon!

The Hamilton Festival may be the worst promoted festival on the planet, but then again, maybe that just goes with the understated attitude of this neighborhood in general -- Lauraville gets all the attention, and Hamiltonians are generally okay with that.

Yet, it would be nice to support this festival and maybe turn the spotlight up Harford Road just a bit to let people know that cool places like Hamilton Tavern and Clementine are actually in Hamilton, not Lauraville. Neighborhood associations up this end of Harford Road seem to move forward in fits and starts -- I've seen lots of progress and just as much backtracking in my mere 7 years here. And one of the reasons we started this blog was to keep our little identity alive by encouraging neighbors here in Westfield to communicate, albeit virtually.

But, I digress. My point is, the Hamilton Festival is TODAY people, and we should all go down to the intersection of Hamilton and Harford between 11 am and 8 pm today. I said it was terribly promoted, and I mean it. I have no idea about specifics, and didn't even remember it was today until I saw a #19 bus going down Glenmore this morning (because Harford Road will be closed off).

(click for slightly larger image)

Art, food, beer, crafts? What more do we need, people? It's a beautiful day, the humidity's low -- I'll be walking down there later this afternoon. Hope to see you there, hon!

Although there doesn't seem to be any one place to find out everything about the festival, the Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street site does have some tantalizing bits such as a map and list of the craft vendors, and a stage schedule listing the bands playing. C'mon. it'll be fun!

Snowballs!

Walked up to Walther Gardens and bought a blood orange with marshmallow. Yum!

Seems like only yesterday ...

We were trapped underneath 3 feet of snow! Ah the good 'ol days!


What are you doing to cope with the heat these days? Let's share our ideas here!

New Local Meet Up Group

A new Meet Up group for people in their 20s and 30s in the Hamilton/Lauraville area just started up. Join and tell your friends!

It's Back!

Crop Circle Sighting in Hamilton

It's hard to believe we haven't posted anything before about this great local effort happening right along Harford Road, namely, the Hamilton Crop Circle. Their mission:

Provide fresh organic produce to local businesses, and integrate young people into the sustainable practices related to growing organic produce to promote a peaceful lifestyle.

Hard to argue with that, right? But maybe also hard to imagine how they might get it done. Well, these folks are nothing if not creative, and one of the coolest things have done is to start a rooftop garden at the Hamilton Tavern.

Yep, you read that right:


But this is just one of the many cool things they're doing. They're also working with several other Harford Road restaurants to collect food scraps for compost -- Chameleon Cafe, Zeke's Clementine -- and they donate food to Our Daily Bread, the largest food provider for those in need in the state of Maryland. Check out their blog, Hamilton Crop Circle, and consider sending them a buck or two if you can ...

Keep Your Cool and Have Fun Too!

Did you know that May is "Family Wellness Month"? Me neither! But what a great idea! So here's an item for next month's calendar, but you'd might as well put it down before your summer schedule fills up, right?

Come to Druid Hill Park on Saturday, June 5th from 1-4 p.m. for The Family Tree’s Keep Your Cool Family Fun Fair. Enjoy a fun FREE afternoon with your family - rides, games, food, entertainment, giveaways and information on how to have a safe and healthy summer as a family. For more information, go to our website at www.familytreemd.org and click on events.

Check out the web site. Some pretty good stuff going on over there ....

Bike Bills on May 6!!

On Thursday, May 6, the Baltimore City Council will hold hearings about bike policy.

In other news, the spill in the Gulf could rival the Exxon-Valdeze spill in environmental devastation. The irony is that the rig was rented by BP, the most environmentally responsible of all oil companies.

Long story short: oil is dangerous; biking is good. Please contact your City Council Representative Robert Curran to encourage his support of any and all bike-friendly measures! It only takes a minute, and I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of oil.

My 'Hood Rocks and My Bike Rolls!!

Man oh Man, does my neighborhood ROCK or what????
So, as you know, I’m a bike-commutin’ fiend, but regular readers of Salamander Points know how I took my stove apart and couldn’t put it back together until all the screws finally just disappeared and now I don’t feel like it’s on my to-do list anymore; I’m not mechanically inclined.


Thankfully, Beth’s DIY and NOGLI hosted a Bike Tune-Up event in her back yard! Friendly people from Velocipede were there, and they fixed my bike all up, including changing out my pedals, and all for free! Beth promises she’ll do this event again next spring, and I’m psyched!
If you see a yellow and blue blur ‘round town, it’s me on my newly-tuned bike!

Ma Bell lives

Right turn on red -- after STOP

From Investigative Voice:

Right on red tickets net city millions

A word to the wise: I've seen workers doing something to the camera at Christopher and Harford. Not sure what they were up to, but it always pays to follow the law.

According to the story,

Thus one in every three drivers snagged with a $75 fine might be guilty of simply or slightly pausing or nosing out a foot too far, offenses that have netted the city roughly $3 million so far this year.

A fork in the road

Well? What did you expect?

Census

I filled out and returned my census form right away. I was disappointed to only receive the short form. Very anticlimactic. Did anyone get the long form?

Yikes!

People! Please do not do this to your Census form!

I found this half of an envelope in the curb today while I was walking the dog, and it is distressing! The Census counts people. The numbers of people, the ages of people, the needs of people -- these things are decided based on the forms that are returned. Obviously someone in our neighborhood couldn't be bothered, so they simply ripped the envelope in half without even opening it up.

From today's Baltimore Sun:

State and census officials say they want to improve on [the overall state] percentage by focusing on Baltimore, which struggled to get its residents to return the forms. About 53 percent of city residents mailed back the questionnaire, the second-worst rate among similar-size cities in the country. Newark, N.J., had the worst participation rate, at 46 percent.

"We want everyone in Maryland to mail back the questionnaire," said Sylvia T. Ballinger, an officer with the Philadelphia Regional Census Center, which oversees Maryland. "For every 1 percent increase, we save about $85 million."

We can't really complain about lack of city services if we can't get an accurate picture of the city, can we? Data from the Census is used in planning for:

• Hospitals
• Job training centers
• Schools
• Senior centers
• Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
• Emergency services

So please, send in your form and encourage your neighbors to do so as well. It helps us all, Hon.

What are you doing this Saturday night--3/13? Hopefully nothing, and hopefully you wanna rock out to some awesome live music and (the best) DJ spinning in Charm City. And hopefully you wanna support a good cause, too!

Come on down to the Open Hearts Ball at 2640 St. Paul Street: There'll be a raffle, food and drink, live music from the Bellevederes and DJ Jason Willet, and it's all to help out Heart's Place Homeless Shelter, which I've blogged on and volunteer at. Although not located in our neck of the woods, they provide services to homeless people all over the city. Unfortunately, Heart's Place didn't recieve an important grant this year, so it's eeking along each week with pennies gathered here and there.

The tickets are $15 at the door, but doing good while you're eating good, drinking good, and listening good is worth way more!!!