|
|
On this page, you will find links to various media "hits" on the subject of the proposed BCC/Keswick land sale and the Roland Park reaction to it. This includes published "letters to the editor" sent to local newspapers.
Media Hits
- A link to a June 17, 2008 Baltimore Sun article about the proposed sale, by clicking here.
- A link to a June 17, 2008 Baltimore Business Journal article about the sale, by clicking here.
- A link to a June 17, 2008 Baltimore Examiner article about the sale, by clicking here.
- A link to a June 19, 2008 Baltimore Messenger article may be found here.
- A link to a June 22, 2008 Baltimore Sun op-ed by Ann Klassen, explaining why the land should be left as green space. Read it here.
- A link to a June 25, 2008 Baltimore Messenger news article, by clicking here.
- A link to a June 25, 2008 Baltimore Messenger op-ed by Kathy Hudson, by clicking here.
- A link to a June 30, 2008 Baltimore Sun article on community opposition to the BCC sale, by clicking here.
- A link to a July 1, 2008 Baltimore Sun article on the first protest outside the BCC, by clicking here.
- A link to a July 2, 2008 Baltimore Sun article on the July 1 RP special community meeting, by clicking here.
- A link to a July 2, 2008 WMAR-TV article on the July 1 RP special community meeting, by clicking here. (Multimedia: http://www.abc2news.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId= 10778wmar.dayport.com&navCatId=14)
- A link to a July 2, 2008 WJZ-TV article on the July 1 RP special community meeting, by clicking here. (Multimedia here: http://wjz.com/local/roland.park.2.761753.html)
- A link to a July 2, 2008 WYPR 88.1 fm article on the July 1 RP special community meeting, by clicking here. (Multimedia here: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/ wypr/local-wypr-726637.mp3.)
- A July 2 Adam Bednar Baltimore Messenger article is here, this one on RP's three previous offers on the BCC land.
- A second Bednar Messenger article can be read here, this one about fund raising in Roland Park for community projects.
- Keswick's CEO Bowerman may change BCC development design (July 3). Read it in the Baltimore Business Journal here.
- On 4 July 2008, the Sun's columnist Jean Marbella had this to say about the BCC/Keswick land deal.
- A Baltimore Sun July 6 editorial demands that we all just get along, "keep talking" and compromise. You may read it here.
- A Baltimore Sun "letter to the editor" of July 6 supports the preservationists' position; it is here.
- Another July 6 "letter to the editor" in the Sun says that Roland Park should buy the land; that letter is here. (In fact, Roland Park has on three occasions tried to buy the land — Ed.)
- The July 2008 edition of The Urbanite contains an interesting article by Mike Dominelli about how little protection against development is in fact provided by historic National Register designation (which Roland Park has). It is worth a read and is found here.
- An excellent piece by Michael Olesker may be found here in the July 7 edition of the Baltimore Examiner.
- More straight-down-the-line reporting from the July 7 Baltimore Messenger on the BCC/Keswick development can be read here.
- In a less than intellectually taut opinion piece in the July 7 Gazette newspapers (Montgomery Co., P.G. Co., etc.), Barry Rascovar belittles preservationists opposed to the development of the BCC land. What is most interesting about this piece is just how many words is takes Mr. Rascovar to get across his basic — and base — point, let's pave it over to poke the rich folks in the eye.
- A link to a July 7, 2008 WMAR-TV article about the continuing dispute; read by clicking here. (Multimedia here: http://www.abc2news.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId= 10897wmar.dayport.com.)
- The July 9 Sun "letters to the editor" section carries four responses to the newspaper's July 6 editorial, three opposing the would-be development and one, by Keswick board president Dorothy Boyce, in favor. The letters may be read here (note that the letters are all part of one web page and the spacing is such that at first glance they appear to run one into the other).
- Another Adam Bednar article for the Baltimore Messenger (7/9/08) is to be found here. The article describes a letter sent to BCC members by anonymous Parkies recently. (This activity was carried our independently of the Civic League.)
- Another Kathy Hudson opinion piece may be found here in the July 9 Baltimore Messenger. It reiterates the importance of green space in urban settings.
- The Sun's July 9 four letters to the editor, described above, prompted a number of anonymous electronic comments, so pro and some con. These may be seen here.
- The July 10 edition of the Sun contains an excellent piece by RP resident Janet Felsten on a potential and excellent alternative location for the proposed new Keswick campus. Read it here.
- In his July 10 blog, well-known Baltimore personality and former WYPR 88.1 fm show host Marc Steiner comes down against the BCC/Keswick deal. You can read the blog here.
- Click here for Laura Vozzella's amusing Sun (July 11) column on Roland Park's "unkempt revolt." Funny quotes from Peter Grier.
- Initially somewhat dismissive of the RP preservationist case, on July 12 the Sun changed tack markedly with a very thoughtful editorial, which is here. The new editorial — signed by the editorial page editor, Ann LoLordo, which is highly unusual — is nuanced and historical in its view. The Sun should be congratulated on this stance.
- There is also another excellent letter to the editor in the July 12 Sun, right here.
- Carl Hyman's July 13 Sun letter to the editor suggests that vacant space at Cross Keys be used for the would-be new Keswick campus; read it here.
- Cyd Lacanienta's July 14 letter to the editor at the Sun decries the felling of trees necessary to develop the BCC land. It is here.
- On the other hand Jane Swope's letter to the editor in the Sun, also July 14, seems to favor development because the land is not in the "core" of Roland Park. Read it here.
- Jessica Fehr's July 15 Sun letter to the editor says that wealthy Parkies should let BCC do what it likes with the land and should instead concentrate on charity (here).
- This Baltimore Business Journal article, July 15, outlines Keswick's plans for obtaining planned unit development (PUD) permission for the development of the BCC land. Read it here.
- WBAL-TV's daytime — i.e., before the community's evening meeting — July 15 story on the BCC/Keswick saga is here. (Multimedia here: http://www.wbaltv.com/video/16892214/index.html.)
- By clicking here, you will fine Gerald Neily's fascinating July 15 blog about the destruction of the BCC golf course west of Falls Road in the 1960s, along with Neily's ideas for connecting Cylburn Park (below Mt. Washington) to Roland Park by means of a small road connecting the two. This blog is well worth a read.
- "Positions harden," says Adam Bednar's Baltimore Messenger article, July 16. Read the story here.
- In a July 18 letter to the editor in the Baltimore Sun, John Kevin defends Roland Park's right to oppose zoning changes in the neighborhood, right here.
- Frank DeFilippo's insightful July 21 WBAL-Radio commentary on the BCC/Keswick sale is here. DeFilippo points out that the sale would "remove a $4.9 million assessment from the city's property tax base" because Keswick is a non-profit and pays no taxes — this in return for 150 low-paid service jobs. City Council members, take note!
- Adam Bednar's July 23 Messenger article on the city's removal of pro-preservation signs in Roland Park is here.
- Kathy Hudson's July 23 Messenger opinion piece on why Keswick's new campus should be located somewhere other than the BCC green-space land is here.
- While expressing mild sympathy for Roland Park preservationists in this July 24 Baltimore Examiner opinion, Dan Gainor concludes with the offbeat notion that RP should be responsible for finding an "acceptable alternative" site for Keswick. Read it here.
- RP resident Tom Inglesby makes the point that efforts to preserve environmental attributes such as Chesapeake Bay should be matched by efforts to preserve urban green areas, such as the BCC land (Sun, letters to the editor, July 26). The letter is here.
- Longtime RP resident and activist John Meredith Bond died on July 19. The former editor of Roland Park News was 90. Implacably opposed to the chipping away of historic Roland Park through edge development, he would, according to his daughter, have been the first carrying a sign protesting the would-be BCC/Keswick development. His Baltimore Messenger obituary is here.
- Kathy Hudson urges Roland Parkers to do more to demonstrate stewardship of green space, Baltimore Messenger, August 6. It is here.
- Sally Foster describes "fighting development while walking dog in Roland Park" in a "letter to the editor," Baltimore Messenger, August 6. Click here for Sally's letter.
- Keswick CEO Libby Bowerman's op-ed from the August 9 Sun is here.
- An August 13 Baltimore Business Journal article reporting Keswick's claims about the job-creation prospects for the assisted-living facility project. Click here.
- Adam Bednar reports on the overwhelming Roland Park turnout at Mayor Sheila Dixon's August 12 "Neighborhood Conversation" event. The August 13 Baltimore Messenger article is here.
- Civic League President Phil Spevak's response to Libby Bowerman's August 9 op-ed is here. Dr. Spevak's "letter to the editor" was printed in the August 16 Baltimore Sun. As Phil points out, claiming that a "planned unit development" (PUD) does not constitute rezoning, as Keswick does, is hair splitting and ultimately irrelevant. Phil also notes that the 200,000 square-foot footprint of the intended new Keswick development is about twice — twice! — the footprint of the buildings at the Rotunda shopping center.
- From the home of Roland Park's antecedent, Central Park, this August 19 New York Times article by Ian Urbina claims that the would-be BCC land sale has "shatter[ed] a Baltimore neighborhood's serenity." One sentence really says it all: "Then came the blue and yellow ribbons. Tied around many of the perimeter’s oaks, they signaled which ones would be cut down." This must-read article is here.
- Reacting to the Urbina article (above), the Daily Record's Robbie Whelan says that "residents of Roland Park...are likely to lose this battle, " and that "the city is likely to approve" the BCC sale. Wouldn't Roland Parkers, Whelan asks, "be better served talking about the needs of the community in the here and now, rather than [the] century-old history of their affluent, idyllic neighborhood?" Read the piece here, reproduced from the KeswickCommunity.org web site (8/20).
- The Baltimore Examiner's Adam Meister comes down against the would-be Keswick development on the BCC land (8/20/08), going so far as to suggest that Roland Park consider threatening to secede from Baltimore if all else fails! The Meister blog is here.
- As reported in this August 27 Baltimore Messenger article, RP Civic League President Phil Spevak dismisses the Keswick economic-impact analysis as a "side show." The analysis, prepared for Keswick by consultants Lipmann Frizzell & Mitchell, reported on the purported fiscal and employment benefits of the BCC land development. The Messenger article is here.
- September 3's Kathy Hudson column in the Baltimore Messenger is here. It discusses Keswick's optimistic assessment of the likely traffic impact of the proposed 17-acre assisted-living development on the old BCC golf course.
- Also in the September 3 Messenger is a "letter to the editor" by Martha Marani. Marani shows that allowing the Keswick development would be a tragic precedent with citywide implications. Read it here.
- Anne Stuzin's September 5 "letter to the editor" in the Sun can be viewed here. It draws parallels between the would-be BCC development and the proposed building of a mega-church in Timonium.
- Adam Bednar reports in the Baltimore Messenger (9/10) that the BCC/Keswick flap has substantially boosted RP Civic League revenues and membership. Click here to read the article.
- The Messenger's Adam Bednar reports on the well attended Roland Park "roundtables" about the Keswick/BCC issue, while David Tufaro expresses confidence in RP's ability to raise the funds necessary to buy the BCC land (9/24). See it here.
- Roland Park Civic "League officials claim that Keswick mailed invitations to people who don't live in Roland Park, in an effort to manufacture support for the [development] project," notes the Messenger's Adam Bednar of the October 14 Roland Park league meeting (10/8). Read Bednar's article here.
- In the October 14 Baltimore Sun, according to Brent Jones, Keswick CEO Libby Bowerman expresses hope that Roland Parkers will come around to the idea of the 323-unit retirement community once she has had the chance to answer community questions at the October 14 RP Civic League meeting. Read it here.
- BCC appealed to its members in an Oct. 3 letter to write to Baltimore City elected officials in favor of the Keswick development, says Adam Bednar in the Messenger (10/15), while railing against Roland Park for allegedly not allowing BCC and Keswick to tell their side of their story (this, despite BCC/Keswick presentations at the July 1 Civic League meeting and the upcoming October 14 meeting). In response, former RPCL President David Blumberg says the league was never asked to present its side of the story to country club members or to Keswick's board of trustees. Read it here.
At this point, it is probably worth a brief break to review the question of whether or not Keswick and BCC have had an opportunity to tell "their side of the story" to local area residents. As a matter of documented fact, BCC and Keswick commented at the RPCL's first community meeting (Jul. 1) on the proposed land sale and development. You may read the report on this meeting here. Likewise, as stated in its own on-line newsletter, Keswick was invited to speak at the Sep. 2 RPCL Land Use Committee meeting, an invitation it accepted. (Click here.) Keswick was also invited to present at the Oct. 14 RPCL community meeting, an opportunity Keswick made the most of by "mail[ing] an announcement in advance of this meeting to a list of Roland Park residents in the 21210 zip code. This small brochure presented a brief summary of project facts, included architectural renderings and a site map, and encouraged each recipient’s attendance," in the words of its own web site. (Click here.) Unable to tell their side of the story? RolandPark.org will let the reader decide.
- It was "neighbors versus developers," says WMAR-TV's Delia Goncalves of the October 14 Roland Park Civic League special community meeting about the proposed Keswick purchase of 17 acres of land formerly part of the old Baltimore Country Club golf course. "Roland Park [residents] have not given up the fight. In fact, they're even more organized." The article is here (10/14).
- "Residents rallied against a senior living facility," according to WBAL-TV's coverage of the Oct. 14 Roland Park meeting about Keswick's development plans for the BCC land. The "capacity crowd" makes plain that "most of Roland Park has made it clear they don’t want the senior living facility in their community." See the article here (10/14).
- The Baltimore Sun's Brent Jones notes that "hundreds of Roland Park residents" were at the Oct. 14 meeting, continuing that only a "few were convinced by [Keswick's] arguments." Click here to read the Sun article (10/14).
- WJZ's Kai Jackson, reporting the Oct. 14 event, gets straight to the point: "Outrage and opposition erupt as plans are laid out for a new senior facility in Roland Park." Said to be about the size of the Ravens' football stadium, the would-be Keswick facility is opposed hands down by the neighborhood, says Jackson, whose article is here (10/14). (Multimedia here: http://wjz.com/video/?id=45474@wjz.dayport.com.)
- Keswick CEO Libby Bowerman "woefully and sorrowfully disappointed" by RP Oct. 14 meeting, reports Robbie Whelan for the Daily Record (here), noting that one Keswick supporter became so irate that he threw a microphone a Roland Park News Co-editor Anne Stuzin (10/15). (Cf. Whelan's August 20 piece, here.)
- BCC Board President John Daue "issues a warning" to Roland Park, says Adam Bednar in the Baltimore Messenger (10/15): accept the retirement-community plan or we'll sell for a housing subdivision. Read Bednar's article here.
- Writing for Baltimore Magazine, Evan Serpick's very detailed account of the Oct. 14 meeting is here (10/15). "After Roland Park residents were finished with it," says Serpick, "the Keswick plan...appeared to be dead in the water."
- Debunking the contention that the Oct. 14 community meeting was stacked against BCC/Keswick, Kathy Hudson points out in the Baltimore Messenger that "Roland Parkers and others areawide" had been invited by Keswick. The piece is here (10/15).
- The Oct. 14 meeting marked a turning point, in RPCL's President Phil Spevak's mind, according to Baltimore Magazine's Evan Serpick (10/16). BCC and Keswick "seemed to realize that their plan would not succeed." Read this Q&A with Phil Spevak here.
- The Messenger's Adam Bednar reports on City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's e-mail to Roland Park residents, unequivocally refusing to introduce the PUD necessary for the fruition of the BCC/Keswick deal and stating her support for Councilwoman Middleton's preservationist position. The Bednar article is here and the Rawlings-Blake e-mail is here (10/16).
- Robert J. Morton was impressed by the Civic League's case at the Oct. 14 meeting and by "how unconvincing the presenters from Keswick and the country club were." His Oct. 22 Baltimore Sun "letter to the editor" is here (10/23).
- In the third of Evan Serpick's series about the BCC/Keswick matter, the Baltimore Magazine writer interviews Keswick CEO Libby Bowerman (10/28). In the interview, Ms. Bowerman contends that she is not convinced that RP residents really want a park on the BCC land, and that RP should suggest "modifications" to the Keswick plan to make it acceptable to the neighborhood. Confronted by Serpick's reminding her of Councilwoman Green's e-mails — 515 against the project versus 19 for it — Ms.Bowerman maintains that there are "probably equally as many people who have expressed...support of the project, as [for] the Civic League." She concedes that it is "unfortunate" that these people have not sent "500 e-mails to any councilwoman or councilman." Read this fascinating interview here.
- In her Nov. 13 Baltimore Messenger column, Kathy Hudson calls upon Mayor Sheila Dixon to weigh in one way or the other on the proposed development of the BCC land by Keswick Multi-Care. "How many more time does Roland Park have to say 'no'?" asks Hudson. Read it here (11/13).
"Baltimore: No tree left behind!"
from an on-line response to Ann Klassen's Sun op-ed. |
|
