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Roland Park in the Media

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Here on this page, you will find links to various media "hits" on any and all subjects related to Roland Park and its residents. The common theme is Roland Park, the Crown of the Gravelly Hill.

Media Hits

Kathy Husdon says that the current RP debate about joining the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation's list of historic districts is a "historic opportunity" worth exploring. Hudson, writing in the Mar. 9 Baltimore Messenger, laments a number of historic buildings torn down in Roland Park over the past 40 or so years. CHAP status might have protected them. Hudson's piece is here (3/11/10).
Roger L. Ervin , the 2007 Tuxedo Park rapist, has been sentenced to life plus 93 years, according to the Mar. 6 Baltimore Sun. Ervin, who in 2007 had been out of prison for four years after a 1985 burglary, assaulted, raped and robbed the 59-year-old victim in her house. DNA evidence notwithstanding, Ervin maintains his innocence. Here is Tricia Bishop's report (3/6/10).
"A Tuxedo Park man, described as a good Samaritan, was mugged in a rare attempted robbery in the low-crime neighborhood near Roland Park while walking his dog March 1," reports the Mar. 4 Baltimore Messenger's Larry Perl. In a crime that stunned locals, the man was severely pistol whipped while taking his dog for a late-night walk. Read Perl's story here (3/6/10).
"Governor O’Malley’s 'Enough already!' remarks Wednesday night, urging Marylanders to be patient, brought perspective and quieted quick criticism" about the response to the blizzard of 2010, says Kathy Hudson in the Feb. 11 Baltimore Messenger. It is here (2/12/10).
"FOG is a big problem with city sewers. FOG stands for fat, oil and grease," says Kathy Hudson in the Feb. 9 Baltimore Messenger. Click here to read Hudson's report on the city's Feb. 4 presentation to the Roland Park Civic League (2/10/10).
Writing in the Feb. 9 Baltimore Messenger, Kathy Hudson wishes that snow plowing around here had been as efficient as that in Baltimore County. Nonetheless, she points out that this is a "record-breaking snowstorm and the city has limited resources and a huge job," continuing that there is nothing to stop us taking up shovel and blower ourselves. Read Hudson here (2/10/10).
Kathy Hudson in the Jan. 13 Baltimore Messenger opines on the incongruence of a sharply increased property-tax assessment and the threatened removal of Roland Park's fire truck no. 25 to the Hampden fire station. Click here (1/19/10).
"I will do better," said city Fire Chief Jim Clack, apologizing for not having had his department inform RP area Councilwoman Sharon Middleton about the ongoing rotating closure of the Roland Park fire station. Defending the policy, however, Clack said that rotating closures are a strategy to stave off the permanent closure of various stations in the city. With a departmental budget shortfall soon to climb to $13 million, Clack has no other option, he says. Clack was speaking to the Roland Park Civic League's Jan. 7 meeting. Read Larry Perl's Jan. 8 Baltimore Messenger report on the meeting here (1/12/10).
The city is "playing with fire in Roland Park," says Larry Perl in the Baltimore Messenger, Jan. 6. To residents' concern and anger, the city has temporarily rotated out of service one of Roland Park's two fire-fighting vehicles, engine 44 and truck 25, no fewer than 50 times in the past six months. "The practice doesn't sit well with the Civic League," says the article. The full story is here (1/7/10).
"Does it count for nothing," asks Kathy Hudson, "that Roland Park and surrounding communities helped secure over $240,000 to repair and make safer the Roland Park fire station?" Hudson goes on in the Jan. 3 Baltimore Messenger to report on a 15-minute response to a Roland Park fire on Christmas Day, and the eventual showing up of a non-local fire engine driven by a crew that understandably did not know the neighborhood. Hudson is here (1/3/10).
"The Civic League is fact-finding" about the issue of firehouse closure, notes the Baltimore Messenger's Larry Perl, Jan. 3. This comes on the heels of December 2009's surprise revelation that the Roland Park firehouse is frequently closed by the city, despite the neighborhood's having raised between $40,000 and $50,000 for its renovation last year. The Perl story is here (1/3/10).
On Dec. 16, both the Baltimore Messenger and the Baltimore Sun reported the conviction of Roger L. Ervin, 48, for the summer 2007 rape of a Tuxedo Park grandmother. Ervin, who faces life plus 118 years in prison, will be sentenced on Feb. 12, 2010. The story is a chilling reminder that, even in our bucolic part of the city, we and our immediate neighbors can't let our guard down. Please — keep your doors locked! The Messenger story is here and the Sun report here (12/19/09).
The 2009 reduction in post office hours at the Roland Park branch is a serious concern, says Kathy Hudson in the Dec. 2 Baltimore Messenger. With so many schools and small businesses in its immediate vicinity, there seems no logic to the postal service's decision to keep the branch so short staffed that it must close from 1-3 p.m. daily — precisely during people's lunch hours, when it would be most useful to keep it open. You can read it here (12/3/09).
Gundy's gift shop at Deepdene and Roland, though not always at that location, is turning 70. Kathy Hudson, in the November 4 Messenger, reminisces about childhood trips to this "go-to place for children's birthday party gifts." Hudson is here (11/11/09).
The 2 November 2009 Bmore on-line magazine featured a video clip of an interview with Roland Park resident Marty Millspaugh who, as president of Charles Center Inner Harbor Management, Inc., led the effort to redevelop the Inner Harbor back in the 1960s and '70s. The Inner Harbor has just been honored with the Urban Land Institute's Heritage Award. See the clip here (11/3/09).
In an article that is not about Roland Park per se, but which is very pertinent nonetheless, Elizabeth Keyser argues in the Oct. 29 Connecticut Fairfield Weekly that we should not be raking leaves away every fall. "Fallen leaves are a healthy, ecologically important part of nature and not a blight on the neighborhood," says Keyser. Read it here (11/1/09).
The Oct. 6, 2009 WBAL-TV evening news carried a segment on the Roland Park Country School's sponsored walk today to raise money for the Roland Park firehouse, the city's oldest. The "All-school Walk" has been held for 12 years. The segment is here (10/6/09).
Please click here to read the Washington Post Oct. 6, 2009 story on Carol Greider's joint winning of the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology. Carol is a Roland Park resident (10/6/09).
The October 5, 2009 New York Times carried a piece by Joshua Kurlantzick about spending a weekend in Baltimore. Roland Park's Petit Louis gets a flattering mention here (10/5/09).
Writing in the September 1 Baltimore Messenger, Kathy Hudson finds it hard to reconcile the city's plan to eliminate or greatly reduce the tree-planted median strip in front of Gilman School with Roland Park's status as an environmental sustainability neighborhood. Read Hudson here (9/2/09).
Says Larry Perl in the August 5 Baltimore Messenger, an off-leash dog area may be in the offing for Wyman Park Dell in Charles Village. However, a recent public meeting to discuss something similar for Patterson Park has drawn heat. Click here to read the story (8/10/09).
The 29 July Baltimore Messenger touts Petit Louis' $5,000 donation to the Roland Park Home for Heroes firehouse campaign, describes the campaign and lists all the neighborhood's generous contributors. The Larry Perl story is here (7/29/09).
In the July 29 Messenger, Kathy Hudson laments that the city's emptying of public trash cans is sadly lagging as compared to the quite efficient transition to One Plus One residential trash hauling. Hudson's right here (7/29/09).
The Messenger, July 15, reports that the matter of the Notre Dame entrance onto Charles Street still smolders on. When first proposed in 2004, the plan generated a firestorm, eventually ending up in professional mediation. At present, the college has no funding for the project but has not abandoned it. The story is here (7/29/09).
After the dog-leash controversy last spring, Loni Ingraham reports in the 17 July Messenger that the currently closed Robert E. Lee Park will be reopened in part as a dog park. The city-owned park has been leased to Baltimore County, in whose jurisdiction the park actually lies. Baltimore County has secured $6 million for park upgrades and the replacement of the derelict pedestrian bridge at the park's main entrance. Full story here (7/20/09).
Kathy Hudson muses in the July 15 Messenger that the downturned economy is prompting many Roland Parkers to stick around this summer, eschewing vacations and instead undertaking many charitable and voluntary activities. Hudson is here (7/20/09).
The July 15 Messenger reports that Roland Park artist Mary Ann Mears has been awarded one of only eight 2009 Distinguished Service to the Arts awards by the National Governors' Association. Details are here (7/20/09).
Larry Perl in the July 15 Messenger reports on Roland Park Place's revised parking-lot expansion plan. This calls for the demolition of the 1889 church at 4001 Roland Avenue, but the preservation of the house at 4021 Roland. This is the reverse of last March's plan. The Perl story is here (7/20/09).
The July 8 Messenger carried a story on Roland Park's renowned local Fourth of July parade and child-drenching affair. This adored ritual has continued for many years and no self-respecting Parker kid would dream of missing it. Read Larry Perl's article here (7/11/09).
The new city-installed, chain-link and barbed-wire fence around the neighborhood's iconic Roland Water Tower, built in 1904-05, prompted an article by Larry Perl in the July 8 Messenger. A new group, Perl reports, has been formed to save the tower, one of only two in this style in Baltimore. The group is called Friends of the Roland Water Tower. The group envisages a three-to-five-year campaign to raise the necessary $750,000 to $1 million necessary to preserve the tower. It is here (7/11/09).
In the July 1 Baltimore Messenger, Adam Bednar writes about the impending introduction of speed cameras in Roland Park, which are supported by the RP Civic League. (To anticipate the obvious question, apparently you need to be going 12 or more miles an hour over the speed limit to get a ticket.) The story is here (7/11/09).
Writing in the Baltimore Messenger, June 29, Kathy Hudson muses that, with the rollout of the new One Plus One domestic trash-and-recycling program, the city should do more to make public recycling receptacles available. Read Hudson here (7/2/09).
Larry Perl, writing in the June 24, 2009, Baltimore Messenger, has a pleasing article about this summer's Cross Keys Village MovieFest, in part organized by RP resident Blake Goldsmith. The article is here (6/24/09).
The Messenger's Kathy Hudson muses on the benefits to RP of improved public transportation, perhaps an RP shuttle, as in Hampden. Read it here (6/17/09).
The coffee shop's loss is Re Deux's gain, writes the Messenger's Larry Perl of the consignment shop that has taken the place of the nixed café at Wyndhurst Station. The full story is here (6/17/09).
The proposed Wyndhurst Station café and coffee shop has been at least temporarily derailed by community opposition, primarily in Wyndhurst (Tuxedo and Embla parks) and Blythewood, says Larry Perl in the June 17 Baltimore Messenger. Read Perl's article here (6/18/09).
Tying in with Kathy Hudson's June 4 piece (below), the June 6 Messenger carried an article by Adam Bednar about, on the micro level, RP's raising of $36,000 for repairs to the firehouse on Upland Road but, on the macro level, about Roland Park's astonishing level of civic engagement and charitable activity over the past few months. It's here (6/7/09).
Kathy Hudson's June 4 Messenger opinion piece ruminates on the stimulation to be had from living in a "responsive, engaged community." Read Hudson's views here (6/7/09).
May 28's Baltimore Messenger carried an article on the revival of the "Rolden" Association, the neighborhood association for the 4000-4100 block of Roland Ave. The association is opposing Roland Park Place's plans to demolish a house it owns on Roland Ave., next to a nursery school, to make way for a parking lot. RPP is reconsidering its options in the face of local opposition to the plan. Here is the article (5/28/09).
On May 27, the Messenger printed a report by Larry Perl about May 21's Roland Park Civic League annual meeting. Perl reports that RP has made a new offer (sum undisclosed) to the Baltimore Country Club for its unwanted 17-acre tract, continuing that the "ill will has dissipated" between RP and the BCC. The article is here (5/28/09).
The Messenger's Larry Perl reports that Kittredge Properties' plan to open a coffeee shop and café at Wyndhurst Station is causing divisions among Wyndhurst Improvement Association members. WIA is one of the three local associations that must agree to the project before it can move forward. The story is here (5/21/09).
Kittredge Properties, which would like to install a gourmet café at Wyndhurst Station, says, "If there is opposition from the neighborhoods, we will not proceed," according to Larry Perl, writing in the May 13 Baltimore Messenger. The would-be café is currently blocked by a still standing 1976 covenant-like agreement between the then owner of the building and the three area associations (Roland Park, Wyndhurst and Blythewood). The article is here (5/13/09).
The City Council has cut back the unleashed-dog fine to $200, as Councilman James B. Kraft tells dog lovers that it was only raised (from $100) accidentally. The fine for failing to scoop your dog's poop will also be lowered from $1,000 to $200. At a council meeting on May 12, Roland Parkers on both sides of the issue testified, according to the May 13 Baltimore Sun. Find the story here (5/13/09).
Kathy Hudson recommends native plants for Roland Park yards, in the May 10 Baltimore Messenger, and suggests the RP Beautification Committee's May 16 sale as the place to get them. The article is here (5/12/09).
"Baltimore Messenger staff writer Adam Bednar has won three awards in the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association's annual journalism contest," April 24, writes Larry Perl for the Baltimore Messenger, April 29. In various categories, Bednar won two first-place awards and one second-place award, the latter for his reporting on the BCC/Keswick matter. The article is here (5/1/09).
After protests from outraged city dog lovers, writes the Sun's Brent Jones, Councilman Ed Reisinger has agreed to introduce a bill to lower the new and astonishing $1,000 dog fine to $250 for first-time citations. This is still $150 higher than the older $100 fine. Residents socked with one of the fines, at whatever rate, can appeal it at the Environmental Court. The story is here (4/17/09).
Unleashed-dog fines now start at $1,000, writes Brent Jones for the Baltimore Sun. This is 10 times the previous fine. Though it is scarcely conceivable that a city such as Baltimore does not have better things to do with public employees' time than stick it to dog walkers, the City Council approved the increase last year as a revenue-raising measure. The article is here and this web site's link to contact your city elected officials is here (4/17/09).
Roland Park dog lovers are fuming at the city's clampdown on unleashed canines, writes Adam Bednar in the April 15 Baltimore Messenger. After Plat 1 resident Hugh Holman received a $450 fine for having three dalmations off leash in Stony Run Park, his wife wonders why the city isn't concentrating on people who fight dogs, not love them. Is this sorry tale wagging your dog (4/15/09)?
The Roland Park Elementary/Middle School is the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts School of Excellence in Arts Education Award, writes Janice Jewell in the April 3 Messenger. the full story is here (4/9/09).
The March 4, 2009 Baltimore Messenger carries a story by Adam Bednar on neighborhood web sites, including this one. It is here (3/6/09).
WBFF Fox 45 had a short piece on the evening news after the Feb. 28, 2009 Roland Park firehouse fund raiser in St. David's church. Fox 45's short web-site story is here and the multimedia clip is here, http://www.foxbaltimore.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wbff_vid_2049.shtml (the clip does not work with all browsers) (3/2/09).
WJZ Channel 13 ran a news story on Feb. 23, 2009 about Roland Park's willingness to step up to the plate by raising, to date, $14,000 for the RP firehouse, the oldest operational one in Baltimore. The spring 2009 goal is $30,000, which obviously will save the cash-strapped city government a like amount. The article is here. (Multimedia here: http://wjz.com/seenon/old.fire.station.2.941808.html, 2/23/09.)
On Feb. 18 in the Messenger, Adam Bednar reports that the Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill (HB 744) to set aside $110,000 for renovations and repairs at the Roland Park firehouse. The city would be required to contribute $20,000 in matching funds. Roland Park itself is trying currently to raise $30,000. Read the story here (2/19/09).
Susan Newhouse's Village at Home fledgling organization is mentioned in this Jan. 12 Messenger article by Adam Bednar about aging-in-place models of senior care. Under the aging-in-place concept, volunteers assist seniors with various tasks, permitting them to remain in their own homes instead of being institutionalized. The article is here (1/29/09).
The Baltimore Messenger's Jazzmen Tynes reports on the 25th anniversary of the Roland Park Bakery and Deli, located on the north side of the RP commercial center at Roland and Upland. Before starting the deli in 1983, owner Anita Ward's sole restaurant experience had been a week's work in a sandwich shop! See Tynes' article here (1/29/09).
The Baltimore Messenger's Adam Bednar reports, Nov. 25, on yet more proposed development for the general Roland Park area, this time for an expanded Jesuit community at 5704 Roland Avenue, within the purview of neighboring North Roland Park. Click here to read the article (11/25/08).
For the Nov. 25 Messenger, Kathy Creamer reports on the kick-off meeting of RP resident Susan Newhouse's "Village at Home." Once operational, the VaH will permit seniors to continue living in their own homes by networking them with an organization of volunteers to assist them "with services like transportation, minor home repairs, activities, and referrals to trusted contractors." Read it here (11/25/08).
The Nov. 9 edition of the Baltimore Sun published an interview with Roland Park Civic League First Vice President Louise Phipps Senft, who with runs Louise Phipps Senft and Associates, a mediation service. The Sun interview is here (1/20/09).