I just applied to Host Our Coast, a competition in which one lucky applicant gets to spend two months exploring the Delmarva coast, live in a waterfront condo, and paid to blog and make videos along the way. Since this assignment was pretty much tailor-made for me, I’d had to apply.
My 60-second application video above. I’m not generally into shameless self-promotion, but please check it out and, if you like it, pass it on! The judges consider my video’s play count in their decision, so I could use your help!
Today is the first day of the annual Flowermart in Baltimore, which takes place in my neighborhood, Mount Vernon. Between the road closures around Mount Vernon Place and the road closures downtown because of the water main break at Lombard and Gay Streets, driving through the city looks like it could be a bit of an adventure right now.
I started looking for an apartment in Mount Vernon two years ago during the Flowermart, so the event has a special significance for me. The weather may not be as nice today as it was when I first started exploring the neighborhood on that weekend in 2007, but the closed streets and wide variety of activity in the middle of a usually busy intersection still makes me smile. Back then, other than Brewer’s Art, I really didn’t know much about this area of Baltimore, the neighborhood I can now only identify as home.
The Flowermart is from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm today and tomorrow. The park is packed with flower vendors, food vendors, a music stage, and various activites around the square. If the weather holds out, I might walk around to check everything out tomorrow afternoon.
Kudos to John and everybody else at Bad Decisions for putting on such a great event. I can’t wait for the next one, no matter what my arteries say.
Update: I apologize if the video and audio are out of sync. It would appear that Vimeo is having some issues. The video worked fine on Friday, but the embed looks hideous today. I suggest checking out the video’s Vimeo page if you run into trouble.
Update 2: Looks like something is wrong with the non-HD video encode. I’m trying to get in touch with someone at Vimeo who can help me fix it.
Update 3: The kind folks at Vimeo re-encoded the video, so it should all be working properly now.
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My friends over at Planit have put together a series of completely awesome PSAs for the Cleaner Greener Baltimore initiative. You should pop over to their Vimeo page to check out all of them. Here are a couple of my favorites:
I woke up this morning to weak water pressure in my apartment. Finding that odd but not thinking too much of it, I went on with my Sunday morning. A few minutes later, I checked Twitter and read this message from my friend Sam: “So I heard St. Paul and Calvert Streets are shut down. Broken water main. Hope you guys don’t have floods!”
I popped my head out my back door and saw this:
Sure enough, there was a water main break on Madison Street between St. Paul and North Calvert.
I lucked out. The flood missed my apartment by half a block. Unfortunately, others weren’t so lucky. On the sidewalk, I talked to a woman who parked downhill on Madison last night, and her entire car was flooded by the break this morning. She said she wouldn’t be able to move it or get it towed until they stop the flow of water. Understandably, she was not a happy camper.
According to a BGE employee I spoke with, the water main broke around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. this morning, and the water is still gushing out of the street as I write this 12 hours later.
Thankfully, we’re having unseasonably warm February weather in Baltimore today. Right now, it’s 63 degrees.
Crews are working on repairing it now, but there’s not a lot they can do while that whole stretch of road is a river. I suspect it will be a while before that stretch of Madison Street re-opens to traffic.
It’s snowing in Baltimore! Over the next 24 hours, we’re expecting two to six inches of snow and sleet. Yes, I understand that, in the grand scheme of things, that’s not a tremendous amount of snow and ice. In fact, I imagine some of my friends up north are laughing right now, rolling their eyes, or a combination of the two.
But that won’t stop the Baltimore/Washington DC area from having a full-on mega freak-out. This is the first real accumulation we’ve had in the area this season, and I think every school system in the area is closed for the day.
But that might not be without reason. Not all of the streets have been treated for snow and ice yet, and I found myself slipping along stretches of sidewalk on my way to work this morning. And if it’s slippery in downtown Baltimore, I imagine it’s nastier out in the suburbs and rural areas.
The snow is supposed to transition into sleet and freezing rain just in time for rush hour tonight, so that will make things a little extra treacherous for walkers and drivers alike. But for now, I have a cup of coffee and a great view out my window of snow slowly covering the city.
