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Tapping into a Legacy of Farming at Duncan St. Miracle Garden

 


For the past 6 months, Quinton Batts has been the Neighborhood Design Center’s Social Design Fellow. A recent graduate of MICA’s Social Design program, Quinton has spent his tenure at NDC working with longtime community partner Mr. Lewis Sharpe of the Duncan Street Miracle Garden. There, he has supported Mr. Sharpe’s efforts to make the farm a sustainable, happy place to grow vegetables and welcome neighborhood life. Last week, Quinton talked to NDC’s VISTA Maura Dwyer—with whom he’s collaborated on the Miracle Garden project—about his experience.

Maura Dwyer: Where are you from? What brought you to Baltimore?

Quinton Batts: I’m from Virginia, originally a small town of Petersburg, but I’ve been in Richmond for about 6 years. I’ve seen a lot of change in the community around me; rapid development is happening, especially around the downtown areas and campus. I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, and the school has really changed over the years. Seeing that shift made me interested in urban development and how that affects people in surrounding areas. In my undergrad, I started doing more research on how equitable development can shift the rapid process that’s happening in Virginia.

MD: How did your experience at VCU influence your work in Baltimore?

QB: I studied small business management, mostly making business plans and finding creative solutions to business ventures. That foundation gave me skills to start doing deeper research, in a more human-centered way, focusing on complex problems and urban social issues more than just business development.

For example, the VCU campus was originally designed to be integrated into the heart of the city, with several local businesses like barbershops and family-owned restaurants strewn throughout. In the five years I was there, I saw the University slowly take over the whole downtown area, and push out the mom and pop shops and raise the rent to sky-high prices. It erases the indigenous value that area originally had.

With Baltimore, where MICA’s Social Design program comes in, is while it moves within the art and design sector, it’s more about building equity with those tools—bringing in community members, stakeholders, and activists as co-creators. You can see these similar values reflected in NDC.

MD: What is the fellowship program and why did you choose to work with NDC?

QB: The fellowship is a learning experience for us to put new skills into a higher level of practice, and actually see things come out of it that have social impact. With NDC, I had the opportunity to do a lot more organizing and planning. To me, those skills were incredibly useful coming from a business background where I was mainly working on business plans. This was more hands-on, grass-roots work to connect to people foremost and build relationships.

MD: What was your main goal with the NDC Fellowship?

QB: I was brought in to connect with the current community partners, especially in Broadway East, to deepen the resources NDC had already established in their relationship to the Duncan Street Miracle Garden.

MD: Coming from a business background, can you share why community development at Duncan St Miracle Garden sparked your interest?

QB: It’s sparked an interest in me because I’m from a rural setting originally. I came from a lot of gardening and farming. I grew up on a farm; my parents are farmers, my grandparents were famers, I have gardens at home and I have one here. It always felt natural to me to be around agriculture and bring the importance of it to the city. During my undergrad, I had the opportunity to research food deserts and sit down with local gardeners to help think through a sustainable business system for urban farming. Once I saw the opportunity with NDC to do something similar but more focused on youth and community capacity building, I saw an opportunity to use my skills in a different way. I really want to focus on a hands-on approach, building up from the ground level, something more grassroots. That’s where the impact has to start—for something really big to happen, it should start small, and give it time to grow. Coming from a similar background of communities that have been given the short end of the stick from the beginning, I understand how different processes affect people directly.

MD: Can you explain the process of your fellowship?

QB: When I first started, I had the opportunity to get to know the community. NDC gave me access. I sat down and talked with several residents and groups, especially people who have seen the garden transform over time and who have been working in the area for years.

My job was to help leverage my own connections and resources. Through my exposure at MICA, that opened me up to people that could help in various ways–sometimes mysterious ways that you would never have known otherwise! For example, I was given the charge of finding youth-based organizations that would like to participate in the upcoming Day of Play, an event at the end of summer to celebrate the garden. I was able to bring in BYKE, Baltimore Youth Kinetic Energy, an organization I learned about through several different projects at MICA.

It was a great connection because the owner was already interested in finding more places for kids to bike in that area, I just had to connect the dots.

I was also able to leverage MICA’s Day of Service in their Community Engagement Office. They have several days every year where they donate volunteers for community initiatives. They came to Duncan during the Day of Service this spring, and that’s something I’m hoping can continue moving forward each year. It’s more so about coming in and leveraging myself, and creating relationships that can move forward even if I’m not there.

MB: What is the next step to get ppl to commit to the garden?

QB: I think the next step is making sure Mr. Sharpe’s vision for the garden is widely known.

MD: Can you talk about how this fellowship influenced your thesis work at MASD?

QB: The transition looked like me actually being in the neighborhood more and becoming a face in the neighborhood, not as a NDC fellow, but as a resident of Baltimore. I worked hard to develop a relationship of authentic trust. I think that experience was the most valuable thing that came out of this fellowship.

MD: How did that experience connect to your thesis about slowing down gentrification?

QB: I saw an opportunity to mediate the conversation of gentrification around resident-centered community development. I want to make this a 360 cycle of communication and collaboration, and build a platform for an equity-centered design plan; a plan that could help prepare residents to be more involved in the neighborhood, and want to stay and grow with it at a steady pace. Gentrification speeds up the growth of the economy in a way that makes it impossible for the people who already live there to catch up. In any low-income city, people are always going to be playing a game of catch up because they’re three steps behind from the beginning.

I’m not anti-business and anti-development, but I want those things to work for the existing residents, the end-user. The tricky thing is, you can’t always know your end user, that can change over time.

MD: How does that view fit into Mr. Sharpe’s vision for the garden? He has no interest in making a profit with the food grown.

QB: I absolutely think a sustainable plan can be built for the garden, we just need a new model tailored for that space. Moving forward, I’m going to help craft that model as Mr. Sharpe’s right hand, doing ground-level advocating that can help make his dream come true.

MD: What’s one take away from working with NDC?

QB:  I like how NDC works on social issues that vary across the board, but have the core value of partnering with existing community leaders. The direction of a project comes from building relationships, and seeing and taking hold of opportunities that arise. In my view, MASD is the people, NDC is the land, but really, the people are the land; the land is the people.

 

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NDC Receives Major Project Funding from NEA

 

Earlier this month, we got some big news: NDC, working in partnership with the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Central Baltimore Partnership, Baltimore Arts Realty Corporation, Station North Arts & Entertainment District, Inc., and with the support of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and Baltimore City, has received an Our Town Grant in the amount of $150,000 to support Signal Station North. It’s a major, collaborative project that will create a comprehensive public space lighting plan for an area of the Arts & Entertainment District as well as light-based art interventions and DIY lighting projects throughout and beyond Station North.

NDC’s is one of 57 awards that will support projects across the nation. According to acting chairman of the NEA Mary Anne Carter, “These awards made to organizations across the United States are a testament to the artistic richness and diversity in our country. Organizations like the Neighborhood Design Center are giving people in their community the opportunity to learn, create and be inspired.”

In addition to our incredible partners, we’ll also be collaborating with local design studios PI.KL, Post Typography, and Flux Studio and local artists Jann Rosen-Querault and Stephen Towns to realize this large-scale practical and artistic lighting project that will make Station North more accessible and beautiful and connect neighbors in the area through art and light. Working with some of Baltimore’s most talented creatives and nonprofit leaders, we know Signal Station North will support an innovative, equitable and bright future for the area.

In addition to a comprehensive lighting plan for sections of the Station North Arts & Entertainment District, Signal Station North will draw on Baltimore’s distinctive legacy of DIY light culture and grassroots light activations—from Light City to lantern parades—to develop prototypes for practical, artistic and DIY lighting projects; lighting workshops and interventions to illuminate neighborhoods across the city; and a series of guides to share tools for lighting activation with everyone.

 

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Moving Through Barriers in Brentwood

North Brentwood, Maryland – May 11, 2019: The Barrier Project by Orange Grove Dance Company is a dance performed at the literal barrier between the historically African American North Brentwood and the historically white Brentwood in Maryland. CREDIT: Matt Roth for Neighborhood Design Center

A metal guardrail barrier located on Windom Road marks the boundary of Brentwood and North Brentwood. The barrier was placed in its location around 1957 as a way to separate the historically white population of Brentwood from the African-American community of North Brentwood. Today, the two towns are working towards changing the narrative of the past through transforming the barrier into a place of memory, community and art.

In 2017, NDC was invited by the Mayors of Brentwood and North Brentwood to re-imagine the look and experience of the barrier. NDC conducted a design workshop, established a signage framework, developed an early landscape concept and has since worked with the towns to procure funding for implementation.

On May 11th, NDC joined community members for an interactive performance that builds on the work of reconnecting the two communities. The Barrier Project performance art and dance is part of the Mapping Racism project and was conceived and directed by Orange Grove Dance, with support of Joe’s Movement Emporium, Hyattsville Community Development Corporation and the towns of North Brentwood and Brentwood. The dancers moved up to and through the rain-soaked barrier, echoing the perseverance of North Brentwood residents who withstood decades of flooding and economic setbacks.

 

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Spring Dreaming at Duncan Street Miracle Garden

The Duncan Street Miracle Garden was founded in 1988 by community member, Mr. Lewis Sharpe. The Pharoah’s Club started it off with a small plot of land behind their building on N. Collington street, but in the past 30 years, the garden has grown from one plot of green to almost the entire 2100 block of North Avenue in Baltimore’s Broadway East neighborhood. Among the thickly planted lots, you can find almost every kind of fruit or vegetable a gardener can grow in this climate. Mr. Sharpe calls it “God’s little acre.”

NDC’s Executive Director, Jennifer Goold, met Mr. Sharpe in the fall of 2016 while doing field work for the East North Avenue LINCS plan. Once it became clear he had an ambitious plan for the garden to bring in more community members, NDC partnered with him to fold Duncan Street Miracle Garden into our Place Matters initiative, which works to increase the capacity, resources, and power of people oranzing around a place.

We are continuing our partnership with Duncan Street Miracle Garden this spring, and are grateful to all the volunteers who have helped with clean up, weeding, and prepping the dirt for planting. During the spring and summer, the block-size garden becomes a haven of colorful flowers and fresh vegetables for the neighborhood, but there’s still plenty to do to get the space ready! On a weekly basis, you can find Mr. Sharpe and volunteers coordinated through The 6th Branch, installing wooden edging, trimming trees, clearing debris, planning out a new fence, and coordinating a new shed and picnic tables. We are in the process of gating the alleys to make the area safer for neighbors walking or biking through the space. Last spring, the muralist, GAIA, painted a large portrait of Mr. Sharpe on a building facing North Ave. Mr. Sharpe aims to continue adding public art to the garden, creating an outdoor gallery of Black history as a backdrop to this East Baltimore oasis. The ultimate vision will look more like a neighborhood-enclosed park with an overflowing garden, activity areas for families, and open green space to host community events.

Along with this vision, we are excited to announce an event in early summer, the “Day of Play”, which will serve to bring more youth involvement to the Duncan Street Miracle Garden. Recently, we helped secure a BMORE Beautiful Mobilization grant to install a new wooden fence, and collaboratively plan this event. You can look forward to a celebration with music, hamburgers on the grill, live mural painting in the alley, play-oriented workshops, and a chance to welcome kids, parents, grandparents, caregivers and neighbors into the garden to make it a truly multi-generational community space.

Hear more about the Duncan Street Miracle Garden from the founder, Mr. Lewis Sharpe:

As told to NDC’s Americorps VISTA, Maura Dwyer:

“The Pharaoh’s association started the garden in 1988 on a small plot of land behind their building on N. Collington St.  I came in and asked them about getting a lot. They asked me how much I know about gardening, and I said plenty! I wish I could show everyone this garden like it was back when we started- brand new wood chips, gravel all laid out, brand new green border walls going down the lot, and flowers going all the way down both sides, it was the most beautiful thing, and I just can’t believe it’s been 30-some years, but we gotta put it back again.

This spring, I am lookin’ forward to all kinds of fruits and vegetables, cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, tomatoes, string beans, and I may try some sweet potatoes this year, and I want to get more apple trees. I have one called a fruit cocktail tree – there’s five different kind of apples on that tree, once they get ripe you can go ahead and pick it, they’re all different colors.

I’m also really looking forward to getting my fence put up, all the way from one building to the other. Right where they just tore down those buildings, I want to put a pavilion there. I’d like to put a round one in that space, put some picnic tables there, with a round roof, with benches and tables underneath.

What I really want is to get some animals-not no dummies, no statues- live animals- small ones. I want some animals that will stay in the garden, like a little farm on one of these lots. The kids would love to get on a pony and ride it around. I want ducks, goats, and chickens too. That’s the vision.

When we started the garden in 1988, it improved the whole block. It would be better for neighborhood kids to have somewhere where they can play that’s safe, where no one is running in the street, and they feel protected. It’s all about the kids to me because I think they need somewhere to go these days. Really I want people from Broadway East to have somewhere to go and relax, I would like them to feel welcomed. I am growing food for the people.”

“God gave me a vision. I could have been somewhere, making money to put in my own pocket, but instead I came here to spend money on the garden that I didn’t really have; whatever I had, I split it with the garden. This was my heart’s desire: Get this place fixed up nice and beautiful. Broadway East should be beautiful- you’ll see, it’s comin, it’s comin.”

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Toward Inclusive Public Space at McKeldin Plaza

In collaboration with AIA Baltimore, we’re excited to share a new video, Blueprint for Better Communities—McKeldin Plaza, documenting the AIA and NDC’s research at McKeldin Plaza, in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The Inner Harbor is Baltimore’s living room. It’s where we as a city gather for events, and where we welcome visitors from outside our metropolis. Located at the corner of the harbor, McKeldin Plaza is an ideal gathering place. The Brutalist fountain that once anchored this space has been removed, and temporary landscaping awaits the plaza’s revitalization as a civic space. Architects from AIA Baltimore’s Urban Design Committee (UDC) and the Neighborhood Design Center (NDC), and students from the Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning used methodology developed by the Gehl Institute to study how the plaza is functioning as public space, and how it might be modified to be a more welcoming and inclusive place. The team also collaborated with students from the University of Maryland Landscape Architecture program who developed design concepts for this public space. These design concepts, along with the site analysis were presented at a D Center Conversation on December 5 2018, at a public forum for discussing design in Baltimore.

— Laura Wheaton and architects from the AIA Baltimore Urban Design Committee

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Planting Street Trees for a Cleaner Chesapeake Bay

A healthy street tree canopy in inland communities can impact the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay.

A recent Chesapeake Bay Foundation report indicates that the Bay “became more polluted last year for the first time in a decade.” That’s despite the fact that the Chesapeake is protected by one of the most comprehensive interstate environmental plans ever: the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, signed in 2014 after more than three decades of groundwork. How do we explain this unexpected development? Because with climate change has come increased, and increasingly erratic, rainfall events. With these more infrequent, higher-volume rains, more pollution ends up getting swept from farms and city streets into rivers and streams.

So what can designers like us—and the communities we work with—do about the situation? First and foremost, we can keep that water out of our waterways until it has either been soaked up by vegetation or cleaned of its pollutants, especially excess nitrogen. That means investing in biological infrastructure like street trees, which sources like the local Baltimore Ecosystem Study and the national EPA have recommended for years. Not only do street trees slow, sink and spread storm water—and by sink, we mean that the water is allowed to percolate into the soil, rather than run over its surface—they also provide dozens of other co-benefits, like urban heat island mitigation, crime reduction, and even improved birth outcomes!

NDC’s Right Tree, Right Place program works with communities in Prince George’s County to educate them on the benefits of street trees and help grow their urban tree canopies.

These are some of the many reasons why the Neighborhood Design Center partners with Prince George’s County’s Department of Public Works & Transportation on its Right Tree, Right Place program. We reach out to potentially interested communities—prioritizing those with large numbers of hazardous trees and/or low existing urban tree canopy—and then help the county plant as many as 5,000 trees per year. We hope to thereby grow Prince George’s County’s urban tree canopy, for the benefit of all of its residents.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Right Tree, Right Place program, feel free to reach out to Yasha Magarik, RTRP Program Coordinator, at ymagarik@ndc-md.org, or 301-850-1462.

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Building Diversity and Inclusion at NDC


The Neighborhood Design Center’s work has always been rooted in building equity: by creating professional plans with our community partners, we work to redirect public and private resources to the neighborhoods that need them most. But, like many nonprofits, the makeup of our organization hasn’t always adequately reflected the communities that we serve. 

Central to our current strategic plan is building the diversity of NDC’s staff. And we’re thrilled that our Senior Program Manager (Prince George’s County) Marita Roos was recently selected to participate in the University of Baltimore’s year-long Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program. The program, which begins this month, trains people working in public service, teaching and the private sector to advance inclusion equity and diversity in their organizations. 

Over the course of the coming year, Marita will be immersed in a constructive, systemic approach to exploring, experiencing, and deepening NDC’s understanding and awareness of structural, social, and cultural inequities in our workplace and communities. In particular, the program places a focus on a deeper understanding of race and racism—what those terms mean, where they come from; how they operate for individuals, groups and for society as a whole; and why it continues today.

Stay tuned for updates from Marita over the course of 2019!

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Breaking Ground at German Park

 

Work underway at German Park (L) and an early sketch from NDC’s design for a reimagined community space (R).


We were thrilled to see the construction has begun at German Park, a city-owned recreational space in Reservoir Hill for which NDC produced a conceptual design. German Park is adjacent to the successful revitalization of Reservoir Hill’s Whitelock Street core, including the Whitelock Farm and community space and expected expansion of St. Francis Neighborhood Center. A new collaboration between City agencies, nonprofits, and the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council (RHIC) is poised to make German Park a premier neighborhood asset that contributes to the vibrancy of Reservoir Hill.

NDC’s conceptual design for the new German Park.

With assistance from the Baltimore City Department of Planning’s INSPIRE program, German Park transferred ownership from Baltimore City Department of Housing to Department of Recreation and Parks, which will maintain the site. INSPIRE is funding nearly $100K in improvements designed to provide a foundation for additional investment. RHIC is working with community residents to envision these changes with NDC, and conceptual plans will be further developed by Rec and Parks for these capital improvements.

NDC Program Coordinator Johnny Macon leads a design charrette with volunteers.

RHIC initially reached out to NDC to lead a collaborative design effort for German Park that would help make the park a destination for neighborhood youth. To support this goal, NDC hosted a “kids only” visioning session, among other engagement efforts, in 2016. The final design, selected by community members via an online survey, offered new play opportunities, open sightlines and views into the park, and an ADA accessible concrete path. The INSPIRE-funded improvements that are currently underway include strategic demolition to improve visibility, new walkways connecting park amenities, new entryways at Whitelock Street and Linden Avenue, and new murals by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and Jubilee Arts Art @ Work program.

Stay tuned for more updates as work continues at German Park!

 

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Red Top Road Residents Envision a Place of Hope

Illegal dumping, speeding cars, overflowing dumpsters, illegal businesses, and not one place to garden pushed one Prince George’s County resident to action. For Sawa Kamara, Red Top Road was an unsightly dumping ground that made her worry for the safety of her and her child. Determined to make a change, Sawa began working with her District 2 Council Member, Deni Taveras.

Volunteers and NDC staff add more green to Sawa’s Hope Circle at this fall’s Clean Up, Green Up event.

Council Member Taveras requested services from the Neighborhood Design Center to create a master vision plan for the area. Residents were engaged at events, formal and informal meetings, and onsite conversations. The vision plan was distributed to County agencies, nonprofit partners, and property owners to unify efforts around a single vision that sought to  foster neighborhood pride, provide assets for youth and their families, and beautify the area as well as increase safety, health, and wellbeing.

Multiple agency partners collaborated to tackle the structural problems on Red Top Road. The Department of the Environment hosted a cleanup. Department of Permitting, Inspection, and Enforcement focused inspectors on the area and provided technical support in designing some waste management solutions. DPW&T cleaned unsightly brush, installed continuous sidewalks, and has scheduled street light replacement. Residents also organized into the Takoma Branch Civic Association in August of 2018.

Residents were eager to address illegal dumping, an ongoing issue along Greenbriar Avenue.

One small, forgotten area that saw frequent illegal dumping was the “paper street”—a street that appears on maps but was never actually constructed—Greenbriar Avenue, owned by DPW&T. NDC, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, residents, other nonprofits and the councilmembers’ office have been working together to turn the derelict area into a parklet for play and community socializing. The first phase, implemented during the summer and fall of 2018, was large scale infrastructure: depaving, installing stormwater management, stabilizing slopes, and pouring retaining walls. It was designed as a collaboration with NDC staff members Rachel McNamara and Marita Roos, and DPW&T staff. Upon completion of phase 1, the site was renamed Sawa’s Hope Circle and an honorary street sign was installed.

NDC hosted a series of engagement events to listen to residents’ needs and ideas for an improved community space.

Residents planted 40 perennials through this year’s fall Clean Up Green Up program. Staff from the council member’s office, NDC, the Northern Gateway CDC, and NDC board members and volunteers also supported the efforts. Housing Initiative Partnership, with NDC support, has championed a grant application to install phase 2 of the parklet. While grant review goes on, NDC is working directly with the civic association to design a plan for a playable, beautiful social space for Red Top Road residents. Several other suggested projects are being taken on by local nonprofits and we expect a lot of exciting new things to be happening around Red Top Road.

 

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Jasmine Forbes, City & Regional Planner

How long have you been in the Baltimore/DC area? I was born and raised in Baltimore City and haven’t lived anywhere else. I live in the Lauraville community in Northeast Baltimore.

How did you get into design? I have always had a passion for art and design. I went to the Baltimore School for the Arts and studied visual arts. When I was in high school, I thought about doing architecture, but the college that I went to didn’t have a architecture major or any program related to architecture. In my freshman year at Frostburg State University, I was trying to figure out what career I wanted to do that included some aspect of design. One of required classes that I had to take in my freshman year was a geography class about the movement of people in the world and I found the class very interesting. I had a conversion with my professor after the class and he told me that I should looked into the Urban and Regional Planning major. I had looked at the required classes for the major and decided to take more planning related classes. When I went home over winter break, I did some research about planning and was fascinated by urban development and urban design. Once I graduated from Frostburg with an Urban and Regional Planning degree, I went to Morgan State University to a get masters degree in City and Regional Planning.

How did you first get involved with NDC? When I started graduate school, I was trying to find an internship that could provide me with experience in the planning field and working with the community. I found NDC while looking online and looked at a list of projects that needed volunteers, and thought that volunteering might be interesting thing to try. The first project that I volunteered for was the Highlandtown Schoolyard project and then I was asked to volunteer on the North Avenue Streetscape Plan.

What motivates you to volunteer with NDC? As a planner in Gaithersburg I do not work on many projects within the community. NDC provided me with an opportunity to work on a project with community stakeholders and taught me a different perspective in community involvement and how to interact with community members. I’ve always believed that to have a better understanding of where you are working you need to go to those communities and talk with the residents.

What do you find most rewarding about your work with NDC? I just love volunteering and working with community members. It feels good to know that I am making a difference in the community.

What is inspiring your work now? Just not knowing what’s going to happen next. I feel like there’s always new surprises when I go into work. Things pop up and you’re like, “Oh, I didn’t think about that,” or “I didn’t know that was an issue,” and it makes you think more, and that’s how you learn—especially in the planning field.

Has working with NDC changed the way you practice design? While volunteering with NDC, it made think about more about design and how people interact in public space. When I review plans at work, I make sure that site plans are in conformance with City Code and site plan requirements. NDC provided me with an opportunity to work with other architects, landscape architects, engineers and planners. This opportunity taught me how others think about space and design.

 

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