Larry Reich Award: Sandy Sparks

Larry Reich was Baltimore City Department of Planning Director 1965-1990 and was a central figure in the City’s Downtown Renaissance, a proponent of community-based planning and neighborhood initiatives, and an opponent of proposed highways that would have obliterated some of Baltimore’s most historic neighborhoods.  The Larry Reich Award, established by his colleagues, is given annually to an individual whose volunteer and professional work exemplifies a special commitment to community-based planning and design.

The 2009 Larry Reich Award recipient is Sandy Sparks.

A long-time resident of Charles Village, Sandy has organized and led a wide range of community-based initiatives over the years.  She co-founded the Adopt-a-Monument Citywide Partnership at the Baltimore Community Foundation in 2007 and planned the “Great Urban Parks: Sustaining the Legacy” Pre-conference in 1999 and national conference in May 2000.  As Executive Director of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation, she co-founded the restoration program that led to the creation of the Jones Falls Watershed Association in 1997, and she continues to serve as Board President and Secretary.  Sandy is not only a city-wide park advocate but also a proponent of comprehensive transit for Baltimore, serving on the Charles Street Trolley Committee since 2005, and has been on the Board, including serving as President, of the Charles Village Civic Association since 1980.  Since retiring in 2002, she designs and edits The Charles Villager, a large format newsletter she created in the early 1980s.  Ms. Sparks also co-founded and organized other community organizations including Friends of Mount Vernon Place (2001), Baltimore Alliance for Great Urban Parks (1999), Maryland Community Forest Council (1992), Friends of Maryland’s Olmsted Parks and Landscapes (1986), Friends of the Wyman Park Dell (1983).

The selection committee chose Sandy because she has demonstrated a long term commitment to not only improving her own neighborhood but a commitment to all of Baltimore’s neighborhoods and landscapes.  Her involvement in such a wide diversity of activities and organizations as public parks, transit, and community development shows the importance that she places on the comprehensive nature of community planning and its ability to improve neighborhoods.  This is illustrated best when, as Director of the Midtown Community Benefits District, she managed the development of the Midtown Community Plan—one of the best examples of community-based master planning in the City.  Finally, her role in creating several grassroots organizations that are still active has been instrumental in mobilizing others to meet the challenges involved in making Baltimore a better place.

Thomas Stosur, Director of the Baltimore City Department of Planning, echoed the Committee’s comments, “Sandy’s decades of involvement in improving Baltimore neighborhoods and, especially, in promoting and sustaining the legacy of our Olmsted Parks System, is truly deserving of this recognition."

The 2009 Larry Reich Award selection committee consisted of the past Larry Reich Award winners - Ellen Janes, Shirl Byron, Karen Lewand, Carolyn Boitnott, Chris Ryer, Jellili Ogundele, Maria Miller, Charles Duff, Klaus Philipsen, Bernard Berkowitz, Zach Holl, Joanna Pi-Sunyer, Betty Bland-Thomas, and Ed Rutkowski.