Quarantine road
er ed digital apps of HigH
what you’re saying
no farm, no foul
and maintaining boundaries for development (smart growth).
94 april 2 0 1 2 no.
—Johnny Oyster Seed Is the era of suburbia
over?
Sprawled Out Re: “The Era of Suburban Sprawl Has to End. So, Now What?” Apr. ’12, about the environmental implications revealed in the PlanMaryland report: i think the magic solution is to stop subsidizing urban sprawl by building more and more roads to service these communities. If the state stopped building the infrastructure through all these farmlands and rural areas, people would not move there in great numbers because they would not be able to get to where they need to go efficiently. Then you would reduce many other issues like septic use, runoff, and pollution from transportation. There is more than enough vacancy in urban areas to accommodate the projected growth through the next decade. If we use up all that space then we should look at other options, but as my mom always said, eat everything on your plate before you ask for more. —Wally Pinkard
as [maryland director of Planning] Rich Hall points out, the incremental suburbanization of Maryland is very much like the “frogs in boiling water” analogy—as we frogs passively stew in the pot, developers have been steadily slicing and dicing our rural communities into an asphalt checkerboard of plasticine houses and strip malls. Forever lost in this process is our rural character, culture, and heritage, the very things that have defined Maryland for centuries. Unless we take action to change our current course, “The Land of Pleasant Living” will soon challenge “The Garden State” of New Jersey for the most ironic and anachronistic nickname. Let's take action to chart a course for our future that maintains the Maryland character; this means setting limits
Home-Cooked Meals Re: “No Farm, No Foul,” Apr. ’12, about the farm to table trend in Baltimore: i can’t help but be a little frustrated by Chef X’s statements in this article. While I understand that relying on local/seasonal ingredients creates inevitable restrictions, it is also an undeniably logical step that has to be made in the food and restaurant industry. Chef X’s comment, “But does it matter to me whether it came from 60 or 6,000 miles away? Not particularly,” displays a total disconnect from the entire intentions of local food. Of course it matters whether the food comes from 60 or 6,000 miles away. A close connection to a restaurant's source of food creates transparency in food production, an understanding of the producer's industry and yield, efficiency in communication, better appreciation for the food itself, and overall higher quality products. The entire rationality of local/seasonal food is impossible to ignore. It is exactly how food works: Certain produce grows in certain climates during certain times of the year. Shipping tomatoes from across the globe may satisfy an immediate craving, but it’s ultimately snubbing the realities of nature. … Even if local food is a trendy fad, at least it's a productive one. —J Marksdóttir
Virtual Unreality Re: “The Wired Campus,” Apr. ’12, about new digital tools finding their way into college classrooms: “the wired campus” by Andrew Zaleski was somewhat amusing. In the May 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest, a paid academic-ghostwriter explains how thousands of students cheat and why. The article … commented that colleges have known about new ways of cheating for years. [It] describes in shocking details how students in college, graduate school, and even nursing and law school are willing to pay thousands of dollars to get someone else to write papers or to complete course work for them. The ghostwriter comments that he works on an online company that generates tens of thousands of dollars a month by creating original essays for cheating students. … There are three demographics that seek his services: English as a Second Language students, hopelessly deficient students, and crazy rich kids. Is Andrew Zaleski for real? —Leo A. Williams
A System of Injustice Re: “Trayvon Martin, Disproportionate Minority Contact, and Baltimore,” about racial inequality in the justice system, posted to our reinstated Crime & Punishment blog: thank you for pointing out this crucial understanding in the consideration of racial justice. You suggest that the causes of racial injustice remain unaddressed and ignored. While specific narratives of injustice, rightly, arouse us, as they have with Trayvon Martin, these tragic incidents fail to address, create a dialogue beyond the incident, or define solutions to the growing disproportionate minority contact (DMC) at all points in the juvenile justice system. In a nation that refuses to acknowledge even its growing population of impoverished people, how will we ever get it to address the embedded racism that feeds the dire consequences of DMC? Like all issues of genuine importance in the U.S., at this time in our history, with our polarization, our increasing bigotry and fomented fear, there is seemingly no will to do anything about any of it. This is the tragedy that is greater than any one incident, no matter how gruesome. Without creating strategies for confronting this greater tragedy, we are lost in its pernicious devouring of our minority youth. —janjamm
Fenced In Re: “Slow Out of the Gate,” Mar. ’12, about sprucing up the city’s back alleys by gating them off: as city residents working on one of the alley gating projects featured in your article, we want to clarify an important point. Your story gives the impression that a handful of our signed gating consent forms were turned down by the city simply because the properties' ownership had changed hands. In fact, of the fifty-two signed consent forms we submitted, fully twenty-one were rejected. Not only had the forms in question been signed by property owners, but some had even been authenticated by a notary public! The city rejected them nonetheless, saying that we need an “authorized” signature. With the bar set so unattainably (and inconsistently) high, it is difficult to believe that alley gating in Baltimore will ever be more than a feel-good boutique initiative available to only a select few wealthy enclaves. Perhaps it would be better to get rid of the city's alley gating statute altogether and return to the days when neighbors simply had to get the blessing of the police and fire departments to protect their homes and communities with alley gates. —Grant Corley and David Leibensperger
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