By Zach Davidson
Baltimore—Baltimore’s post-industrial economy, with a resurging population, is bitter sweet when it causes you to sit in downtown traffic, or circle the block five times hoping to find a parking space. If that doesn’t make you stay home, a hodgepodge mass transit system might do the trick. But before you pack up for the suburbs, consider the Red Line.
It’s no secret that most of us who can afford it, don’t ride the buss, light rail, or subway. The old way of moving people in Baltimore has simply just been about moving cars. Now, it’s about moving Baltimore and her people forward!
MTA is calling all Hons, Yuppies, and the like to form teams tasked to help design the Red Line stations set to be built in their own neighborhoods. Each station will be assigned a local committee of 15 to 20 members; you can nominate yourself online at baltimoreredline.com. They will advise MTA on station’s locations, design, traffic and parking issues. Committee members must be available every four to six weeks, Fall 2010 to late 2011. Submit nominations at baltimoreredline.com/station-area-advisory-committees
For those who see the Redline as another broken extension of the light rail or subway, besides helping to bring the city a cohesive mass transit system, the Red Line will be an entirely new traveling experience for passengers. Large windows, spacious seating, and cars that sit close to the ground will allow passengers easy entry and exit.
The real benefit lies in the route, which connects up and coming West Baltimore neighborhoods where residents depend and desperately lack mass transit, to thriving job-creating East Baltimore neighborhoods, where growth is being stifled by a dependency on the car.
Jason Filippou, candidate for state delegate of the 46th district and member of the Greektown Community Development Corporation, hopes the Red Line will bring more foot traffic to upper Eastern Avenue, which still has many vacant buildings despite already full parking spaces. “We need to have it. It’s not a matter of if we have it. There are more and more cars coming into the community, and within a few years it will just be gridlock. It’s just a matter of planning and putting it (the Red Line) in the right spot,” said Filippou.
Get onboard with the Red Line at gobaltimoreredline.com, and baltimoreredline.com/station-area-advisory-committees
