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It’s sad to think about cities being abandonded. I hate to make the Eastern District stand for everything that’s bad. It’s bad in East Baltimore. But it’s also bad in St. Louis, East St Louis, Detroit, Gary, Camden, Newark, the west side of Chicago. The list goes on and on.

Just two generation ago, this area was packed full with homes and families and people. Streets. Sewers. Water. Electricity. A roof over our head. Everything you need. Then the jobs left. Now, because of drugs, the war on drugs, and crime, it’s literally abandoned.

If (like me) you’re fascinated with urban decay, you should check out the work of photographer Camilo Jose Vergara. And some of later work shows before and after pictures of the re-habitation of Harlem. Good stuff.

And if you like Baltimore rowhouses, I recommend The Baltimore Rowhouse. It’s not all decay. It’s stained glass and marble stoops and Formstone! They may all look the same to outsiders, but you can pretty easily tell what part of Baltimore you’re in just by the look of the rowhomes.


Above is a street, not an alley. Baltimore has a lot of narrow streets. I call them alley streets. But they’re streets, with houses fronting them. Here the whole block just happens to be torn down.
This looks like west on E. North Ave. Can somebody please tell me what’s up with people who roll themselves and their wheelchairs around with their legs? I associate it with the ghetto. And I just don’t get it.

Thanks to Konrad for taking (and bringing me!) these.



There aren’t too many streets with pretty trees. Alas, the trees don’t stop bullets. But the streets with trees tend to be less abandoned.

Here are pictures from the Eastern District today.

I keep thinking that the Eastern hasn’t changed since I left. But of course it has. On one hand, Hopkins took over a bunch of it. On the other, I’m sure it’s even more abandoned than ever. The population dropped 30% between 1990 and 2000. There’s no reason to think that trend hasn’t continued up to 2008. That’s a lot of empty buildings and vacant lots.

2008:I just got this pic of the corner from Durham and Eager in the Eastern. I love the new PR campaign: “My New East Side is Stylish.” “Clean.” “Innovative.” “United.” “Exciting.” “The Future.” “Family.” I hope it works. It looked nothing like this when I was there. In 2000 the corner looked like the picture below, which is of Eager and Chapel, 2 very short blocks away. Basically, both pictures were taken from the same spot, looking in opposite directions.
Google Earth still has an imagine from before the demolition. It’s interesting because the block of Durham south of Eager was still filled with homes. But you can see other blocks entirely vacant. Eager is the east/west street in the middle. The house above with the feather duster on the door is still visible center right. The last home before an otherwise empty city block.
In all fairness, I should show a similar shot of a nicer part of the Eastern. Below is part of Sector 3. The Eastern District police station is at the top right. Homes below are owner occupied and well kept up. It even looks neat. Street violence is rare. Of course… I didn’t work in Sector 3.