Is this your first time through? I had my first jury duty call last year and it was fascinating. I went through the selection process for three separate trials on my jury duty day. Each time, during the voir dire process, the judge asked jurors to come forward and explain any extenuating circumstance that would result in jury duty being a hardship.

I explained that I was involved in an active emergency response and was irreplaceable on my team, and that because I'm a contractor, I would also suffer financial hardship from jury assignment. All of which was true! As a result they didn't pick me. If something would stress you out enough that you'd be distracted from the trial, they don't want you on the jury. You could definitely go through the selection process, say "I have a work trip that I cannot reschedule tomorrow," and they'll almost certainly let you go.

I hear you, this is a valid feeling. I was once asked where I was from and said "oh, around here," mistakenly thinking that was vague enough to include eastern Howard County where I grew up. This guy reamed me out because to him "around here" had to mean the neighborhood we were currently in (Reservoir Hill) and that I was somehow appropriating an identity by making that comment. It was bizarre and humiliating. I just didn't want to have explain to him what nearby town I'm from in case he wasn't local.

It's frustrating. I grew up coming to the city often and have lived in the city proper for over a decade now. But I know better than to claim I'm a Baltimorean because certain people do really gatekeep the term and you never know if you're talking to one - it can be folks of all ages, genders, cultural backgrounds. I get it, the counties aren't the same as the city, but how long does a person have to live here for their lived experience to be valid as a place-based identity?

I think the owner/jeweler at Hi-Ho is named Will? He is a gem. We used to take the same yoga classes years ago and he’s such a nice guy. My husband’s wedding band has a complex oak-bark wraparound relief and we needed to take it down a size, but all the jewelers we took it to said it couldn’t be done without leaving a noticeable seam.

Will did it for $75 - and he did it so well, sometimes I just look at it and wonder how? The relief isn’t interrupted, no seam. The ring is just smaller. I think it was maybe actual magic. Hi-Ho is legit.

We got hella river valleys around here! I grew up around Ellicott City and there are some mean hills down around Old EC (check out River Rd/Ilchester Rd/College Ave). That area ties into some two-lane country roads extending out into western Howard County (Triadelphia area) that my distance cycling buddies train on. You can kind of noodle around in and out of the Patapsco River valley to put on elevation. There are similar situations around rivers/reservoirs like Prettyboy or Loch Raven. All of this is about a half-hour drive outside the city.

That might be the big difference - comcast in 21211 is an abomination. We would literally get less than 30mbps down and 3-5mbps up (!) on average. We were "paying for" 200mbps and I don't think I ever clocked it over about 70. It was heinous.

I just checked my speed and I'm getting 200 down/40 up, which is a surprise - usually it's ~350down and I think I usually see about 80 up? We're not hosting servers or anything so to me, compared to 30/5, it's all just "holy shit fast". I do understand the quality differs based on how far you are from a 5g transmitter, and we have one at the bottom of our block. Obviously we were dealing with borderline-unusable connectivity so our bar is lower, but the big seller for us has been no outages - our old 30down/5up speeds also came with frequent outages. Not a single one so far with the new service. If 200/40 won't do it for you, cancel chicken is your friend!

Oh boy am I glad to not be a comcast customer anymore. If you call in and say “cancel services” you’ll be put on with someone immediately. Just say “I want to cancel because of connectivity issues” or whatever you actually want help with, and that person’s job is to resolve your issue and retain you as a customer. They’ll schedule a technician, give you the current promo price, whatever. I used to do this and play “cancel chicken” every year to keep my rate from doubling.

For what it’s worth we switched to tmobile home internet in 2021 and haven’t looked back. No more cancel chicken. No more connectivity issues. No more rate hikes. We can stream in peace. Godspeed.

Eugene is so lovely. You could see inside both heels of my favorite chelsea boots - he made them look brand new, including a shine, for $30 and 3 days. He’s awesome.

I feel like I've seen them up at Valley View before, and I know B.Willow stocks larger tropical plants. If I were you, I'd check out B.Willow, maybe even ask about a custom order, and then check Valley View.

Yeah, ever heard of Heathbrook? If you look at the census info, the Heathbrook subneighborhood is where all the white people live (on Roland Heights and Wood Heights). Evans Chapel is the street with the access problems. That's the original parcel passed down by Grandison Hoes. That's where all the Black folks still live, and Hoes Heights as a historic neighborhood is still predominantly Black. The Census has awesome information if you don't try to wield it like a sledgehammer.

The closed street was entirely blocked with concrete (then plastic) barricades. It's a coarsely paved and then-unmaintained road that wasn't designed or suited for folks in a wheelchair. The opened street is moving forward with a park redesign to improve pedestrian access and make it safer. I'm sure you've also noticed the extensive road-diet changes on 41st which, as a pedestrian resident, have genuinely made it safer to move around here without a car. It is actually better to get in and out of the neighborhood on foot than it was before, and that has fuck all to do with the road around the tower.

Here's the fascinating thing though - this park doesn't really provide extra pedestrian access to HH. No matter which way you slice it. I move on foot through 21211 and honestly without any actual changes made to the roadway things are exactly the same for pedestrians as they were during the closure. There are still crosswalks and lights where there were crosswalks and lights before. If anything, the street closures were dangerous for our (again, largely elderly) neighbors because they *don't* walk due to mobility issues, drive instead, and had to deal with legitimate driving hazards to get out of here. This is the feedback that was given at our community meetings and it was remarkably unilateral. You can still walk through the park, and the park will still get a redesign. And FWIW the neighborhood is still predominantly Black, please take your erasure of Black Baltimoreans elsewhere. Historically Black acknowledges that this is a neighborhood that has been a safe haven for Black families while surrounding neighborhoods blocked them from residence.

There will still be a park! If anything, this decision puts to bed the most contentious part of the design process so that actual design can now move forward. Basically, parks are good, but this was not a neglected space in need of park-ifying, it was an actively used access point to a neighborhood with a history of Black intergenerational wealth in a heavily segregated part of the city. So there will be better usage of existing green space (which is already used as a gathering place for neighborhood residents) as well as maintained access to the neighborhood.

Hi, I'm a Hoes Heights resident. There will still be a park at the base of the tower, and this decision means the design of that park (and traffic calming on the opened street, for pedestrian priority within the park) can move forward. This was a situation where the Roland Park Community Foundation took up the task of renovating the tower, which is awesome, but made the case to close the streets without considering the input of Hoes Heights residents, whose only easterly (and northeasterly) access point is this road. It would have been fucked up for the community organization of a historically segregated neighborhood to take an actively used, necessary entrance to a historically Black enclave and pave it over because it would be "better" as a park, which is what was happening. The racial history of Roland Park, Hampden, and Hoes Heights is fascinating, and I appreciate that the mayor saw the status quo as perpetuating a subconscious racial inequity in the history of these neighborhoods and made a decision which favored the voices of Hoes Heights residents.

This decision has also been the result of several years' worth of traffic calming efforts to try and make the other entrances and exits to Hoes Heights along Evans Chapel safer. We had meeting after meeting with DOT, Councilman Torrance, and Councilwoman Ramos, and they understood that leaving the road fully closed was literally a hazard. I personally witnessed two car crashes involving someone trying to get into/out of Evans Chapel while the tower roads were closed - people speed like demons around here and that south exit is nearly blind. God help anybody who had to leave this neighborhood by car during rush hour. I originally wanted the road closed (because green space, sure!), but over the past couple of years, and through listening to the voices of the people who have lived in this neighborhood longest - who are Black and working class and largely elderly - my mind was changed. In general, this is a highly walkable area with a substantial bit of existing public green space. (How about that pending parcel of park land from the RP country club, 1/4mi away!) The road around the tower isn't some massive panacea, and there will still be a new park designed there. But speaking as a resident of this neighborhood, this was necessary.

Following! Been meaning to find a shop to take our stereo receiver.

Don't worry about overdoing it! It's Dan Deacon. He's all about crowd participation as part of the show. Be a human disco ball!

Oh boy, I wonder if they have a social club.

I'm lowkey curious where this happened - there's a pretty well known dickbag in Hampden who rides around with his toddler on the back of his bike and deliberately puts himself and his kid in harm's way to antagonize drivers. He's unhinged and well known in the neighborhood. Stuff like crossing at speed in front of a car when the driver is proceeding on a green light, then following the car while screaming at the driver. All with a toddler on the back. What you described could just be regular city-living lapse-in-judgment, but yeah, watch out for this dude.

For a visit, right? Light rail! Take MARC to Penn, then catch the light rail at Mt. Royal and ride it to Woodberry. It's quite direct and it's $1.40/ride no matter the ride length. The buses aren't that bad unless you have a strict schedule - I wouldn't take one for my daily commute, but I would take one to go shopping or to dinner, if that makes sense.

I would so, so, so strongly recommend living in Hampden and bearing the triweekly train commute to Capitol Hill. If for no reason other than the people are *so* much nicer in Hampden than in Capitol Hill and you'll spend 1/3 the cost on housing, with just as good (or better!) proximity to food and other city perks. This is speaking as someone who's been living in and around Hampden for 5 years now, and has been commuting either to Suitland or the Nat'l Mall for the entirety of it! I grew up in the DC suburbs and Columbia and there are reasons that I continue to live where I do. The voice of experience is speaking!

The reasonable recommendation, since it's all up to you and your partner, is that you guys come spend an afternoon and evening in Baltimore and explore on your own. Especially in Hampden, since that's where you'll be working!

I live around Hampden area and commute to SE DC 3x/week. It's a peculiar location so I can't take transit unfortunately but I have taken MARC regularly for other jobs. If your partner can use the MARC, look at Remington/Old Goucher - walking/biking distance from the train, lovely walkable neighborhood with lots to do, accessible to the rest of the city by car, bus, or foot. If they're driving, those neighborhoods are still lovely, but also look at Hampden - it's crazy walkable, the neighborhood's very cozy, and you're right off 83 for a car commute. You could also look at Reservoir Hill and Bolton Hill, but they have fewer amenities (re: fresh groceries) than the other neighborhoods I mentioned. A 3x/week commute is doable, and the COL has always been so much lower (and the vibes so much nicer) in Baltimore that I don't mind the commute.

This absolutely. This comparison uses standard markers of inflation, which are heavily lobbied categories and mostly either processed foods or animal products - ground beef, milk, eggs, butter, etc. My household shops extensively at Hmart or Lotte because A. we cook food from my ethnic background which those grocers specialize in and B. we eat a lot of fresh produce to do so, which we find is cheapest and highest quality at Hmart or Lotte. Folks shopping for groceries at Hmart probably aren't in need of a pound of butter. They're also probably not looking to prioritize a $2.50 can of green beans, when they're fresh for $1.79/lb. I appreciate the authors of the story including Hmart but they sort of bungled the comparison.

Frustrating also that the closest thing to a veggie in the standard inflation markers is a can of green beans. There's like 5 grams of fiber in that entire list, combined. "Items that most people buy" is a pretty sad picture.

White Hill Pottery, also in Hampden, might be worth a look. They're on 33rd St and actually have a neat little self-service pottery stand you can shop at all hours! I know for a fact they make bowls with/for chopsticks. I think their instagram gives a sense of their current stock.

It’s a couple storefronts down in that shopping center! Marquee says BE-SE-TO. There’s a food court inside, but go down the stairs for the mall part. It’s kinda sneaky!

I dunno what "asian dollar store" entails but there's a sweet little 'mall' underground in the Catonsville Hmart shopping center called BeSeTo. They stock mostly Korean and Japanese home goods and knick-knacks. Great place if you need a giant stainless steel prep bowl, or cute chopsticks, or scrubby washcloths, or... many other things! My husband's prized personal-sized Zojirushi rice cooker came from there. Definitely stocking stuffers-worthy.

I believe Tree House Cafe is hosting a watch party in Hampden - it’s a non-bar venue, so may be sobriety-friendly. And it’s a block away from Charmery if the kids get restless!

I had the coolest sighting last winter. We live up in a woodier area of 21211 - I woke up around 2am one night to a strange cackling outside our window. I go to peek outside and in the middle of the street, under a streetlamp, I see two foxes. One with a white tail-tip, and one with a regular black tail-tip. The one with the white tail-tip would sort of skip across the street... and the other one would follow. And then white tail-tip would skip back across the street... other one would follow. They were chasing each other and canoodling like teenagers! They'd catch up and sort of nuzzle and flirt and then scamper off again. Magical moment, utterly dreamlike. I wouldn't be sure it was real, but I woke my partner up to come watch with me 🥺 We've spotted several foxes here since then but none like that.