I purchased a home in the Union Square/ Carrolton Ridge neigborhood about a year ago because of its proximity to downtown and all the major interstates.  Yeah, it was a diamond in the ruff but there are a number of rehabs going on in this area, the newest being my next door neighbor.  Aside from the Universtiy of Maryland Bio Park crossing over MLK, the 400k townhomes adjacent to the B&O railroad on West Pratt Street, is there anything else that I should be excited about purchasing my first home on the Westside of Baltimore City?  Are there some other projects that someone knows about that I don’t?  I’d love some feedback.

I managed to get a tour of the recently renovated Bromo Seltzer Tower.  The renovations were quite amazing, especially considering the shoestring budget which the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and contractor Azola and Associates had to work with.  The Bromo Seltzer Tower once housed the executives for the Bromo Seltzer Company.  The factory which once surrounded the building was torn down long ago and is now occupied by a Baltimore City Fire Station.  The tower was the tallest building in Baltimore for quite some time.  Supposedly, the huge bright blue bottle that used to sit on top of the building could be seen from as far away as the Eastern Shore, although I’m not too sure about that.

The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) are looking for artists to lease the studios in the building.  Currently the building is about 1/3 leased.  BOPA also is looking for a coffee shop to lease the lower level of the building.  The coffee shop would double as an art gallery for the buildings artists.  Visit www.bromoseltzerartstower.com for more information.  Hopefully the building’s artists and visitors will add to the vibrancy of the downtown area and west side.

It was announced today that Baltimore City and the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus have reached an agreement to open a new university bookstore on the northeast corner of Baltimore and Paca streets, just west of the Hippodrome Theatre.  The new bookstore will be operated by Barnes and Noble.  Even though the university could have placed the bookstore in one of their existing buildings, the thoughts are that a bookstore in this location would be a greater boon to the West-side revitalization.  In all likelihood, the University of Maryland Barnes and Noble will be similar to the recently opened Barnes and Noble associated with Johns Hopkins University in Charles Village.  Main complaints about these university bookstores are that they lack the kind of book selection that a standard Barnes and Noble would carry, since their main focus is textbooks.  No word on construction schedule or format for the recently announced store.

The city is currently studying a plan to build a 10.5 mile subway project running east to west connecting Canton through downtown and West Baltimore to Woodlawn.  Stops are proposed in Fells Point, downtown, and other highly trafficked areas.  The study and analysis has been under way since 2003, and is scheduled to continue through 2008.  Construction would begin in 2012 and be completed in 2016.  Of course with the way these projects generally evolve, it would be amazing if the Baltimore Red Line became a reality before 2020.

It’s not clear how much of the red line would be above or below ground.  But obviously most of the proposed route would need to be under ground.  The projected route certainly will be connecting some diverse (racially, socially, financially) neighborhoods.  It will be interesting to see what that does to property prices around the new stations.  In DC areas sometimes flourish after metro stops open in that neighborhood.  In many cases close proximity to a metro stop becomes a prerequisite for redeveloping and gentrifying areas.

One of Baltimore’s biggest weaknesses as a city is the lack of good public transportation.  I sometimes have to call and wait 25 minutes for a cab to show up.  And I only live 5 minutes from downtown.  I have lived or worked in the city for close to 8 years, and I have still yet to set foot on the Baltimore metro.  I have never had the need or desire.  With this project Baltimore is certainly heading in the right direction.  With projects like this maybe more Baltimoreans will start to use the cities metro system - or at least realize we have one.