Happy New Year, Seton Hill! As we close the chapter on 2014, the Seton Hill Neighborhood Association takes a look at our successes over the past year and the challenges we will tackle in 2015. While Seton Hill is already a great place to live, we want to ensure we’re doing everything to can to make it even better.
Successes:
–Best Park: The Baltimore City Paper named our Saint Mary’s Park the 2014 Best Park in Baltimore in their annual Best of Baltimore edition. This honor is the result of not only strong neighborhood advocacy, but also the diligent and dedicated work of John Crimy, our Park Steward. John was hired by the Association to green, clean and improve our lovely historic park!
–French Fair: The 2014 French Fair was a great success this year, with more food options and vendors than ever. We also had an amazing line up of musicians, whose performances, as always, received great accolades!
–Bike Party: Seton Hill continues to partner with the Baltimore Bike Party to host their monthly fun, inclusive bike ride. The ride always begins at 6:30pm in Saint Mary’s Park on the last Friday of the month, bringing hundreds of people from all over Baltimore to our park for bike revelry.
Challenges:
– State Center: The proposed State Center redevelopment project, which will be incredibly positive for not only Seton Hill, but for neighbors to the North and West, is still in limbo. We will need to continue to fight for approval of this project with the incoming governor. It cannot be stressed enough how transformational this project will be, creating a vibrant new neighborhood with a full service high quality grocery store, restaurants and retail. We need to continue to put pressure on the decision makers to make this happen.
–Stalled WestSide Development: There is much potential in all the vacant office and retail properties located to our South and East – the so-called “Market Center” district desperately needs cohesive envisioned redevelopment. We will continue to partner with the Downtown Partnership and the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) to move that ideal into a reality.
–Lexington Market: The fresh food mecca that this venerable institution could become is both a frustration and a golden opportunity. The Association is working to push this to fruition.
–Saint Mary’s Park Steward: As well as being a great success for 2014, the Park Steward position is a challenge for the future. The Association was able to finance our park steward with grant money for the 2014 summer, however that money is about to run out. Two very generous donations have recently been received which has allowed us to extend the Park Steward into the winter season, however future funding will be a focus for the Association going forward.
–Parking Committee: Formed in 2013, the Parking Committee continues to work to assess and make recommendations regarding the the current Residential Permit Parking hours. This has been no small effort, and the continued dedication of this group is appreciated.
As you can tell, the Seton Hill Association works tirelessly to advocate for our small slice of Baltimore. We can’t do it without your assistance. If you aren’t a member, please join; if you are a member, thank you! If you would like to donate, that’s an option too!
The Seton Hill Association meets on a monthly basis, and we hope that you can join us. We have a number of fun events and volunteer opportunities throughout the year for anyone and everyone.
The first volunteer event will be a Saint Mary’s Park cleanup on Martin Luther King day, 19 January 2015, in cooperation with our friends at the University of Maryland Law School Student Bar Association. Hopefully the weather holds up – there are a number of areas around the park where we plan to work. We will be sending out more information as the date gets closer.
Thank you so much for all that you do. This neighborhood would not be the place it is without you as neighbors and community advocates.
Happy New Year!
