Station North Save the City?

Station North is located in Baltimore and was the first area to receive the states designation as an Arts & Entertainment District in 2002. Station North is nestled among the neighborhoods of Charles North, Greenmount West and Barclay. This area has a vast array of artist live work spaces, and business. While Station North is a thriving area, many people have concerns in regards to the people who are relocating in that district and if Station North in of itself can save the city.

There seems to be a lot of opinions that are floating around about whether or not Station North is itself has people being involved. On the March Steiner show, there was a lot of talk about whether or not there was enough investment in the area itself. One of the main points that I noticed that was hit on a lot was about investing in this area/project. People are nervous to invest money because they fear that they will be priced out lets say by developers who want to build something in that area or that they will be a disinvestment in the sense that they won't bring money in. This goes without saying about the type of people who are investing money into Station North and its surrounding areas are predominately white and that there isn't many African American/black people investing in this area. If there are more white people investing, than the ratio of white to black will be a misrepresentation of the history surrounding Station North.

One of my questions to Ben Stone would be is there a way to get the black community to feel that if they make an investment that it will be worth it. I think that if city leaders and the community actually have a sit down talk about it, the tensions that are there would be lessened and there would be a better understanding. Another one of my questions would be what type of structures does Station North need in order to get more people to participate. During the interview, it was said that having structures would be a must so I'm curious as to what they are doing to ensure that this happens. My last question for Ben Stone would be to explain creative trust a little more in detail. It was touched upon slightly during the interview and I would like to know more about what that exactly entails.

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The term "community" holds a couple of different viewpoints for me. When I think of the word community the first few phrases that come to me are unity, togetherness and connection to select a few. Community by the definition that I've always held in my mind is a group of people where one can be themselves and are accepted regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. I belong to plenty of communities in which I am minority but regardless of that I consider it home. The word "community" doesn't just pertain to a physical location but also community that can be a virtual space. I hadn't really considered visual community  until I actually sat back and began to realize that through social media there are plenty of communities that I am involved in. 

Gentrification is a term that I had never heard of before taking an American Studies class and I never noticed just how much of it I've surrounded myself in. The term gentrification to me means an upsurge in the amount of people who lived in a specific area at a specific time but that displaced. During the displacement, new people moved in which causes a clash between long time members of the community and new members of the community. When thinking about gentrification I play around the scenario of a new couple moving into a suburban neighborhood where all the neighbors know each other but the new couple stands out. That scenario is how I see gentrification in action.

Station North in of itself seems to be an interesting place. I'm excited to see what it has to offer but the one thing I'm really looking forward to knowing is why the physical boundaries of Station North are set up the way that they are. When looking at the map, the boundaries aren't exactly a particular shape, more like lines that cut through different streets in the city. For my project pertaining to Station North I'm looking into hearing the different voices of people who live in that area, whether they've been living there for years or maybe a couple of months. Along with that I'm thinking into taking pictures and capturing their essence of the place as to grab a emotional outlook into Station North. In that way I can grab their voices along with a more physical representation.