Should Armistead Gardens Hit the Wrecking Ball?

This is the first post in the history of this blog that was brought on purely by comments from another post. Ever since I inked a post in June 2008 about whether the Armistead Gardens Co-Op can be extended and have its fundamentals used in today's environment. This is a moot point now but the development I wanted to "hand off" to a Co-Op was McCulloh Homes and I now think they should be redeveloped. But back to Armistead Gardens, residents past and present upon reading that post offered me their unfiltered opinions about growing up in and raising a Family in Armistead Gardens then and now. I was shocked by some of what they had to say about their Neighborhood which begged the question; Should Armistead Gardens Hit the Wrecking Ball? That wasn't a question I could answer without paying Armistead Gardens a visit so I did just that, armed with my camera trying to make sense of it all.

Now how did Armistead Gardens become a Co-Op? Back in 1955 Baltimore had the idea of shedding its public housing stock much like today. Unlike today Baltimore wasn't bulldozing Public Housing Units by the hundreds. Since Armistead Gardens at the time was a public housing development the City simply sold it off to the residents at the time. In order to deal with Neighborhood upkeep, something that the City used to responsible for, the formed the Co-Op. The Co-Op has been very strict in making sure blight and crime stayed out of Armistead Gardens and according to comments presented to me, they act like an HOA Police Force. Now Residents may own their homes but they don't own the ground their home sits on. This isn't uncommon for Row House Neighborhoods in Baltimore, the Home Owner pays the City "Ground Rent" which is a controversial subject on its own. When the City wiped its hands clean of Armistead Gardens they meant it. Rather than pay Ground Rent to the City, every Armistead Gardens resident has a 99 year lease on their grounds that they pay to the Co-Op.

Today, from what I've been told by commentators Armistead Gardens is in a Time Capsule. It has very low turnover for the most part but that's because homes have stayed in Families for generations. New Residents are those that were raised there whose Parents and Grandparents followed the same path. Housing Prices are some of the most affordable in the City so Residents raised in Armistead Gardens looking for affordable housing need not look far.

Now I told you about Armistead Gardens Residents who have moved back after being raised there but now I will tell you about a different group of Residents or should I say former Residents, like their counterparts they agree that Armistead Gardens is in a time capsule and that generation after generation has continued to live there as far back as when Armistead Gardens was public housing. This group of people couldn't wait to get out of Armistead Gardens because the Co-Op is unsympathetic towards residents who can't afford to make upgrades to their exteriors, crime, drug use, and drug dealing has reared its ugly throughout Armistead Gardens and they have watched their friends they grew up with turn into dope fiends. They say Armistead Gardens has gotten stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and drug addicted residents.

Upon hearing these opinions more than twice about Armistead Gardens, I was both shocked and skeptical. I thought if these were indeed the living conditions in Armistead Gardens that maybe Armistead Garden's days are numbered.
After all, Freedom Village/Claremont Homes was a public housing development of varying densities west of Armistead Gardens that was just demolished in favor of the mixed income Orchard Ridge Community which has defied the recession and is Baltimore's best selling New Community. In the 1990s the public housing high rise known as Hollander Ridge east of Armistead Gardens was demolished in favor of Office/Industrial Space. So given what I was led to the believe the living conditions in Armistead Gardens are I thought it should hit the wrecking ball. I thought that its convenient location near Erdman Avenue, Pulaski Highway, Sinclair Lane, Moravia Road, I-895, and I-95, and eventually the Red Line and an East Baltimore MARC Station.

Orangeville, the proposed location of the East Baltimore MARC Station is currently industrial land with vacant swaths throughout. I have always thought that Orangeville, when transit comes will be transformed into a TOD Haven and transform those aforementioned roads in East Baltimore with lack luster Retail into a walkable urban haven. I figured a redeveloped Armistead Gardens would be an extension of that TOD in Orangeville. Eventually, that dream of mine could be realized but not now.

Why not now? Because I took a few trips down to Armistead Gardens to see if those claims by former Residents were true. I was pleasantly surprised to see that every time I was down there, I saw a very safe Family Oriented Community with houses that vary in their state of repair. There weren't many houses that needed a lot of repairs but I didn't see a single vacant. It's clear to see that some homes have been cared for and residents have invested the money in their homes. Some residents, since this was a public housing development way back when appear not to have the money to fix up their homes the way others have. Residents appeared healthy, kids were free to play outside, the drug and dealers that people told me "ran the streets" of Armistead Gardens weren't there and I don't think there are very many of them if any.
If there is a drug trade in Armistead Gardens it's kept under wraps, I've been blogging about Baltimore City and driving through every Neighborhood for almost four years and one thing I can spot very quickly is an open air drug market. In Armistead Gardens, it just wasn't there.

Now with all that info I provided to you, tell if you think Armistead Gardens should hit the wrecking ball. What do I think? I thought so at first but when I saw that the comments on my old post didn't appear to be true, I would have to say no. I do think that the main streets surrounding Armistead Gardens; Erdman Avenue, Moravia Road, and Pulaski Highway are all long over due for makeovers.