The shooting is where?
I knew as soon I came to work this morning and saw there had been a shooting on Sunday in Fells Point that somebody would contest the location. Sure enough, I got this e-mail Monday afternoon:
Peter, if this was west of Broadway, as the story indicates, the shooting was not in Upper Fells Point, which begins EAST of Broadway. The neighborhood was either Fells Point proper (if this was in the 1600 block of Gough, most likely) or Perkins Homes if in the 1500 or 1400 block.
I thought some earlier blogs by not only myself but the Baltimore Sun's copy desk chief, John McIntyre, author of You Don't Say, written after a reader took Elizabeth Large of Dining@Large to task over putting a restaurant in the wrong neighborhood, would be the end of this discussion.
But sensitivities are hard to suppress.
First off, I want to say that does it really matter if someone gets killed in Fells Point or Upper Fells Point or in neighboring Perkins Homes? Are you really that much safer? It's not like there are fences around our communities. If you live on Broadway and Gough in Upper Fells Point and someone gets shot on Gough Street in Perkins Homes, you are at best two blocks away! That's too close in my book. But I also understand that a shooting at Gough and Broadway in Upper Fells Point seems a world away from a shooting at Lancaster Street in lower Fells Point, which is where the tourists go.
But we at this newspaper need to be correct. And both the map the reader provided and the city neighborhood map we use in the newsroom show that Broadway at Gough Street is not the boundary separating Upper Fells Point from Perkins Homes (public housing). It's actually a block further to the west, Bethel Street, and that puts Sunday's shooting on Gough Street near Broadway in Upper Fells Point.
Comments
OK, I'll bite, why isn't Perkins Homes considered part of Fells Point or Upper Fells or . . . ?
Posted by: brian | April 6, 2009 7:59 PM
I agree that the community should not be concerned with what side of the street or what corner a shooting occurs. A shooting in West Balt, East Balt, Fells Point, or Canton is still a shooting. Concern for property values and community reputations should not be the first thought when a crime is mapped. BUT, I really do want to know why a housing project, Perkins Homes, is not considered a part of the community it seems to located in or next to.
Posted by: brian | April 7, 2009 10:40 AM
From Peter: I'm not sure either why Perkins Homes is separate, but on the map it is a separate community west of Upper Fells Point. People don't want public housing in the neighborhoods (I live in the city and know that that's like) so even though Perkins Homes is just a few blocks away, and a place where many drive through to get from downtown to Fells Point, when crime happens there it is easy to dismiss it and say it's in another neighborhood.
Posted by: Peter Hermann | April 7, 2009 11:10 AM
In the long run, and possibly in the short run, any community in the city is better off forgetting about boundaries and concentrating on pushing for a city-wide solution to the problem of violence, whatever the cause. I live in either Fells Prospect or Upper Fells Point, I'm not sure of the boundaries. My mortgage is underwater so I am very much concerned with my property value. I am also concerned for my safety and the safety of my wife and 15 month old daughter. That is why I could care less about the problematic crime maps, unless the police find the maps useful in their efforts at targeting their resources. I want the police, the city council and my neighbors to take a city-wide look at our violence problem and how to defeat it, regardless of the neighborhood or the victim. We can't afford to offer more resources or protection to any particular neighborhood while showing less concern for another. Our city simply is not big enough for anyone to hide from the destruction caused by this violence.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 7, 2009 11:54 AM
In the long run, and possibly in the short run, any community in the city is better off forgetting about boundaries and concentrating on pushing for a city-wide solution to the problem of violence, whatever the cause. I live in either Fells Prospect or Upper Fells Point, I'm not sure of the boundaries. My mortgage is underwater so I am very much concerned with my property value. I am also concerned for my safety and the safety of my wife and 15 month old daughter. That is why I could care less about the problematic crime maps, unless the police find the maps useful in their efforts at targeting their resources. I want the police, the city council and my neighbors to take a city-wide look at our violence problem and how to defeat it, regardless of the neighborhood or the victim. We can't afford to offer more resources or protection to any particular neighborhood while showing less concern for another. Our city simply is not big enough for anyone to hide from the destruction caused by this violence.
Posted by: brian | April 7, 2009 11:55 AM
The map I (the reader cited) provided shows the boundary of Upper Fells at Regester Street (not Bethel Street).
I'm not sure why you think it shows Bethel as a boundary?
I'll upload the relevant part of the map here, since accuracy IS important, and somehow we can't seem to agree on how to read the map.
The shooting, according to this "Live Baltimore" map, occurred in a thumb of Fells Point (not Upper Fells) ... and of course even this is a technicality, since it was Perkins Homes-involved.
See the green "X" on the map I've created at this link:
http://www.beaumonde.net/images/shootinglocation.jpg
Posted by: Jeannette Belliveau | April 7, 2009 1:44 PM
There is at least one fence, on the north end of the 400 block of S. Dallas St. It's no accident that this fence is on the Bank Street, and not the Eastern Avenue end.
Posted by: Lars | August 20, 2009 5:40 PM