renting in Baltimore

Well, we have gotten great tenants: a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Hopkins-with an emphasis on biomedical engineering; a recent Hopkins grad, who's going to Yoga School, and an Opera Singer, who's going to be working on her Master's at Peabody.

And our house in Hampden is centrally located for each of them.

Again, the smart Hopkins students choose Hampden, and find good roommates/housemates to live together in a house for a fraction of the rent they'd pay in an apartment.

The kids Teaching for America are coming!

Buz and his darling wife are losing our tenant of 2 years at our lovely house on w. 34th Street in Hampden, hon. She and her daughters have been great and we'll miss having them there, alas, especially the garden and the piano.

So, we put our house on Craigslist and got two wonderful young ladies to look at it. We learned that they are in the Teach for America program, and are moving to Baltimore to teach for two years in inner city schools. However, they chose another Hampden house over ours. We also learned that 200 of them are coming to Baltimore once they finish their student teaching/training this summer at Philadelphia, Houston and other places.

Wow! 200!

We sincerely wish these highly educated, highly motivated young people well.

And since they'll be needing a nice and reasonable, centrally located place to live, we thought we'd put in a shameless plug for our house on 34th Street in Hampden--just down the street from Rocket to Venus (not that any of these teachers ever drink, but...), and the "Miracle on 34th Street" (some, even atheists, can enjoy the lights and good cheer of the season). It is also just a couple of blocks from the main drag, the Avenue, the neighborhood's funky, charming, and quirky business district.

Hampden and Medfield are centrally located so a TFA person can be assured the drive to more than 95% of the city's public schools is not an arduous ordeal. And it is close to TFAs Baltimore headquarters at Miller's Court in Charles Village. Besides, being centrally located, Hampden is relatively low in street crime, walkable, has all services nearby, and is close to the Hopkins Homewood campus for those interested in grad school options. It has now a bit of the feel of Brooklyn, New York--a mix of hipsters, working folks, retirees, young professionals, students, and yes, even a few yuppies and college profs. Come give us a look!

places near Hopkins Homewood

Buz just the other day ran into a young man who is moving to Baltimore, taking a research scientist position at Hopkins on the Homewood campus--and will be working at the Space Telescope Science Institute. We gave him some free relocation consulting advice as he searches for a place for himself, wife and one-year-old: look north and west of the campus, not south and east. Sorry, folks who live elsewhere: I wish it was different, but that's how it is.