Sunday, July 18, 2010

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!