Hampden: A Baltimore Neighborhood to Call Home

My neighbor Chuck is an old hippy. Long gray hair drapes his wrinkled shoulders when he harvests tomatoes from his home garden. He talks all the time, about everything. There is absolutely no subject where Chuck is not an expert. If you try to inform him of any fact, it is guaranteed that he has a tidbit to top it. His wife Rose goes to work every morning, carrying a large travel coffee mug and passing quickly by my dog, Stella.

“Hi Stella,” she says as Stella growls, barks, and runs along the fence.  Rose's tolerance for my growling mongrel is beautiful and genuine. She continues, walking and smiles, as Stella's bark echoes through my neighborhood.

 My neighborhood is Hampden, in Baltimore City. People who don't live in the city still know about Hampden. They don't know where it is, but they have heard of it.

“The miracle on 33^rd Street, that's in Hampden, right?” my boss said to me.

“I love Cafe Hon,” a co-worker once told me.

“That place is scary,” another co-worker said.

Hampden is a little scary, but so is the suburb White Marsh. In Hampden it's the drug addicts, prostitutes, and loiterers roaming the streets that frighten people. But for me, it's The Olive Garden, Wal-Mart, and TGI Friday's in White Marsh that send chills down my spine. Basically, I fear the mundane.

Hampden is just between the Baltimore neighborhoods of Remington and Roland Park. Remington is south of Hampden and Roland Park is north. In a nutshell, Remington is poor and Roland Park is rich. Hampden's in-the-middle location is a great metaphor for its eclectic population. Students, young professionals, business owners, professors, factory workers, truck drivers, prostitutes, and artists reside in Hampden. They are neighbors to each other, living side-by-side, and there is one place in Hampden they all come together to have a couple beers – 36^th Street, locally know as The Avenue.