Poverty is Your Neighbor Twenty-three (23) percent of the county’s population lives at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. We’ve said that many times before; not new news. (And to reiterate what this really means, 100% of the poverty line is around $20,000. The United Way says a family of 3 needs an […]
Checking form boxes isn’t sexy. But every nonprofit that wants to succeed needs to show its supporters that its projects are advancing its mission. Ours is all about improving livability, which is thought to have 3 underlying goals that are sometimes described as pillars: social, environmental and economic. As we plan to officially open Powhatan […]
In late January, we received a call from Wendy Jacobs, a co-founder of the Green Towson Alliance and a great friend and supporter of NeighborSpace, asking whether we might be interested in a donation of a large collection of native plants. The plants, it turns out, had been planted and nurtured by Joanna Hastings-Kiessling, a local […]
9 years $120,000 in county open space waiver fees. $150,000 in State bond funds. $15,000 in private grants and donations. Countless staff, board and volunteer hours. These numbers are impressive, but they don’t really tell the story of Powhatan Park. The story lies in the actions of people. People who live in the Powhatan Farms […]
At long last, construction is underway at Powhatan Park in the Powhatan Farms Community in Lochearn. This 1.5 acre property will feature a lawn area for active recreation, a play/gathering area, a native wildflower meadow, a native flowering tree grove and a native perennial meadow designed to attract pollinators. The park will also have a stone dust […]
June 21 marked the inauguration of the Donald C. Outen Urban Tree Society, an effort by NeighborSpace to further a county goal for maintaining 40% forest cover in communities inside the URDL. Looking just at existing numbers, it looks like the goal has largely been achieved: Census Designated Place CDP Acres Tree Canopy Acres Percent […]
The “back porch” of the community. That’s how a group of landscape architecture students referred to our Robin Hill Rd. site, now known as Powhatan Park, in 2010. Just hours before the “snowmageddon” of that year, a group of students from Morgan made its first visit to this 1.5 acre site in Lochearn and, working […]
The mood was light at Adelaide Bentley Park in Towson on the evening of June 21, in spite of a brief downpour. Over 70 people were on hand to recognize and honor those who contributed to the park’s development. Owing to the generosity of the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks having supplied a […]
The Rationale for Creating the Donald C. Outen Urban Tree Society When New York’s Parks Department assessed the value of the City’s urban tree canopy, the benefits totaled $120 million annually, 5.5 times the department’s annual budget. The breakdown included energy savings of $28 million, air quality improvements of $5 million, and storm water mitigation of $36 […]
This is what Bentley Park, a half-acre site in Historic East Towson looked like when NeighborSpace originally purchased the property for $80,000, using local open space waiver fees, several years ago: What looks “lush” and “green” is anything but. Like much of the vacant land inside the URDL, the property was so full of invasives […]