Current Sites and Locations

Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library (Orleans Street Branch) 1303 Orleans Street
Ordering: Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Delivery: Thursdays, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library (Washington Village Branch) 856 Washington Boulevard
Ordering: Mondays, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Delivery: Tuesdays, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

With the city back from the brink of a green fiscal meltdown, its planners are quietly trying to revolutionize how Baltimore grows.

In the first rewrite of the city's zoning code since 1971, planners hope to "transform Baltimore" from a car-centric concrete desert to an oasis of walkability, with shops, eateries and even some types of industry mixed in with housing.

Laurie Feinberg, chief of comprehensive planning, says the new code aims "to make our neighborhoods feel like places you want to walk to" without having to trek across blazing-hot parking lots. The city's in the final week of holding public meetings on the new code - so this is almost your last chance to learn about it and weigh in.

My colleague Julie Scharper has previously reported in The Baltimore Sun how how the new code would make it easier to have community gardens in the city. But the changes go beyond just greening the urban landscape, Feinberg says, to broader issues of sustainability and of "smart growth."

I contacted Feinberg last week to find out how the new code would handle some hot-button "green" issues that have been controversial in the past year - residential wind turbines, solar collectors and wood-chip driveways or parking pads. She preferred to give me the big picture, but answered the thorny questions as well. 

When it comes to inspiring solutions to air pollution, we adults could learn a thing or two from kids.

Clean Air Partners, a regional nonprofit partnership that advocates and educates for cleaner air in the D.C.-Baltimore area, recently announced the winners of its annual student poster contest. According to Rebecca Davis, education program manager for the partnership, "the purpose of the poster contest was to educate students about the solution to air pollution and climate change by integrating science and art," in addition to celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Through their artwork, students displayed their understanding of the human-atmosphere interaction and highlighted individual actions that all of us can take in our daily lives to reduce air pollution in the region.

Over 300 posters were submitted, but two stood out the most...

Poster by Katie Moser.

Katie Moser, a sixth-grader in Anne Arundel County in Maryland, made the winning poster for the grades 4-6 category. Her poster, "Earth Day Every Day," features bicycle-riding as a solution to vehicle exhaust that causes smog, and planting trees and plants as a solution to acid rain. She explains that acid rain comes from chemicals that travel through the water cycle and rain down during precipitation.

Poster by Kaili Bryer.

Kaili Bryer, a seventh-grader in St. Mary's County in Maryland, created the winning poster for the grades 7-8 category. Kaili's solutions come from the "Kaili Bryer Solutions" factory. She describes how windmills and "photovoltaic technology" (aka solar panels) create power and light for buildings. She also advocates riding bikes to reduce car emissions (notice the bicycles parked in the parking lot).

Congratulations to Katie, Kaili and all the student artists for completing the On the Air curriculum and doing your share to help clean the air.