Until one speaker slammed on the brakes, the “community conversation” organized by the developer purchasing high-profile properties along Baltimore’s Jones Falls was cruising along smoothly.

Seawall’s Thibault Manekin said little about his own plans for 2801 and 2701 Falls Road, but encouraged the panelists (assembled earlier this week at his company’s R. House food hall in Remington) to voice their big dreams for the area:

A linear park.

A new tourist waterfront for the city, comparable to the Inner Harbor.

A place not for graffiti and trash, but for public art, environmental education and eateries.

Ideas floated for the last 60-plus years, but never realized.

Seated alongside representatives of the Maryland Institute College of Art, Friends of The Jones Falls, Jones Falls Gateway Project, Blue Water Baltimore and the Baltimore Streetcar Museum was a Remington community leader, Samantha Horn.

Horn enthused over the prospect of the direct connection to the waterway for Remington, once Seawall acquires the streamside parcels as well as the city-owned trash facility on Sisson Street it has long coveted and is now poised to finally bag.

“It would just be such a boon to this neighborhood to be able to access that green space, access other neighborhoods, walk to the Charles [Theatre] along the trail and see a movie,” said Horn, secretary of the Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA).

Describing the “things we want more of,” Horn spoke of apartments and boutiques, followed by “things we don’t want” such as convenience stores and auto repair shops.

For Brittany Hall, one of the few Black members of the audience of more than 100 people, Horn’s remarks seemed to highlight everything that was wrong with the cozy event.

“I’m from one of the communities that is not adjacent to the water. I am just as important as everyone in this room,” the East Baltimore Midway resident declared, pointing out that the almost entirely white crowd was “not representative of the city.”

This is “not representative of the city”  – Midway resident Brittany Hall.

The room fell quiet as Hall delivered an eight-minute critique.

“I don’t know why Remington is centered in this conversation,” she remarked. Future community engagement should “de-prioritize the conversation around Remington, de-prioritize the conversation around Seawall,” she advised.

“There’s certain things that you don’t want in the community? Guess what? They’re right around the corner. That’s where my friends and family work. They work in those auto shops.”

She urged the group to reach out to other parts of Baltimore, to “the people at the bus stops.”

“What are you doing to think about the rest of the folks who do need a place to recreate, to relax, to enjoy the water?” she continued. “We have to be the ones getting low income and working at your stores for nothing and dealing with the transit issues.”

Development or Green Space?

Manekin told the audience that “I learned a lesson tonight” before going on to promise listening sessions outside of Remington. (As for deprioritizing Remington, that ship has already sailed judging by the name of the new website he announced: “Remington on the River.”)

But even in Tuesday night’s Remington milieu, some pushback and debate took place.

What big dream does the company have for the industrially zoned properties (currently Potts & Callahan vehicle storage yards) that straddle Falls Road and a biking and running trail? (So far, no sales price is reflected in Maryland land records.)

“There is an opportunity to actually bring some economics,” Manekin noted, citing “mixed-use projects, commercial, retail, housing.”

Taking issue with that was developer David Tufaro, who preserved two historic structures further north along the Jones Falls: Mill No. 1 and Whitehall Mill.

“I was interested in potentially buying the site to totally preserve this open space, which I think is what should be done,” he said.” I don’t think we really need more development in that location.”

“To suggest that economics are a factor? No, it depends on how much you pay for the property. That dictates what you need to develop,” he continued, arguing the property should be left as public green space sitting next to the land where the Baltimore Streetcar Museum wants to expand one day.

That didn’t set well with Remington real estate investor Bill Cunningham who lauded Seawall’s plans and the idea of more development.

“We need more population in order to keep this fabulous growth that’s occurred here,” Cunningham continued, praising Seawall for helping Remington “to grow and develop and become something other than the filthy, drug-infested community that we used to be.”

With gentler framing, 11th District Councilman Zach Blanchard also plugged the idea of more development along the stream.

“We need more population to keep this fabulous growth . . . to become something other than the filthy, drug-infested community that we used to be”  – real estate investor Bill Cunningham.

“Yes, this should be predominantly an incredible, lush, green, water oasis space, but I don’t think we should have nothing else going on,” Blanchard said. “In like every park in Germany, there’s a coffee shop or an the Indian place, and they’re just printing money.”

“It would be good to have a couple reasons for people to come along Falls Road and have opportunities to spend money,” the councilman argued.

Hampden resident Chris Guinnup said more multi-family projects are needed.

“I really support the idea of having more development around these areas where it’s appropriate, more apartments,” Guinnup said.

Landscape architect Tom McGilloway of Mahan Rykiel Associates also pushed back on Tufaro, saying, “I think we can have some sensitive development that’s in the non-floodplain areas that fronts on and engages and helps activate the Jones Falls.”

Developer Bill Struever, listening avidly from a front-row seat, kept his remarks upbeat and brief:

“Think big. Think bold. Boldness has a magic to it.”

Sewage Overflows

Other speakers urged the group to remember the wildlife already struggling to survive against assaults from humans.

Jan Danforth exhorted them to think first about the failing city government pipes that release millions of gallons of overflowing sewage into the Jones Falls every year, including at the stretch of waterway where cafes and other development is being envisioned by some.

“You don’t build on a weak foundation. Why would you want to not prioritize the ecosystem?” Danforth declared, noting that the Scott administration now says it won’t be able to stop sewage overflows along the Jones Falls until 2046.

“What’s the infrastructure that needs to be completely fixed before you start bringing the building on top of something that’s already corrupt?” Danforth said.

At this point, Blue Water Baltimore’s Leanna Frick spoke up to say, “I honestly don’t think that it is an either-or situation. You don’t have to fix the environment and then develop it. I think that smart development can be a really, really good thing for the environment” because it draws public attention to the issues.

Those issues are, however, intense, according to the watchdog nonprofit which monitors local water quality and environmental concerns.

Lead Paint and Trash

In addition to sewage overflows, there are hazardous lead paint flakes falling down on the very property Seawall is purchasing as well as a huge trash pile on the city-owned property next door.

Then there’s the millions of gallons of stormwater runoff the watershed is hit with, increasing in volume thanks to upland development.

“It’s important to note that the FEMA flood maps that we’ve talked about are recently outdated,” Frick remarked.

“As we get heavier and heavier rain storms, like we saw with the flooding in 2018, there’s a difference between fluvial flooding, where water comes up from the river, which is what most of those maps are based on, and then pluvial flooding, which is where we get storm water runoff.”

Keeping the ecosystem in mind is just one of the considerations MICA’s Lee Davis said he has been including in several years of collaborative work on multiple projects the school has along this stretch of the Jones Falls.

“We’re trying to come up with really creative, facilitative process to imagine an alternative future there,” said the co-executive director of the school’s Center for Creative Impact.

That’s meant asking what a wide variety of stakeholders want, he said, including those who can’t technically answer:

“What do the birds want? What do the snails want?”