| Director's Message Hello to all! Between blossoms and bulldozers there's no limit to activity in Greater Lauraville. The focus of this month's newsletter is just that, a detailed look at all the action coming your way in the six member neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville and the wider northeast Baltimore community. This focus arose from looking at the diagnostic tools associated with the new website. We know a few things about our website visitors: - In early January 2007 there was an average of 28 hits per day on the website. Since February 1, 2007 the site receives and average of 156 hits per day.
- The March edition of the Greater Lauraville Gazette generated 390 hits to the website in one day.
- Three quarters of those who visit the site are new, and they are visiting via the livebaltimore.com site, Baltimore City's webpage, and Google and Yahoo searches.
- The number one way visitors are coming to the site is through the newsletter.
- We need to quickly build the "House Listings" and "Calendar" portions of the site as they are the most frequently visited pages.
Krista Mahler, our fabulous University of Maryland intern, and Lauraville resident Sean Hall are managing the daily upgrades to the site ( www.greaterlauraville.com). The front page will soon become an easy way to find out what is currently happening in the area: events, opportunities, updates on construction in the area, etc. The calendar portion of the website should be up to date by the end of April, and I am currently working on a process to include house listings from all six member neighborhoods on a weekly basis. It looks to be an exciting year in Greater Lauraville, with fun events and many changes. The website, list serve
(http:///), and newsletter are great sources of information about your community. Help us increase our outreach by forwarding the newsletter using the link below, and joining the nogli- news Google Group by using the link in the side column.  | | | Resident's Message
My name is Sean, I'm a resident of Lauraville, and I'd like to share some thoughts on the current state of our neighborhood. We bought our house in Lauraville in late 2003, so I probably haven't been here as long as others. But since I've been here, Red Canoe has graced us with their presence. We can now buy organically grown, bird-friendly, fair trade coffee from a local roaster (Zeke's), and the property next to Red Canoe has undergone an amazing transformation from a dilapitated structure to a pretty nice looking one. Granted, we did lose the Montebello Deli, and I'm still waiting to see some real progress on the old gas station across from Safeway (although just knocking down that nasty old house next door was an improvement!). But our next door neighbors have gone from rather annoying renters with tons of cars (often parked in our driveway) to some very nice homeowners who now plant flowers and decorate the outside of their house, never done before.
I was as shocked and upset by the shootings on List as everyone else - as I've posted before, you can see our house from the scene of the murder. And we've been victims of the (very) petty crime of minor auto vandalism. But in the three plus years that we've lived here, our property value has increased quite a bit for a neighborhood allegedly in decline!
I think the key to a lot of what ails our area is involvement. I'm as guilty as anyone else of always having lots to say but not actually DOING much beyond always trying to be a good neighbor, supporting local businesses, and reporting any problems to the police immediately. But I'm trying to do a little bit more - I'll be working with NOGLI to keep the website updated, and I plan on actually attending meetings (gasp!) finally. Not much, I know, but I really really love this neighborhood! So many people on this list have so many good ideas and seem to care so much about our area that I really am encouraged and believe that if, indeed, ours is a neighborhood in decline, the tools to fix it are in our hands.
On a side note, I can't wait for the frost warnings to pass so I can continue our organic garden in the backyard, the one started by the previous property owners decades ago. They raised a family of three boys in our house and showed a great love for Lauraville, and I hope that my wife and I can continue to be the kind of stewards that our house and our neighborhood and our neighbors need and deserve.
Sean
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| | | Live Baltimore Tour April 14th from 9am - 1:30PM They are coming by the bus loads! At least 350 potential home buyers will participate in the Live Baltimore tour of Baltimore City's ten Healthy Neighborhoods on April 14th.
( www.healthyneighborhoods.org) The Live Baltimore Healthy Neighborhoods Tour Event on Saturday, April 14th from 10AM to 1PM will be held at Baltimore City College, 3220 The Alameda, Baltimore, MD 21218. Tours will leave every half hour to visit open houses in Belair-Edison, Charles Village, Ednor Gardens/Lakeside, Waverly, Gwyn Oaks/Hanlon, Greater Mondawmin, Reservoir Hill, Patterson Park, Highland town, and our own Greater Lauraville. The Greater Lauraville open house will be at 311 Reuckert Avenue. We will also be sponsoring a second open house at 2502 Hermosa Avenue from 10AM until 4PM. The tour bus will be traveling through our neighborhoods giving an overview of the community. Know of friends interested in buying a home in Baltimore? Want to see other neighborhoods up close and personal? Promote the event, and visit
http:///for more information. | |
Sincerely,
Lorrie Schoettler Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville
phone: 410-444-9188 fax: 410-444-9288 |
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