Parking

By Richard Lelonek

Today, we have more cars than we have houses to park in front of. Of course, this is the result of two or three cars in a family. It has been noticed there are many times vacant spaces to park two Cadillacs in front. Someone will come in and park dead smack in the middle taking away a space for another to park. BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR! When parking, park close to the next car in front or behind, so another neighbor can use a space.

Getting Fresh Air in Bel-Air-Edison

by Joe Armstrong

My fondest childhood memories involve me being active somehow: whether I was just riding my bike around my neighborhood or maybe I was playing basketball, baseball or football. As I grew older and went to college in rural Pennsylvania, I maintained a relatively active lifestyle by regularly participating in basketball and taking up long-distance hiking. I loved the way walking or playing sports for a few hours made me feel and relieved what stress I felt at the time.

How does that relate to living in Bel-Air? When I first moved to Baltimore four years ago with my wife, we were purchasing our first home. We didn’t know what to look for in a home, let alone a neighborhood, but we felt we’d know it when we saw it. When we drove around Bel-Air, the row houses made me think of my childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., and seeing Clifton Park made me smile. I knew where I wanted to live in Baltimore.

I felt like the proximity of the park (in addition to Lake Montebello) to our home on the 3300 block of Woodstock Avenue would give me the proper incentive to get out of the house and exercise. As an adult, I felt that was important. I have been chasing that feeling of stress relief from when I was younger, but for multiple reasons in adulthood the feeling seems to get more elusive. Our time and energy are pushed and pulled daily with the demands and stresses of work, family, commutes, cooking, cleaning and any other activities we try to cram into the week. Maintaining some semblance of an active lifestyle was important to us in keeping our stress levels in control and our bodies healthy.

I love the park for a variety of reasons. First, it’s a five-minute walk from my house and it’s free! That’s always a plus in this current economy. It has fields to play softball, baseball, football or soccer. If you’re in the mood for a hike, it has a clean trail through the woods, with enough natural surroundings to provide an escape from the oppressive heat and humidity that seems to hover over Baltimore during the summer months.

When fall arrives, the leaves change and thoughts of enjoying the departure of the summer humidity immediately come to mind. When that happens, we head to Lake Montebello, seemingly almost on a daily basis. The breeze coming off the water, the friendly people and the joy of innocence on the faces of kids as they ride their bikes around the lake all make for an enjoyable workout.

On the walk home, I always look forward to a cooling shower and doing basically nothing productive for the rest of the evening. I know if the weather cooperates, in all likelihood we will repeat the process the next day, and we will be healthier because of it. However, I appreciate the park and the lake for their beauty in Bel-Air Edison and the good they produce on a daily basis to the neighbors who live within the community.

Springfest 2009!

Ever since I moved to Belair-Edison I have heard of Springfest, unfortunately the year I moved in was the last year it occurred. Quite a few of my neighbours remember it rather fondly as the Family Picnic Day or the Day at the Park or something similar.

Well Belair-Edison Community Association is determined to bring it back. So how do we bring this about?

-Well there is the planning of course

-Try to attract vendors to the event

-Have some sort of entertainment - DJ or Band?

-What kind of Children's games should we have

-What about the teenagers? How do we attract them to this kind of event?

-Let us not forget the adults - what kinds of diversion do they prefer? Would they be willing to participate in something like a three-legged race with their children? Or a sack race?

-Should we have a beer garden?

-Also another very important point is - How many people can volunteer to help bring all this about?

-How big should the event be?

Do you have any ideas for this event? Would you be willing to volunteer with BECA to bring this about? If you would like to participate please e-mail events@mybeca.org or call
410-485-5083 and leave a message for Karen.

Did you attend this event in the past? What did you like the most about it? What would you like to have seen? Could you just share a memory with us? If you would like to share some pictures of a past Springfest in B-E please e-mail them to events@mybeca.org

Well I hope to hear from you in the future.

Catherine Dawson

Editorial - Voting 2008 By Richard L. Lelonek

The Belair-Edison community can be proud of itself for their voting turnout. It was one of the largest in decades.

However, involvement did not/does not stop on November 2, 2008. It is a 365 days a year involvement. WE – all of us – have a responsibility and duty to be involved in every aspect of national life, starting with our own community.

HOW? Look around you. See what needs attention in the community to make it better. Come to community meetings. There is only one a month, and there you can voice your opinions, complaints. Exchange views at the meetings with other neighbors. Silence is not golden but rusted when no one takes an interest in your block, the blocks around you, the whole neighborhood.

Richard L. Lelonek

Belair-Edison's Future

At the October 7th community association meeting an ongoing topic came up - again: Belair-Edison's future.

• What path are we, residents of this neighborhood, going to take?
• Are we going to band together and reclaim our neighborhood?
• Or are we going to flee to another area in the city/county/state hoping that the problems in Belair-Edison will not follow us?

There were about 30 people at the meeting - this in a neighborhood of about 6,900 households - so just that tells us that we are NOT sticking together.

So what do we do? It was suggested:

• Instead of going to the meetings and complaining and whingeing about issues that affect us, come to the meeting with a solution to the problem and asking for help in bringing this solution about.
• When you see something that is not right, call 311 or 911 even if it is not directly affecting you. If you let things slide because they are not happening to you, the problem will come knocking at your door eventually.
• When there are trips to City Hall to present issues concerning Belair-Edison, we must gather as many people as possible to show unity within the community.
  

Something else that may help is to volunteer with the community association. Only 10 - 15 people do all the grunt work in the association.

• planning events
• zoning issues
• safety issues
• sanitation issues
• fiscal issues
• communicating all this to the community

If you have a little time to spare, please e-mail beca3412@hotmail.com or call 410-485-5083 . The Belair-Edison Community Association board invites you to help out.

If you do not want to be involved with the whole community you can do as a neighbor said "...if neighbors would begin to look at just their block and what could be done to improve it, that would make a huge difference overall. Some look at the problems in BECA as a huge problem but our problems can be solved one block at a time. Sometimes what is done on one block can be the solution for another block, and another until every block has a solution."

When more people are involved in the community we make it a much better place, a place we can be proud of.