roland park

the first community on the cap tour schedule was roland park. in the context of baltimore, it was a surprise. just read their "national register of historic places" sign. i guess in a way it should not surprise me at all. not that different from oakland county. and there wouldn't be an oakland county without a detroit.

roland park was the first planned suburban community in america. crazy. and just the mention of fredrick law olmsted (even if he's jr.) is enough to entitle the community a claim to fame. for all the innovation in site design and planning, roland park was admittedly less than innovative in "social dimensions." which was still obvious more than 100 years after its conception. it's amazing how just a matter of blocks can change everything in baltimore.

as far as i've interpreted it, the concept of our cap "tours" is to find the essence of any given community... using whatever tool we deem necessary: photography, note taking, interviewing, sketching, etc. amid all the researching & learning i did in the community, i learned little things about myself. like... i tend to want to observe from the sidelines. i'm much more comfortable soaking things in as a wall flower. but comfort zones are crap. it took me back to my struggles with debriefing. i need to have a more genuine interest in other people. i need to actually want to talk to them & know their story. that will take time.

i found myself really interested in the schools in the area. mostly private, prestigious, and extremely expensive. but even the roland park public school looked classy. i'm anticipating what i saw today will be night and day compared to the typical baltimore public school that i might run into on other cap tours. i was able to get into two of the "roland park five" (school doesn't start until tomorrow) - gilman school and roland park county school. there was so much there... i still need to process it all. but i'm excited. it will be interesting what, if anything at all, could be pulled from those elite private schools and applied to the floundering baltimore school system. and to see what art can do to benefit a community that already seems to have it all.