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Charles Village named a top 10 neighborhood
American Planning Association praises community's quality of life
Issue date: 10/16/08
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This year, the APA judged several thousand neighborhoods based on categories such as form and composition, character and personality, environment and sustainability practices. Charles Village earned praise from APA reviewers because of "the neighborhood's strong and dedicated activist community, economic and social diversity and memorable character enhanced by designs from the renowned Olmsted Brothers firm" according to the APA Web-site.
According to APA research associate Tre Jordan, the Great Places in America Program seeks to celebrate outstanding American neighborhoods and public places, highlighting the successes of such communities and the successes of the planning of the communities. Jordan believes that Charles Village has seen its problems, but it's also quite notable for its achievements.
"It is a designation program. There is no jury per se, but there are multiple steps of review. Our list spans a range of different places because this is a designation program, so we're looking at places over the country," Director of APA Designations Denny Johnson said.
"We looked at several factors - the social implications and the economic implications among other things. It wasn't a broad checklist, so we didn't expect a neighborhood to have everything," Jordan said.
When a former Baltimorean APA director nominated Charles Village for the 2007 ranking, the absence of a streetcar service, the scarcity of affordable housing and the rarity of entertainment and culture for non-students lowered its standing. However, according to Johnson, Charles Village had the same strengths and weakness this year as it did in 2007, but it was not selected last year due to too many designations in this area of the country.
"There are a lot of different factors we look at. One of the things we try to do is get a geographical range of places. We didn't want to load up with a lot of places in this area," Johnson said. "Charles Village is no less of a candidate because of being distinguished this year instead of last year. Nothing really changed between last year and this year, but this year we said this deserves more careful consideration."
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