Revisiting Swann Park

While noting Baltimore’s long history of environmental disasters, it’s good every once in a while to see a spot in the city that has actually seen vast improvements in quality – not by the direct result of luxury condos, mind you – and will actually turn out to be a huge benefit to the community in general. Swann Park, situated just past the Hanover St. exit of I-95, is one of those spots. Condemned some 4-5 years ago due to arsenic contamination as a result of an Allied Chemical facility (shocker) that once sat nearby, remediation of the site took several years and looks to finally be 99% complete. Back in March during the infamous Fort Avenue pub crawl stabbing community meeting, a representative from Honeywell (the company who did the heavy lifting) was present to give the details on the process, noting that the park would “be open in the spring.”

Well, spring is almost over and the park isn’t open yet, but that didn’t stop me from walking over the knocked over fence blocking the entrance to take a look – and it looks great. The entire field has been resurfaced and updated with several baseball fields, a football field, bathroom facilities and a walking path.

So with any luck, the kids and kids at heart of South Baltimore will be able to enjoy the updated and revamped facilities this summer, but unfortunately the trash problem along the shoreline of Middle Branch, a problem that is so pervasive essentially everywhere along Baltimore’s shorelines, is still very much an issue. Hopefully when the park reopens, some volunteer crews can be assembled to tackle the mountains of trash.

(click dis)