Lauraville Market: Connecting a Community
By Josh Flynn

Baltimore has a reputation of being a crime-filled city with its fair share of problems. People living outside of Baltimore may not realize that there are also a lot of Baltimoreans being productive members of their community, and striving for positive change.

It’s an encouraging sight; a once abandoned gas station and parking lot is now the site of the Lauraville Tuesday Market Connection. The site on Harford Road and Montebello Terrace serves as a once-weekly evening marketplace for food, entertainment, local vendors and a place to socialize with neighbors.  

View Larger Map (picture taken before renovation)

Despite these positive efforts, Lauraville is no exception to the high crime rates in Baltimore. According to the Baltimore City Police Department database, the most updated information for Lauraville (which has a maximum span of 14 days) recorded 14 crimes, one of which was a homicide.

Given the nature of Baltimore’s crime, the market is a welcome event for the citizens and families living in Lauraville. The market has a surprisingly vast variety of things to offer considering its size. There are food and drink vendors serving things like coffee from the local roastery, pulled pork sandwiches, Cajun cuisine and wraps made with all organic ingredients.

There is a massage stand, custom dog tags, homemade jam, a woman that makes hula hoops for all ages; plenty to keep you there for a while. Danielle Weissman, who makes the hula hoops in her spare time, demonstrates her hooping skills throughout the market and tries to get people involved, “It’s just a fun thing for everyone to do, and it’s a fun dance form, its wacky!”

There are also several other vendors selling items like personally designed tees, handmade jewelry and loose beads. One of the T-shirt vendors was a company based in Hamilton, a community adjacent to Lauraville; that comes to the market every week. Michael Clark, one of the owners was there to show me his work and tell me a little about how his company, Common Seed, got its roots.

Basically it was conceived on a cross-country road trip with a friend, Brett Benner, with the idea of, “wearable art, and the possibilities of spreading art, ideas, and positive vibrations in T-shirt form.“ The two started with a few designs in the spring of 2006 and sold them at festivals, and now have their own printing operations; with Clark being based in Hamilton.

Benner now operates out of Oakland, Ca., out of his basement as a separate entity, but the two use Common Seed to represent their broader vision, and hope to expand their company into more of a “collective community experience.”

When I asked Clark’s opinion of the Market Connection, he emphasized how remarkable of a transformation it was and how, “that abandoned gas station was an open sore for the community for, like, 20 years. With a little planning and many hands it was completely transformed in a matter of 12 hours (cumulatively) into a powerfully rich community resource. Even if it is only temporary it has already served to fulfill the purpose of its name (to connect), and as the ancients say name and purpose are one.“

Some of the vendors focus on sustainability while bringing unique products to the community they would not otherwise come across. I talked with owner of Three Stone Steps, Ellen Reich, whose favorite thing about the market was the atmosphere between the attendees and other vendors, “The market has terrific community spirit. It also has fantastic customers, who are eager to connect with me, the designer/importer/person as well as my products. “

One important thing that sets Reich’s company apart from her competitors is that she personally visits her suppliers to make sure the products are made in humane conditions. Doing so she can provide unique products that are hand-made in globally and bring an international side to the Lauraville Market.

I came across a quote about community the other day, and while the Lauraville Market Connection is a small step in a different direction; it is things like this that are becoming more important as communities move towards a society driven by technology and efficiency. Human interaction and involvement in one’s surroundings is becoming a rarity these days.

This kind of market initiative is important for the local people and businesses as well as in the larger picture, and this quote sums up the attitudes of those involved in running the market and living in the community.

Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead

Word Count: 770