I am also not a drug user but I carry narcan so if I see someone unconscious I can potentially save their life. It's really a miracle drug. A good friend of mine would still be alive today if someone had been there to administer it to him. I don't leave the house without it.

jew here. hit the movies, get some chinese food, revel in the short lines, assume anyone else you see is one degree of separation away from family. think about it like we do--hey, free day off of work, most places are closed so no real obligation to be anywhere, why not just hang out and relax!

(on a more serious note—BARCS and the Streetcar Museum always need volunteers! signing up for either of those are a great way to meet people, and it's fun to have a regular thing to do that makes you feel like you've made a difference.)

start screaming every time you swing the hammer as if it's scaring you too

straw over blankets!!! or shredded newspaper, cardboard, etc. if you really can't get any straw. blankets are pretty dangerous because they freeze if they get damp, and then can end up killing animals from hypothermia!

also if people are feeling really welcoming, a bathroom is an ideal cat quarantine zone for a stray who needs a warm place to stay.

dunno what 5G you're getting, because mine has been just as slow as regular cell service!

do not under any circumstances tell anyone you know what it is, otherwise you'll be immediately disqualified. that's the kind of info you keep zipped until it's time to actually use it

for sure! if you haven't been, catch a show or two at the crown and get a drink at club charles, that always feels like familiar territory for me (but i was a big fan of the BK diy scene, so ymmv!)

go out in mt vernon, station north, etc. reminds me of parts of brooklyn but without as much congestion. baltimore as a whole reminds me of what my family says nyc was like in the 70s though, and it's a vibe i like a lot. also i'm somehow less scared of dying when i do city biking here!

we're in the start of another covid surge. a lot of workers are out sick and that leads to things like early closures or partial closures. brewer's art is usually pretty energetic and full, especially when the weather's good enough for them to have outdoor seating! i'm still cautious about being breathed on by a million strangers so i wish they had the heaters out, i'd definitely be frequenting as often as i did the rest of the year if i could still hang outside.

i've seen it happen here when people actually want a good faith discussion and don't just want to stir shit or have people agree with them. depends on how flexible you feel going in.

they post about it to their insular communities and think things like putting thin blue lines all over their cars matter bc they're genuinely terrified of their actions having consequences. the more pushback they get, the more scared they get. there's a reason you don't hear anything from that neo-nazi richard spencer anymore, and it's because he got too scared to show his face in public when people wouldn't stop punching it.

holy shit. piss

grano in hampden is a real gem! get the mussels, last time i went you couldn't see the pasta at all for how many it came with

jumping in on the hearing protection part of this--show her how to put in earplugs properly (roll, insert, wait for them to expand, then press them in to seat them fully!) and if she doesn't like the feeling of foam earplugs, grab a pair of over-ear muffs at a hardware store/home depot/etc!

also if you're at the aquarium, take her to see mr. trash wheel!

the kryptonite new york series is pretty high-end, and a chain/U-lock combo is the gold standard for cyclists. if you're going to be locking up at one set location then weight shouldn't be an issue and you can double up like that.

if you really want to go nuts, the hiplok D1000 is considered "angle grinder proof" because it'll wear down a cutting disc before you being able to cut all the way through it. really though, you don't need the best lock around--you just need a better lock than the person next to you.

i understand the reaction! i feel like as someone in the building trades i feel both suspicious of NIMBYs and YIMBYs at times—typically restoring historic housing in streetcar cities and row house neighborhoods is a better move than tearing it down and replacing it with rickety, cheaply made 5-over-ones, because inadequate housing is nearly as bad as no housing at all and i know firsthand how quickly shitty new "luxury" housing falls to moisture issues and mold and mildew, how its thin walls make life hell for people (and their heating/cooling costs), and how they encourage short-stay tenancy for young couples and single people rather than providing long term family housing. i think most people don't go that deep into the minutia and i don't fault them for being as boring as i am, but i do definitely get passionate about it! row homes and historic houses like this are fantastic for housing density without encouraging too much car dependency (bc too much car dependency leads to an actual lack of true density bc things like schools and grocery stores are pushed too far away to access on foot/via public transport bc of parking needs, so cost of living goes up, etc etc etc, shit, i'm rambling again) so my drive for density is also coupled with a strict need for dignity/quality of life for low income residents. lots of things in the balance!! i get heated!! sorry for the massive walls of text there! this situation is a mess, damn

from what i've been hearing, the "decay" isn't really that extensive and is really just beyond what the church is willing to put into maintenance! they say they've put like $91,000 into these houses, but that was over the course of several years, which shook out to just a few thousand dollars per year per house (which is way, way less than basic upkeep costs for houses like this should be.) unique, very easily habitable historic properties like this being left empty and neglected by a private entity for the purposes of total demolition is just an entirely different issue than some potential NIMBYism. in a case like this, historic preservation and housing density go hand in hand, because preserving these houses would also preserve density in the neighborhood, and the net benefit would be that a dying form of architecture is preserved and maintained while also being used to its full potential for living space. it's important to evaluate the nuances of each individual situation when we can!

tearing unique historic buildings that could easily be used for housing down, potentially structurally compromising other historic buildings (it's not easy to tear down just one/one chunk of row houses!) to make a private prayer garden/"hard scape space" (so like... concrete slab?) in the middle of a very dense urban area is the opposite of helpful, though! it's not NIMBYism to say that a tax-exempt, wealthy religious institution with a congregation that comes from mostly outside of the city may not have the priorities or the needs of actual city residents in mind. like sure, if you want to fall into whataboutism what you're saying could feasibly be true somewhere, but the material reality at hand here makes it inapplicable to this situation.

not to mention that a lot of this architecture is just plain impossible to replicate in this day and age! some of it is prohibited by zoning, some of it has been made by craftsmen who just don't exist anymore, some of it is just cost prohibitive to build new. this would be a really irreparable loss to historic architecture for the sake of "hard scape space" (a private concrete lot?) and a "prayer garden" in an area with several good sized, public parks within walking distance.

someone broke down the cost, and iirc the church has spent about $1750 per building per year on them, which is really barely anything and hardly enough to cover upkeep. they're allowing them to fall into disrepair via neglect, honestly.

i used to pass the prayer garden twice a day, every day on my walk to and from work--a good 75% of the time it was locked, and the rest of the time it was empty. i was tempted to walk through it a few times, but it's really unwelcoming because it seems like they don't actually want people to use or enjoy it!

BARCS and all their satellite adoption sites (petco, etc) always have kittens! frequently their kittens are also in foster homes so you need to schedule a meeting. a kitten can also bond well with a cat close in age--don't discount a cat who's one or two years old, they've still got a ton of that kitten energy! BARCS is also overcrowded right now so they are waiving adoption fees through the weekend, and all of their animals are vetted and spayed before going up for adoption. it is admittedly harder this time of year--"kitten season" is in the spring-summer, and slows down as it gets colder.

yeah honestly i'm insanely excited to feel less like i'm about to be obliterated by a car every time i need to bike somewhere around there

the alley houses in poppleton are some of the last of their kind, and i think they're so cool!

starbucks has been non-union for all the years that they've been jacking their prices--and they'll continue to jack prices, because that's what corporations do simply because they can, and it maximizes profit, which is their one and only goal, but they'll just blame unionization for it so they don't get the heat for charging $8 for a drink that costs like 50 cents to make. somehow people keep falling for that line!