It may seem unsafe, but that?s not necessarily the reason downtown Baltimore officials want to cut down high berms loaded with trees and shrubbery along Pratt Street.
Their goal is to make Pratt more pedestrian-friendly,said Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.
Originally built 30 to 40 years ago, the purpose of the berms was to prevent the exhaust fumes of cars, buses and trucks from reaching pedestrians, Fowler said.
But the berms rise high, blocking the street view of business across the wide sidewalk, which can vary from 30 feet to 80 feet wide, Fowler said. The area being considered for improvements runs from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard along Pratt to President Street.
Fowler?s group wants to reduce the height of the berms as part of an estimated $2 million project over the next couple of years that includes new landscaping and making the berms essentially flat or close to flat with the sidewalk.
“Everybody crams on the street side rather than the building side of the berms,” Fowler said, adding that?s because there “is a perception” that the building side is unsafe.
Fowler said: “The trees create a dark environment. You have some homeless people sitting on the benches.”
According to notes from a March stakeholder meeting held by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, the organization wants Pratt Street to become a popular boulevard with retail shopping, businesses, street vendors, kiosks and entertainers.
“There are 100,000 employees in downtown, and approximately 15 million visitors per year to the Inner Harbor,” according to the meeting notes. “With all these people, Pratt Street has the potential to become Baltimore?s version of Chicago?s renowned Michigan Avenue.”
Businesses along Pratt want the city to pay for the work, Fowler said.
Paul Dombrowski, director of planning for the Baltimore Development Corp., the city?s economic development arm, said the city wants greenery along Pratt.
“We may have to remove some trees to take down the berms but that?s because we may have to destroy the roots,” Dombrowski said.
He said that the plan is for trees and shrubbery to continue to be on Pratt.
