The lot on the corner of Eager and Glover streets in East Baltimore was once a blight on an already blighted area.
“It was a vacant lot filled with trash,” Covenant Community Association President Elroy Christopher said. “There was a lot of illegal drug activity.”
Little by little, thanks to the elbow grease of community activists such as Christopher, the lot has undergone a transformation.
First came the extensive clean up. Then came the flowers. A gazebo was added. An iron fence came in January. And, this weekend, the final touches were put on two newpavilions.
“We?ve really built it up ? it?s become really nice,” said Sylvia Butler, director of the nonprofit Miracle House of Hope, who on Saturday planted flowers with two women who receive services from her Luzerne Avenue-based organization.
Lewis Sharpe, who plays the role of chef at community cookouts, said he hopes the park gives young people a reason to stay out of trouble.
“It would be nice if they could just come to the cookout and enjoy themselves,” he said.
But that hasn?t always been easy, Sharpe said.
For years as community members attempted to build up the park, troublemakers tried to tear it down.
“They used to cut through the chain link fence and trash everything,” Sharpe said. “That?s why we had to get a new fence.”
Baltimore Police Department Eastern District Commander Maj. John Dodson admires the work the community has put into the park.
“That?s the kind of involvement you want to see,” Dodson said of Christopher. “He does a corner ministry. He has Christmas parties. He invites us to every one of them.”
In the high-crime Eastern District ? which recently saw tension between police and residents come to a head over the arrest of 7-year-old Gerard Mungo Jr. ? the Covenant Community Association?s hard work and positive relationship with the police are just what Baltimore needs, Dodson said.
Christopher echoed those sentiments.
“We don?t even look at them like police officers,” he said. “They?ve become part of the community. They stay down here late until the evening. It?s not about police. It?s about family and each other.”
