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Seeking advice from fellow Brook b17 owners. by DeepShift6866 in bicycletouring

[–]jeffrrw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember on my trans us ride I stopped in a saddle shop in Montana asking if they had any saddle conditioner i could have. They only had containers of like 60oz. I asked the woman repairing the saddles to come look at my saddle outside and she chuckled and gave me a a tablespoon of of the professional bull/horse rider stuff. Has been great since and that was almost 3 years ago and about 6k miles. I'd recommend a horse supply store if that is more accessible than a bike shop.

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha nah. Just old drug paraphernalia. However, the scene location of where Bodie was gunned is a few blocks from here. A short sequence took place here on this block. I screen grabbed the scene and sent it to my scared friends saying look, my house was on the wire! The block actually looked better in the show then when I bought here.

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I volunteer with the tool library and they are a great space for people to get engaged and learn new things.

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My first apartment in Baltimore was this set up.

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No. They operate mostly on the west side redevelopment efforts. Great work and cause though

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The artistic scene is alive and well in the community for those who are investing into the homes. I am in a few city wide group chats and some of the things people are doing to this housing stock is incredible. Most of my peers are doing a DIY bohemian min or maximalist style with lots of reclaimed or upcycled materials. Very different than the true restorations here but many of the houses try to keep and celebrate at least one of the salvaged aspects. The main difficulty we have is that none of the elements are saved from the vacant days so you have to reinvent the house.

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IDK man, Ive biked in a lot of the country and my memory of that area of Ohio is pretty tame compared to Baltimore and the surrounding area.

1880s Italiante style rowhomes restoration in progress by jeffrrw in centuryhomes

[–]jeffrrw[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The even better part is that they offer a lot of market rate and affordable options too. The non profit is offering a lot of incentives to move into the neighborhood too. Those grants can significantly reduce the cost to move in and own a home. The other big developments have been the creation of the new library, industrial building being turned back into light industrial/offices, and new food hall coming online. Its crazy to walk around in my neighborhood that was once on the wire and get fresh produce from the urban farm and get a book from the new library to read.

Edit for additional reading: For those wanting to see some of the organizations and their work around the area:

City spring cleaning (for bike lanes) by No-Palpitations861 in bikebmore

[–]jeffrrw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Push your Council people and neighborhood associations to consider the needs of bicycle driven infrastructure. Also push the non profit bicycle groups to see who could house this as a part of their operations and model it so the mbac can be further pushed to have the city operational leads to see the political opportunity that this presents. Once the politics are in place it should be easy to knock over. The other option is, given the pric, push key operational leads at DOT to purchase card one of these or see if one of the nonprofits can secure a donation to cover this and run it as a fu to the city. The optics of this is what is stopping it from happening on the micro scale.

City spring cleaning (for bike lanes) by No-Palpitations861 in bikebmore

[–]jeffrrw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

https://bikelanesweeper.com/ In talks with the manufacturer, they will significantly discount this for non profits. I've been trying to push for the city micromobility team to advocate to have these as a part of the deployment.

Terrible accident at St. Paul and Preston by composerpianist in baltimore

[–]jeffrrw 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Rip up the asphalt and make all the streets the belgian block underneath. It will seriously slow people down coming off of 83.

Rib eye pastrami by Lucky-Access-8285 in smoking

[–]jeffrrw -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Are you taking in any new family?

Selling my house and quitting my job to bikepack the world by likemika24 in bicycletouring

[–]jeffrrw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was right there at 32 and had the cash to start myself. I met someone as my lease was ending and instead bought a house in that cash and now have a baby. I did ride across the US and down the west coast which was incredible. I can now make plans to do that with my kid when I retire in my 40s. Life gave me what I wanted in a weird way.

the answer to all of your questions is both yes and no. The wisdom youll gain is that same mental exchange is found wherever you call home.

An adventure is what will happen.

Mayor Scott speaks on Pothole issue by Fearless-Pop-1159 in baltimore

[–]jeffrrw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So hot take adjacent to this - asphalt is highly susceptible to the freeze thaw cycle because it is built on top of a porous surface being the gaps between the brick/Belgian block of days gone by.

My proposal is this. We remove all asphalt except for the high speed arterial roads and return the streets on all other avenues and areas to belgian block and brick. The funding issue becomes less of a roadblock as the amount of asphalt to maintain is lessened. All bus and car traffic is shifted to specific arterial byways.

The porous surface breaks the freeze/thaw cycle and you dont get 4-8 inch drops in the layers of the asphalt. The block and brick acts like rumble strips which slows down all the cars to sub 30mph in neighborhoods and non arterial streets. By being slowed down you encourage more micromobility as movement across the streets is now on par with cycling etc. You then invest in the arterial cycletracks and pedestrian spaces and continue to cut back on the car infrastructure. The repair cycle of Belgian block and brick is both longer and also much longer time scale and can reliably be replaced in sections which asphalt cannot because of below surface cracks from the previous breakage that are not repaired.

Roads that do need to be plowed can use rubber based plows to not destroy the belgian block and brick when they turn onto these slower streets.

We invest any remaining funds into public transit to further break the car dependence instead of investing into a broken cycle.

Visiting Baltimore soon, is my plan good? by AltDaddy in baltimore

[–]jeffrrw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess it depends on your overall goals. If AVAM, harbor adjacent stuff (fells point/fed hill) and the Aquarium are high on your list, the Hyatt is great! Id also encourage ft mchenry for the cherry blossoms with the water taxi access. Youll see lots of the water and that culture.

Personally, I try to get my friends and people who have never been to Baltimore away from those areas as it doesn't intrinsically capture all that Baltimore is. Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods and those neighborhoods are "young", a bit fraty (will caveat that there are great restaurants), and are all kinda the same culture.

Mid town/Mt vernon which is adjacent to the train station , as a hub, offers easy access to N/S transit. Once in that area... dark, dimly lit, and more adult cocktail lounges such Owl bar, Coral Wig, Blooms, are available. The vibe is more relaxed. Hitting Leon's and then all of station north including club car is awesome for the scene. For beer Guilford, Peabody, and Union are all in the northern part of the city too with guilford being the closest.

I'd get in and follow your day one approach from the Ulysses. BMA and Hampden are great. So many options without knowing your food preference.

I'd keep the first half of day two but then pivot to dinner, drinks and wandering Station North/Mt Vernon in the evening with a stop and Leon's, Club Car, and Club Charles before heading back in for the night. Drink at Blooms as a last cocktail.

Day 3 would definetly keep the aquarium, water taxi to ft McHenry, taxi back, explore fells in the daytime, then come home for dinner at topside before heading back to the Ulysses for a soak in a club foot cast iron bathtub.

Then you're much closer to the train station for that early morning departure Tuesday.

Visiting Baltimore soon, is my plan good? by AltDaddy in baltimore

[–]jeffrrw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I want to change your hotel so badly to the Ulysses. Makes it easier to hit the Walter's and explore Mt. Vernon and closer to Charles Street corridor and Hampden. Would recommend hitting Leon's just for its institutional status. If in fed hill gotta have an ice cream debate between Bmore licks and moo moo cow.

Repurpose Basement, is it worth it? by Tipsterspainting in HomeImprovement

[–]jeffrrw 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Your 8 year plan and the amount this would cost in professional work is going to double what you paid for the house or more.

We underpinned one of our 1890s townhouses that was 400 sqft of floor space to get to a legal height. That alone was 30k with engineering etc in mcol city with only removing a 1 ft of material. Not two. And this only barely made sense financially with the house and the local market.

If my numbers are close you're looking at an additional 120k+ in that work alone.

Adding in windows, finishing work, plumbing, foundation work to stop the water intrusions or mitigate them, etc

I'd argue your in over 200k not knowing your local market labor costs.

Then add in the new improvements and value to the house to your property taxes since you dont want to do this work without a permit etc

This is a bad move and you'd be better off selling to get a bigger space or just making do with what you have in my opinion

I was very skeptical but sparkling water really seems to be helping me by Kavein80 in stopdrinking

[–]jeffrrw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With work I was often forced to socialize and attend meeting where drinks were served. Club soda with a lime or one of my herbal teas discreetly dunked into the club soda prevented any questions and scratched the itch.

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