Station North Arts District
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The Station North Arts District (often referred to as just Station North) is a neighborhood and recently designated arts and entertainment district in the U.S. city of Baltimore, Maryland. The neighborhood is marked by a combination of artistically-leaning commercial ventures, such as theaters and museums, as well as formerly abandoned warehouses that have since been converted into loft-style living. It is roughly triangular, bounded on the north by North Avenue and 20th Street, on the east by Greenmount Avenue, and on the south and west by the tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, though the neighborhood's boundaries include a one-block wide extension over the tracks that encompasses Creative Works.
In recent decades, the neighborhood (most of which was known until recently as Charles North) represented a relatively impoverished area between the healthier neighborhoods of Mount Vernon and Charles Village. However, in addition to its proximity to those neighborhoods, a number of factors made the area amenable to redevelopment and gentrification. The commercial district on Charles Street is anchored by the Charles Theatre, a popular art house multiplex, and several successful restaurants that cater to moviegoers; one block away is the Charm City Art Space which serves as an Music Venue, and Art Gallery; much of even the poorest sections of the neighborhood feature beautiful, three-story, early 20th-century rowhouses as the main housing stock; the Maryland Institute College of Art is within walking distance, which could encourage artists to settle and work there; and Penn Station lies at the south edge of the neighborhood, providing walking-distance access to Light Rail and MARC commuter rail service (the latter being of particular interest to those commuting to Washington, D.C.). And the real estate bubble of the 2000s, which has caused Baltimore's housing prices to skyrocket, has driven potential home buyers to seek out cheaper neighborhoods on the upswing.
The Baltimore city government's 2001 designation of the area as an arts district has furthered the project of transformation. The earliest and most visible signs of change were the official conversion of several industrial and warehouse buildings to mixed-use housing. The Copycat Building is probably the best known, but two other buildings—the Oliver Street Building (which houses the 66,000 square foot Area 405) and the Cork Factory—are also occupied. These buildings had been in use for decades as artist's studios and (illegal) housing. It is likely the city's decision to designate the Station North neighborhood for arts purposes was strongly influenced by the pre-existing community of art students and artists renting lofts in the Copycat Building or the Cork Factory.
Thus, as of 2005, the neighborhood was seeing a definite boom, but areas of blight persisted, particularly at the northern and eastern edges. These parts of the area are marked by vacant housing, drug dealing, and prostitution. A block of Guilford Avenue near the Charles Theater, dominated by empty rowhouses, is well-known as a location where transsexual prostitutes routinely ply their trade; the fact that the empty lot across the street will by 2006 be the site of brand new $300,000 townhouses illustrates both the potential and the challenges that the neighborhood faces.
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[edit] Legal aspects
The most concrete result of the area's designation as an arts district lies in the state's tax code. Artists who live or work in Station North may qualify for certain tax breaks by filing Form 502AE (Subtraction For Income Derived Within An Arts and Entertainment District) along with their Maryland Tax Returns. Major tax benefits concerning building usage are also in place, with assessment freezes and building rehab credits to encourage growth. The Arts District designation in actuality benefits landlords and owners of real estate most; however these groups typically do not include performers, artists and musicians.
[edit] Other issues
Much like Soho before it, Station North is rapidly becoming less a center for arts and creativity, and more a trendy, gentrified neighborhood of non-artists. The City of Baltimore has consistently up-marketed Station North as an "artsy" locale; however no provisions exist for low-cost artist's housing or residencies. Artists who have lived in the in the neighborhood for years before the official designation have hardly ever been consulted, recognized or subsidized by the city that has quite gratuitously cashed in on their cachet.
