Johnston Square: Enhancing Pedestrian Safety and Celebrating Neighborhood Identity
What We Did
- Visioning
- Branding
- Community Engagement
- Grant Proposals
- Design
Partners
- MICA Center for Social Design
- Maryland Department of Transportation
- ReBuild Johnston Square
- City of Baltimore
Supporters
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- AARP
In early 2020, RJSNO completed the Johnston Square Vision Plan.
ReBuild Johnston Square Neighborhood Organization and Hord Coplan Macht engaged local residents and stakeholders in a year-long comprehensive planning process to identify neighborhood assets and areas of intervention.
Residents supported new parks and greenspaces; the implementation of a digital equity plan; residential and commercial streetscaping and traffic calming strategies; public art installations; and the oversight of numerous income-diverse residential and mixed-use developments.
Designing a vibrant neighborhood brand
One of the Plan’s recommendations was to develop an overall brand for the neighborhood to recognize existing residents, assets, and businesses, provide a positive gateway to and from the neighborhood, and support redevelopment.
NDC Community Design Works volunteers Glenn Dellon, Ryan Cosgrove, and Zachary Robertson created a complete branding package to give visual unity to some of the community’s main goals. The process involved several iterations that became more refined with each round of feedback.
Bringing the visuals to life
Some of the motifs, like bees and flowers, are inspired by the neighborhood’s connection to honey, for example, the local Charm City Meadworks. These branding elements are on display throughout the neighborhood on banner signs and an overpass mural.
Project cross-pollination
This new Johnston Square branding was applied as a large-scale mural by Christina Delgado as part of NDC’s Designer-in-Residence program Build Together.
The Challenge: Create safer streets for children and families
In Baltimore, vehicles have been tracked going more than 80 mph in school zones and children have been hurt. Neighbors were especially concerned about through-traffic on one-way streets (that were designed to quickly move higher volumes of traffic) which do not have stop signs or traffic lights.
Community leaders identified a need to enhance the visibility of pedestrian zones and intersections to make drivers more aware of and respectful to other road users. This is especially important for kids walking to the Johnston Square Elementary School and Henrietta Lacks Educational Park and Pool, (another NDC project — read more here) between which there was not a crosswalk!
On average, a Baltimore resident dies every week from injuries sustained in a traffic related accident. Someone is injured in a traffic-related accident every hour.
Made You Look initiative
One solution to traffic-calming is Art in The Right of Way. The Made You Look project began as a collaboration between MICA’s Center for Social Design and the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Office. It was conceived by MICA graduate students Quinton Batts (a former NDC Social Design fellow) and Vilde Ulset who investigated ways to reduce these troubling statistics through design interventions as part of their graduate coursework. The initiative has since been stewarded and expanded by the Neighborhood Design Center.
Art in the Right of Way interventions include horizontal murals painted in crosswalks and sidewalk bump-outs can alert drivers’ attention to pedestrians, bike-riders, and other road users.
Art in the Right of Way Toolkit
NDC hosts the The Made You Look Toolkit, a step-by-step guide that shows how to accomplish this interventions in a quick and affordable way. Now, communities can learn how to secure funding and permits, engage their neighbors, choose a design, and select supplies.
In one Baltimore neighborhood, only 20 percent of drivers yielded to pedestrians in the crosswalk prior to installing art. After the installation, that number increased to 75 percent. These relatively easy projects have big impact.
The Vision: Create a sense of place and safety
Create crosswalk art to not only slow traffic, but be an opportunity for branding and neighborhood identity that residents of all ages can enjoy and take pride in. It will also:
The Build: Bee Safe crosswalks
The Made You Look team worked with Johnston Square Elementary School students to understand how youth interact with their neighborhood streets and their feeling of safety while walking to school. The students were asked to draw pictures using the design prompt “if the intersections represented us, what would it look like?”
In March of 2022, Baltimore Department of Transportation installed bump-outs, crosswalks, and sidewalks surrounding Johnston Square Elementary School, and MICA and NDC helped organize volunteers to apply the colorful painted artwork.
The Future: The Neighborhood Design Center is currently in the process of expanding Made You Look beyond Baltimore City.
The power is yours! Check out these grants to make change in your neighborhood.
Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development
Energy Conservation Services helps low-income households with the installation of energy conservation materials and products to help lower utility bills and help maintain a safer, more comfortable home.
Baltimore Community Foundation
The Baltimore Community Foundation awards grants to nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status. We will also consider projects working with fiscal sponsors as long as the fiscal sponsor meets financial standards. They have helped enhance 33 blocks with new lighting.
Southeast Community Development Corporation
This is a list of action items residents can take for neighborhood revitalization for string lights on their block. 1. Solicit Neighbor support, 2. Decide on pattern, 3. Contact Electrician/contractor for estimates, 4. Raise Funds via neighbors or grants (see below).
Central Baltimore Partnership
The Central Baltimore Partnership’s Community Spruce-Up Program provides grants of $10,000 - $25,000 per project to neighborhood-driven, public space, capital improvement projects in all 11 Central Baltimore Neighborhoods.
BGE Community Safety Grant
Organization must be 501c3 non-profit and the project must be geographically located in the BGE service territory.
Resident Resources
Residents can contact their Neighborhood Community Association for help with applying to above grants. For example: The Highlandtown Community Association received a grant from BGE to support adding café lights. Find your local association through Baltimore City’s Planning Department here.
Residents can report outages and request repairs if existing streetlights are out or malfunctioning by reporting them to Baltimore City’s 311 service by calling 311, using the Baltimore 311 website, or the 311 mobile app. They can also contact BGE.
Residents can request new streetlights by contacting Baltimore City Department of Transportation (DOT) at (410) 396-6802 to inquire about streetlight installation procedures.
Residents can Contact City Council Representatives. Your district representative can help push for improved lighting. Find your council member here.