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Occasional dispatches from the editor of Arbutus Patch. Your feedback and comments are appreciated. Bruce can be reached at at bruce.goldfarb@patch.com.Southwest Emergency Services (SWES), a nonprofit group based at Arbutus United Methodist Church, is in desperate need of food for hungry families in the 21227 zip code. "Our pantry is empty," said director Betty Okonski. "We don't even have peanut butter." The economy is bad, hitting Maryland worse than the national average. While organizations like the Maryland Food Bank can help, SWES is unique in several ways. SWES is based in Arbutus, helping people in the Arbutus area. Aside from providing food in emergencies, SWES also assists people facing eviction, utility cut-off and other crises. …
Arbutus Patch readers may notice some stories running that seem a little more dated than usual. I apologize for their late appearance, but they were too important to let slip altogether. Like many people in this area, I feel like my life was on hold for a week. Everything else was pushed aside because of hurricane Irene, power outages, and covering a major sewage spill into the Patapsco River--including stories that were being worked on before Irene hit. By now, I hope, everybody has had their power restored and is well on their way to getting their lives back to normal again. So if you'll …
Just now a reader asked via Facebook: "Why is there so much crime info on here for Baltimore Highlands/ Lansdowne? I could understand if it was Halethorpe or Violetville, as they border on Arbutus and we often use their post office or fire department - but Baltimore Highlands seems quite far from Arbutus." Arbutus Patch covers essentially the 21227 zip code, from the state park in Relay to the city line, from Catonsville down to Anne Arundel County. Calling it the "Relay Arbutus Halethorpe Lansdowne Violetville Baltimore Highlands Riverview English Counsel Patch" made it difficult to get …
Arbutus Patch is pleased to introduce a new column, The Tuesday Weld, by Baltimore satirist D.R. Belz. Belz's eye for absurdity and sharp sense of humor are a welcome new feature that is guaranteed to make your Tuesdays better than ever. He is the author of White Asparagus, an anthology of essays, poetry, fiction and cartoons, with an introduction by Rafael Alvarez. Check out The Tuesday Weld this week and every Tuesday in Arbutus Patch.
I’m not the type to brag a lot, but this week Arbutus Patch broke two stories that highlight "Sunshine Week"-- a national effort organized by the American Society of News Editors that demonstrated the importance of accountability and public access to records. It also serves to illustrate what daily life is like for me and other Patch editors. On Wednesday, Arbutus Patch was first to report an actual start to construction of the long-delayed MARC Halethorpe station. On Friday, Arbutus Patch reported that the public and media had been denied access to open records at Baltimore County Police …
We know it’s tough being a parent in the high-powered, constantly changing and demanding place that is the Baltimore-Washington metro region. And we want you to know how awed we are by the feats Arbutus area parents perform every day with your kids—from scheduling your commutes around daycare pickup times to preparing umpteen healthy-yet-delicious snacks to supporting children with special needs. But even the supermommies and superdaddies among us could use some help sometimes. Wouldn't it be great to have a place where you can share ideas with other people who are on the same bumpy, glorious…
I never met Mark Falkenhan. But I know a lot of people like him – people who invest their time and energy in service to their community. When something terrible happens – a fire or accident – the natural reaction is to run away, to stay out of harm’s way. It takes a particular mindset to overcome the panic reflex and run toward a catastrophe, a confidence and presence of mind. Few things in life are certain. Marriages come and go, cars break down, sports teams carrying the hopes and dreams of a city sometimes lose playoff games. But one eternal truth that everybody knows is that if you call 9…
It's been two months since launching Arbutus Patch, and with the passage of the new year it seemed a natural point to take stock of how far we've come. Watching this site develop and be embraced as an integral part of the community has been fascinating, like watching an organism grow and evolve. Not many people have the opportunity to work at something that they really enjoy. I'm in the catbird's seat, given the directive to learn stuff and tell people about it. I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Few things are as gratifying as the new discoveries and deeper levels of understanding about my …
We at Patch pride ourselves on transparency – that is, letting our readers know about our beliefs and biases. There is a statement to that effect in every Patch editor's bio on the top left of each home page. With that in mind, I'm writing this to 'fess up, as it were, that I am the same Bruce Goldfarb of Welcome to Baltimore, Hon! fame who is a provocateur in the "Hon wars" that have riveted the Baltimore area over the holidays and beyond. I've lived and worked in the Baltimore area for a lot of years now and I love these environs for their history and atmosphere – the very same culture that…
Pardon me for bringing this up again, but I was rather pleased with this video and wanted to give it more time on Arbutus Patch main page in case people missed it. It was my first time attempting a slick video, using iMovie and the iPhone, and trying out trickier things like separting the audio from the video. I'm learning how to hold the phone to reduce shakiness, and have an idea to make a mini-steadycam for the iPhone. Anyway, my intention was to make a piece with a lot of space. A sort of a video equivalent of an "All Things Considered" segment, just a momentary diversion of pleasantness…
Somebody recently sent me an email that basically asked: How can I get my event publicized on Arbutus Patch? Good question. Events are the lifeblood of a publication such as Arbutus Patch. They're news, often deserving more coverage than a calendar listing. We want to hear about events in the community and cover as many as possible. Arbutus Patch has a calendar where anybody can list an event. There's a link right above the calendar on the sidebar, and on the events page itself. We have a calendar editor, Sara Fisher, and you can send items directly to her. Sara can be reached at …
I'm going to start a new daily feature at Arbutus Patch over the holiday, call it "Display of the Day" or "Lights of the Night" or something like that. I'll be going around throughout southwest Baltimore County and take pictures of particularly noteworthy light displays, and posting new images in a gallery every day. We'll fun the feature through the holidays, until New Year's. What I'd really like is to see your pictures -- or video. If your neighbor's house is over-the-top, show us. If you're proud of your light-icicle handiwork, send in your pic. And your tree or fireplace, whatever you …
