essay by R. DARRYL FOXWORTH, photos by FERN SHEN
       People may miss the funky flamingo that Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting recently took down from her Hampden restaurant, rather than pay a suddenly-imposed $800 city fee. But many are also missing the deeper message that underlies all the passion, from across Baltimore, over this controversy. To get it, you have to understand that the big pink bird — and Whiting — represent an image of Hampden that, while some applaud, others resent. Where some see neighborhood savior, others see uppity gentrifier.
((Two  pro-pink-bird points-of-view, from Ann LoLordo and Gerry Neily.))

     When Baltimore’s Department of General Services first assessed Whiting the $800 annual charge for a “minor privilege” permit for the bird — which has been on her building for seven years — the Hampden entrepreneur originally protested. Then Whiting changed tactics and took the bird down.

     This has generated tons of print and broacast publicity for the Cafe, which has signs protesting the city’s actions in its windows and a “bring back the bird” page on Facebook. Mayor Sheila Dixon has been quoted saying she would like to find a way to return the bird to the restaurant facade, though she hasn’t said whether she’ll waive the fee. Many have leapt to Whiting’s defense and called the city short-sighted, to be picking on small businesses in pursuit of revenues during the city’s budgetary woes.
 

     Others, though, wondered why Whiting didn’t just consider the fee the cost of doing business, pay it and move on. The “minor privilege” permit has been utilized for years in Baltimore, most commonly for businesses that have outside seating occupying sidewalks. While many might consider such taxes and fees an attack on small business, they are a fact of life in the city. Whiting, saying the flamingo image is “art” and therefore exempt, just sharpened the dichotomy between Hampden’s self-appointed cultural elite and the largely working-class majority. Hampden locals like Charles “Chick” Nott, commenting to the Sun, see Hon owner Whiting as demanding special treatment: “She’s no different than anybody else.”

 

     Clearly Hampden is a community with an identity-crisis—is it newly-gentrified yuppietown?—a hipster haven? An old traditional neighborhood? Or is it something different? To some area residents, Whiting has appointed herself Hampden’s cultural curator and spokesperson, an attitude looked upon with scorn. She and the others crafting a new Hampden, as they see it, are outsiders looking to toss aside the neighborhood’s character and established history.

     The cultural schism is best exemplified by Honfest and Hampdenfest, that is, the gentrified and the indigenous white working-class. Any visitor to Café Hon can see that the restaurant isn’t of Hampden as much as it is an escape—something of a destination spot—for residents of traditionally more prosperous neighborhoods such as Roland Park, Mt. Washington and Charles Village.

 

    Whiting and others of her ilk are promoting the community but they’re also exposing long-brewing resentment within the community—often times an “us v.s. them” mentality between Hampden stalwarts and recent transplants. Each side seems to caricaturize and vilifiy the other: poor white trash in one corner, uppity urbanites in the other.

     As an African-American gentrifier of sorts, my point-of-view is unique. Interestingly enough, it has been shops such as Café Hon and 13.5% that have attracted a more diverse audience to what has been traditionally identified as a monolithic, prejudiced community. On the other hand, one sympathizes with the plight of the culturally-displaced white working class, trying desperately to hold on to something—anything—that might provide stability in their ever-changing neighborhood. It’s ironic to find myself a sideline observer in a war between white social classes.

     The patrons of Café Hon can be seen as privileged interlopers who have managed to take the cultural reigns of a community with an identity of its own. But these gentrifiers are unique–they don’t want to abolish the established identity completely, rather, their preference seems to be to eradicate those elements that might not viewed as culturally sophisticated.

      As with any community, one must take the bad along with the good. Racial epithets have been hurled at me during my time in Hampden, and I’ve also witnessed perceived outsiders being attacked simply on the grounds of their otherness. Of course, the cultural elite are not virtuous in their views either: they don’t want to be associated with the supposed Hampden underclass any more than indigenous Hampdenites would like to be associated with them.

     Whiting’s attempt to recreate Hampden certainly has had positive influences, but let’s not ignore the underlying tensions it has caused in the community she has so effectively marketed.

– R. Darryl Foxworth is a freelance writer and business communicator. He’s a Baltimore native and current Hampden resident.