Community Corner
New Group Wants To Make Harford Road a Destination
The Parkville Main Street Committee wants to give a stretch of Harford Road a face-lift.
Corinne Paulsen has lived all over the Baltimore area—from Parkville and Pikesville to Cockeysville and Woodlawn—as well as Northern Virginia. When it came time to buy her first home, she chose Parkville, a place where she’d rented an apartment.
“[Parkville] is affordable, safe, and close to everything, including 695 and 95,” said Paulsen. “I love my home and I love my neighbors.”
Paulsen has owned her house in Parkville for more than seven years and is a member of the Greater Parkville Community Council (GPCC). Through GPCC meetings, she has gotten to know President Ruth Baisden and the two have had an ongoing dialogue about Harford Road and its potential.
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Those discussions led to the recent formation of a new group called the Parkville Main Street Committee, an offshoot of the GPCC, which Paulsen chairs. There are currently about 10 members total on the committee. A core group of four members—Paulsen, Baisden, Andrea Messier and Joy Piscitelli—have been meeting every Saturday morning at the newly opened Café Euro coffee shop in the Parkville Shopping Center.
The committee is focusing their attention on the portion of Harford Road between Taylor Avenue and the post office located just south of Putty Hill Road.
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“We want this to be a walkable community with restaurants and an ice cream store and places for neighbors to congregate,” said Paulsen.
They are looking to give Parkville an identity and raise awareness of its charms, and their first order of business is developing a community logo that will appear on t-shirts and car decals that will be sold at the Parkville Town Fair on Sept. 18.
Proceeds from the sales will go toward the Main Street initiative.
Other plans include beautifying Harford Road by painting some of the buildings that line it, adding planters, and perhaps putting solar lights in the trees. The group also wants to give people a reason to come to Harford Road—perhaps through a regular farmer’s market or flea market.
“This is an area that people drive through,” Paulsen said. “Nothing draws you to Harford Road. We see what’s happening in Hamilton and we want to do something like that in Parkville.”