City looks at another go-round for Rash Field

It's a small property tied to the fate of a much bigger one.

The Inner Harbor merry-go-round, which has struggled for years, sits next to Rash Field, a roughly 7-acre expanse of volleyball pits and muddy field ringed by gray concrete, that city and civic leaders have long dreamed of turning into a bigger, better attraction.

The basic plan for the field to build an underground parking garage and place a park on top was proposed by a team hired by the city in 1994. It has reappeared in similar guises at least four times since, racking up hundreds of thousands dollars in planning fees, before retreating each time for lack of funding and support.

That record is one reason the former operators of the carousel were not surprised to learn that the company that replaced it with a new machine had received a new, more forgiving lease one that acknowledges that the ride won't be a big money-maker.

"The carousel is not an attraction that's going to bring people to the city," said Stacey Daft, whose family ran the merry-go-round for decades before being forced out in 2012 because of unpaid rent. "It's a very small piece of property. If you want to solve the overall problem ... there's a lot of things that need to be relooked at."

In some ways, the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor, which put Baltimore on the map in the 1980s, hasn't stopped, with enough investment in the past decade to make other neighborhoods jealous.

Additions include the $4.5 million visitor's center, the $2 million West Shore Park, the $1.2 million Walter Sondheim Fountain, floating wetlands and the $2 million Pierce's Park. There's also new landscaping along Pratt Street.

But even as other, smaller plans come to fruition, larger investments have lagged. The struggles of the carousel, some say, speak to the limits of smaller projects and the need for bigger moves to change the dynamic of the south side of the waterfront.

"The location is a challenge," said Laurie Schwartz, president of the private Waterfront Partnership, launched in 2005 in response to calls to spruce up the Inner Harbor. "One big reason why we're anxious to get the Rash Field Park developed is to create more reasons for people to use the entire harbor, including the south shore."

In recent months, efforts on two important parts of the Inner Harbor appear to have gained momentum. The new owners of the Harborplace pavilions face a 2015 deadline to upgrade awnings, lighting and landscaping along Pratt and Light streets. Private donors, including T. Rowe Price, have begun to come forward with money to help finance the $3.5 million demolition of the fountain at McKeldin Plaza and replace it with a grassy park, while the city studies a more ambitious plan to reroute traffic to link the square more securely to the promenade. Fundraising is also underway for a temporary ice rink at the plaza.

Continued here:
City looks at another go-round for Rash Field