Sandwiched between daunting chemistry labs, tucked away on the third floor of Dunning, Professor Neil Hertz lines his office with original photos, most of them pictures of Baltimore. Professor Hertz's interest in cities is what landed him at Hopkins.
The soft-spoken and charismatic Hertz arrived at Hopkins after teaching a course about cities at Cornell University. When asked why he made the big jump from Ithaca to Baltimore, he confessed, "My wife and I thought it was time to live in a city, and this was my first real opportunity."
Once stationed in Baltimore, Hertz began to teach a humanities class called "Cities: Baltimore, For Example." This class, which began as a small writing-intensive seminar for freshmen, has recently become a larger, lecture-style course.
Now, a class of about 60 students is divided into three groups that study a specific section of Baltimore city including Hampden, Waverly or Sandown-Winchester.
In each of these sections, students focus on the current status of the city-whether or not it is being gentrified or infiltrated by shopping malls, and even whether or not it is archaeologically significant.
Students in Professor Hertz's section (two other graduate students, Jason Gladstone and Jason Potts, also lead sections), which focuses on the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Sandown-Winchester, have undergone hands-on experience with the local community. In a collaborative effort with New Song Ministries, Professor Hertz's students helped move an entire preschool into a different building.
In addition to the physical help that they have given, these students have acted as mentors to a group of first graders in Sandown-Winchester. This interaction was very important to Hertz when he established the basis of his seminar.
"I wanted the course to be very hands-on," he said. "I find that most Hopkins students feel frightened about sections of Baltimore that fall outside the Hopkins campus."
Hopefully, with Professor Hertz's efforts, that will begin to change. When he polled about the locations that Hopkins students visit outside of the immediate campus area, Hertz was relieved to find that many students frequent such venues as the Ottobar, which is located on 25th Street between Howard Street and Maryland Avenue.
The reason some students may feel unsafe about venturing into the wilds of Baltimore is because of the rapid oscillations between areas of supposed gentrification and areas of utter dilapidation.
"Baltimore possesses some areas which are prospering, and still others that appear devastated [with poverty]," Hertz said.
Indeed, Baltimore has taken steps to ameliorate its major problems, such as that of unemployment. Unfortunately, as a guest lecturer in Hertz's "Cities" class recently informed students, many of the efforts Baltimore has undertaken to create more employment have produced dissatisfactory results. For example, the city of Baltimore has tried to bolster its services offerings - that is to say, its hotels and convention centers - in order to provide jobs. However, even after these services were established, the amount of jobs created has not significantly changed the unemployment rate.
In dealing with the pertinent issues of Baltimore, Professor Hertz has become personally involved. In 2000, Hertz joined forces with SLAC (Student-Labor Action Coalition) to stand up for Hopkins employees who were receiving wages of $6 to $6.50 an hour.
Hertz and SLAC demanded that Hopkins agree to a "Living Wage," wherein employees of the University would be able to support four people above the poverty threshold. As a result of their efforts, the University changed their policy to ensure that all of its employees receive no less than $7.75 an hour.
In addition to his assistance in the Baltimore community, Professor Hertz has captured a Baltimore of his own through his photography. Taking mostly black-and-white pictures of the city, Hertz often peruses the city at night in order to take his photographs.
When asked why he enjoys photographing Baltimore, Hertz replied, "The low buildings allow a wonderful contrast of light."
Hertz's photography will be on display at the Mattin Center on April 27.
