Hampden: Planning for a Drama-Free Apocalypse since 2007

There are many distinguishing features that can be described as uniquely Hampden (the neighborhood's inexplicable hatred for adding parking without building anything comes to mind,) but the rooftop deck doesn't usually come to mind. I've been on rooftop decks in other neighborhoods. In Patterson Park, for example, I felt as if I was floating on a raft in an empty city, but in Hampden, a strategically placed rooftop deck offers something you can't get from those lowland neighborhoods down south: a view from on high. There's 1-83, there's the Key Bridge, there's TV Hill, and so on. Plus, on the Fourth of July, Hampden sets off illegal fireworks like it's a job, and Hampden, she's working overtime trying to earn money for the fam.

Such views inspired one partygoer's observation that although the fireworks and explosions all around inspired a sense of what the apocalypse might be like, he was hoping for a "more mellow, low-stress apocalypse--you know, drama-free."

First Nomination for Hampden home of the year: Filmmaker and Baltimore's Elvis Mitchell Josh Slates.

(Rooftop deck vista courtesy of Sugarfreak .)