As the president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, Laurie Schwartz makes a splash at work every day.
For nearly 20 years, Schwartz has been part of the nonprofit organization, which works to maintain a clean and healthy Baltimore Harbor as well as promoting local tourism and community events.
Schwartz views Baltimore’s waterfront as a key recreational asset for the region, though it may not immediately come to mind when people think of recreational projects like local parks and playgrounds. And as summer approaches and the harbor plays host to more waterfront events, she’ll be especially busy in the coming months.
Schwartz, 71, lives in Baltimore’s Roland Park neighborhood with her dog. She was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Buffalo, New York. Notably, Buffalo’s school system had Greek life options available to high schoolers as extracurricular activities at the time, and Schwartz belonged to a Jewish sorority.
Career opportunities for women were not as plentiful then as they are now, she recalled.
“Professions for women were generally narrower than they are today, in terms of the ones that were seen as available and open to women,” Schwartz said in an interview with the JT. “I did think about going to law school, but I decided to go into social work and social policy.”
While attending the University of Maryland at Baltimore, Schwartz started volunteering with the Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development, which she describes as being “a very exciting place at the time.” This was during William Donald Schaefer’s mayorship, and while Schwartz would not be involved with the harbor for a while, she remembers when the area was being redeveloped. It was a time of radical change for Baltimore.
“It was really the focal point of so much activity in Baltimore. At the time, urban renewal was shifting from the demolition of neighborhoods to rehabilitation, like in Washington Hill and Reservoir Hill,” she said. “I really got caught up in city planning and redevelopment and government leadership because of Schaefer. I didn’t think I would stay in Baltimore after college, but I loved the work and I loved being in the middle of the action, which was mostly occurring at Fells Point and Federal Hill.”
Schwartz first became part of the Waterfront Partnership when it was founded in 2005, with the initial goal of keeping the area clean and developing it into a hub of activity. When she started, it was not only as the partnership’s first executive director, but as its first employee. The harbor, and thus Schwartz’s work for the Waterfront Partnership, has changed significantly over time as more businesses have cropped up around the area and the organization has started new initiatives to further their mission.
In 2010, the partnership started the Healthy Harbor Initiative, which aimed to clean up the harbor’s water with the ultimate end goal of making it safe for swimming. Now, 14 years of sewage and stormwater cleanup later, the harbor will be hosting the Harbor Splash on June 23, marking the first time in decades that people will be allowed to swim there.
As an avid swimmer herself, Schwartz says she’s looking forward to this event and will be taking the plunge alongside several of her friends.
“A group of us jumped in last September, and that was just a blast. It was so much fun,” she said. “I’m excited to do that again on June 23.”
The Waterfront Partnership has made leaps and bounds in making the harbor a cleaner, safer and more attractive place to be, but some of the projects that Schwartz says she’s proudest of are more remote. One of her most meaningful accomplishments was the planning and building of Pierce’s Park, a one-acre park tucked away on Pier 5 and named in honor of local leader and businessman Pierce John Flanigan III.
She has also been involved with the development of Rash Field Park, which is set to begin its second and final stage of construction in September.
Schwartz is approaching the 20-year anniversary of the Waterfront Partnership, but has no plans of stopping her work there anytime soon. In addition to preparing for other upcoming events like the Baltimore Floatilla, Schwartz said she wants to continue to create recreational spaces for families and children and to develop the harbor into the best place it can be.
“My goal is just to continue building on the success that we’ve had, to create even more attractive parks and play areas for families and to create more reasons to bring people to the harbor,” she said. “And I’m grateful for the kind of support that the Waterfront Partnership has been able to achieve from businesses in the area, and from the city and the state.”
