For about 24 hours last week, bewildered pedestrians on East Pratt Street stopped and stared at an oddity atop a city light pole, singing out for their attention — a speaker propped in a plastic milk crate blaring the song “Baby Shark” on a loop.

On the evening of Aug. 24 and throughout the following day, passersby lifted cell phones to snap photos or take videos of the mysterious black box. Children hearing the familiar tune happily bobbed their heads or started dancing as parents ushered them toward the aquarium, restaurants or other Inner Harbor destinations.

There was no sign explaining the music’s purpose. Was this impromptu performance public art? A public relations effort to drive traffic to downtown venues? Or was the lighthearted children’s anthem indicative of a more sinister effort: children’s music being deployed to deter a homeless man from sleeping there?

At least one such attempt was reported in Florida, and this may be the first time “Baby Shark” has been weaponized in Baltimore.

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The busy sidewalk between 601 and 701 East Pratt St. connects the Pier V Parking garage with property managed by The Cordish Companies and home to several iconic downtown restaurants, such as the Hard Rock Cafe and Phillips Seafood. Cordish also leases office space to The Baltimore Banner in an adjacent building.

On this strip of sidewalk, a homeless man has frequently been spotted sleeping on the ground immediately in front of where the speaker was placed. He typically wedged himself between a cluster of oversized cement planters, enclosing the makeshift shelter with his wheelchair as East Pratt Street traffic whooshed past.

But during the brief time the speaker played the earworm, he wasn’t at his usual spot. Banner reporters instead found him sitting five blocks away in his wheelchair behind Harborplace shopping complex. Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore staff identified him as the same man who used to sleep in front of the planters.

The man declined to be interviewed for this story.

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Google map screenshot of East Pratt Street showing unhoused man with wheelchair resting near flower pots before the "Baby Shark" speaker went up. Google image
Google map screenshot of East Pratt Street from August 2022 showing a man with a wheelchair resting on the sidewalk before the "Baby Shark" speaker went up on the nearby pole. The Google image was accessed on Aug. 26, 2022. (Google Maps)

The speaker’s incessant playing of the children’s song triggered at least one complaint to Baltimore City’s 311 Services from a bus rider caught in the tune’s collateral damage. The online app allows residents to notify the city of potholes, overflowing public trash cans, dirty alleyways and other nuisances — such as unwanted performances of toddler songs.

The complainant echoed the sentiments of parents with young children everywhere: “It is very intrusive and can be heard 100 feet away and is very loud.”

On Friday, Aug. 26, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the speaker disappeared, along with the looping music. Only an empty black milk crate remained, still strapped to the pole.

The sidewalk is owned by the city. The Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services said they were not involved and a spokesperson for the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, which is responsible for maintaining light poles, said the placement of speakers on light poles is not permitted.

Banner reporters canvassed the area, asking adjacent businesses, organizations and nonprofits responsible for groundskeeping around the Inner Harbor, including the National Aquarium and Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, if they knew who hung the speaker; all those who responded denied involvement.

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However, a security guard at the nearby Cordish property said building engineers were asked to remove the speaker and directed further questions to the property manager. The property manager did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did The Cordish Companies’ media relations contact nor CEO David Cordish.

Baltimore City 311 Services received a complaint about a speaker playing "Baby Shark" on a loop on August 25, 2022. The screenshot was taken on August 26, 2022.
Baltimore City 311 Services received a complaint about a speaker playing "Baby Shark" on a loop on Aug. 25, 2022. The screenshot was taken on Aug. 26, 2022. (Baltimore City 311 Services)

In 2019, city officials in West Palm Beach, Florida, played “Baby Shark” to deter unhoused people from living near a civic building, and 7-Eleven stores in Los Angeles have used classical music to shoo people away.

The tactic reveals the frustration of property owners trying to oust unwanted guests, said Eric Tars, the legal director for the National Homelessness Law Center, a D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness.

Tars compared the “Baby Shark” speaker to “hostile architecture,” where cities place boulders or metal poles on sidewalks or arm rests on benches that make it hard for people to sit or lay down. Looping music has been used to psychologically torture prisoners.

”It only harms people that are just trying to survive,” Tars said, calling the speaker “mean-spirited.”

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”Obviously they put some effort into hanging the speaker,” he said. “Why not take that same energy and apply it to advocating for more affordable housing.”

Tars suggested alternative responses to assist unsheltered people. One California county partnered with a nonprofit to provide safe parking areas for those living in their cars. Hygiene stations were placed on the lot and caseworkers visited people to help them get housing and resources.

In Portland, one real estate owner in 2016 donated part of a floor of his apartment building, and in collaboration with the city and a nonprofit, facilitated a space for unhoused men to sleep and keep their belongings safe.

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott and the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services in February announced they would use $90.4 million in federal funding for homeless services, the largest investment in the city’s history, according to a city report.

The money will rehouse people from an estimated 1,100 unsheltered households living in encampments, abandoned buildings or unsuitable settings, according to a March report from the city.

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People who have experienced homelessness offered input to the city that sanitary stations and safe places to rest during the day were “an important priority” for the unsheltered people. But in the March report those amenities were listed as a lower priority and without associated funding.

Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services spokesperson Kyana Underwood said the city provides mobile showers at 450 North Front St. in partnership with a nonprofit.

Underwood wrote in an email that participants contributing input to the strategic investment plan “identified housing as a top priority.” She personally had not heard of music being used in other parts of the city to relocate homeless people.

In response to the possibility that playing “Baby Shark” on East Pratt Street was a public art piece or marketing gimmick, Tars said: “Likely, if it was one of those, it would have been claimed.”

On the Tuesday after the speaker came down, the man returned to his usual spot.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the National Aquarium’s response to our inquiry after publication.

brenda.wintrode@thebaltimorebanner.com

krishna.sharma@thebaltimorebanner.com

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