Councilman Bill Cole has compiled information that may be helpful to you in the next few days as football season officially begins in Baltimore:
There are three significant events surrounding the NFL opener this Thursday. Even though the Ravens are playing in Denver, the NFL is still coming to town this week as if we were hosting a home game to start the season. The three events are:
1) the NFL Back to Football 5k on Wednesday, September 4th at 7:00PM
— The DOT press release says 6PM because there are some kid runs starting earlier. The real disruption is the 5K and that starts at 7PM.
— The route starts and finishes at Ravens Stadium and it looks like they will have somewhere between 3500 and 5000 runners. In other words, this is a rather large event. Neighborhoods directly impacted are Sharp-Leadenhall, South Baltimore and Pigtown. Everybody else may be impacted by the temporary closures of both the Hamburg Street and Ostend Street bridges.
— Any cars on that race route (detailed in press release) will not be permitted to leave until the police reopen those streets.
— All normal traffic should resume by around 8:15PM.
2) the NFL kickoff show from the Inner Harbor featuring a free concert by Keith Urban on Thursday, September 5th at 6:00PM
— There are no tickets and the event is first come, first admitted until they reach the pre-set capacity. After that, guests will be turned away from the official viewing areas.
— We have no way of knowing how many people are going to show up for this event.
3) the actual NFL game coming to every bar, restaurant, and living room near you
All three impact our neighborhoods. Parking enforcement is prepared for the increased volume of possible visitors, and they will tow on Thursday in Residential Parking Permit areas since there is an Orioles home game.