Civic pride, a wall of the city's finest, a flamingo calculator, and a whole lot of showing up.
🦩 Man about townThis is the man-about-town life — civic pride, the oddball Baltimore traditions, the Wall of Fame, and everything that makes Yong Yong. The person, not the résumé.
Where Yong does the job — websites, custom tools, events, the side hustles, and the press that follows. Here to hire him or see the work?
yongtaing.com →
Connected to everyone. Known by all.
Yong is that rare human who shows up everywhere in Baltimore — and makes everything better by being there. Part community architect, part accidental local celebrity, part committed flamingo scholar.
He helps organize the Mayor's Christmas Parade, races down 36th Street in Hampden's toilet bowl race, pilots a team in the AVAM Kinetic Sculpture Race, leads space telescope outreach that brings the cosmos to neighborhood kids, spins the mic as a karaoke DJ, bleeds orange and black for the Orioles, models, collects everything pink, and somehow knows your cousin.
Equal parts Forrest Gump and Ferris Bueller — a connector and a tireless champion of civic pride. Baltimore's most connected man.
"I didn't set out to know everyone in Baltimore. I just kept showing up — and Baltimore turns out to be a city with a very large heart in a very small zip code."
Yong doesn't just live in Baltimore — he shows up for it. From Hampden to the Inner Harbor, these are the traditions, oddball races, and neighborhood institutions he champions, organizes, and drags his friends out to every single year.
Helps organize Baltimore's beloved Mayor's Christmas Parade in Hampden — one of the city's largest and most cherished holiday traditions, marching down 36th Street every December.
Pilots a team in the AVAM Kinetic Sculpture Race — the American Visionary Art Museum's wonderfully absurd 15-mile race of human-powered art machines across the city's streets, harbor, and mud.
A proud competitor in Hampden's gleefully ridiculous toilet bowl race — porcelain thrones on wheels, racing down the avenue. Peak Baltimore weirdness, and Yong wouldn't miss it.
Leads space telescope outreach that brings the cosmos down to earth — connecting Baltimore's curious kids and families with the wonder of the universe and the science being done right here in town.
A devoted scholar of all things pink and a lifelong flamingo aficionado — Baltimore's unofficial flamingo ambassador, channeling the spirit of John Waters' very pink city.
Above all, a connector — the man who knows everyone and introduces everyone. If Baltimore is a small town wearing a big city's clothes, Yong is the thread stitching it together.
From musicians to scientists, community leaders to celebrities — the people who make Baltimore the city it is, and who make Yong the man he is.
Parades, portraits, flamingos, and friends — the visual record of a man who's always there. (Photos rolling in soon.)
An evening where Baltimore artists and space scientists came together to make work inspired by the cosmos — telescopes, paint, and a whole lot of wonder under one roof.
Explore the gallery →The people and neighborhoods that make Baltimore feel like a very small town with a very large heart — from Hampden to the Inner Harbor.
The whole city is closer than it looks. If you need to know someone, Yong already does.
Yong shows up across the whole city, not just one corner of it — from Hampden to the Inner Harbor.
Baltimore is a small city with a big network — and Yong is living proof. Smalltimore Live turns that into an interactive map of the whole city: who knows who, who shows up where, and how everyone's connected. Map the connections, explore by neighborhood, and find your 3-degree path to anyone in Baltimore.
