Baltimore City paramedics and firefighters must work for 25 years to receive their full pension. I worked for the state of Maryland and needed 15 years to qualify for early retirement benefit, which is less than the full benefit.

Perhaps you could make a separate post encouraging others to email the mayor, I’m sorry the link is buried in my comments.

The answer to your original question is to vote them out next election. I already have many reasons to vote for someone other than Phylicia Porter next time, Porter has ruined our neighborhoods, exploited our roads, elevated her friends and destroyed the moral of our communities. Porter voted for the shorter pension requirements in the first vote, she abstained in the second vote when it was clear the bill had enough votes to pass without her. I won’t forget this when I cast my vote in two years. I’ll remind my neighbors, we’re already talking about what we can do to support someone other than Porter. The previous council rep Eddie Reisinger had his bad sides but he was never this corrupt. What council rep is in your area? How did they vote? Would you vote for someone else next election?

I wrote an email to the mayor urging him to veto the bill, sometimes his staff responds to my emails, I hope a staff member reads them all at least.

Maybe as a city of informed residents we can push the mayor to veto this bill? You can use this form to email the mayor. https://mayor.baltimorecity.gov/node/28

The term limit measure limits elected officials to two terms in a twelve year period. They can apply for another role in the government or run for office again after the four year break.

I didn’t support the term limit measure at first but I’m glad it passed. Hearing Councilman Stokes talk about city council being the only job he has makes me wonder how many council members are in it for money. Years ago council members had full time jobs in addition to being the council rep. It’s absurd these council reps have no other source of income, do very little for the areas they represent, and expect a full pension after eight years.

The traffic light at Caton Avenue and Benson Avenue is covered with burlap, no lane changes or traffic calming. The accident there yesterday afternoon was horrific.

I sent it as a message because it contained all the data from our blocks efforts to slow traffic down I can copy that into the DM

I replied to your other post about traffic problems around Caton Avenue and Benson Avenue. I also sent you the reference number for the traffic calming request. Our block group monitored the traffic accidents on Caton Avenue since the construction began at the new truck warehouse. No day had less than three accidents. This is terrible for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. May you please respond or at least look at the reference number. Our neighborhood can’t get any help since councilwoman Porter and her cadre came in, they support so many truck companies the streets are falling apart.

Thank you. I send the reference number through the messages several days ago. Did you receive it?

I don’t know those individuals, but the details don’t track with what I’ve experienced professionally as a physical therapist. Patient advocacy groups and charities are private organizations that don’t generally have income requirements or limits. Personally I’ve attended many fundraiser bull roasts, bingo nights, quarter auctions held by patient advocacy groups to raise funds for service animals, my own church donated funds for several parishioners who needed service animals. I’ve never heard of an income requirement or an income limit to owning a service dog for any diagnosis, I can’t see why a syncope diagnosis would come with an income requirement. I still suggest the op check with their provider before attempting to self-train a service dog.

Can you imagine a person with low vision being told they must train their own guide dog, or a person who experiences seizures being told to teach a dog to alert to seizures? The scenario you’re describing is implausible and discredits the hard work service animal trainers and patient advocacy groups do. That seems more a vanity project than reality.

I strongly encourage the OP to discuss the support of a service dog with their medical provider before giving money to any organization that claims to show them how to train their own dog to be a service animal for a fee. There is no cost to that conversation and it can’t hurt.

I believe you may be mistaken. Most lower income patients I see with service dogs received the dogs free through the appropriate patient advocacy group for their diagnosis. My roster is entirely Medicaid, none of my patients could afford $25,000 or more out of pocket, and then more for continuing veterinary and ongoing training for a service assistance dog. Patient advocacy groups pay for the animal and ongoing vet care. That’s why I suggested the OP check with their provider to get connected to right patient advocacy group for his/her diagnosis.

Are you thinking of emotional support pets? I’ve seen dog training places offer to certify animals as emotional support pets to allow the pets on planes, in rental apartments and other environments. This is different from a service animal. A true service assistance animal requires a medical diagnosis from the handler, costs $25,000 or more and should be trained by professionals.

Service dog training is dependent upon the patient needs. The best way to find a reputable service dog training organization is to go through patient advocacy groups. For example, I’ve had patients with permanent physical disabilities receive dogs from Assistance Dogs International through their social workers. Two patients received dogs from Mountain High Service Dog training in Colorado through the neurologists.

I don’t believe the process is to train your own dog, patients receive dogs that were selected for temperament and talent, then trained for a specific task. Your primary care provider or specialist should be able to direct you to a good patient advocacy organization for your needs.

I have the 311 references numbers, multiple reference numbers, in my desk at home. I will send them to you, thank you for the help. Like I said the local leaders love the new big trucks, my guess is those companies make campaign donations. The pedestrians, cyclists and car users suffer. Even the infrastructure suffers, street signs knocked down, areas of Caton Avenue disintegrated from the heavy trucks. I have a file of the reference numbers I can share. Thank you.

This is good news for that area. Thank you. How can we get this kind of help in our neighborhood? I drive by multiple car crashes every day by Caton Avenue and Benson Avenue in the southwestern part of the city. I have three pt patients from car crashes on my roster. The local leaders are gung ho about trucks trucks trucks yet do nothing to help pedestrians and car drivers. I believe there should be wider intersections and more traffic monitoring if there will be more trucks in the neighborhood from the new truck companies. I don’t feel comfortable walking around the hospital because of the numerous truck accidents, and incidents where trucks drive onto the sidewalks.

Is there a form I can complete to request a traffic study? I tried the 311 request that was denied because I didn’t have the support of the local group.

I think user supplied crime data would have the potential to be even more disingenuous, given the likelihood that different demographics would respond to and comment about crime differently. Simply food for thought.

Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, the safety of each environment varies block by block as well as neighborhood by neighborhood. Read any post asking for safety information for a specific neighborhood you will see responses indicating a certain neighborhood is safe “above XYZ street” or “until you get three blocks from ABC Blvd”. Downvote all you want, it’s poorly designed and doesn’t take the reality of the city into consideration.

Crime is reported more in certain neighborhoods, and unreported or underreported more in other neighborhoods. Using the information from police-confirmed crime database would increase the disparity. Read up on the Black Butterfly. It’s disingenuous, if not dangerous, to provide something based on flawed information.

Most crime in Baltimore goes unreported, I think we all learned that from the federal consent decree. I don’t think this would be helpful or accurate if it’s based on police-confirmed crime reports.

There are two people in blackface, on the computer screen it’s clear both the man in the back and the young boy in the front are in makeup. But like I said I’m glad we’ve come past that as a society.

It’s funny you mention The Jazz Singer, it is one of the most famous examples of whitewashing African American talent, the movie was launching pad for Al Jolson, especially since many audiences at the time loved jazz but would not listen to or go see black artists.

It’s only been five years or so since Bobbie Berger stop performing his Al Jolson impersonation in blackface. Imagine a Baltimore police officer thinking it’s acceptable to put on black face because 100 years ago a white Baltimore jazz singer did it. We still have a long way to go as a society.

Also two people in black face, so was “black person” a Halloween costume choice? Sad but glad we’ve come past that as a society. We still have work to do, hopefully the Halloween costumes kids these days don’t do black face.

Old person agreeing with you. The first time I saw fried hard on a menu I had no idea what that meant, then I was served over-cooked barely edible wings. If you want extra extra crispy wings go with double fried Korean style chicken at one of the places that does that specialty. Wings fried hard is an anathema to anyone with taste.

I put “311” in the search bar, and click the one with the year I want. A spreadsheet comes up that you can filter for your address. I use the one with the most recent data to see what’s going on with pot holes and downed trees in my block. https://data.baltimorecity.gov/datasets/e068dbf331cd4782b3248f75a88e2876

I think maybe I wrote it confusingly in my first comment. You are looking through the “311 request” archives, that’s what it’s called. You don’t request anything.

There is a problem with the city sewage pipes that pushes water back into houses, usually the basement. That’s what happened in my neighborhood. I used grant money from the neighborhood association to fix it but I know some rental properties didn’t do the repair installation, so the landlord relies on the tenant to deal with it. I also know multiple houses where the owners used their grant money to move away, they fixed their old house enough to sell but didn’t completely prevent the floods. This leaves many houses with mold, sewage leaks, and some become abandoned. It’s a tough situation, two homes on my block are empty now, the combination of flooding from the sewage pipes, increased crime, increased truck traffic makes it hard to attract new buyers when the old homeowners sell.

You can look up any city address on Open Baltimore 311 request archives. My son and his girlfriend did this, they found one house had previously had a vacant notice, structural damage and basement flooding. The inspector never found anything related to that history. I know from experience once a house floods there is a lifelong need for monitoring and repair.

Baltimore City DOT is the entity who posted it to Reddit on a paywalled newspaper article.

Thank you. What a disorganized and incompetent city agency.