What neighborhood is this? From my experience the difference between neighborhoods is getting bigger.

From what I’ve seen the difference in service level is getting greater, less hidden. I live in the Saint Agnes neighborhood, a tiny neighborhood across Wilkens from Violetville. We’re technically part of the Violetville neighborhood group. My area is lucky if we get recycling pick up every other month, not every other week. The street sweeper can’t fit down our streets anymore because the tractor trailers, illegally parked but never ticketed, take up too much room. Several trees fell last spring and are still on the curb except for the large branches neighbors were able to move out of the way. The level of services here dropped dramatically in the last few years.

On the other hand I went to a neighborhood meeting last month where people complained the councilwoman’s friends who co-founded a rival community group with her, receive special DPW cleaning services above and beyond normal. I was doubtful until the man showed a video compilation of DPW crews sweeping that woman’s back patio and cleaning up leaves in the alley every week, all while other parts of the neighborhood don’t get baseline services.

I don’t know if the overall level of services dropped in the city, or if people are more blatant about misusing city services because it goes unchecked. Whichever it is, it’s much worse now than it ever was before.

The patient I visit bought her townhouse for the mid $500,000’s when she moved from the city I don’t k is what the range of prices is, as I wrote the housing choices are very diverse from condos to townhomes to large single family homes.

Someone brought food from Umami Mediterranean Kitchen to our last group meeting. The falafel was very good, so was the lamb tikka masala. The restaurant is on Frederick road in Catonsville, I’ve never eaten in but the take out was very good.

I had an in-home patient in Maple Lawn development in Fulton last week, they built up the area nicely. The new homes where I was are varied in size from townhomes to large single family homes. There was a playground across the street, an outdoor pool, closed now of course. I saw some walking trails, didn’t explore because of the cold. I stopped in the shopping area for lunch, many restaurants to choose from.

It took me less than thirty minutes to get from my home office to the patient’s house. I live in Southwest Baltimore near Saint Agnes hospital.

I hadn’t toured that area since they developed, I was surprised. It’s not the typical bland suburban development I’ve seen. That area is Howard County, the school system is good.

I haven’t seen any alternatives suggested except for social workers, which is not the right answer in this case. What alternatives are available that don’t involve law enforcement? We have similar situations in Little Violetville/Saint Agnes. Who can we call other than law enforcement?

What’s the reason for calling Metro Crime Stoppers first?

Safety is the Safety and Crime Prevention meetings. One of the block captains from across Wilkens is the main Safety contact for us, they have the meetings at people’s houses around Saint Agnes and Violetville. The block captains are the people who receive the information from dpw, dot, other city agencies to share it with the neighbors on the block. The system used to be more organized, it’s slowly coming back as crime went up and more people want to do something to stop it.

You’re welcome! Good luck.

You can! The block captain for Safety, not the block captain for my block to clarify, one from another block, reported drug dealing to the mayor. The police reports to 911 and 311 didn’t help. Councilperson Porter does not respond at all. Our neighborhood group was replaced something Porter started and they don’t do anything. My street has three houses I know have heavy drug users who also steal, threaten people. There is one house with a man and woman who openly deal heroin. I was at my wit’s end.

I uploaded pictures from the doorbell camera to Metro Crime Stoppers. The Safety block captain, again not from my block, has been talking to the mayor about the problem. We finally received some action, uniformed patrol policemen and plainclothes men around the block for the last two days.

If you report to 911 or 311 I recommend you do it anonymously. The Metro Crime Stoppers website is already anonymous. If you decide to contact the mayor I recommend you ask someone who lives on a different block to be your middleman.

http://metrocrimestoppers.org/

https://mayor.baltimorecity.gov/node/28

What does the private lateral restoration enforcement mean? Does this mean the city will find people if there are cracks in the private lateral line? I had the cured in place pipe fix done, there were cracks in the lateral on my side and the city side from tree roots. Will I be fined even though I already had the pipe fixed? I’m upset the city going to fine people even more for damage that came from the city.

This consent decree is about renovating the sewage pipes and stopping the sewage, pollution the city is dumping into the bay. I believe you are right about Baltimore County contributing more, but this is for fixing the current problems, not combining systems.

My neighborhood gets flooded with sewage in the streets and in the basements of many houses because the mistakes the city made with the sewage system. It happens every time it rains now. They need to fix that problem first before changing the whole system or making a new agency for the city and county together.

You can buy the cheese spread in any grocery store if you want without the experience.

Sunset in Glen Burnie and Kibby’s in Southwest Baltimore did this, both closed. I can’t think of any restaurants still open who do this. I’m following, this is a classic old fashioned appetizer.

Do you mean receivership?

The city can’t repossess a house, a bank could file foreclosure proceedings and then file for possession if the property is mortgaged, most of these are not mortgaged.

Receivership is a long expensive process in the city. At the end of the process the city will own the property. The city also fails at maintaining the city owned vacant properties.

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/baltimore-city-continues-to-grapple-with-vacant-house-problem/

What maintenance? Have you seen some of the empty rentals in Baltimore? Some are so poorly maintained they collapse, killing people. Holding on to property until better city leaders are in place and the property increase in value is called real estate speculation, people do it all over Baltimore.

I live in Southwest Baltimore. Multiple houses are now vacant because landlords paused renting, it’s the main reason for vacants. Many landlords in my area inherited the house, started renting because they couldn’t sell, or rent out part of the house they live in. When the city doesn’t honor their commitments for rental assistance these landlords stop renting. They don’t sell, new families don’t want to buy here now. The houses sit empty, on my block ten of the twenty four houses are empty, almost half. All empty because the current owner either inherited and rented it out for a while before giving up, or moved away, couldn’t sell and gave up renting after bad experiences. Almost half the houses on both sides of the block.

This is recent in my area, but I believe this is how areas of west Baltimore because blighted. The assumptions that all landlords will divest their property and a new landlord will maintain it as a rental is false.

The city program pays directly to the landlord but they are very behind on payments. An older woman on my block rented the downstairs apartment to a family who were approved for rental assistance over a year ago and a half ago. She still hasn’t received any payment from the city.

Kudos to you for writing about your experience, that’s a tough step. I’m sorry this happened to you, I wish you a speedy recovery. Please consider counseling with a provider familiar with post assault traumatic stress and paranoia. Many people have feelings of fear or concern after assault, especially when interacting with someone who reminds them of the assailant. Smells, sounds, sights can all trigger feelings of uneasiness. This is normal after an assault, a trained counselor can help you heal from this. I wish you the best in your recovery.

I’ve always appealed through the mail, always been approved for a lower assessment. 10 appeals over the years all approved. I don’t know anyone who was denied.

Some areas have sewer line problems where the city sewage lines are at fault, the back up happens after rain storms and can push sewage from the city lines back into residential pipes. You can call 311 to see if this is the problem, your friend’s neighborhood group might have grants to get it fixed. I received around $11,000 over two years to fix my sewer pipes and install pumps and valves to prevent the back up. My sewage line is inside, but the same may apply to your friend’s home.

https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/soscleanup

Thank you for that information. It seems anytime someone trolls me on Reddit they are either a police officer or local aspiring politician. I should have guessed it.

That makes no sense, I volunteer with people in mental health crisis, one of my neighbors advocated for the federal law. This specifically has nothing to do with Baltimore County police, tying it to the police department or making it seem as if it is police sponsored is counterproductive. I wrote nothing about taking credit, please read my comments again.

I didn’t mention anything about credit, I clarified this is not related to police at all. I don’t know why the department needed to label the announcement as from them instead of asking the news stations to share the hotline number as a public service during the holiday season. The way the promotion is worded mentions police, Baltimore County police and the department enough to discourage some people from using the service. The description is confusing enough that it could be read as counselors from the police department. The entire purpose of the federal bill was to make the National hotline more accessible, not scare people away by associating it with police.

Even the title of the article “Baltimore County Police gives life saving info” is misleading. It is from the local Fox station, not unbiased.

This is not a police number. I don’t know why the Baltimore County police make it seem this way, this is the shortened access number for the National Suicide Hotline. This number has nothing to do with police.