how about Tile Pros for every car owner?

car jackings are dangerous to citizens, AND they have follow-on effects where the danger depresses housing values and pushes people (taxes) and businesses (taxes and jobs) out of the city.

a Tile is a little bluetooth tracker that updates through the network of other users, but those other users never get to see where your tile is. that means you can hide a Tile in your car somewhere, and if it is ever stolen, you would be able to track where your car is, without a subscription. if every household or car owner in the city was sent one of these, along with instructions to hide it in their car, it has the potentially do dramatically reduce car theft and car-jackings because the chances of catching the thief go way up, and often the thieves use stolen cars for doing some other activity, like running drugs or hits, but even a small chance of being tracked would dampen that use. reducing the rate of theft would lower everyone's insurance rates, putting money into the local economy, and it would reduce armed crime rates, which will improve property values and safety. and nobody would be required to share their data with the police or anyone else. people would track their own devices, so no big-brother issues.

so:

• track your car if it is stolen (or you forget where you parked)
• no subscription
• change battery once per year
• no big-brother tracking you. only you get to see the location (and whomever you let log into your account)
• range is good enough that within baltimore city, devices will locate your Tile every couple of minutes (faster if it is moving)
• could use it for other property as well, like a bike, motorcycle, ATV, dirtbike, etc. that might be stolen.
• would cost less than the trash cans or recycling bins that everyone was given (even after the private donation)
• users could also buy additional ones to track many pieces of property or just their keys

more separated bike lanes.

one problem with a lot of initiatives is that ideas often sound good, like "more transit", but people forget that transit costs money. even if there is no infrastructure built but just more buses added, buses cost nearly a million each and hundreds of thousands each to operate per year. so the response to "more transit" is "ok, what program do you want to cut, then" and it descends into arguing and does not get traction.

bike lanes, on the other hand, require very little ongoing cost and initial cost of 1/10,000th that of adding a train line, and less than 1/100th of the cost of a BRT route. thus, separated bike lanes can actually dramatically improve the city without having to get into the "well what program do we cut" argument.

also, per passenger-mile, the various rental scooters/bikes cost less than our buses (if you account for the subsidy that buses get). so maybe we aught to consider subsidizing bikes in addition to buses, trains, and cars.

also, 3-wheel rental scooters can get many more people moving around the city efficiently and quickly without the need for the physical fitness and balance needed for traditional bikes/scooters

1. that study does not prove an actual improvement of health benefit, just reduction in bacteria on hands. that may or may not translate directly to health outcomes as a 50% reduction in bacteria does not necessarily translate to a 50% reduction in health issues
2. this is the study of bacteria, not viruses. OP may be using it for covid prevention
3. sanitizing frequently can reduce baseline exposure, which can impact immune function/development. kids who grow up on farms, for example, tend to have a better immune system. so the sanitizer can be counter productive for some situations.

I don't think there is actually any evidence that hand sanitizer makes any positive impact at all. I know purell was in legal trouble before for claiming that they actually had an affect.

I wish America wasn't a car-dominated hell-scape. I get it, cars are convenient to each individual, but can we please acknowledge that the total and complete domination of 99% of the transportation right-of-way is a bit too much and detracts from all of our well-being? can we have like 3% of the space used for bike lanes so people have an alternative to expensive, deadly, and often polluting vehicles?

I think it depends on where you are in the city.

that said, if people feel like things aren't improving, they will get depressed about the city. I had an asshat wash my windshield today after I said no... the same old problem, unabated, continues on and on and on with the government just flat-out refusing to do anything about it, even though it has claimed one life and likely ruined another already.

non-enforcement of traffic laws make it a shit-show where it is expensive to insure a car, chaotic to drive, and unpleasant/unsafe to be a pedestrian or cyclist. again, it's just politics getting in the way.

the general feeling of no law enforcement in general. you can only be a victim of crimes so many times before you start to think negatively about the city.

Scott promised a lot of improvements and has done absolutely nothing of value as Mayor.

these things erode civic pride in some areas. baltimore needs change, but people here fight tooth and nail to never change anything.

that said, just make sure to find people and activities you enjoy, and try not to let the BS drag you down.

in addition to what the other commenter said, you might consider getting a hotel or airbnb for the day. if you can afford it, it would eliminate all worry.

they actually keep track of tree varieties that are already planted and try to diversify. however, they do try to avoid pest resistant trees like Ginko, because supporting local bugs has become a cause celebre. the end result of planting pest-prone trees is seeing a bunch of dead maples and oaks all over the place that need re-planting again and again.

development always makes one group or another upset. always. this is why urban planners like to use the term BANANA, "build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything". Baltimore seriously needs more jobs and more tax revenue, so I may not agree with some of Costello's stances, I also don't agree with 100% of other councilmembers.

the fallsway southbound route is not protected enough. it's also ugly as fuck. if we're going to have the Maryland ave bike lane, which is very popular, then we should connect it.

more bike infrastructure is always good. we really need a fully separated lane between Maryland ave and President st along Pratt. it's currently a deathtrap a it just spills people onto Pratt.

a friend of mine had bed bugs. they tried a few things to get rids of them, but eventually they just hired a company that just heated up the whole house with gigantic propane heaters such that they would all be killed from the heat. worked well, but was expensive.