Housing the homeless in vacants – why not?

“Many homeless people were and are ‘us’. They have jobs, they have kids – the only difference is. . . they no longer have a place to call home, outside of their car, a shelter, or campsite. Many of us, if we were honest, could easily fall into the same trap. . . These homeless people are ideal candidates for the first of a multi-tiered plan of using the vacants to house the homeless. They’re working, they have an income, they’re paying taxes, and they need little in the way of social services. They’re also potential candidates for homeownership, if the program were structured in a way that favored low-income residents over the developers and the city.”
– Carol Ott

“Our City Council [has] passed Bill 13-0176 containing a 15 year tax credit for High-Performance Market Rate Rental Housing in downtown Baltimore. It states existing, underutilized commercial structures in the Downtown Management Area can be converted and new apartment buildings will also fall under this tax credit. I’m wondering why this gift to developers was NOT used as a catalyst for low income housing.”
– trueheart4life

“Just out of curiosity, trueheart4life, have you ever tried to redevelop a property in Baltimore City? Ever tried to breathe new life into an older building: get the bank financing, hire the architect, coordinate the trades, manage the voluminous gov’t regs, keep junkies from swiping the copper piping and appliances. . . Cause really, if you haven’t, you ought to talk to folks like Bill Struever, Marty Azola, and Pat Turner to get a sense of the extraordinary risks developers take when rehabbing older city properties.”
– James Hunt

“Everyone always suggests this, but it has already been tried in Baltimore over the period 1970-1994 and was a failure. The City sold vacant houses to the housing authority to rehab as public housing. About 2,900 houses were rehabbed and rented as public housing. The vast majority were in the poorest and still declining neighborhoods where there was no other demand for the properties – by definition that is where long term abandoned houses are located. By 1998, many were vacant and boarded again and HABC was starting to demolish them. . . Had the money been used instead to create affordable housing in stable neighborhoods with functioning housing markets, those units would still be providing affordable housing today, and we might not have as much homelessness.”
– Barbara Samuels
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Tempers flare at hearing on city liquor store plan

“These small city Liquor stores make me sick with their 2″ thick scratched, and cloudy, dirty bullet-proof glass enclosures. We city folks need more clean and bright big box Liquor stores. . .”
– Walter

“More than likely, you’ll find that larger liquor stores are behind this initiative.”
– HS

“I wish decisions like this could be discussed on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. Our neighborhood will be submitting a letter of support for our local liquor store, who has competitive prices, does a great job of keeping the storefront clean and neat, and supports our community organization. We don’t want to have to leave our neighborhood to access adult beverages!”
– Lindsay

“you can shut down any liquor store you want, and it will not change the psychic climate in this city.”
-davethesauve

“In this city, close to 80% of liquor stores currently not in compliance are owned by Korean Americans. If you are to listen to people calling into black talk radio such as WOLB, there is a clear racially motivated sentiment for wanting the Korean owned liquor stores removed and replaced with black owned businesses.”
– Matthew
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BDC staff recommends $107 million TIF tax break for Harbor Point

“Mr. Beatty forgot to mention that the tax reduction that will allow for lower rents will make some existing projects in the original downtown core of Baltimore not financially tenable. I am all for lower property taxes, but lets do it across the board and let market forces determine where to build and renovate.”
– BmoreFree

“100 million in revenue could build a lot of affordable housing. DC is investing about that much in a trust for affordable housing in this budget alone. Why hasn’t the city negotiated substantive affordable housing requirements in this and other developments in which they are contributing significant public dollars? Shame on our leaders for once again neglecting the needs of this city’s hardworking and heavily pressured working class residents.”
– ZacharyMurray

“For the money the city is giving away in the form of the TIF, those sidewalks, park and prominade better be made of GOLD. This is prime real estate, no incentives are needed.”
– KnowNothingParty

“The TIF will (or should) cover the sewer and water hook up and running all through the site, installation of electric, the Central Ave. bridge, landscaping, building a promenade on the harbor edge, &tc. There is quite a bit of work to be done on the site.”
– BmoreFree

“But generally speaking, the developer would be required to put in the utility connections in any development. Why are we paying for it?”
– bmorepanic

“While we won’t get the benefit of the property taxes until after the bonds are paid off, we will still get the state and local income taxes of the residents of a thousand new apartments, retail and restaurant taxes, all the other freakin’ taxes businesses have to pay. . .”
– James Hunt

“The city’s economic development strategy needs to focus on making the other 99% of the city viable, not lavishing extra attention and tax breaks on Harbor Point.”
– Gerald Neily

“Here’s a question for Gerry and all the other ‘City Hall needs to invest in the rest of the city’ folks: what happened to the hundreds of millions (more than a billion in today’s dollars) that have been ‘invested’ in just the Pennsylvania Avenue, Upton and Park Heights neighborhoods since the 1968 riots?. . . Those neighborhoods have gotten a subway line that connects them with the city’s largest employers, new libraries, extensive demo and rebuilt housing, new schools, fire houses. PA Avenue. . . should be a New Urbanists wet dream by now.”
– James Hunt

“Here’s another way of saying it: ADDING MAXIMUM VALUE needs to be the city’s strategy. You just did a great job of recapping how this has not happened. . . Please do not confuse investment with the distribution of new urbanist wet dream free pork goodies, which are like running up a down escalator.”
– Gerald Neily
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Farewell to a mighty tree killed by torched toilets

“The stupidity of people amaze me. Hot coals in a port a potty? Seriously. SMH.”
– Joyce Klucar, via Facebook

“You must be a special kind of moron to think its a good idea to dump hot coals into a portable toilet.”
– Robert Gillespie

“Problem with the sad tale is that It is disingenuous spin. It leaves out the multiple notifications each summer for years to the Parks department of the misbehavior of the league renting the playing fields – for having grills without a permit, gas powered generators, and other fire hazards. The Parks department did nothing.”
– bmorepanic

“It’s true. I’d called the police several times when ordinances or rules were broken and nothing changed. I’m not all about messing with peoples good time but there are rules for a reason.”
– Steven Parke

“Do you know what group it was? What rec league? I hear the Dept of Rec and Parks only has 2 (two) park rangers for the whole city and they have little authority to do anything.”
– GXWalsh

“The parks department has a tool called permit fees. Leave mountains of trash, trash fields, drive cars onto fields, have loudspeaker systems, block roads, cook or continually break a few other rules, then they are supposed to pay more for maintenance, for cleanup, for supervision, etc. Unfortunately, even with years of complaints, they don’t properly charge for facilities. People from recreation and parks never even bother to check out complaints.”
– bmorepanic

“I remember sitting under that tree and enjoying its shade on many hot summer days after softball practice. It will be missed.”
– Anna Marie Mooney
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Developer of Single Carrot’s new space seeks $500,000 loan

“The truth is both types of development are needed in this area. Seawell’s infill development and targeted projects go hand in glove with the larger 25th Street Shopping complex. While Walmart’s labor practices are not admirable they do offer low priced items for people living from paycheck to paycheck. . .”
– Bmorefree

“Yes Wal-Mart creates jobs. But for every minimum wage, part-time job created at Wal-Mart, the city can expect to lose another (typically better-paying) job elsewhere. If Wal-Mart moves in, Safeway will most likely close and lose all of its unionized better-paying jobs, and leave another large vacant store right in the center of the city.”
– bruuuce

“It’s encouraging that the developer of the Walmart site gives credit to the protesters for preventing another low-wage, job sucking development (even though he calls it blame).”
– Nick Sheridan

“Yep. And locals (non-hipster types) with cars will continue to do their main shopping in the ‘burbs, local unemployment will remain high, yet another barely-paying-taxes vacant lot (11 acres) will remain vacant. Woo hoo! How encouraging!”
– James Hunt
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Lacks cells used again without consent

“It can bee argued that any advancements in the care of a patient can be needed for science, That does not entitle us to exploit human beings and subject their families to privacy invasions. The bottom line is; there was and still is disrespect for the social-economic limits of the Lacks family.”
– Author ShereeseM

 “‘One scientist, she said, easily disproved it by uploading HeLa’s genome to a publicly available web site for translating genetic information.’ This oversimplification misrepresents the science so much that it’s safe to call it rhetoric and not a stretch to call it a lie.”
– ExMachina1

“They’re so ubiquitous that ‘using’ them is not the issue. The issue here is that their DNA sequence was published without familial consent. MAJOR ethical gray area.”
– Cory Snelson, via Facebook

“While it’s true that the HeLa cells weren’t patented, plenty of people have made a fortune from the cell line – not one dime of which has been given to the family. Whether people have a proprietary interest in their cells and tissues is another issues that is still unresolved. The Brew slightly misspoke here; the problem isn’t that the cells were ‘used’ again (as I pointed out, HeLa cells are used every day), but they were sequenced and the genome published – potentially divulging private medical information about the Lacks family. The data has been taken down.”
– Bruce Goldfarb, via Facebook

“Exactly right. The publishing of the genome is the problem from several angles: 1. There have been significant rearrangements within the DNA of the cells that probably renders the sequence completely useless and therefore publishing the sequence is intrusive to the family. . . 2. The sequence might reveal something that could be used against the family now by insurance companies. . . 3. Informed consent needs to be overhauled to a degree as to protect descendants of people who have their genome sequence done.”
– Corey Snelson, via Facebook
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City will inject funds to help Roland Park Water Tower

 “I’m glad to see the City stepping up and doing the right thing, for the same cost as demolition. A restored tower will be such an asset to all of Baltimore!”
– Arabella Woodhope

“The tower has been non-operational for 80 years. It’s also in a pretty desirable part of town. I bet if the land was cleared the city could make a profit on the deal.”
– Matthew Reisner

“I like the tower but that seems like a lot of money for a observation tower. Could that money be better spent on other improvement projects impacting multiple areas of Roland Park?”
– discer

“What would really be a great is to create a ‘place’ involving the acute intersection of Roland and University. A roundabout would be ideal if it would work.”
– Gerald Neily

“Now to think about fixing the Clifton Park gazebo.”
– davethesuave