This Is Your Baltimore: A City In Ruins!

This Is Your Baltimore.......By: Bill Craig

"America the beautiful, whose alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears.........." These words were taken from a speech given by the Martin O'Malley, our illustrious Mayor here in Baltimore, to the attendees of the Democratic National Convention and a national TV audience in July 2004. Yes, go ahead and ask, What alabaster cities gleam? What is alabaster? Well, let's check the dictionary and see what it says. According to Ancientroute.com, its definition is as follows: A fine textured gypsum; usually white or light shaded, and translucent. I checked with Merriam-Webster dictionary and its definition says: a compact fine-textured usually white and translucent gypsum often carved into vases and ornaments. And finally, a further check of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language reveals an almost identical definition. Now what exactly did Mayor O'Malley mean when he recited this line? I'm sure he was simply quoting the words to the song "America the Beautiful" written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893 instead of comparing our city to some white textured powder. I really don't know what he really meant, but I do know what it doesn't mean. He cannot possibly be speaking of any city that we as Baltimoreans know. At last check, none of the areas in Baltimore were gleaming and/or undimmed by human tears but quite the contrary. Our city, Baltimore, is one of the deadliest cities in the entire United States in stalk contrast of what we're constantly being told to believe through the wasted efforts of the "Baltimore Believe" campaign: the mayors collaborative $2.1 Million dollar joke launched in 2002. The single purpose of BALTIMORE BELIEVE as stated in its progress report is to bring Baltimore to the tipping point in reversal of drug addiction and its effects.

The strategy for doing this has three thrusts:
(1) Rally the people of Baltimore to believe in, and act on the
fact that the City can be saved, and to understand that the
first step in this process is to begin eradicating the
pestilence of illegal drugs.

(2) Persuade all segments of the population – black and white,
rich and poor, addicted and clean – that they must do at
least one thing to fight drugs because drugs are a mortal
threat to the City and all its people.

(3) Use this conviction to gain concerted and coordinated effort
by private organizations of all kinds to work with all levels
of government to all that is necessary to solve the problem

Well, where should we start first? Let's take them in order. First, rallying the city residents to believe that the city can be saved by eradicating the pestilence of illegal drugs. Please accept my apologies for my pessimistic attitude, but this is a joke. Just take a ride over to the East or West side of Baltimore and you'll see black people selling drugs to black and white people on open streets. So you mean to tell me that white people waltzing around an all black neighborhood isn't suspicious enough for police officers to watch them or try this on for size, an undercover officer, a black one dressed like a bum or addict, watching and reporting to the authorities who's doing the selling. I know this is way out there and our police department isn't equipped with the mind skills to carry out such clandestine operations, but it's worth a try..... Cops frequently patrol these areas with horse blinders on never even looking around while they are sitting at traffic lights.

I guess out of sight really is out of mind! Second, we should persuade the residents of the city to do at least one thing to fight the drugs such as reading science fiction books to Pookie every other night, make a citizens arrest of your local drug dealer or even take your video camera with you while you interview and tape them as they make transactions. Yea, that'll work Mr. Mayor. Come on people, the responsibility of the drug problem lies not with what I can or cannot do as citizen one but with the administration of this city from the Mayor and his four little deputy's, the Baltimore Silly Council, oops I meant, City Council and the inept Baltimore police department in general. This city government isn't concerned with this city one bit. The Mayors four deputy's collectively pulls in nearly 1/2 million dollars every year. Whew! Just think of the days when only one "Mayor" was needed to do the job of one Mayor. Our city is in a deplorable condition. Randomly ride through the streets again, but this time forget watching the drug selling and focus instead on the dirty and trashy looking side walks, streets, curbs and alleys. Its easy to do, just ask the police how they manage to do it if you're having difficulty focusing on ignoring the drug dealing.

The trash literally flows through the streets while a street sweeper comes around in vain, every other day or so pushing cans, trash and 40 ounce bottles around from area of the street to the next. Now don't get me wrong, I know its the responsibility of the city residents to keep certain areas clean of trash but its out of hand now. Time after time we see the Mayor dressed in his orange jump suit posing on the side of a trash truck posing for a photo while a group of people stand around with trash bags and shovels to clean certain areas of the city. This is cool for National Clean the Black Neighborhood Day but what happens when that day is over? The trash is right back there within days and sits until the next photo op for the mayor. I have a suggestion Mr. Mayor: instead of paying city clean-up crews to frequent drug areas in search of and often buying drugs, pay them to keep alleys, walk ways and small side streets clean! And look, I didn't even have to commission some out of state company to come up with that idea......

Even the building and houses are abandoned and left with no regards to the residents of the community. According to the city's building code, vacant houses should be rehabilitated or torn down. Pending renovation, all openings must be secure against easy access. The code also allows the city to board up a vacant house and place a lien on the property. But apparently this is never done, the vacant houses still sit in our communities constantly bringing down the value of the entire surrounding area. Have you ever wondered why in even the poorest of white areas of the city, the frequency of vacant houses is no where like it is in the black areas of the city. Some houses are left to be used as literal trash dumps. If the administration of this city did care one bit, the owners would be fined immediately and after several fines the property would be torn down and the cost billed to the owner of the abandoned properties. But the truth is, many of the abandoned houses in the city are not even owned by people who live in the city, but of those who reside in the county areas where vacant houses don't even exist, ever and by Johns Hopkins Hospital!

As I said, the city doesn't care about the residents of certain areas of the city or the value of the properties that are in these certain areas of the city and its becoming increasingly more evident and upfront daily. Just look around you, the city has given our kids permission to be out of control. Why are there so many kids walking the streets during school hours everyday? I remember when I was in school the fear of a Truancy Officer catching you was enough to keep you wanting not to even cut a class. But times have changed, people change and the city has changed for the worse and it will be my privilege through a series of articles to shed light on these examples of pure neglect by our city that directly impact upon our community and its residents. In future articles I will deal with issues directly and specifically instead of general topics like in this article. I'm just getting you prepared for the upcoming articles because it might very well hit home, literally, and you may find yourself wondering If this really is your Baltimore!

Article By: Bill Craig
Baltimore City Resident

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