A few days ago, we posted an article that talked about the urgent need to study, right now, the economics of the 150,000+ complaints that are filed with “Rent Court” every year – and that result in 7000 evictions annually. It’s a really important study that addresses a very, very significant problem in our city, the resolution of which is essential to the accomplishment of the economic recovery which is our mission. (Not so subtle note to contributors… It’s a study Baltimore Rising would gladly do for the city if you’d like to fund it.)
Tag Archives: Baltimore
150,000 Complaints, 7000 Evictions
Those numbers in the title? Particularly the 150,000 in a city of only 620,000 people? They’re huge, aren’t they? They’re the number of rental unit complaints and resulting evictions that The Sun, the Washington Post, The 7000 Families Campaign and others have been talking about.
The Problem With Startups
Hey. Just a quick note about supporting startups as a strategy for creating jobs. This may sound cold, but it’s huge waste of time and money. Here’s why…
The Absence of Mandate
Hi. Even this far in advance of next April’s primary, there was considerable interest among people who follow city politics when The Sun published its recent poll. The image below from The Sun’s website shows the results.
Priming The Pump
Almost everybody is in agreement that Baltimore needs to lower its property tax rate which, at 2.248%, is almost twice that of the next highest county rate in the state. The rate is so high that it’s discouraging people and employers from moving here – and encouraging people and businesses to leave. We have a consensus. The question isn’t whether or not we lower the rate, but by what means and how quickly.
Missing the Point
A few minutes ago, we got around to reading the following tweet from the Mayor, shown below.
Very impressive? Not really.
Presidential Primary Turnout
As may have read in our post, “Minority rule?“, the turnout at the last Mayoral Democratic primary, which was in 2011, was only 25%.
“That’s pathetic.”
Public Education, The 9 Year Solution
In order to rebuild the Baltimore economy, we need to repopulate the city. To do that, we need to give people and businesses a safer environment, obviously, but also a superior public school system that young families with children can respect, that’s competitive with what the suburbs have to offer. That’s why Baltimore Rising is interested in effecting a dramatic, relatively short-term improvement in the quality of public education everywhere in the city. Everywhere. This isn’t about opening a special charter school here and there.
How do we reduce the property tax rate?
Cutting property taxes is something we really, really need to do. Our rate, which is 2.248%, is almost twice that of the next highest county rate in the state. The rate in Charles County is 1.205%. If you were thinking maybe it was Howard County, the rate there is only 1.014%. Howard County doesn’t need a high property tax rate because its median household income is over $100,000, housing is much more expensive and the county isn’t spending $750 million a year on public safety.
Baseline
Yesterday, The Sun published the results of a poll it ran asking the usual question, the one that begins with, “If the election were held today…”
At best, these are baseline results, meaning that they are before any of the candidates is really campaigning, certainly not full-on they way they’ll be running around beginning in January and increasingly so the closer we get to April.