NatGeo featuring Baltimore on Drugs Inc.

I was really starting to feel left out. I mean, you have the heroin and drug mecca here, it is a show goldmine.

The funny part is the backlash. Those numbers (the 60,000) users,. the heroin capital, the abandoned buildings (18,000 abandoned row homes in Baltimore due to the great white flight.

You always have the go to answer of Baltimorons. But we have Fells Point! We have the waterfront! Why aren't you worried about DC? Because DC cleaned up a lot of its problems. Despite DC having problems, it is still worlds above Baltimore. I don't' fear for my life walking around DC.

FACT: one when My car broke down, when I told AAA what street I was on and told them the Sun was going down, they were there in 18 minutes. Single women get priority. Single women in the hood get expedited attention.

Before I get on with the subject at hand, let me clarify something. I am not a big supporter of the war against drugs. I don't support it very much at all, quite frankly. But when a problem gets so out of control that deaths and gangs are a daily reality, then it is a problem. I think drugs should be treated like a white collar crime. Are any of the guys from BP spending time in jail?

I also have never seen the Wire. I have to work in this god forsaken shit hole, I don't want to watch a show about it, I get to see it live everyday.

So the back to the backlash. People are trying to find all sorts of excuses. NatGeo is owned by Fox and Murdoch. Those 60k numbers are old. They have never been confirmed. The Baltimore Sun is working real hard to run stories against this show. BaltSun is in the hands of the corrupt government, by the way. Bitch, have you been to Lexington Market? Do those numbers look fake to you?

(BTW Lexington Market has the best fried chicken, omgeeerd) 01

I have seen people deal drugs on the side of route 40 during rush hour traffic. my first thought was, who the hell is up for a drug deal at 8am?

I step over drug baggies on the way home from work, that is in front of government office buildings, and highly visible. You rarely see the same police officer twice because you get 6 months of experience here, you can get a job anywhere, because you have already seen and done it all I have taken pictures of these baggies btw, but I had to do a factory reset on the laptop. So I don't have it no more, but don't worry friends, there will be more.

So my answer to the apologists is: no, this city is one big ghetto, riddled with gangs and crime. No one Is exaggerating anything.

My first apartment was in Irvington. Beautiful neighborhood. Like so many parts of Bmore, was once a beautiful place to live till the city died. We had this huge, gorgeous townhouse that easily kept 4 of us. Or one of us and 3 slobs and a dog. One parent and five children, one with fur. We used to sit on the porch at night and play "name that gun shot" and then " how many cop cars are going to fly by?" I usually lost. Our very night we celebrated our move by grilling in the back postage stamp.
Deer meat in case you are wondering. You can take the girl out of the suburb but you can't take the suburb out of the girl.


A ping was heard and the griller slammed a door and was found lying in the basement. A stray bullet hit the wall about a foot and a half from his head.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/drugs-inc/episodes/the-high-wire/

Robbing the Handicapp, part 4

If you have read my first blog, you will know that my car has been broken into 3 times to steal my handicap tag, and once to steal my gps, all in a matter of 2 years.

Now, this one didn't involve my car. In fact it happened in the county, not the city. But I have to gripe here about the lowest criminal element, those that steal from the handicapped.

Now what is even more disturbing about this is my neighborhood is safe, nothing happens here.So it just goes to show that you never truley get away from the criminal element, they will find you.

Let me start by saying that I rent an apartment in a house. The house is now up for sale. Meaning I may have to move out of said neighborhood in the next year.So there is a for sale sign up in front of the house.

I had left my tag in my mother's car which she took out of town. I did it on purpose so I wouldn't lose it in the car swap we did.
She found it, thought I needed it, and put it in my door jam to find when I got home.

I didn't know it was gone till I got the car back and went to look for it to use it. When I asked, she had said she stuck it in the door, which is inside a foyer, before she left.

I searched all around, it didn't fall to the floor, get stuck to something, nada.

Which means that someone who saw the for sale sign and was scoping out the house, saw it and took it.

Both the county and the city police really need to start checking people's handicap tags. When I go to walmart, the only one near the city, there is never handicap parking even though they have two aisles of it. And I see some young thing sachaying her way up to the door. Now the police are inside watching for theft. But I am not a billion dollar corp like walmart, so they aren't outside checking for theiving there.

I hope there is a special place in hell for these people who steal handicapp tags.

The Big Dig of Baltimore

According to the urban dictionary, one of the definitions of potholes(among a dozen more hilarious definitions) is:

forgetting what you're doing while you're doing it, or losing one's train of thought mid-sentence due to excessive marijuana consumption.

 

I think that is exactly what has led to the formation of the Big Dig of Baltimore. This is what I am calling the sink hole that has formed in the road next to a metro station. It is even carving out a portion under the Metro station, scarily enough.

 

Now this may not be the BIGGEST pothole you will ever see in  your life. What is astounding to me is two things: 1) It has been here over a year. 2) There are no safety concerns whatsoever.

 

I pass by this deliberately to see how its doing. I also want to check for any homeless people that may have fallen in and can't get out, or don't want too.

 

It is actually looking a little better as someone decided to use it to dispose of excess concrete.  There have been all sorts of interesting things showing up in there, other than the usual litter. Hair weaves, clothes,and rats.... And someone decided that a caution cone served a better purpose inside the Big Dig than out of it.

 

I also check it for Mini Coopers, Fiestas, Fiats,and Smart Cars. I pretend it is a trap. Actually, more than one poor soul has had their car jacked up by it.

 

Only in Somalia, Haiti, and South America, and now Baltimore, can you find sink holes in the road that are left there to trap cars so they can be used in the police force. Clever method, but dangerous.

 

How does Godzilla's toilet bowl miss the attention of the city?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take my city...please

Seriously, if anyone wants to comment, contriubute, add their story, either comment or send it to me and post it.

If you see material that you think should be added, feel free to add that too.

Thanks!

The tax hike...on water.

Baltimore City is on the edge of bankruptcy, like Detroit. The taxes are legally maxed out. So what do you do when you can't raise them? You create new ones.

Talk about squeezing blood from a turnip.

"Upset at the latest move to increase area water bills that would add another $21 to customers over the next three years, after recently passing a 'rain tax' and approving a Stormwater fee in last year's election; residents appeared fed up with their local officials and gave them a piece of their mind, to say the least. One local resident presented a water bill that totaled $634.17 for 84-days of usage – more than her insurance and car note combined she says. Another submitted over 600 letters of protest from her neighborhood residents, many of whom couldn't make it to the 9AM hearing."

Citizens protest tax hikes

Now a rain tax is also being implemented across Maryland, the city doesn't suck its tax love out of its thumb, considering the current governor is the former mayor.

But the rain tax is supposed to help clean the bay, but apparently the current mayor has other plans for it.

"Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has proposed to use a substantial portion of stormwater fee revenues — the "rain tax" — to lower the city's overwhelmingly high property tax."

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-10/news/bs-ed-rain-tax-20130509_1_rain-tax-stormwater-runoff-property-tax

Remember how I said that the city is already obscenely taxed? So instead of taking money, that is meant to manage storm water and keep pollution out of the Bay, and use it to lower property taxes, why don't you lower property taxes?

" Property tax rates in Baltimore County (outside the city) are less than half of those inside the city (1.1% versus 2.268%). The suburbs are thriving even with the center city decaying."

Blame Taxes for Baltimore's Rot

While I am making a blog, I might as well go into this week's corruption charge.

City Jail Probe Widens

The broken window routine, but it doesn't start there.

This is a regular sight on my way into work. I work in one of the government complexes around Baltimore, unfortunately. So this was another hit on a state employee, because the vehicles are sitting ducks. The sad part is, there isn't any choice. The state allows the employees to be fodder for thugs. Now if we worked in Annapolis, we would have a nice, safe garage to park in, instead of a high crime area. A poor soul had to partk next to the spot, despite your instincts telling you otherwise, because there is no parking. Unless you have $150 to throw down for a parking lot, which most state employees don't.

My own car has been hit 4 times in the two years that I have worked here. That is over $1200 in windows. Three times were in the last 9 months. When an investigator from the city called me about it and I explained all the hits, his response was to ask me if someone didn't like me.... Yea, that is it. I am a middle aged woman who have enemies with a grudge. Seriously? Do we work in the same city? The fact that they even have to ask is a little mind boggeling, he is in law enforcement.

Now what is it that they steal? Well the first time was the gps. Since I am not criminally minded, I didn't know that leaving the suction circles on the window is a clue to criminals. I would assume that if the actual gps isn't in view, you wouldn't have one. But they look anyways. So there you go, if you live in a high crime area, don't leave the suction circles on your window. The last three times? For my handicap pass. Apparently there is a black market for handicap placards because you get four free hours of parking in the city. There you have it folks. Criminals go running around breaking into vehicles and smashing out $350 windows for four hours of free parking.The placards go on the blackmarket for $50. This is why Baltimore sucks, big time. My saga doesn't stop there.

 Not only did the state not feel the need to warn about 10k employees that the handicapped are being targeted for crime, the city and the municiple law enforcement tackle it by...having stings and setting up dummy cars. Seriously? How about we take the sting money, and put out cameras. Or better yet, provide parking, or place gaurds around. Because these breakins like the one I have pictured, are right outside the state complex, in the middle of the day. These aren't vehicles being left overnight. Where someone in a ski cap is stealing placards, this is all in sight of employees, police, in the middle of the day. I can only imagine the criminal element in this city that steals from the handicap, in the face of two differen law enforcement agencies, in the middle of the friggin day. Why? Because they can.

Twice now, when I have had a window broken out, the great city of Baltimore ticketed my car for not displaying the placard. God help me if I am lying. Then, after having 3 stolen from me, I had to request new ones from the MVA, who said I had enough. I then had to write a letter to MVA explain how many times my car has been hit to get new ones.

Now, for those who actually may be concerned about civil rights, why are the handicap parking on the street with everyone else? Because the state doesn't give handicap parking to its employees. I am not even sure it is legal. There used to be a handicap lot, but the state rents it out to a private company as a fee lot who charges extraordinary prices. If you want handicap parking, we have to go through another parking regulating agency (that has a half empty parking lot to themselves that we get to look at everyday) and get their permission, send over 6 different documents and my son's fingerprints to prove that I am handicapped.
 AND THEN, they hand them out based on need. So a state agency, that has nothing to do with health, decides which handicapped people will be given a blessing for parking, and they will decide how handicapped you are to do it. While collecting rent on 50 spaces next to the building.

I can tell you where the placards are going, the Catonsville WalMart. For one, it is one of the closest. For two, they have like 30 handicapped spaces and they are all filled constantly. I highly doubt there are that many handicapped people in Catonsville. It seems to be an extraordinary amount. I think I agree with the investigator, someone must hate me out there... it is the government.

Why I started this blog.

People blog about a lot of things, whether it is documenting their bike trip through Chernobyl or their pregnancy. Not as many people blog about why their city sucks. But Baltimore is the cesspool of cesspools of cities. Detroit is a close runner up. While crime may be higher in Detroit, I put it second. It does have some redeeming attributes to speak for it such as an automobile industry. Baltimore doesn't have even that. They had to name their football team after a poem about a bird, because this city has nothing else to brag about. The funny part is, that Poe probably would of been a Giants fan. He spent more time in NY than in Baltimore. So the one redeeming attribute is Poe. Every year a visitor would come visit Poe's grave on his birthday. Instead of letting the tradition continue, they put up a video camera to see who it is. The visitor no longer comes. So the one interesting thing that happens in this city, they couldn't leave it alone, and screwed it up. I hate this city, and many around me hate it to. The politics are notoriously corrupt, the crime is high, the city is poor and run down. In the last two years I have worked here, I have had my car broken into four times. I have received parking tickets from the predatory parking maids who have placed tickets on my car with the smashed out window because my parking pass was stolen. The city is on the brink of bankruptcy, but they can't raise taxes because they are legally maxed out. So how can you max out the tax system and remain mind boggingly poor? Hence the predatory ticketing practises. Not that I expect hordes of people to read this blog, but I am using it as a tool to bring to attention the most failed city in America. To document the blight on the face of America. And maybe someone, somewhere, might take notice and actually care. I have considered wrighting this blog for sometime. But a new coworker went out this morning to find his back window smashed out. So I figured this was a good time to start documenting the phenomenon known as Baltimore.