Sandra Coles of the Greater Greenmount Community Association wins the Mayor's contest for best community work

Congratulations are in order for Mrs. Sandra Coles, President of the Greater Greenmount Community Association and recently appointed Quad 1 Representative of the Charles Village Community Benefits District.  Mrs. Coles is a tireless advocate for her community and believes that all people share the same concerns about living in Baltimore City.  She has fought for getting areas cleaned up, speaking recently with Representative Cummings in Annapolis and before the Planning Department about issues that are important to her community and the city in general. 

She has been advised that she and her community association have won the first prize on a project, that we worked with her along with many volunteers on improving an empty lot, over grown with weeds and trash located at North Avenue and Greenmount Avenue.  This project caught the eye of the Mayor who awarded her organization the first prize and a gift of $5,000.  We have worked recently with Mrs. Coles on another project, after attending one meeting of the People's Homestead Group agreed to replace the roof of a local resident on Barclay Street.  The air was ripe with enthusiasm at this meeting and we raised sufficient funding to have the roof replaced and the homeowner is now safe from the oncoming Sandy.

Mrs. Coles is a person that brings people together to ensure that things get done and we are proud to have been of some assistance to her.  We are sure that Mrs. Coles will bring a great deal of ideas and presence to the CVCBD Board and it is hoped that they listen to some of her ideas so that they can improve their image in the communities that they are supposed to represent.

Without cause - part II

We were surprised in a community that provides itself as being liberal and supporting liberal causes that we received only two comments on our article entitled "Without Cause".  Were all these Liberals merely shouting popular thoughts about fairness?  Were all these Liberabls only liberal when it is convenient?  The ability to remove a Board Member from the CVCBD Board "W I T H O U T  C A U S E" is so anti-democratic that it is offensive to anyone and anyone who has received a popular vote from their neighbors and then had their vote destroyed by the actions of fellow board members.  What reason is there to remove someone "without cause"?  Is it due to the fact that they don't like the person's religion, political stance, color of skin or where he or she lives?  Is it because the person doesn't agree with an issue presented, so rather than debate the issue and attempt to bring the person who opposes the presentation, just remove them "without cause"? 

What next?  Do we decide that only blond haired people can participate on the Board of the CVCBD?  Therefore all black haired people cannot be members of the board.  Not only is this undemocratic, it is not the way Charles Villagers thinks and acts.  At the hearing all of the newly appointed representatives tn the Board indicated that they do not support the "WITHOUT CAUSE" portion of the bylaws, now it is time for them to demand that this phrase be eliminated from the bylaws.  I think that the other members of the Board do not truly understand "without cause" means or they would not have voted to have this phrase incorporated in the bylaws.  Ladies and Gentlemen I request that you all stand up and be counted on this position and that the count be printed on the CVCBD web site for all of your neightbors to see.

Your thoughts please

It appears that the majority of taxes paid for the services of the Benefits District are being utilized for the purpose of sanitation.  In fact they have secured grants in the past for the specific purpose of purchasing $600. baskets, where the City will provide them for free to the community.  They report that they checked the various neighborhoods and were advised that the neighborhoods wanted them to handle the sanitation issues exclusively and were not so interested in security issues. 

Since this community pays the City via real estate taxes for this sanitation purpose as well, we think that we as a community who are obligated legally to pay this surtax should be granted an exemption on our City taxes because we don't have the free City corner baskets which have been replaced by the $600, bill board CVCBD baskets.  The City is obligated to empty free city baskets in communities that don't have a Benefits District, but the City is not obligated to empty these $600. CVCBD baskets.

                                                                     What do you think? 

Neighborhoods without borders

Today we went to Terra Cafe, just as we had promised the owner, Mr. Terence Dickins we would to assist him in the preparation of lunches for the homeless in this city.  From what I understand about the details of this offering of food to the homeless, it follows the outlines of "Neighborhood without borders" a program of neighbors helping neighbors.

We arrived at 9 am, and shortly thereafter we were greeted by Tiffany who asked the question, "are you one of the volunteers who came to make sandwiches for the homeless?"  We responded positively and entered the restaurant, situated at the south east corner of East 25th Street and began to work by moving the tables and setting up a system already planned out to ensure that the 250 sandwiches could be made in time for delivery at lunch time.  There was a set of three tables for sandwich preparation, eight tables were set up for the placement of lunch bags and another table for the distribution of fruit and pastries. 

A crew of eager young people started to arrive and they were anxious to start the actual preparation of the lunches and assisted in getting the table cloths on the sandwich table, setting up the bags in rows of five and distributing the pastries and other goodies into the bags, to be set into another bag to bring a total of 50 bags per shelter that Terence was going to visit.  There was not one complaint there and everyone was happy to have whatever job was available and they knew precisely what needed to be done with very little direction.

Shortly as the system worked well we were on our way to finishing the 250 sandwiches and they were ready for distribution.  The atmosphere was casual, no one preached to anyone and everyone was pleasant to each other.  It goes to show that when you have a popular idea and working with positive young people that you can achieve the almost impossible.  We have decided to make this one of our projects as well and if you have some time, check in with Terra Cafe and check out the schedule to see if it works in with your ability to assist.  You shouldn't be disappointed because the people are fun to be with and the purpose of it is simply great.

Without cause

For some time now various members of the community have been fighting the fact that the CVCBD wanted to be able to remove a fellow Board Member WITHOUT CAUSE and therefore revised their bylaws to include this power and extend said power to the Board to substitute someone of its own choosing.  Those of us, as concerned residents of Charles Village, wondered why it was necessary for the CVCBD to even consider such an action.  Is this for the use of personal prejudices or for total power over Board members? Why would you want to remove a fellow Board Member without cause, after he/she had been either nominated by an association's president as outlined in the enabling legislation and/or elected by a vote of people they will represent?  How could you conceivably justify such an action as this robbing the residents of the community of a duly appointed or elected fellow member of the community? 

After casting a vote in favor of including this phrase in the new bylaws, Mr. Emil Volchek told us that he was going to work to remove this from the by-laws, but there this phrase still remains.  Why?  It makes no sense unless the CVCBD wants to control the membership on the Board to a group of members that will agree with what is currently being put forward.  This is not a corporate board of directors but a "governmental agency" and while the CVCBD's Board is hardly anything of a democratic entity, in our Country you do not remove someone without cause after the electorate has supported and voted for this individual.  This is not the time to dally over other issues as this without cause insults the good name of our community.  Remove it from the by-laws and remove it now or show cause why it should be continued.

North Charles Village PUD

One of the neighborhood champions has worked diligently to resolve issues that relate to the North Charles Village PUD, while not apparently getting any real satisfaction.  Let me attempt to fairly inform some of you who may not know what a "PUD" is.  This is an abbreviation for a "Planned Unit Development" project and in our case was the subject of vocal concern for this neighborhood during the planning issues of the creation of Village Lofts and other properties along north Charles Village.  There were several meetings held by the Developer, the City and the community, that ended in essence if you provide proper sanitation, keep building heights to a certain level, don't start destruction of property if you don't have financing in place, the community would welcome this development.  The most basic concern was to not have empty lots and to have in place a policy for handling sanitation issues in an area that was going to be impacted greatly by multi-height buildings with stores in an area that was initially a residential area.  Agreements were made by a local civic association who was on the Design and Review panel that simply have not been followed.  Houses were destroyed and the neighborhood was left with an empty lot that thanks to this neighborhood champion at least gets mowed.  Issues involving over flowing dumpsters, garbage placed out too early in inadequate cans and not abiding upon the basic agreements which were entered into by this community so that construction could move forward have not been followed.  We now learn that the PUD has no teeth and there is nothing really further than can be done.  Reports have been filed to the City constantly to have dumpster companies comply with the agreed time of pick up, but they still manage to break these rules.  Charles Village, like the City of Baltimore has a serious rat problem, but feeding the rats is not the way to get rid of them.   We need to get this issue resolved by either introducing legislation to establish some "teeth" to stop the polluters, those who discard their trash improperly, those who come out at night and throw mattresses away because they are too lazy to go to Sisson Street and get rid of them.  We need to have absentee landlords and "all" residents held accountable for the proper disposal of trash or very soon the rats will be running for election and they will throw us out.  We need, and need it now, a corrective means of enforcing the PUD, or absent that the City must stop using PUDS as a vehicle to entice neighborhoods to accept development.

CVCBD Quad Elections

This morning we received a posting for this blog (as "Other Voice from Charles Village") from a Benefits District homeowner, Joan Floyd:

"I attended the October 16, 2012 Quad Elections of the CVCBD for the sole purpose of presenting the following statement and question to each candidate:

"If tonight's election results in you being on the Board in 2013, that result can be undone by the Board, which has the power under the by-laws to vote you off the Board and decide for itself who should hold this position.  Do you agree with this by-law, and if so, why should the Board have the power to remove you and choose your replacement?"

There was one candidate for each of the four Quad positions.

The first three candidates, Ms. Coles (Quad 1), Mr. Richardson (Quad 2), and Mr. Herman (Quad 3), stated that they did not agree with the by-law and that the Board should not have this power to remove them.

The Quad 4 candidate, Mr. Jones, accused me of misrepresenting the by-law.  When I read the above statement (for the fourth time) and asked him if he felt it was incorrect, he did not say so.  However, he insisted that the Board did not have the power to remove a member without cause.  

Some attendees familiar with the by-laws spoke up and corrected Mr. Jones, whose final word on the subject was that he would have to read the by-law. 

Surely Mr. Jones read the by-law in 2011, prior to casting his vote in favor of it.  The minutes of the March 8, 2011 Board meeting show that not only was Mr. Jones on the Board at the time and present at the meeting, but that the vote on that day was unanimous to approve the new by-laws and ask the Board of Estimates to authorize them.

The public record shows that Mr. Jones not only agrees with, but also helped to establish, the Board's power to remove and replace an elected Quad representative.

-- Joan Floyd"

The bylaws are available on the CVCBD's website and we quote hereunder from it:

253 Section 8. Removal of a Board Member.
254
255 A Board member may be removed with cause by a vote of 10 of the voting Board members. A
256 Board member may be removed without cause by a vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the voting Board
257 members. Such Board member and the association, organization or officials, if any, that
258 appointed the Board member, shall be given no less than ten days’ notice of the meeting at which
259 his or her removal is to be considered, and shall have the right to appear and speak on his or her
260 behalf.

Certainly, this establishes without a doubt that Board Members of the Charles Village Community Benefits District (the CVCBDMA) simply do not understand their responsibilities and have not read the City Charter and Code, the legislation that established and governs this entity, nor the CVCBDMA's own by-laws and yet they vote on issues that affect this community.  We cannot, as a community, allow this board and/or any future board to remove someone from the board "without cause" as they did years ago when they removed Doug Armstrong from a non-voting seat without cause even before the Board changed the by-laws to allow it.

This 2011 amendment to the by-laws is an abomination since even the only community-elected Board members chosen by their own "quad" people to represent them on the Board of Directors can be removed and replaced by an individual of the Board's own chosing.  This by-law must be removed as soon as possible by the Benefits District's Board.

Peabody Heights Annual Coat Drive

We are off and running our annual coat drive this year and hope to get more coats for both children and adults this year in order to beat our past records.  This is an opportunity for all to go through their closets and pull out coats that they don't want or need and bring them to The Book Thing at 30th Street and Vineyard Lane so that our friend and neighbor, Ms. Didon Pacher will collect those that can be washed and wash them for us and the others we are working with O.K. Taylor's on 25th Street who give us a special discount to clean them.  Most of the repairs are made by me and those that cannot be repaired by me are done expertly by a local company, opposite the Benefits District office.  After the coats are cleaned and repaired, we then contact the Baltimore City Public Schools and with Luke Dillon's assistance we either make deliveries of the coats and/or have them picked up at our home in Charles Village.  Sometimes our living room looks like a warehouse for coats because there are so many of them.  After we complete this process of cleaning and repairing the coats, they are given, never sold, but given to those who need them.  Without all of these people helping us, we cannot succeed, but thanks to their assistance many in our communities are getting freshly cleaned and repaired coats for the winter time. 

So remember this yearyour 5 year old son, or Maria your 11 year old will never be that age again and if they can't fit into those coats, please donate.  We also want to thank "Heart's Place, Inc." for their contribution of coats yesterday that has filled up our back porch with many coats on their way to be washed, dry-cleaned and prepared for this years' use.  Because of the coat drive, we have received clothing that has been donated to the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Hospital and several other institutions.  Thanks to all of our friends and neighbors for their help in making this a wonderful project.

Another day, another window broken

I am beginning to think that perhaps we shouldn't take too many walks in the community because lately we have been noting commercial establishments with broken windows along North Charles Street.  While returning from a walk we noted another broken window at 2526 North Charles Street, next to the Bank of America.  We called 911 and reported it to the Baltimore City Police Department and waited for the police to come, but apparently they were busy on some other important issue so we left.  We were called some time later by the BCPD who confirmed the damages and asked if it were our building.  We replied that it was not our building and the end is another commercial enterprise is going to have to pay a considerable amount of money to have the window repaired.  What brought our immediate attention to this broken window as the fact that two houses down a screen was laying on the ground which made us look up and see the broken window at the building listed above.  It appears that North Charles Street, St. Paul Street and the unit block of West 25th Street are being targeted since we started noting these conditions.  However, I guess we should be happy that, after hearing about the shootings on 2300 block of North Charles Street and at 300 East 26th Street, that a crime as small as the breakage of another window doesn't appear to be too bad.  However, these businesses along these areas are being targeted and it could result in commercial establishments moving out of Charles Village.

Woman laying on street

Today, we were walking down St. Paul Street around 2:15 pm and noted a woman laying in the street next to Terra Cafe, located on the SE corner of 25th Street.  We noted a young African American male attempt to raise the woman who was sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk who had used her coat to make up a pillow.  We proceeded across the street and suggested to the young man that he should call 911 to report the incident, as we were not carrying our cell phone at that time, so that some care could be achieved for this person who could have been under the influence of drugs or possibly sleeping out a diabetic issue.  We then suggested that he call the 911 Operator, as we noted that her breathing was very shallow and this young man immediately called the police and reported the incident.  He gave excellent directions to the 911 Operator who had an ambulance there, along with a large fire truck within the next two minutes and they took the woman away, presumably to a hospital. 

What we were surprised upon approaching this site was the fact that many people walked by this person laying on the sidewalk and continued walking without bothering to check to see if they could provide assistance by calling 911.  We didn't get the name of the young African American man, but would like to use this opportunity to thank him for calling the 911 Operator and letting this individual be taken care of.  He was a very polite young man and because of his actions this woman hopefully is recovering from whatever issue she is facing.

Rash of window break ins in commercial center of Charles Village

Over the last four weeks we have noted six windows broken within the commercial section of Charles Village.  These have taken place on North Charles Street, St. Paul Street and 25th Street and in each case we noted that the major window to the commercial establishment has been broken into.  In four instances we informed the police of the break ins after our return to our home and it was apparently the first notice that they have received.  It would appear that the break ins take place during the day time, with the exception of the break in at 25th Street and Saint Paul and while it doesn't appear that anything was taken, after we waited for the police to come and survey the damages, they all involved businesses in our community.  We are noticing during our walk that the windows are being then boarded up to give additional protection to the contents inside the business and in one instance the establishment had the window replaced shortly thereafter and was again the target of an additional breakage by unknown parties.  Also on the southeast corner of North Charles Street and 26th Street additional graffiti has been placed on the office of a new attorney establishing her practice at the property owned by CSX.  These silent crimes are happening to our neighbors and the BCPD needs to investigate the circumstances in order to stop them.