Posts Tagged ‘Housing’

Baltimore’s low-rise public housing policy needs drastic changes

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Someone has to come out and state the straight up truth: All of the 1960′s era and older low-rise public housing in Baltimore has to be demolished in order for the neighborhoods that these buildings currently exist in to flourish.

It is wrong for residents of Reservoir Hill like me to sit here and say we want Madison-Park North gone without saying that any complex like this one in Baltimore needs to be demolished. If we can not take it, then no neighborhood should have to take it. Before some of you try and attack me, please tell me how many facilities like this have you lived by before? How many have you set foot into in your life? I have dealt with Madison-Park North for 8 years and have also walked around similar complexes in Poppleton and McCulloh Homes. The mood at these places can range from depressing to scary. Taxpayers should not be funding facilities that contribute so much negativity to Baltimore.

The complexes are completely outdated and are in bad shape. They are not good for the residents, the neighbors of the complex, or the overall mood of the surrounding neighborhood. Who in their right mind would choose to live across the street from one of these places?

The obliteration of these human warehouses could help usher in an era of true public housing reform in Baltimore. The old complexes could be replaced with less dense accommodations that would be placed on city or state owned empty lots throughout the city. The residents would be given very good living spaces, but there would be a (fair) price to pay. Current rules over public housing would be strictly enforced instead of completely ignored. If you do drugs, harbor drug dealers, lie about who is living there, or have a hidden income that would disqualify you from vouchers/public housing then you will be kicked out.  One of the reasons that Baltimore public housing has become such a mess is because those who are supposed to be enforcing rules let just about anything happen at these places with little to no consequences.

Once these depressing eyesores have been removed then surrounding areas will be free to flourish in ways previously thought to be impossible. Values of neighboring homes will immediately go up because of the lack of horrible neighbors.

We need leaders who are politically brave enough to speak the awful politically incorrect truth about Baltimore’s low-rise public housing. Once the topic is part of the mainstream agenda we will be able to fix many of the problems in this city.

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Madison-Park North will bring down Paul Graziano

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Last Tuesday Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano spoke at a Reservoir Hill Improvement Council meeting. The commissioner had some pretty depressing news about the Madison-Park North housing project. I have posted notes from that meeting (that can be found on the Reservoir Hill Google group) that were taken by citizen of Reservoir Hill below this post.

The commissioner is basically going back on everything he said at the August Madison-Park North multifamily dwelling license revocation news conference.  The commissioner will be unhappy to know that everything he said at the news conference can be viewed here.

Back in August Graziano opened up his speech by saying how horrible things were at Madison-Park North and everything that the city has tried over the years to fix the problem. He called the situation “Intolerable” and twice said “looks can be deceiving” when talking about how things might look OK to the naked eye, but in reality the situation at Madison-Park North is intolerable.

Looks can be deceiving- knocking down one building, planting some new trees, and getting a new slumlord owner may look nice, but Madison-Park North will still be as intolerable as ever. If the commissioner and mayor give in and do not proceed with the multifamily license revocation then we are going to be stuck with a mildly spruced up version of Madison-Park North for at least another generation! In August Graziano went on and on about how horrible Madison-Park North is, but now it appears everything that he said has been conveniently forgotten. I am so happy that his original thoughts can still be viewed here.

Why does Paul Graziano still have a job?

At the original news conference the mayor said we will not tolerate this type of criminal activity in Baltimore.  I am glad she thought this.  We are now facing a situation where if we allow a new slumlord to take over and make minor changes that we will be tolerating “this type of criminal activity in Baltimore”.

So did the commissioner really have a plan back in August or was he trying to show off in front of the cameras? Does the mayor have a long term plan for Madison-Park North and the housing department?

On March 15th mayoral candidate Otis Rolley is coming to Reservoir Hill to answer questions about his vision for Baltimore. I plan to personally ask Mr. Rolley if he plans to fire Paul Graziano and what he wants to happen to Madison-Park North.

The summary of Paul Graziano’s appearance at the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council meeting can be found below:

“Update on MPN from Commissioner Graziano:
- They are pretty far along in negotiations with a potential buyer of the complex.  The negotiations are not done, nor is it a done deal.
- The city wants to add conditions to the new buyer.
- I got the impression that Graziano wanted this sale to go through, as it gets him out of the difficult position of following through on the revocation of the multi-use license.  Ie, he is back peddling, as he doesn’t want the ongoing legal fight on this.
- The current conditions of the sale that are on the table (not formalized, he would not put in writing) are:
- Reduce the density from 220 units to 160.  ~20 of the the 160 be converted over time to market rate.
- The remaining 140 units would be section 8
- Beautify the property
- Remove some of the buildings for safety reasons (hence the decrease in units).
- Other superficial things.
- Sale may not go through it they put too many conditions on it.
- There was no mention of how the contract provisions would be enforced after a deal is signed.  (We all know how well the city enforces housing agreements — SCOPE, etc).  There was no mention of any resources to police the provisions.”

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MICA purchases prime building in Reservoir Hill

Posted by ameister on Monday, February 28th, 2011

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) purchased the former “Parks and Recreation Railroad building” at 2560 Madison Avenue in Reservoir Hill on August 19, 2010 for $620,000. I just discovered the news of this potentially major neighborhood improvement. MICA currently plans to use the building for storage, but there are obviously a lot of other positive uses for this building that they might want to explore.

MICA is a major Baltimore institution that has a large development footprint in Bolton Hill. I am glad to see that they have jumped over North Avenue and decided to explore Reservoir Hill. In the past people have mentioned MICA as a potential future owner of the land that the Madison Park North housing project currently sits on. That rumor was just speculation and hope, but with the acquisition of the nearby 2560 Madison Avenue property we now see physical proof that MICA is willing to make a major real estate purchase north of North Avenue.

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Baltimore home assessments should decrease in 2011 so we must lower property taxes now

Posted by ameister on Friday, December 24th, 2010

In 2010 property assessments decreased all over Maryland . One third of home owners should be receiving new 2011 assessments in the mail this week or next. These assessments should follow the decreasing trend that was first noticed in 2010. This is temporary good news for long time landlords and other non-homeowner occupants who are not protected by homestead tax credits.  In Baltimore the 2010 assessments decreased by 5.5%.  There is a very slim chance that in 2011 the city may be faced with a situation where they will have to RAISE property taxes to make up for a decrease in assessments. It is highly likely that such a situation will occur in 2012. We could have avoided this nightmare scenario if we understood and implemented the constant yield tax rate in 2010. Most likely it is still possible to avoid this scenario if we implement the constant yield tax rate in 2011.

“The Constant Yield Tax Rate is simply a property tax rate that, when applied to new assessments, will result in the taxing authority receiving the same revenue in the coming taxable year that was produced in the prior taxable year.”

For at least the last 6 years the city of Baltimore has used a property tax rate that is higher than the constant yield tax rate and thus produced a larger amount of property tax revenue for the city. If the city were to actually manage itself correctly then we would have lower property tax rates every year. When Baltimore sees the potential for more revenue at the expense of the property tax payer they suck up the money and create new programs to fund (while still hardly maintaining the older programs). If we do not stop this madness this year then property tax payers will end up paying far more for it than they ever imagined in 2012. Below are some easy to follow numbers that I came up with in 2009 that help explain my scenario.  These numbers are not exact but they show the direction that I feel we are going in because of decreased property values and the popping of the real estate bubble.

Let’s say that in year 1 Baltimore collected $100,000 in property tax revenue. In year 2, one third of the assessments decreased by 5.5%, but because of past housing bubbles two thirds of the assessments are being phased in from the past and are still rising. In order for the city to collect $100,000 in year 2 the city would use a constant yield tax rate (CYTR) that was lower than the current property tax rate. The city chooses not to use the CYTR. They stick with the old rate and they collect $105,000 in property tax revenue in year 2.

In year 3 the next third of properties gets reassessed. Assessments drop on these properties, but one third of the properties’ assessments are being phased in from the past and are still going up because of past housing bubbles. In order for the city to collect $105,000 in year 3 (like it did in year 2) the city would use a slightly lower CYTR than the current property tax rare. The city opts to keep the current tax rate and it collects $107,000 in property tax revenue.

In year 4 the final third of properties gets reassessed. Assessments drop on these properties. Phased in assessments are no longer significantly increasing anywhere. Over the last 3 years an incredible amount of houses have lost assessed value. If the current property tax rate is used, only $100,000 in property tax revenue is generated. In order for the city to collect the $107,000 it collected last year it must use a CYTR that is HIGHER THAN THE CURRENT PROPERTY TAX RATE! Property tax rates are increased in order to hit the CYTR requirement. Welcome to 2012! Had the city used the CYTR in year 2 it never would end up in this situation. This is why we must cut government programs, fire government workers, and lower the property tax rate to the CYTR in 2011. If we manage our expenses correctly now, then lower assessment will not be a major issue in the future.

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Baltimore housing issues that should be addressed

Posted by ameister on Monday, December 20th, 2010

Housing is an issue that silently haunts Baltimore. Many leaders try to avoid it by distracting the public with wasteful “sexy” projects like billion dollar arena/convention center projects. Imagine instead of somehow coming up with a billion dollars if we gave city home owners a $50million property tax break by cutting their property tax rates by 16 cents. Lower property taxes will cause more fence sitters to invest in Baltimore real estate and make living in Baltimore more affordable for current residents. Property taxes are part of the cost of doing business when purchasing and owning a home and thus if you lower property taxes you make Baltimore homes more affordable. Something like this benefits every homeowner in Baltimore instead of benefiting developers, unions, politically connected people, and other non-city residents that would profit off of a pointless arena.

A friend of mine sent me this link that clearly explains how many city owned houses are worth less than $0!  The city of Baltimore needs to understand this before they price the property they currently are sitting on. At the end of the day every single “bad neighborhood” needs homeowner occupants to purchase homes within their borders if they ever hope to stabilize.

LiveBaltimore now has Youtube videos that promote specific Baltimore neighborhoods. They leave out a lot of important less than perfects details about these neighborhoods, but they are great tools for generating housing interest from Baltimore outsiders.

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Paul Graziano needs to let our houses go

Posted by ameister on Sunday, November 21st, 2010

In this week’s city paper there is an article about a new housing program called “Vacants to Value”. After over a decade of incompetency it appears that the Paul Graziano lead housing department might be getting closer to actually ridding itself of a substantial about of vacant city owned properties.

The Vacants to Value program is far from perfect, but at least it plans to make it easier for regular people to purchase city owned vacant houses.  That is a step in the right direction.

I like the auction process because if a house is worthless (and many are close to worthless in this economy) then its real value will be revealed in a fair, open, and properly marketed auction process. It appears that two of our highest elected officials do not understand what auctions are supposed to do and foolishly inflate the value of Baltimore’s vacant houses:

“The new program will also auction many properties without setting a minimum bid price, according to City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who, with city Comptroller Joan Pratt, voted against the plan at the Nov. 2 Board of Estimates meeting. “If we have something of value, we need to receive fair value for it,” Pratt said then, according to The Baltimore Sun’s account.”

This type of real estate greed doomed Baltimore’s empty houses in the mid-2000′s. Back in 2004 and 2005 the real estate market was on fire and Baltimore’s worthless shells were being sold at greatly inflated prices on the private market. Had the housing department simply generated a list of all of its vacant properties and put them up for auction then they would have generated a substantial amount of revenue for the city. There was greed and inefficiency in the housing department. The city wanted incredibly lofty prices for some of its worst properties and they made the acquisition process impossible. They overvalued what they had then and some are still overvaluing what they have now.

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HABC (The housing authority of Baltimore city is not the same thing as the housing department even though Graziano controls both bureaucracies) houses are still not going to be sold. Here is a video from the WVDA that talks about HABC houses, Graziano, and some other housing/Baltimore issues. This video just came out, but the footage that I am in was filmed in October of 2009. I had nothing to do with the production or the creative direction of the video, but I think it is an entertaining one.

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Madison Park North is one step closer to history

Posted by ameister on Friday, October 22nd, 2010

On Tuesday night at the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council’s anual meeting a neighbor of mine asked me about the status of the Madison Park North housing complex. At that point I had not heard what I am about to tell you.  The neighbor agreed with me when I said that the future disappearance of the Madison Park North housing complex will be the greatest thing ever to happen in this neighborhood. This neighborhood has been around for over one hundred years.

The official Baltimore Housing web site posted the following article on Tuesday: Crime Ridden Complex Loses Its License To Operate.  It says a lot about the situation when the city of Baltimore is willing to use such a harsh title and further elaborate on the problems in the article. The Baltimore Housing department is known to be quite timid when dealing with public housing issues. The city needs to be commended on its aggressive approach to the Madison Park North situation. Action should have been taken a long time ago, but at least they are finally getting down to business and attacking the situation.  The Baltimore Sun writes about the license revocation here.

For years the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council has been aware of the ridiculous activities that permeate from the Madison Park North housing complex.  They did not step up and properly complain about the situation. They did not want to offend any of the residents and they did not want to seem anti-poor.  Their silence allowed the complex to further deteriorate. Political correctness and anti-middle class conspiracy theories literally let visitors and residents of the Madison Park North housing complex get away with murder. It should come as no surprise that at last night’s Reservoir Hill Improvement Council annual meeting that Madison Park North was not brought up.  One longtime board member did find it necessary to award her first cousin (who was installed as director of the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council in 2009) with a “prestigious” achievement award.  You have to love the priorities of many Baltimore neighborhood associations.

Reservoir Hill and Baltimore are at a crossroad in their histories.  We can keep on making up meaningless awards, pretend everything is great, and create all sorts of conflicts of interests involving friends, family, power, and money, OR we can address our real problems,take real action, and solve them as quick as possible.

Good riddance to Madison Park North and the old way of running Baltimore.

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The truth about the Madison Park North complex and the hearing to close it down

Posted by ameister on Sunday, September 26th, 2010

On Wednesday the hearing to shut down the Madison Park North Housing complex started. Here is the the Sun’s article about the hearing. Make sure you check out the reader comments below the article.

On the Reservoir Hill Google group I found the following detailed summary of the hearing

“Hello everyone. I attended the MPN hearing or at least until I was so upset I had to leave. First, there was no mic in the room so it was very difficult to hear a lot of the testimony. The hearing started off with the mediator telling everyone that 7 HOURS had been requested for testimony and presenting the facts in the case. I could not believe it. The MPN attorneys went on and on about how MPN is being made the scapegoat for the entire city of Baltimore’s crime rate and that MPN is not really that bad. There was testimony by the Police commander for the central district. Some parts of his testimony were not audible because in the middle of it about 20 women from MPN came in to support their side. The MPN attorney to my mind actually by his cross examination did more to prove the point that the complex should be closed. However, this man went on and on about how the police should contact the management company and how often did they walk the complex to fight crime. He even stated that if the police would get the owner the apartment numbers for the drug dealers they would be evicted. He in fact mentioned that the DEA had given the owners of MPN a grant to put up the fence around the property because the drug dealing was so bad. (Did anyone else know about this?) I would think that if the DEA felt that crime and drugs were so bad why was this place allowed to stay open? I really was very intrigued that some many of the MPN residents should up some with children and were really rude during the hearing. There were also an assortment of ‘activists’ who also showed up to support the complex. There was a ‘minister’ who said that he was running for president of the NAACP who felt that the complex should not be closed and stated to me that he was going to work with the management of the complex to resolve the problems instead of working to close the complex… I was not amused by the Legal Aide attorneys that showed up to support the residents of the complex. They talked constantly during the hearing and even jeered the police commander several times during the cross examination. At noon time I left. The statement was made that if the hearing was not finished on the day of hearing it would be continued until the next day. I did talk to a reporter as I was leaving. I told her how unfair I thought the coverage had been in the Sun and that other residents in the community have lots to say about how MPN affects my quality of life.

I really feel from the start of this hearing that the community is a fight to get this closed. The RHIC (Reservoir Hill Improvement Council) of course took the easy way out and did not really seem to support the community. (At least to my mind.) I am interested in hearing what others who attended thought.”

I totally disagree with this quote in the Sun’s article about the hearing:

“The Reservoir Hill Improvement Council also asked that any redevelopment plans for the site — which comprises 44 buildings on North Avenue, just west of Park Avenue — include mixed- and low-income housing.”

WHY? The neighborhood is already packed with “low-income housing”. Why do we need ANY new housing when existing houses in our neighborhood can not sell? The “low-income housing” topic is something that is just brought up to make the GOOD LAW ABIDING RESIDENTS of Reservoir Hill appear to be racists and classists. Reservoir Hill residents are the VICTIMS of this monstrosity and the drug dealers are the pure criminals! What a messed up world we live in when things can be twisted around to appear otherwise.

There will not be mass homelessness when the complex is shut down. The people who legally live in the complex are basically wards of the state who will be taken care of by the state and transferred somewhere else. It’s a lie and joke to worry about their housing future. The numerous so-called men who DO NOT LIVE there and only visit to sell drugs and have sex will no longer have a safe haven. Are the activists worried about these so-called men? It will be a blessing to have these so-called men who should have never even been there in the first place far far away from Reservoir Hill.

Political correctness and concessions will only allow this putrid complex to exist another day. People need to speak the truth and not sugar coat the reckless and dangerous situation that exists in Reservoir Hill because of the Madison Park North Housing complex.

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Video of politicians speaking at the Madison-Park North closure press conference

Posted by ameister on Monday, August 23rd, 2010

On Tuesday the plague that is known as the Madison-Park North housing project became much closer to finally being eradicated.  After many years of torturing the good residents of Reservoir Hill our politicians have finally stepped up and put the pressure on the owner of this blight on society. The owner was given many opportunities to “make things right” but she did not and now she is about to be rightfully punished (although she will be able to sell the valuable land for millions of dollars). The Sun covers the full story here and provides an official list of complaints about the project (a copy of the revocation letter) here. You can read some of my past article that mention the housing project here and here.

The legendary Howard Fink recorded the press conference in the name of posterity and you can see all of our politicians ripping on the decrepit facility below:

http://www.vimeo.com/14251251

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The Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office does not do evictions when it rains

Posted by ameister on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Baltimore does not make it easy to be a non-section 8 landlord within its boundaries. I have no idea why anyone would want to be a landlord in this city. I have authenticated the story I am about to tell.

There was a landlord who recently had arranged for squatters (original renters allowed other people to take their place without permission of the landlord) to be legally evicted from his rental property. He had gone through the entire time consuming court process (while the squatters got to live there for free) and scheduled the eviction with the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office. The day before the eviction he called the office to confirm the eviction and the woman on the phone said” “We do not do confirmations”.  The day of the scheduled eviction the landlord waited outside the property for an hour in the intermittent rain and the sheriff’s officers never showed up.  The landlord was angry and decided to ask a fellow landlord about the case. Apparently the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office does not do evictions when it rains!  If it is raining you need to call the office to reschedule!

Such a policy may have made sense in the old days, but now Baltimore landlords are not allowed to put tenants/squatters’ belongings out on the side of the road. Landlords must store the belongings in the house or in a storage unit. The “no evictions in the rain” policy should have been eliminated when the new storage rules took effect.

I wonder how much the sheriff’s officers were paid to do nothing that day? I wonder how much the lady who “does not do confirmations” at the sheriff’s office gets paid? I bet they have nice tax payer funded pensions! All of these lazy bums should be fired immediately and their old jobs should be offered to the lowest bidder in this city with a (at least) 20% unemployment rate.

Baltimore city has become a society where people are encouraged to be lazy, unemployed, non-rent paying, and government subsidized. It’s a sad embarrassment. It’s as if someone wants everyone to live in government housing. Landlords are given incentives to rent out to section 8 individuals because the government takes care of the rent and evictions are not really necessary. Ask anyone who has had the “pleasure” of living next to a section 8 resident if they think more section 8 housing is a good thing.

Baltimore City needs entrepreneurial landlords, it does not need archaic rules and lazy agencies that serve as roadblocks to progress.

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