1168 Carroll Street

Property address:  1168 Carroll, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  CAM Property Management, LLC, 1314 S. Carey Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Registered agent for CAM Property Management, LLC:  Dan Frank, 1314 S. Carey Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Baltimore City Council district and contact:  District 9, Agnes Welch

Baltimore City Housing Code Enforcement Attorney:  Seth Greer, seth.greer AT baltimorecity.gov

1168 Carroll Street, rear yard

1236 W. Cross Street

Property address:  1236 W. Cross Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  119 Scott Street, LLC, 625 Washington Boulevard, #A, Baltimore, MD 21230

Registered agent for 119 Scott Street, LLC:  Gerald M. Katz, 900 Dulaney Valley Road #400, Towson, MD 21204

City Council District and contact:  District 11, William Cole IV

Baltimore City Housing Code Enforcement Attorney:  Seth Greer, seth.greer AT baltimorecity.gov

1236 W. Cross side view

1168 Carroll Street

Property address:  1168 Carroll Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  CAM Property Management, LLC, 1314 S. Carey Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Resident agent for CAM Property Management:  Dan Frank, 1314 S. Carey Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Baltimore City Council district and contact:  District 9, Agnes Welch

Baltimore City Housing Code Enforcement Attorney:  Seth Greer, seth.greer AT baltimorecity.gov

1121 Ward Street

Property address:  1121 Ward Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  Willie M. Coles, Jr. and Shannelle Morris, 1121 Ward Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Baltimore City Council district and contact:  District 9, Agnes Welch

Baltimore City Housing Code Enforcement Attorney:  Seth Greer, seth.greer AT baltimorecity.gov

This house is in terrible shape, and in danger of collapsing.  Since it’s attached to two other homes, we encourage those property owners to call the city and complain.  The front wall is bowed in the front, and the house needs to be torn down.

Side view of bowed front facade.

26 N. Curley Street

Property address:  26 N. Curley Street, Baltimore, MD 21224

Property owner:  Joshua Adam Wodka, 2601 E. Fairmount Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21224

Baltimore City Council district and contact:  District 1, Jim Kraft

City Housing Code Enforcement Attorney and contact:  Evan Helfrich, evan.helfrich AT baltimorecity.gov

This house is missing a roof and is boarded on both sides. The previous owner (Jesse Wodka) was taken to court in July 2008, but the case was dismissed after Jesse sold the house to another Wodka family member.  Apparently, Evan Helfrich never refiled a complaint against Joshua Wodka, despite the fact that no work has been done on this property since it was first cited.

907 Washington Boulevard

Poor blighted SW Baltimore.  You never seem to catch a break, and how can you with drek like this at your gateway?

Property address:  907 Washington Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  DP South 25, LLC, 1118 Leadenhall Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Registered agent for DP South 25, LLC:  Dangela Little, 1118 Leadenhall Street, Baltimore, MD 21230.  Corporation is not in good standing, charter has been forfeited.

Baltimore City Council district and contact:  District 11, William Cole

City Housing Code Enforcement Attorney and contact:  Seth Greer, seth.greer AT baltimorecity.gov

Biddle Street Fire Sale!

Apparently one Baltimore “investor” has given up on the 1500 block of Biddle Street, and is selling off his properties, as evidenced by the notices spray painted on the boarded up doorways of three properties we saw yesterday.

All three are in the 1500 block, and all three are owned by Group One Financial Holdings, LLC / Leonidas Newton.  Mr. Newton is your typical Baltimore “investor” — lead paint violations, a bunch of foreclosures, a few injunctions…your slumlord same-old same-old. We do hope someone buys these homes so they can be lived in — anything to ease the blight in this East Baltimore neighborhood.

1508 E. Biddle Street

1520 E. Biddle

Multi-unit on E. Biddle

601 N. Calhoun Street

Property Address:  601 N. Calhoun Street, Baltimore, MD 21223

Property Owner:  Housing Authority of Baltimore City, 417 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

Baltimore City Council District and Contact:  11th District, William Cole IV.

601 N. Calhoun Street, Baltimore, MD

2132 N. Fulton Avenue

This part of the city is simply a sea of blight.  Everywhere you look, you’ll find entire blocks of boarded-up blighted homes.  With no grocery stores, pharmacies, or other “useful” businesses close by, it would be hard to draw people to this area or keep the people who live there now.

Property address:  2132 N. Fulton Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217

Property owner:  Elton Galloway, 1925 (or 1917, depends on who you believe) Hope Street, Baltimore, MD 21218

City Council District and contact:  District 7, Belinda Conaway

The owner of this property, Elton Galloway, probably doesn’t worry about having to go to housing court, since he seems to spend a lot of time in and out of criminal court.  A petty drug dealer with a history of violent crimes, he clearly has bigger fish to fry than worrying about his house on N. Fulton Avenue.  However, we do wish the city would condemn the home, and sell it to someone who would fix it and live in it — and perhaps they could help Belinda Conaway clean up this neighborhood.  Don’t people deserve better?

2132 N. Fulton Avenue

Learning From Cleveland

Many cities across the country have taken broad steps to combat the problems vacant homes can cause — none, however, have been as creative as Cleveland, Ohio.  Cleveland is comparable to Baltimore when you look at the percentage of abandoned properties — before and after the foreclosure crisis. We wondered how Cleveland was dealing with blighted homes, and we wondered what Baltimore could learn from Cleveland.  All roads seemed to point to Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka.

On the surface, it appears that Judge Pianka’s programs are pretty innovative, but when you dig deeper, you’ll find that while he has indeed implemented some creative programs to combat problems in his city, his ideas are based on one principle — enforcing the laws that already exist.  Holding people and companies responsible for the damage they’ve done to their tenants and to their communities.  Sadly, in Baltimore, holding people accountable and enforcing the existing laws count as “innovative”.

Because so many of Baltimore’s slum properties are owned by corporations (a vast number of them owned by shell LLCs) — we’d like to see Baltimore implement one of Judge Pianka’s ideas — set up a separate corporate docket to deal with corporate owners of blighted properties.  We’d also like to see Baltimore implement a system of fines similar to Cleveland’s.  Companies can face up to $5000 a day for outstanding violations, and $1000 a day if they’re found to be in contempt (since so many of them are no-shows in court).  Not only does Cleveland assess these fines, the important thing to note — they collect the fines — either through bank levies or liens on the properties.  Also, many of Cleveland’s homes are demolished once condemned by the city.  In Baltimore, a condemned property can be sold many times — usually to one absentee property owner after another.  We consider this to be not only a flagrant waste of taxpayer money, it does absolutely nothing to combat the problem.

Hopefully by watching the actions of other cities, Baltimore will start to take notice of programs that are working — and implement them. You can read more about Judge Pianka and Cleveland’s Housing Court here.