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

Outer Harbor Initiative Report

From a colleague who attended the hearing:

The Outer Harbor Initiative community development hearing took place Thursday, May 23 at City Hall, in front of a full council chambers. The two-hour meeting was met with a mixed reception from city officials and ended with discussions to take the initiative back to affected communities to further refine the terms of the legislation.

Councilman William Cole (11th District) sponsored the resolution. He was joined by fellow councilmembers Warren Branch, Mary Pat Clarke, James Kraft and Bill Henry. Officials from the Housing Authority testified that they supported the initiative’s goals, although had some reservations about the way the legislation in its current form might be implemented. The strongest opposition to the initiative came from Andrew Kleine, Chief of the Bureau of the Budget & Management Research, who testified that the city’s Finance Department could not justify the funding of a new initiative while other city programs were being cut in a slumping economy. Councilmembers Kraft and Henry also expressed strong concerns about how the initiative would be funded.

Mike Mitchell, director of Chesapeake Habitat for Habitat for Humanity, argued for the urgent need to take aggressive action on the 30 thousand abandoned properties in the city. He cited the success of the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor, suggesting that the same success could spread to neglected neighborhoods if the city had the resources to pursue speculators who are sitting on neglected housing stock.  In response to concerns about funding the initiative, Mitchell argued that the city would reap returns on its investment in the form of increased property tax receipts. Mitchell helped draft the Outer Harbor resolution and has been organizing supporters.

14 speakers were on hand in favor of the initiative, although not all were able to talk due to time contraints. They included a Habitat for Humanity homeowner who spoke of the benefits of homeownership, a local marketing expert who spoke about the effectiveness of promoting emerging neighborhoods via the internet, and a neighborhood activist who talked about ongoing efforts to revitalize the district around Patterson Park.

There were other questions about the initiative:  The suggested use of Tax Increment Financing for redevelopment efforts raised concerns. Councilmember Clarke repeatedly expressed worries about the intitiative interfering with community development block grant process, raising questions about a redevelopment she is supporting on Dumbarton Avenue in Pen Lucy. A number of questions were asked about which communities would be served by the initiative and how they would be identified. Councilmember Henry suggested that the name “Outer Harbor” was too restrictive, and should be changed to something more inclusive for neighborhoods across the city. Mitchell ended the hearing by calling for a broader array of neighborhood meetings to continue to discuss and refine the provisions of the proposal, using City Council and community feedback.

Updates on the initiative will be available at http://www.outerharborinitiative.com

1006 W. Cross Street

Property address:  1006 W. Cross Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  Joan M. Hashagen-Snyder, 5 Offutt Court, Granite, MD 21163

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

Yet another Washington Village property that seems to have been abandoned by its non-resident owner.  Note the pile of rubble left in the rear yard.

Front of 1006 W. Cross

Rear of 1006 W. Cross

638 Wyeth Street

Property address: 638 Wyeth Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property owner:  Darlene Terry-Weeks, PO Box 325, White Plains, MD 20695

City Council District and Contact: 11th District, William Cole

This property typifies the broken window theory.  On a long-neglected street in Washington Village, other homes have been rehabbed, some have not.  However, this street will never shake its bad reputation until landlords and property owners are held accountable for the state of their properties. Ms. Terry-Weeks has the usual handful of injunctions filed against her, along with a foreclosure.  By the looks of this house, it’s been abandoned — note the broken windows in the front and back.

Front of 638 Wyeth Street

Rear of 638 Wyeth Street

Support Baltimore’s Outer Harbor Initiative

At first glance, we love the idea of the Outer Harbor Initiative. However, we’d like to make sure that the opportunities outlined in the initiative are strictly marketed to and are available for current Baltimore City residents.  At BLSW, we feel enough city resources (including money) and energy have been wasted on attracting out of town investors and residents from other cities.  We’re cautiously optimistic, and would like others to support it as well.

You can find information on the Outer Harbor Initiative here.

701 Washington Boulevard: Minor Changes Are Not Enough

After hearing that some minor changes were made to the property at 701 Washington Boulevard (owned by Dr. Anwar Mumtaz), we decided to see for ourselves.  While we agree it’s a slight improvement — the homeless camp is gone — we weren’t that impressed with this cleanup effort.  After speaking with a resident of the neighborhood, we learned that yes, the shrubbery in the back was removed and so was the orange fencing along the edge of the Sav-A-Lot.  However, the debris from the shrubbery was dumped at the side entrance to the parking lot, and the orange fencing was left on the sidewalk at MLK Jr. Boulevard.  We hope Dr. Mumtaz plans on removing this trash and debris immediately.

Shrubs removed from the former homeless camp on W. Barre Street, adjacent to 701 Washington Boulevard

This pile of debris, along with the orange fencing on the sidewalk at MLK needs to be removed.

1135-1137 Nanticoke Street: Revisited

We first came across this property while checking on another one.  It’s been in this condition for three years now, and even though it’s been reported several times to the city, as of February 22nd, it’s still a danger to the neighbors, as evidenced by these photos:

Rear of 1135 and 1137 Nanticoke Street

Closeup of open trash pit at 1135 and 1137 Nanticoke Street

The open pit in the rear of these facades is quickly turning into a neighborhood garbage dump.  The original trash that we reported on the edge of the property was removed after several neighbors filed online 311 complaints.  However, instead of illegally dumping at the edge of the property, now trash is being dumped further from the alley.  This property needs to be fenced immediately, and the facades need to be torn down before they collapse on an unsuspecting pedestrian.

757 Carroll Street and 701 Washington Boulevard, Revisited

We’re going to revisit some of the properties featured in this blog over the past month and see what’s happened recently.  So far, sad to say, most of them are in the same shape or worse than when they were featured here.  Others have been slightly improved, we suspect this is due to the city inspections and not due to a sudden attack of conscience on the part of the property owners.  Wethinks some of them doth protest too much, to badly quote Shakespeare.

First we’ll start with 757 Carroll Street.  You may remember this property as the one with the broken water pipe that was previously flooding its neighbor’s basement.  The water is gone, and the city condemned the house.  Unfortunately, that’s all.  The rear of the property is still a mess, the basement window is still unsecured, and we fail to understand why the city couldn’t board up the window properly when they tacked the condemnation sign on the front door.

See for yourselves:

unsecured basement window at 757 carroll street, 21230

rear of 757 carroll street, 21230

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos of 701 Washington Boulevard today, although we did walk by all sides.  The homeless camp we wrote about back in January is still there, as is the trash on the W. Barre Street side of the Sav-A-Lot.  In other words, despite Dr.Mumtaz’s protestations to the contrary, the owners have done absolutely nothing to rectify the situation, which is (unfortunately) exactly what we expected.  The property has been in disrepair for quite some time, and the owners have refused to accept any responsibility for its current state.  We hope the next time we revisit this address, things will look a little better.

Dr. Anwar Mumtaz Responds

If you live in Washington Village, then you know Dr. Mumtaz, at least indirectly.  He is the registered agent for Raj LLC, the company that owns 701 Washington Boulevard (aka “The Sav-A-Lot Property”).  After reading about himself and the property on this blog, he responded to our post:

this property was under contract up until 2 weeks ago and the buyers backed out after 3 months holding the contract. WE have contacted police and city 100’s of time to kick out the homeless and loiterers. community people and graffity hoodlums try to trash the property as soon as we clean it up. This reflects on the community also. If you see anyone dumping trash there we are willing to go after them. we have tried to get the community invloved and if the neibourhood association is willing we can prevent city drug dealers and homeless people from dumping the place. We have tried with police and city. this place is under negotiation again and will be fixed or rented again. It was because one of the previous buyers and developers who happened to be from this community who wasted our 3 precios months to delay for further development.

We responded as follows:

Mr. Mumtaz,

This situation didn’t come about in two weeks, three months, or even a year. This situation has been an ongoing problem in this neighborhood, and we have a hard time believing that you’ve done much to alleviate the problem. How exactly have you tried to get the community involved? Most of the people in that community had no idea you existed until this blog started, just a few weeks ago. The problems with this property didn’t begin “because one of the previous buyers and developers who happened to be from this community who wasted our 3 precios months to delay for further development”. It began when you purchased the property and refused to fix it up or sell it for a reasonable amount of money. You’ve owned it since 2005, and it’s been nothing short of a disgrace and an eyesore. YOU own the property, so therefore YOU are responsible for its upkeep and appearance. YOU are also responsible for the tenants, their trash, and the type of customers they attract. Shoving that responsibility onto a previous buyer or developer isn’t going to cut it. Until that property is sold, YOU are the one who is held accountable.

You can revisit the original post here and scroll down to the end for the comments.  Do we know if the comment really came from Dr. Mumtaz?  No, there’s really no way to verify it.  After careful consideration, however, we do believe the comment is from Dr. Mumtaz or at least one of his associates.  Considering the state the property is in and has been for years, it’s not surprising that he’s trying to blame everyone — the community, a developer, previous buyers, etc. — for the issues surrounding the property.  It’s been our experience that slumlords don’t like to accept responsibility for their neglect.

We wish Dr. Mumtaz and his associates luck with selling the property.  Hopefully they will sell to someone who understands that the community will not accept this kind of behavior from the new owners, and will hold the new owners to the same scrutiny.

757 Carroll Street

Property Address:  757 Carroll Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Property Owner:  757 Carroll Street, LLC, 5928 Glenoak Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21214*

Registered Agent for 757 Carroll Street, LLC:  George Spiers

City Council District and Contact: 11th District, William Cole

*This corporation is also registered at two other addresses:  1153 Maryland Route 3 N, Suite 12, Gambrills, MD 21054 and 7603 Harford Road, Suite 120, Baltimore, MD 21214.

This property was never winterized and as a result of a broken water pipe, water is spewing into the basement of the next-door neighbor.  The roof on the rear of the property has caved in, and the basement window is open to the elements, with only a small piece of plywood that doesn’t adequately cover the opening.

front of 757 carroll street

open window in front of 757 carroll street

rear of 757 carroll street. note that the roof has caved in.

water running down carroll street from in front of 757