Gunpowder Chronicle posted on November 16, 2008 6:41 AM | Rating:
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Word is now out that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Pratt Dixon is ordering across the board departmental budget cuts by an average of 12.9% next year, and that these reductions will most likely mean a reduction in city services.My question would be: Will anyone notice?
Let's face it, Baltimore is not exactly citizen friendly. Ask any citizen who doesn't live in a swank neighborhood about trash collection. Ask about the street sweepers -- cruising the street at 30mph, they blow around more trash than they sweep.
We can't go a winter without 25-30 water main breaks, tying up traffic and wreaking havoc all through the city.
The only laws the city police bother to enforce anymore involve guns and murders. Traffic laws? You can run red lights at will. Speed limits? Only on the JFX, where the pickings are easy. Illegal left turns? Nah, can't be bothered. Those pesky dirt bike kids? Too dangerous. The city crime lab is a complete joke. The conviction rate is so low in Baltimore City, Sirhan Sirhan would have gotten off.
The city schools, well, they still can't account for all the money they spend. And 50% of all black freshman that entered high school this September won't graduate in four years, because most of them will have dropped out. The school facilities themselves are decrepit hulks, the result of years of neglect, overuse, and abuse.
The city housing department? Hell, they can't even bill residents on time for water bills over on Lexington Terrace. Some of those residents are now facing bills of four years backlog due to the phenomenal stupidity of the city's housing department.
City streets? Either the local repair shops are paying a serious gig, or the Public Works director has forgotten what cold patch is. Snow removal? Yeah, that's a joke too. Last year they started using a blue additive to the salt so that they visually see what streets had been salted. And let's not even discuss the condition of the city's public works vehicles, which look like driving death traps.
About the only city service that does work is the Parking Enforcement Unit, which will tow your car just one minute past four on Baltimore Street in front of University of Maryland and on Lombard Street in front of the Hospital. They are so efficient, the towing companies often have your car on the flatbed BEFORE the PEU workers show up to write citations.
So again, I ask, with a 12% cut in city budgets and services... will anyone really notice?