The City That Breeds » Politics » City Council Update 12/10/2009

City Council Update 12/10/2009

December 10th, 2009 | 5 Comments

Normally the ins and outs of our fair city’s political machinery is fairly dull and not necessarily worthy of note, but boy howdy today is quite the day of interest on the Baltimore City Council’s draft agenda. Don’t believe me? SEE FOR YOURSELF.

Possibly the most important issue being discussed is the resolution for Split-Level property taxation, which was recently passed by Washington, DC in an effort to dissuade property owners from squatting blighted properties (“…to establish a
split-level property tax rate wherein vacant, nonoccupiable or uninhabitable properties would be taxed at a higher rate than occupiable or habitable properties” in legalspeak). This issue is hella important and has been dealt with ad blueintheface by the prolific and successful Baltimore Slumlord Watch. And let’s face it, with 30k abandoned properties, the city is probably foaming at the mouth to pass such legislation and reap the benefits. Let’s hope for a favorable outcome on this one!

Moving right along, Mary Pat Clarke is introducing an assload of bicycle-related bills which call for and include the installation of more bike lanes, bike safe grates, and …mandatory (I hate this word) bike parking on new or expanded structures. Good stuff, especially this little ruby of a gem:

The Cyclists’ Bill of Rights
FOR the purpose of reaffirming support for efforts to improve conditions for
cyclists and encouraging more widespread awareness of the “Cyclists’ Bill of
Rights” .

What exactly would something as important sounding as a bill of rights for people on bikes consist of?

Finally, the city council continues with its obsession with legislating plastic bags with a resolution designed to “call on the Department of Public Works to study the amount of waste generated due to the use of plastic carryout bags, and the environmental impact of carryout plastic bag use, in Baltimore and to report the results of this study to the City Council by a specified date.” Your tax dollars at work, folks.

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  • kateebee

    just happened to watch this episode of the west wing last night…

    “I believe that every time the federal government hands down a new law, it leaves for the rest of us a little less freedom. So I say, let’s just stick to the ones we absolutely need to have water come out of the faucet and our cars not stolen. That is my problem with passing a redundant law.”

  • Mike

    i’d much rather them spend all that money to come up with an alternative. we know plastic bags are bad, but what are you going to do? i swear if we could cut the spending on studies to tell us shit we already know, this country would be a lot better off.

    • http://citythatbreeds.com Evan

      As far as I know, Whole Foods carries some kind of degradable resin type-bags that break down in the environment or whatever – problem solved. Not to mention the fact that single stream recycling now takes plastic bags, and most grocery stores have gigantic recycling boxes out front of them that are perpetually stuffed with the damn things. The market has officially solved this problem by itself, we don’t need anymore stupid effing laws put into place regarding PLASTIC BAGS DAMMIT!!!!

  • http://lmergner.blogspot.com muke

    I saw via the NYtimes bike blog (or something like it) that NY is actually passing stricter laws on bikes to discourage them from riding on sidewalks, against traffic, spreading mayhem, and killing people. Yeah, some people were killed by bikes.

    Also, hopefully the two-track tax will pass and work, but I’d expect a fairly organized and vociferous response. I’m no longer a stakeholder in Baltimore, but is there a person to call or a number we can add to the post?

    Finally, while I’ll admit that’s quite the FULL plate there in the council, can we come up with 3-5 issues that are important and part of the council’s purview?

  • Mike

    indeed. the mentality should be: find a problem; find a solution; now prove why the solution in worth doing.

    not: find a talking point; spend money hyping it up; make a half assed solution that happens to involve your brother in-law’s company.