Open Letter to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Feb 12, 2010 Mills Thoughts

So this past week Baltimore received unprecedented snow fall in two waves during which a number of residents complained of insufficient if any assistance or support from the city. While this snow season has been termed historic, it’s disheartening to realize very little if any effort from those tasked to deliver services. While it’s very likely the Mayor set expectations and standards others did not or would not adhere to, this will all, unfortunately, fall on her shoulders. More succinctly, my qualm is not with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, but with the snow plow drivers who deliberately passed by dozens of city secondary streets and neighborhoods without dropping the plow once. These men and women need to be held accountable for their inaction.

Following is my emailed “open letter to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake” earlier today (without the photos, of course):

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
City Hall, Rm 250
100 N. Holliday Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Madame Mayor,

Trust this letter finds you doing well.

As a longtime city resident and active community advocate, the City’s recent response to the historic “Blizzard of 2010” raises a number of questions.

Shortly after the first wave of snow hit the city we, residents of Baltimore, began hearing 72% of the city’s streets had been plowed at least once and 36% twice; though the statement was probably regarding secondary streets, the statistics raised questions as to what streets or neighborhoods were actually plowed. Whatever the case, it appeared faulty information was provided. As a resident of the the street [edited for privacy], in the Derby Key-Greenspring neighborhood, it was very confusing as to why snow plows never made it through our block – a secondary street as verified with the “Primary Snow Routes with Neighborhoods” (updated January 8, 2010) map from the city’s website.

After two days of no apparent response from the City a call was placed to 311 (ticket number 109864 & 119058) to inquire of the status of trucks to plow the street. Additionally, a call was also placed to Councilwoman Green’s office to ensure this information was documented and passed on. The call to 311 and the councilwoman’s office did not appear to make a difference, as there was no action prior to the second wave of snow.

By Thursday morning, with no apparent effort being made by city crews to ensure the street [edited for privacy] was passable, several of us on the block began digging out our street. From 9am – 7:30pm we dug out our street with shovels and not one visit from a snow plow; and this is a secondary street. While this is the ultimate sign of neighborhood cooperation one should applaud, it’s also a sign indicating the failure of a city to respond according to its own protocol. There were several occasions during our “shovel out” where long-term community residents recalled this being the first time the city has not come through the street [edited for privacy] to plow after a large snowstorm.

In reading this letter, one may begin to think, “City trucks and crews were working on major roadways.” Well in all of my years as a city resident, no matter how bad the storm, there were always obvious signs of efforts made to keep roads as clear and passable as possible; surely this is something one would expect when hearing reports of crews “working around the clock.” While Baltimore is a large city a fleet of 100 trucks should have been able to make, at minimum, two passes through “unblocked” secondary streets – not scientific, but practical.

However, to give credit where it’s due, there were a few trucks spotted while driving through the city the night before the second wave of snow. Somewhere around 7:30 pm on February 9^th, truck no. 064078 was spotted on Hilton Av near the southeast-end of the Parkway, and while driving on Hilton Parkway, two blue trucks were spotted in Leakin Park (a spot rumored to be a “loafer” hangout), on the northwest-side of the parkway. Neither of these trucks were moving or salting. At about 1:45a.m., on February 10^th, another truck was spotted in the Carroll Fuel gas station lot at Cold Spring Ln and Falls Rd; this truck, too, was idle.

Given the above statements and concerns there are two suggestions that might prevent what appears to be community abuse or neglect in the future. First, equip all city plows with GPS tracking devices. It was interesting to watch news reports of how Howard County directed residents to a website in order to view where plows were located. As a technology strategist, it seems to me Baltimore City should be more than capable of tracking the location of trucks, where they’ve been or where they’re headed. Such technology may potentially lend itself to minimizing citizen complaints of “When will you get to my street?” Moreover, an alternative use could be to install the GPS tracking capability into garbage and recycling trucks, to verify and minimize complaints regarding missed trash and recycling pickups.

Second, institute a city policy that whenever the snow emergency alert moves to phase 2 or higher, DPW or DOT supervisors are mandated to randomly check a minimum of 4 “non-congruent” neighborhoods in each council district. This would provide the proper oversight and “feet on the ground” (so-to-speak) to ensure trucks have performed the intended tasks. The added benefit of such checks has the potential to provide “first hand” information regarding the “actual” results of the city’s efforts. It seems if “events” happen differently when there’s a name attached to a quality review effort.

It is my hope these concerns will become a part of the efforts to improve the city’s response strategy, for such situations. The citizens of Baltimore City deserve the best efforts from our government services.

Kindest regards,

R. Anthony Mills, Sr.
Baltimore City Resident, 6^th Councilmanic District

cc:
Honorable Bernard Jack Young, City Council President
Honorable Sharon Green Middleton, City Council – 6^th District
David E. Scott, Director, Public Works, Baltimore City
Alfred H. Foxx, Director, Department of Transportation, Baltimore City