October 2021 Community Meeting

Attendance:

Maia, Paul, Sharon, Al, Ab, Julia Dumont, Chad Terry, Liz Luppino, Paul Rubenson, L sparks, Syrus Razavi, Bobby & Molly Goodfellow, Greg Laub, Julia Lebherz, Linda, Brian Panneton, Nour Khudr, Kellie Biesecker, Megan Moorer, Nicole Dungee, Deb O’Neill, Bill Reuter, Richard Reeves, Karin Lundquist, Farzana, Rachel Abbotts, Sebastien Seydi, Brett Thorne, Diana, Gerri, Christine Middleton, Sawyer Martin, Brandon Kuhn, Warren Dungee, Rachel Murphy, Kate, Jason, 

BPD southern district crime report from Dominique ____ 
Recent crime in the neighborhood has mostly consisted of larcenies - not much other recent crime
Ab asked question about crime in general for Baltimore City- BPD says that homicides are up by 1 or 2 compared to last year, robberies up by 1 as well - not huge change from last year.

Jason Williams from Mason Dixon company gave a presentation on The Compass
Redevelopment of the “super block” within Market Center.
The planned development consists of new performance center in Reads space, bar, and mixed use (residential/commercial) spaces at the corner of Howard and Lexington streets
There will be additional development for residential space at the corner of Fayette and Park

The Mason Dixon company is hosting cleanups and other events at the site. October 26th will be Yoga followed by a cleanup.
The developers are looking to attract local businesses, mostly restaurants and entertainment
For more information go to: www.thecompassbaltimore.com and contact Jayson directly: Jayson@maysondixon.com

Molly reviewed google form for voting in election next month
Options provided are to either input email to determine if in good standing/vote once, but votes not completely anonymous
OR votes anonymous, but people could vote without good standing or more than once.
Molly demonstrated how she can add people per floor nominations, sent a link to a sample ballot using Google docs.

General community consensus was to use the double-blind option with one person in charge of emails and codes spreadsheet and another person in charge of codes and votes spreadsheet. Molly will be one of these people.
Farzana and another volunteer will deliver paper ballots upon request.

Question asked about how to determine whether you’re a member in good standing. Paul reviewed the list of approved activities that’s published on the website. Community members must complete 3 approved activities within 6 months of the election. He suggested people contact Al, Bill, Paul, or Deb to see if your activities have been reported and you are currently on the list of members in good standing.

Farzana requested Paul define what is considered committee activity/work. Sitting on an active committee counts as one activity towards good standing. Al suggested having committee recaps in the next month. Farzana offered that each committee typically produces reports every month with attendance of meetings and these reports should be shared with RDA board to log participation to count towards good standing.

VPP report - it’s being rolled out now. Steve Robinson from Parking Authority discussed the pilot program and how to sign up. Brett Thorne, also with the Parking Authority and recent newcomer to Ridgely’s, discussed efforts to fix signage in the neighborhood. He stated that issues with signs on Washington Blvd have been resolved and he is still issuing work orders for the north part of the neighborhood to fix parking signs there. All signs should be taken care of in the next 3 weeks.

There is a 24-hour call center to process applications and help residents with the process. Residents can also call the parking authority directly if you want to call during normal business hours. Part of the plan is to be able to track usage of guest parking permits to see how they are being used. Paper guest passes will expire november 1 with a 1 week grace period. Everyone should sign up for VPP by November 1st. 

There was a question about care-giver permits and Steve suggested anyone who needs a caregiver permit call the Parking Authority to get the caregiver pass since it’s not currently available online.

There was a question about whether we will have access to statistics on new tickets following the start of the pilot. Stats will be published monthly on Ridgely's website. Permit renewal will be in August for September at the Neighborhood’s request. Signage will remain the same as current. The Parking Authority would consider adding signs at entryways to the neighborhood to announce VPP if it receives that request/comments from the neighborhood.

The following questions were posed: 
Is there a way to cancel permits if someone has moved away? Yes.
Can homeowners get permits to do work on their houses? Yes, there is something called a homeowner contractor permit that you can get online or through the 24-hour call center.
Can permits expire with leases? No, but landlord can provide documentation to show that tenants have moved out.

Syrus asked about lights out on Eislen and stated he has already contacted City and BGE. Syrus and Maia to email Al confirmation numbers from 311 requests to be forwarded to Eric Costello for follow-up.
Greg Laub posed a question about 207 Fremont - he heard Zhalco sold that property and he was wondering who is the new owner  and would like to get their contact information. Deb said she’ll try and find out and get him that information.

Reminder: The Mayor’s cleanup is October 23rd.

A special board meeting will be held between now and the November community meeting to work out logistics of the election. The board will pick a date via email and publish on FB, the neighborhood website, and Nextdoor. 

Meeting adjourned at 8:53 pm.