THE YORK ROAD PARTNERSHIP



The York Road Partnership

Serving the York Road Community

Minutes of Wednesday, September 6, 2006

GENERAL MEETING

Welcome and Introduction (7:15p.m.)

Presiding: Karen DeCamp, President of the York Road Partnership.

OLD BUSINESS

Pubic Safety –

Presentation by Kristin Mahoney, Chief of Technical Services – Baltimore City Police Dept.

Prior to implementing, Baltimore studied use of cameras in London, Chicago, Jersey City and in Israel and adopted the following rules for implementation:

Best technology;

Night use; Recording to hard drives;

“TEVO” capability;

Ability to pan and zoom 360 degrees.

Blue light PODS – “funded” by drug dealers

Cameras located based on complaints and crime stats

Priority placements: Locations with violent crime

Open air drug markets

All networked except for the portable PODS

30% reduction in crime is typical

Displacement – violence is reduced, but drug activity moves several blocks away

Blue lights- when lights are turned off there is a general assumption, by both criminals and general public, that the cameras are not working.

Major Pristoop – Increase in robberies along York Road corridor over the summer, but there have been 2 recent arrests that are probably responsible for 8 robberies in past 30 days and suspects identified for others. Aggravated assaults down 25%.

New Business

Inclusionary Zoning and Affordable Housing – Dan Pontious of CPHA and Helene Perry presented a draft letter requesting YRP’s support for the recommendations of the Baltimore City Task Force on Inclusionary Zoning and Housing. In brief, the panel recommended that the City respond to the dramatic increase in demand for homes in many parts of the City -- a demand resulting in skyrocketing prices, especially among new homes -- by enacting policies to increase the variety and supply of homes available to people at all wage levels here in Baltimore. A motion was made to ask President Karen DeCamp to send a letter of support in time for hearings on October 4th.

Originally this issues was to have been introduced at July meeting, which ended early due to excessive heat.

There were several objection to the motion – one, that we had not had time to read and review the information and two, questioning whether YRP should even be taking stands on such issues.

It was decided that the decision to send a letter would be postponed, and that the Leadership Committee would bring back a recommendation to the October meeting. No letter, therefore, would be sent in time for the hearing on 10/4/06.

YRP – Goals for 2006-2007

Motion made, seconded and approved to adopt the proposed Goal for 2006-2007, with 1 change and 2 additions (see attached YRP Goals).

Announcements

Tower Lounge – there is a new set of prospective owners, who will be invited to meet with LC.

Success story – Renee Taylor, of Richnor Springs, told how the owners of an old corner store location on a residential street in her neighborhood were stopped from being able to use their liquor license, due to the having redone the property with out the necessary permits. Vigilant neighbors had reported the situation to the authorities.

CARES – a plea was made to bring non-perishables to the October meeting which would be donated to the CARES food bank.

MEETING ADJOURNED – 9pm

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download