Allen, I was not in the same but in a similar situation and I stuck around trying to do my best and hoping for changes. But at some point you need to decide what's better for you and your family. I left not just my home but the country, never looked back and never regretted that decision. It's been 10 years ago and, from what I know, still nothing has changed back there.

Thanks, Jelena.

A number of readers have been commenting on allen's situation on the original post, too: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/blog/2010/08/where_homebuyers_are_paying_what_sellers_are_asking.html#comments

Go out and meet with all of your neighbors including those engaged in illegal drug activity (IDA). I am convinced there are people in your neighborhood including those engaged in IDA who feel the same way as you. Find out what all have to say including those engaged in IDA and use this information to help solve your neighborhood problems. The LORD will not place on you any burdens you cannot handle and He will give you the strength to carry on. May the LORD bless and keep you.

The nature of this problem transcends neighborhood involvement and watches and all that other stuff.

At best! you end up with an exercise in balloon squeezing... where you shift the problem two or three blocks away from you. This effect is largely what you are experiencing now as other neighborhoods did their squeezing.

There will be no long term solutions so long as the drug laws remain as backward and counterproductive as they are.

But if you insist on organizing meetings and *trying* something... then try this: Arrange a shuttle bus to transport all the problem people up to Homeland and Roland Park every night to their strolls and thieving and conduct their generally anti-social activities.

At least your end of the balloon will be smaller than it has been (for a while).

Get out ASAP!

The problems in Baltimore can't compare to what is happening in Washington D.C. or other urban cities. When you have a mayor (Sheila Dixon) acknowledge a "shadow industry" (code for drugs) to get business to invest there, you know you are fighting against a machine that will eat you before you can even get a screw-driver out!

I tried to do the community thing...The people operate on a scarcity mentality, they are territorial, almost tribal. They are suspicious if you aren't from there, and they will not cooperate with the police to actually help new homeowners stabilize those communities...They don't/won't tell, and in many instances, they know just who is terrorizing the community.

I have worked with the West Baltimore Coalition and the Harlem Park Community organization, those people are special...They want jobs for people, but like I explained to one of the main organizers, "You can bring a ton of jobs into the city, it won't do one iota of good if the people there are too ignorant to fill out an application, can't pass a drug test, or can't get a clearance."

Baltimore has no main industry or anchor to positively affect change now, or in the forseable future. The only reason that I even considered to move there was because I couldn't afford Washington D.C., now that the market has retreated, I can...I am sure that many people moved to Baltimore simply for the same reason, essentially making Baltimore a bedroom community of D.C., now that trend is a thing of the past.

What I found out, if I could do it again, a yard and larger house isn't worth it if you can't enjoy it. It isn't worth the price of a cheap home if you have no services and you are afraid to leave your home, or are caged like an animal inside it...Baltimore is sick on so many levels, and I don't see it being cured in a lifetime...Run Allen! Don't walk! RUN!

You need to go out and meet with all of your neighbors. But you need to decide what's better for you and your family.

First of all, you bought a house in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. Did you not look around before you bought? Because it's not as though the neighborhood all of a sudden got bad in the past couple of years. Get out and don't look back. Believe me you're not going to change anything, that neighborhood always has been and always will be a nasty dirty place.

Why not contact the community association in your area, as listed on the Live Baltimore website? Also, you should visit your neighborhood police station and talk to the Commander or the Community Affairs liaison. They may not know the depths of the drug activity in your block if no one reports it.

Anne Ames
President of New Southwest Mount Clare Community Association
202 South Gilmor Street
Baltimore, MD 21223
410 945-4947
anneames@us.net

The solution for Baltimore city is actually more straightforward than for Washington -- where you can never get past the situation of multiple jurisdictions pointing fingers and never cooperating.

In theory Annapolis could try something that has had some success elsewhere: dissolve the county bandustans and set up a regional government, a single local tax-paying and service-administering area comprised of Baltimore city, Anne Arundel, Baltimore Co., Carroll, Harford, Howard, and Queen Anne County.

As long has the "haves" can "escape" -- financially, physically and morally -- they will. They have been doing it for five or six decades. It's called "flight." Once the folks who live 30 or 40 miles from Baltimore city know that their local tax dollars are going to pay for not only their neighborhood police, fire, schools, etc., but also those of Baltimore city, however, you can bet they will participate in those downtown meetings and try to fix the situation in Baltimore city -- because it is their personal money and tax bill on the line.

But, as long as you allow people to artificially "reside" elsewhere while partying on the weekend downtown, and, in many cases, actually working downtown, we will still be having this debate for another 60 years.