So, just how many people were relocated from a redevelopment project in East Baltimore to the Belair-Edison neighborhood?

The nonprofit East Baltimore Development Inc. says that in the first phase of the project, 35 families moved into the Northeast Baltimore community. The president, Jack Shannon, offered that number last week as part of a column I wrote exploring complaints from Belair-Edison residents that an influx of newcovers from East Baltimore were driving up crime rates. Shannon said that is not possible because so few people relocated there compared with the community's sizeable population of about 13,000.

Then I started getting e-mails. The first was from Ede Taylor, founder of the Belair-Edison Healthy Community Coalition. She argued that they had been told back in 2003 that 1,100 people had been relocated, with 40 percent going to Belair-Edison. "Forty percent is a far cry from 35," she wrote, adding that before, "The 'hardest' crimes the Belair-Edison had to contend with were 'car thefts.' For the past 2 years, homicides have ocurred all too frequently."

Over the weekend, I got another e-mail, this one from Karen Kemp, a board chair of the Belair-Edison Association: "I totally agree with Ms. Taylor's email. I recall in 2003 when Bernard Hutchins attended the Belair-Edison Association meeting regarding the relocation of East Baltimore residents. I recall him stating that it was approximately 75 residents that moved into the Belair community."

That was followed by an e-mail from Baltimore Deputy Mayor Salima Siler Marriott: "I want to affirm the clarity of Ms. Taylor's articulation of the challenges facing the people of Belair Edison and the East Baltimore community."

I called Shannon this morning. He too got these e-mails. As for the 40 percent of 1,100 number, he said, "I have no idea where that came from." He said people may be "mixing apples and oranges" and that in 2003 they had only moved a handful of people. In total, they moved 991 residents, about 1,000 people, roughly 30 percent to the greater Northeast Baltimore area, 30 percent to other parts of East Baltimore and 30 percent scattered around the city and elsewhere.

Shannon said he spoke with Hutchins this morning, who works for EBDI, and he doesn't remember the conversation with the community that is mentoned in the e-mails. Though his numbers seem more accurate, if he said then that 75 residents would move into Belair-Edison. Shannon says 35 households moved in (each with about 2.6 members), which would make that 91 people total.

Of course, people could have thought Hutchins meant 75 households instead of individual people, a number that stuck with them through the years. Said Shannon: "We provide lots of data at these meetings, sometimes maybe too much data."

Anyway, Shannon is sticking with his original numbers. And even so, it's doesn't answer the question of whether newcomers brought more crime with them.