We need those cops out on that block during the day to hustle the vagrants along. Nothing like being acosted outside of my office building on the corner of Baltimore and South in the middle of the afternoon because I don't think dropping my change in someone's coffee cup to be a solid investment strategy.

That isn't good policing that is knee jerk policing. (As are the increased patrols in the Inner Harbor)

Let me get the first comment straight…you rent office space at the block and then complain about the area and so called vagrants??? I don’t get it, think of the story of the person who picked up a snake and was bitten…you knew it was a snake when you picked it up, but did it anyway. You more into an already establish low moral area…you don’t like it move and leave the area as it was when you enter…just saying

No, actually, you didn't get the first comment straight. I don't rent office space on the Block. I took a job at a company that is housed in a building next to the Block. That's quite the assumption you leapt to there.

So, "baltstinkmore", if you hate the city so much, then why are you reading this blog? It appears that you have too much free time on your hands.

The existence of "The Block" creates many more problems than benefits for the City of Baltimore. The amount of trash, crime, and noise created by the patrons of those establishments is unreal. As someone who lives in a condo on Water Street and whose balcony has a direct view of the 400 block of Baltimore Street, I have first hand knowledge of what happens down there every night. By day break the surrounding streets are trash filled. There have been numerous shooting and other crimes, and the smell of urine and vomit that greets pedestrians the next day is unreal. Who pays for all this? Not the club owners. It is paid for by those of us who are taxed by the Downtown Partnership special benefits district. Those clubs create 90% of the problems in this neighborhood while the owner pay less than 5% of the cost to clean up the mess that is created every day. I, for one, appreciate the police presence in the area. In fact, there should be more of them judging by the amount of gun shots and sirens I hear every night.

So, when you bought your place that is bookended by The Power Plant Live and the Block, you thought that you'd have peaceful Thursday-Sunday nights with the nice aroma of lavender an lillys in the morning?

There is only one thing to do with both the Power Plant and the Block. Close off traffic to Baltimore Street from 8pm until 5am and close off traffic to Water Street from South Street to the Power Plant for those same times. Turn those areas into a French Quarter type of atmosphere. Extend the Liquor Laws until 4 am and let the adult venues and the non-adult venues exist in harmony. Get live bands playing in clubs, have street vendors, get street performers and instead of being so paranoid about making people move along, don't let the underage kids in the area to begin with.

Then you can start to arrest people for drunken and disorderly, urinating in public and the other things that they do in New Orleans that allow people in the French Quarter to have such a great time.

Then @ 5am, the first cars through the streets are trash trucks, street cleaners, and hoses to clean off the area.

Trust me. This is a very, very good idea.

Plus, police HQ is basically across the street from The Block.

Eutaw Street Historian

You should email me at marylandlegal@gmail.com. I am loving everything you say but am not necessarily in favor of the 4am closing time at this time. Send me your email. I have enjoyed your good ideas and want to make contact. Email Sam if you have any questions.

I believe that most educated and mature adults know that successful cities are not built around prostitution, drug abuse, alcoholism, parties, and law breaking. All of these forces are what is found on the block in great abundance. All of those forces are very costly to the city and society in the long run. For example, one AID’s patient alone can have medical bills in excess of $500,000. I'm positive that more than one person has contracted that disease on The Block. For a city to be successful it needs a strong middle class that pays lots of taxes and uses few services. The middle class is what Baltimore has lost, and that is the target audience of projects like 414 Water Street. It also happens to be the target audience of future condo towers planned in the neighborhood at sites above the Shot Tower subway stop and at the Community College of Baltimore on Market Place.

Furthermore, there are not two sets of laws in Baltimore. Laws against loitering, littering, public drunkenness, and lewd behavior apply equally to The Block as they do to every other area of the city. If people pissed on any reader of this blog’s lawn on a regular basis, they would call the police. If people loitered on any reader’s steps, they would call the police. And since those behaviors are what happens in great abundance on The Block, that is why the police are there. So I suppose my answer is yes, I do expect to smell the aroma of lilies and lavender in my neighborhood just like you do in yours.

30 Floors Up, you made a mistake. You moved into an area zoned for adult entertainment, and the same standards just aren't going to apply. In all honesty, you got ripped off. I'm not from Baltimore, and I have to tell you that these pathetic downtown condos are something that real cities did and then abandoned seven or eight years ago. That's because only fools expect to be able to have some kind of yuppie "city" fantasy next to a plastic tourist horror and a red-light zone that belongs in the 70s--you know, when people got stabbed at adult entertainment venues. But what possessed you to buy that white elephant in the first place? Oh, wait...you're probably from here, aren't you. That's the problem in a nutshell. Sigh.

The people who buy those overpriced boxes next to the Powerplant or the Block are like those morons who buy houses on the cheap near an airport and complain about the noise. idiots.