This weekend will be Baltimore's PR Weekend, which will celebrate Puerto Rican history, culture, and art. This year’s theme will honor Puerto Rican film and visual storytelling. From June 12th through the 14th, there will be several film screenings that you won't want to miss. Please check out the PR Weekend events below, and for more information about the upcoming film screening please click here. Friday, June 12 – Esta Isla at The SNF Parkway Theatre Saturday, June 13 – Bmo

Tonight at our City Council meeting, we will be passing my bill to add vacant lots to the vacant property tax. This bill also postpones the implementation of the vacant property tax by two years. While I’m excited to pass our bill to expand the types of vacant properties that will get charged four times the property tax rate. Delaying the application of the vacant lot tax bill will impact families who purchased homes that they thought were rehabbed but still have vacant build

Last week there was an article in the Baltimore Banner where I spoke about how I believe that there is serious undercount of vacant properties in our city. If you have a vacant property next to you or on your block, please call or use the 311 app to request a vacant building inspection. Send our office the confirmation number you get, and we will follow up. If the house is not boarded up but it is empty and not taken care of, please call those in as well.

This week's housing tip of the week is about gutter debris removal. If you didn’t clean your gutters in the fall, please clear out your gutters and downspouts now. If your gutters are clogged with leaves and debris, it could cause water damage to your porch. If you don’t have a gutter or downspout, you need to obtain one. It is also in the city building code, you can read about the city building code on gutters here.

In 2022, David Smith of Sinclair Broadcasting invested in a politically motivated signature campaign to enshrine term limits for Baltimore City elected officials. As your elected officials’ we came up short in explaining the harmful impacts of this ballot initiative and it passed without proper review or scrutiny. The law passed in 2022, now requires elected officials to leave their post after two terms. This arbitrary requirement removes continuity from office and disrupts w

Please join us this Wednesday at 1pm for the Charter Review Special Committee meeting. At this hearing three bills will be heard, the three bills are: 26-0190 Charter Amendment - Procurement Reform, 26-0191 Charter Amendment - Budget, Veto, and Board of Estimates Reform, and 26-0192 Charter Amendment - Minor Privileges. You can read more about these bills here. The meeting will be held in the City Council Chambers and will also be avaliable to view remotely. To view the meeti

For our Housing Tip of the Week, I want to remind you to avoid taking out a reverse mortgage after paying off your home. Times are tough and older adults often have to make difficult decisions in regards to financing their various needs. I have assisted several residents with reversing the impact of reverse mortgages. One consequence of taking out a reverse mortgage is that if you forget to pay your taxes or insurance, the reverse mortgage company can foreclose on your home.

26-0172 Charter Review is being replaced with three new bills. The Charter Review committee has worked extensively to study the Charter and have come up with several reforms. Initially all of these reforms for this year’s ballot were placed in one large bill, 26-0172. We heard from several residents, as well as Councilmembers, that transparency was important. At tonight’s City Council meeting, we will introduce three new bills that split the large one into three parts. We

In 2016, the Baltimore City Council passed 16-0652 creating the Municipal Identification Card program, providing every resident who needs one a Municipal Identification Card. In 2021, we held a hearing in Chair McCray’s Public Health committee last term to get an update as to the status of the implementation of this bill. This resolution and the hearing pushed the administration to finally get started on implementing the Municipal ID Card program. Since then, MOCFS and BC