City Residents

Baltimore residents can drop off hazardous household materials today and tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Polytechnic Institute parking lot at Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane. The city schedules centralized collection of unwanted toxic substances twice a year, in the fall and spring. Eligible items - which will not be collected from homes - include pesticides, batteries, gasoline, pool chemicals, bleach, herbicides and drain cleaners. Proof of city residency is required to drop off material.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would require businesses getting large city contracts or financial support to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore. "My council colleagues believe this is a fair thing to do," Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, the bill's lead sponsor, said after the vote. "We have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. We need to get Baltimore City to work. There are qualified people in this city that can do these jobs.

Baltimore residents can now pay several city bills online using their personal checking accounts or credit cards, according to city officials. To make a payment, go to www.baltimorecity.gov and click on "online payments." Paying by electronic check is free; there is a service fee for using credit cards. Residents can pay online for property taxes, water bills, parking fines, red-light citations and several other payments. Residents will need their bank account and routing numbers. E-mail questions to BaltimoreCi tyCollections@baltimorecity.

Baltimore City Solicitor George Nilson appears to have shot down a proposal to require businesses that receive large city contracts or tax breaks from City Hall to hire local residents for 51 percent of new jobs they create. Last week, Mr. Nilson said the bill could violate a section of the U.S. Constitution barring discrimination against job-seekers based on where they live. But the bill's sponsor, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, insists the measure is needed to address the city's stubbornly high unemployment rate.

People may not go to the polls much anymore, but they still vote. Mostly, they vote with their pocketbooks, and, when things get really serious, they vote with their feet.And, despite all the attention lavished on politicians and elective office, the economic votes in our capitalist system -- cast in our roles as consumers, employees and residents -- have usually meant a lot more than those made at local polling places. The quality of our daily lives, for better or worse, is largely a result of these individual, market-based decisions.

Members of the Annapolis city council are looking into repealing a little-known new law requiring all city residents to pay a sidewalk-repair fee after receiving an avalanche of criticism from people - including those without sidewalks - who just got their bills in the mail. The $25 fee per household will allow the city to take over responsibility for maintaining the city's sidewalks. Property owners are supposed to repair and replace sidewalks at their own cost, said city spokesman Ray Weaver.

A handful of city residents objected last night to projected cuts in the city's Department of Recreation and Parks budget that would eliminate some workers and a day care program. At a public hearing before the Board of Estimates, the five-member body that controls city expenditures, residents expressed concern that cutting the parks department budget would hurt the city's beautification efforts. The city is proposing eliminating the jobs of 11 workers who landscape medians and parks as well as serve community gardens, to save $444,300.

They arrived early, waiting in a line that stretched out the door and filled an adjoining room. A father whose five children bombarded Santa Claus with requests -- gifts that he probably can't afford, his only income a disability check. A man who lost a leg in a shooting, unsure of where he might eat his Thanksgiving dinner today. "McDonald's maybe," he mumbled. But yesterday, thousands of city residents had a free Thanksgiving meal that included turkey and cranberry sauce, kale and sauerkraut, and thick slices of raspberry swirl cheesecake.

The Rev. Vernon Dobson stares through the gray light breaking through his church office window at vacant homes across the street, recalling "The Promise."The Union Baptist Church pastor remembers former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and developer James Rouse touring Baltimore's African-American churches, asking for support to rebuild the Inner Harbor. The prosperity will spread, the ministers were told. Your neighborhoods will flourish.Thirty years later, Dobson is still waiting. As the city heads into its final mayoral election of the century, many Baltimore neighborhoods continue to decompose.

Cheryl Casciani has heard all the reasons why residents are fleeing the city: Poor schools, too much crime, inadequate housing.But as executive director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, she says people have too many misconceptions. She hopes the new Live Baltimore Marketing Center will give a more accurate picture of urban life and breathe new life into the city."When you talk to people, the neighborhoods that come out in a hot real estate market tend to be the same five or six neighborhoods when, in fact, there are some very high-quality places to live right now they just don't get the visibility or the attention," Casciani said.

A year ago, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave an inaugural address that was both lofty in vision and grounded in reality - the poetry of growing Baltimore by 10,000 residents in the next decade tempered by the prose of how to get there. "We must focus on the fundamentals and do them well," the newly elected mayor said, "or face the prospect of trying to do everything - most of it poorly. " But as Rawlings-Blake concludes her first year as elected mayor, having previously served the final two years of her predecessor's term, her administration has faltered on some of those fundamentals.

Speaking from the city's Emergency Operations Center, which went into operation at 7 a.m. Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake urged residents to get ready now for Hurricane Sandy. The monster storm is expected to barrel into Maryland early Monday morning, with gale force winds arriving later Sunday. "Prepare your property. Clear all storm drains. Check on your elderly relatives and neighbors and make sure that they are prepared," Rawlings-Blake said. "This is absolutely important.

Not so long ago, a dilapidated house stood on the corner of Jenifer Avenue and 30th Street in Baltimore's Montebello community, a magnet for drug users and dealers. But now the house has been torn down, and a mural is planned that will fill the space "with color and joy," said Natalya Brusilovsky, the healthy neighborhoods coordinator for the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello Community Corp., a nonprofit community association. The mural is the brainchild of Gabrielle Elkaim, a 29-year-old Mount Vernon resident who works for the federal government and is taking a seminar through a program called Landmark Education that requires her to "create a project that inspires," she said.

Jockey Mario Pino, an Ellicott City resident who has spent most of his career in Maryland, is close to joining horse racing's top 10 all-time North American wins list. Pino is just one win away from tying Hall of Fame rider Earlie Fires, who is currently at No. 10 with 6,470 career victories. Pino had three chance to tie Fires at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa., on Thursday, but he went winless. Pino is scheduled to ride five horses at the track Friday. Pino, who celebrated his 51st birthday Saturday, set the top 10 as his goal about six years ago. "At the time, looking at how far away I was [about 470 wins away]

About a dozen Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers, consumer advocates and a City Councilwoman faulted the utility Tuesday for lack of preparation before and poor communication after a derecho storm struck the region in June. At a Baltimore public hearing on the utility's storm response, a crowd repeated concerns that BGE officials didn't provide them with an estimated time their power would be restored. Others questioned why the utility hadn't cut back mature trees to prevent branches from knocking out power lines — to which BGE officials responded by pointing to recent efforts at more aggressive trimming.

MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakedismissed Thursday a package of budget changes proposed by Council PresidentBernard C. "Jack" Young, saying most of his proposals are "unadvisable, unworkable and irresponsible. " "I cannot support them, and I encourage the Council to act responsibly and reject any actions in their furtherance," Rawlings-Blake said in a letter to council members. The mayor said the $4.8 million in cuts Young proposed to the city's $2.3 billion operating budget would result in nearly two dozen layoffs and the elimination of key programs.

For each of the past three years, the Annapolis city council has cut the city's property tax rate while the rate at which city residents pay county taxes has gone up. Now, city council members, outraged at the county's proposed 8-cent increase, are threatening to sue.Council members are to meet in closed session before their regular meeting tonight, a scheduled public hearing on the city budget, to decide whether to direct city attorney Paul Goetzke to...

The Columbia Council last week elected John Hansen of Harper's Choice village as its chairman and Karen Kuecker of Owen Brown as its vice chairwoman.The officers were chosen Thursday by acclamation, although Hansen was elected after five ballots in an organizational meeting May 7. Evelyn Richardson of Dorsey's Search and Joseph Merke of Town Center also competed for the chair.Hansen was appointed as the Harper's Choice representative in 1989 to replace now-County Councilman Paul Farragut and was re-elected without opposition in 1990 and last month.