Quality Of Life

Voters can keep sprawl from Carroll Recently, municipalities throughout the county came together to successfully defend their Master Plans from injudicious finger-pointing by a duo of county commissioners. The outcome of these meetings resolutely placed the county's growth and infrastructure problems back at the commissioners' door, appropriately so. Town stewards, some in hindsight, have fittingly protected themselves against unrestrained growth with internal controls allowing basic services to catch up within their town's borders.

THE ISSUE: -- Do you favor the proposal by Howard County officials to nearly triple -- to $36.5 million -- the amount the county is willing to spend on agricultural preservation and to double the maximum price per acre -- to $40,000 -- it will pay to keep its remaining farmland from sprouting new homes? How much more must we preserve? The fact of the matter is out of all the remaining land that is left to be developed in the west, 70 percent will be preserved through current zoning regulations as preservation parcels in subdivisions or by sending [development rights]

As the inauguration of a new mayor proceeded at City Hall yesterday, a group of students at the Johns Hopkins University were taking a sobering look at the realities of Baltimore.The graduate students at the Institute for Policy Studies were given a hypothetical assignment from the city's new mayor back in September -- find out whether all this talk about urban renaissance is true and what, if anything, that means for Baltimore.The conclusion after months of studying reports and data: Behind the lights of the Inner Harbor and cheering crowds at Camden Yards lie some pretty bleak statistics.

Crime costs Americans at least $450 billion a year, according to the most comprehensive survey ever done on the price of violence.The report, done for the Justice Department, is the first to try to measure the cost of child abuse and domestic violence along with crimes like murder, rape and robbery. It is also the first to estimate the mental health care costs and the reduced quality of life for victims of crime.The report calculates out-of-pocket costs covering items like legal fees, lost work time and the cost of police work as well as intangibles, like the affection lost for a murder victim's family.

TO CITY prosecutors, George Gunther is your basic "frequent flier." The 48-year-old Baltimore man has been cited once, twice, seven times, for loitering or trespassing in the past four months. The cases usually are dismissed, and he winds up back on the street and in trouble again. Police officers are either improperly writing the citations or they haven't given prosecutors enough to pursue the charges. Either way, the nuisance remains. The example of Mr. Gunther offers a compelling reason why Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark should rethink his strategy of using criminal citations to stem "quality of life" crimes.

Every election carries a message about what constituents are thinking and feeling. By re-electing Mayor Al Hopkins last fall, Annapolitans sent a message that they are happy with things as they are. In Tuesday's special Ward 1 election, voters conveyed similar sentiments.They chose Democrat Louise Hammond over Republican Sharyn Steffey by a wide margin because Mrs. Hammond is more likely to provide the same kind of representation they've had for the last 16 years from her husband, Republican John Hammond.

If the candidates in this year's Baltimore City elections needed a starting point for the issues they must address, let them consider the words of Rosalind Seibles, a single mother who recently moved from West Baltimore into Baltimore County."

NOW THAT Carroll County officials have heard from Robert Freilich, a nationally recognized growth management expert, they have to decide whether to take his advice. The decision to enact some -- or all -- of his recommendations will be the litmus test of how serious Carroll's commissioners are about controlling the county's run-away residential growth.For a county that has regularly ignored the consequences of growth during the past three decades, Mr. Freilich's prescriptions may appear to be Draconian.

USER FEES can be a sensible way for government to raise revenue, but there are limits to their utility. Howard County may be about to breach one with a proposal to collect $4 parking fees at five of its parks. This outlandish idea would turn a standard community service into a luxury and would shatter the notion that residents can drive with empty pockets to the park for an afternoon of simple pleasure.Like many jurisdictions, Howard is increasing its reliance on user fees. The county, for example, wants residents to pay on a truer scale for trash pick-up.