Reservoir Hill

According to tax records the landlord at the Reservoir Hill complex ('The ugly just won't go away' at troubled apartment complex," Aug. 18) is paying in excess of $100,000 in property taxes per annum. Additionally, the landlord pays for all its own services, such as trash removal, water, lighting etc. What exactly are these taxes for if not for police service? It would seem that if the property is crime ridden the police are not doing an effective job in keeping the area safe. Instead of passing the buck the mayor and police commissioner should take responsibility for the safety of the neighborhood that they are obligated to provide.

A city police officer who heard gunshots Friday afternoon quickly responded and saw a man shooting a handgun, and the officer fired at least one round himself before the gunmen escaped, according to a department spokesman. Police said the armed man jumped into the passenger seat of a silver-colored car that sped away from West North Avenue and McCulloh Street about 3:15 p.m., leaving behind two victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were taken to area hospitals for treatment.

A city police officer who heard gunshots Friday afternoon quickly responded and saw a man shooting a handgun, and the officer fired at least one round himself before the gunmen escaped, according to a department spokesman. Police said the armed man jumped into the passenger seat of a silver-colored car that sped away from West North Avenue and McCulloh Street about 3:15 p.m., leaving behind two victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were taken to area hospitals for treatment.

ON THE SITE... Baltimore Jewish Times owner sold at bankruptcy : Washington Jewish Week bought Alter Communications, which has owned the weekly Jewish Times magazine for 93 years, for $1.26 million. Maryland's Mega Millions winner remains unknown : Media were staking out the Maryland Lottery headquarters Monday morning awaiting the person who bought a winning ticket in Baltimore County, but lottery officials said they don't expect anyone to show yet. Three shot in city on Sunday : Police are investigating the incidents, one of them fatal, while police also shot and killed a man during a struggle in Reservoir Hill on Saturday.  March 2012 ranks as third-warmest on record : The average daily low in Baltimore last month nearly matched the average temperature for the month as a whole.

Baltimore police are investigating the homicide of a 38-year-old man found early Monday in Reservoir Hill. The victim, Edward Bardney, was found at 12:55 a.m. lying on a curb in the 2200 block of Linden Ave., about a block north of North Avenue, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said. Bardney was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at about 1:35 a.m. Police said the suspect approached Bardney and fired at him as he tried to flee, then ran away on foot.

Neighbors know it as "Murder Mall. " Police say the Reservoir Hill housing complex and its surroundings have seen three shootings and two homicides so far this year. "No other area in my district has seen this kind of violence," police Maj. Dennis Smith of the Central District said of the Madison Park North complex. In recent months, Smith said, drug dealers shot a man they thought was stealing from narcotics stashes. Another man was stabbed 90 times after an altercation at a birthday party.

A convicted sex offender who was cleared by a jury of rape charges in September has been linked through DNA to two other rapes, including a November attack on a woman in her Reservoir Hill home, court records show. Nelson Bernard Clifford of the 800 block of Brooks Lane was charged Dec. 6 with raping a woman at knifepoint after breaking into her home while she was sleeping about 9 p.m. Nov. 12, according to charging documents. Police say he blindfolded her, bound her hands and threatened to slash her face.

A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood early Thursday morning, according to Baltimore Police. An officer responded to a call for a shooting at 12:48 a.m. in the 700 block of W. North Avenue, police said. He found the victim lying in the courtyard with a gunshot wound. A medical crew took him to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:28 a.m. Investigators have no suspects or motive at this time, police say. Officials have also released the identity of a man who was shot in the 1500 block of Carswell Street Tuesday night.

Baltimore City's housing market is dismal in many neighborhoods. Despite excellent prices, would-be buyers are scarce. Seeing properties languish for months and months, they are deterred from buying -- fearing their ability to re-sell quickly, if and when they need to.This is a vicious circle that is difficult to break. But one struggling neighborhood, Reservoir Hill, ought to be able to cash in on a number of improvements that will change its face within the next few years.Bounded by Druid Hill Park, Madison Avenue, North Avenue and Jones Falls Expressway, Reservoir Hill once boasted some of Baltimore's best addresses.

Baltimore police are investigating three shootings from Sunday, including a fatal in East Baltimore.  In that shooting, 29-year-old Marcus Williams was found at about 7:30 p.m. sitting in a Dodge Charger that had crashed into a Ford Expedition in the 1000 block of E. 22nd St. Williams, of the 1300 block of Cedarcroft Rd in Northeast Baltimore, was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and torso, and was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital...

A Baltimore police officer investigating a domestic disturbance on Saturday morning in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood shot and killed a man armed with a knife, according to authorities. A police spokesman identified the man who was killed as George Wells, 29, of the 2500 block of Brookfield Ave., the same location that the officer had responded for the call. Other details, including how many times and where on his body Wells was shot, were not released on Saturday. Police said Wells was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center at 12:23 p.m., less than 45 minutes after the shooting.

Don't worry, it won't be the type where they do bad covers of Adon Olam. Eutaw Place, housed at the bottom of Beth Am Synagogue, is catering to singer-songwriters. It's scheduled to open in late April. The idea came together last summer, said producer and booker Ellen Kahan Zager, 56. She likes coffee-house types like Jammin Java in Virginia and adult contemporary getaways like Rams Head on Stage in Annapolis. But didn't find any in Baltimore. Though she didn't have any experience in the business - "My husband and I just love music," the graphic designer says - she approached the rabbi of her new temple, Beth Am, with a proposal: "Would you consider a music venue in the lower level of the synagogue?"

Rebecca Yenawine and Mark Carter are accustomed to awe-struck looks when visitors cross the foyer of their 19th-century rowhouse in Reservoir Hill. The four-story brick Victorian, built circa 1870, is sprawling — some 6,000 square feet. And with six bedrooms, four baths, 14-foot ceilings, hardwood floors and a prominent spiral staircase, the space evokes grandeur and elegance. Yet despite the home's loftiness, the couple has managed to create a sense of warmth and intimacy.

A convicted sex offender who was cleared by a jury of rape charges in September has been linked through DNA to two other rapes, including a November attack on a woman in her Reservoir Hill home, court records show. Nelson Bernard Clifford of the 800 block of Brooks Lane was charged Dec. 6 with raping a woman at knifepoint after breaking into her home while she was sleeping about 9 p.m. Nov. 12, according to charging documents. Police say he blindfolded her, bound her hands and threatened to slash her face.

The hulking white duplex at 2108-2110 Mount Royal Terrace - a vacant eyesore for 20 years - is a financial and emotional drain on neighbors, who maintain a five-block stretch of historic homes that overlooks the Jones Falls Expressway and acts as the eastern border of Reservoir Hill. But for two nights this past weekend, residents gathered on the sidewalk in front of the empty house, watching it and imagining what it would be like if someone lived there. The occasion was an exhibit by two students at the nearby Maryland Institute College of Art, who used the 120-year-old home as a movie screen, with videos projected onto the plywood that covers the first-floor windows.

Nick Mosby bounded along a row of ninth-grade boys at Baltimore's Civitas School with the energy of a football player about to dart onto the field. Citing his own upbringing by a single mother, he urged the young men to aim higher than the temptations of the city's streets. "If you dream about it, you'll become it," he said. Mosby, a 32-year-old Verizon engineer and community activist, says he had long dreamed of a career in politics before defeating a two-term city councilwoman in September's Democratic primary.

Belinda Conaway, a two-term city councilwoman, chair of the powerful budget committee and daughter of a prominent West Baltimore political family, does not fit most definitions of a political outsider. But after losing the Democratic primary to a political newcomer allied with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Conaway has launched a write-in campaign in which she paints herself as an enemy of - and threat to - the political establishment. "The mayor, governor and other powers-that-be don't want any independent voices on the city council," Conaway told supporters at a campaign kick-off event this month.