BALTIMORE — Residents in Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester community are at war with weeds.
There is grass standing feet high on more than a dozen Baltimore City owned lots.
Wayne LaCruze, who stands at 5 feet, 5 inches tall, standing just outside his property line, is almost swallowed by the weeds.
“The reason we trim is so this stuff won’t be all up on the gate. If we don’t trim it would be up against it," LaCruze told WMAR-2 News.
Residents told WMAR-2 News they’ve complained about the Baltimore City-owned lots on North Parrish Street for years and have filled plenty of 311 requests.
“It’s a mess,” resident Ella Wilson said. “Every year, we go through this. I think they cut it once last year.”
“I’m totally fed up because I can see the city isn’t going to do anything,” LaCruze added. “I contacted you in order to try to get something done.”
Residents are asking the City to trim the lots on a biweekly basis. They say if crews do that, it’ll cut down on problems in the neighborhood, problems like illegal dumping.
“Some of these companies back here, they start dumping trash and whatever. They just dump any old thing,” LaCruze said.
“I’m sure there’s some creatures in there,” Wilson said. “I don’t want to know. I just want it cut.”
The 14 vacant lots, according to city data, are available for as part of Baltimore’s Adopt-A-Lot. However, there doesn't seem to be any interested parties.
LaCruze, and his neighbors, said that since the lots belong to the city, crews should do what’s asked of every property owner — mow and maintain the grass.
“You can be sure if let my grass grow out of control I would get a citation,” LaCruze said.
WMAR-2 News reached out to the Baltimore Department of Public Works.
A spokesperson said they are working to address the issue.
