BALTIMORE — Baltimore City Mayor Jack Young was mad as he walked through trash filled streets in East Baltimore Tuesday night.
He called parts of the neighborhood filthy as he walked by piles of trash that neighbors say have been there for a long time.
Pointing out issues for city agencies to take note of and come and fix in the Ellwood Park neighborhood.
“You’ve got to get people to realize and understand that they have a responsibility not only to themselves but to the city of Baltimore,” said Young. “This is their city; this is where they live.”
Karen Gray reached out to Young a month ago because she said she was fed up trying so hard to keep her property clean and being met with endless littering and trash piles.
“It seems like no one wants to stick together, no one wants to clean up, no one wants to help,” Gray said. “They want to move out, they get the money and they just move out to better neighborhoods.”
Trash and disinvestment go hand and hand with crime.
Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison recently unveiled his five-year crime plan focusing on micro zones, bridging the gap between community, and technological advancements.
It's a plan that the President of the Fraternal Order of Police for Baltimore City Mike Mancuso said is "untenable" while the department is short 500 police officers.
Mancuso went on to say that any crime plan must begin with the stark reality of the current resources available, not the resources that are desired.
Harrison rebutted by saying the plan is designed to make BPD more efficient and effective and the city significantly safer.
In a statement, he said the department is focusing efforts on recruiting and retaining new officers.
Neither the FOP President nor the Commissioner were commenting further than their statements, but the mayor says he doesn't want to see a war of words between the two.
“I think their job is to protect and serve, and they should be concerned about how they are going to deploy these officers and how we’re going to reduce crime in Baltimore City instead of trying to pick apart the Commissioner's crime plan,” Young said.
