Mayoral Candidate Forum
Please join us at our next general membership meeting this Tuesday, February 16, at 7:30 PM for our Mayoral Candidate Forum. Free and open to the public, please come and hear from Baltimore’s potential next leader.
This forum is hosted by MVBA and the Charles Street Development Corporation. It will be held at The Belvedere, 1 East Chase Street. The space is being generously provided by Belvedere & Co.
Forum Details:This Tuesday, the MVBA, in conjunction with the Charles Street Development Corporation, will be hosting a Mayoral Candidate Forum in lieu of our normally scheduled general membership meeting. The forum will take place Tuesday February 16th at 7:30 pm in the Platinum Ballroom at the Belvedere. Please arrive early as the forum will start promptly at 7:30. Mayoral candidates will be asked to speak and take questions one at a time. Each candidate will be given 8 minutes, which they will be asked to split between making a statement and taking questions from the audience. Candidates will speak in alphabetical order, first by party, then by last name within the party. The order of the Candidates who have RSVP’d is as follows: Democrat: 1. Mr. Gersham Cupid Green: 11. Mr. Joshua Harris Republican: 14. Mr Armand Girard Unaffiliated: 16. Mr. Nicholas Caminiti Dog ParkPlease join us for the opening of our new Dog Park. There will be a grand opening ceremony on Saturday, March 5th, at 11:00am. The dog park is located at 310 W. Center Street. Please bring your furry friends and meet your two- and four-legged neighbors. Additional information on the Block Captain Initiative will be forthcoming at our MVBA meeting held on March 15th, as the February 16th MVBA meeting will be exclusively held for the Mayoral Candidate Forum. If you are interested in becoming a block captain, please reach out to Michele Richter at vicepresident@mvba.org. Thanks in advance for considering it. It’s a great opportunity to make new friends and get more familiar with your community! Clean & Beautiful CommitteeAs mentioned in our January MVBA meeting, the Sanitation Committee is now the Clean & Beautiful Committee. If you are interested in participating on this committee, please reach out to Michele Richter at vicepresident@mvba.org. Development CommitteeThe Development Committee advises on all things affecting Mount Vernon’s built environment with the community’s best interests in mind. This includes our streets and other public rights of way as well as regulatory and construction activity. The traffic study regarding conversion of Saint Paul and Calvert Streets to 2-way streets was recently released to the public. The committee will be reviewing and providing comments if necessary, within the official comment period to the City Department of Planning and Transportation. This will be the subject of a special Development Committee meeting on February 15th. The committee has a lot on its plate as it because Mount Vernon is a large and diverse neighborhood with many forces constantly shaping its built environment. Some of our current issues include: The sunsetting of the Urban Renewal Plan, ongoing zoning and BMZA activity, parking and transportation management, promoting beneficial development of empty lots and historic buildings, coordinating with our many large institutions regarding improvements surrounding their facilities, traffic calming, and bike infrastructure. We meet on the first Monday of every month at 6:00 pm. Anyone is welcome to join the working committee and we encourage participation. Please contact Lance Decker at development@mvba.org for more information. Sanitation TipsPickup Hours Recycling: Tuesdays, 10am to noon Trash, in a covered can: Fridays, 10am to noon. If you do have a sanitation issue, please report it to 311 via phone or online or 311 app. You can do this anonymously, and can copy the report number with address to vicepresident@mvba.org. Without a record, the city won’t know there’s a problem! |
TreesPruning Event: February 20, 2016 Meet at Milk & Honey at 11:00 am for our second pruning event of the season! After we are done pruning (focusing on the southwest quadrant of Mount Vernon), we will wrap up the event at 2:00 pm with lunch, location TBD. Save the date: March 1, 2016 Join us for a drink or two or three at our MVBA Trees fundraiser hosted by Spirits of Mount Vernon from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm to support our efforts to green our neighborhood. Safety CommitteeThe Safety Committee met on Monday February 1 at 6:00 pm at Hotel Indigo. Spirits of Mount Vernon will be hosting “Pizza with the Police” (aka – Coffee with the Cops) on February 26th from 6 pm to 8 pm. The goal is to get residents to meet with officers that actually work Central District/Mount Vernon to develop more one on one communications with one another. There will also be a table available for anyone who wishes to make a contribution for Mount Vernon Safety (Segway Program) Do your part to make Mount Vernon Safer. Double check all your windows, especially second floor windows and make certain they are locked. Make sure your fire escapes are properly secured for evacuation only and not an access to rooftops. Make sure property is well lit, front and back, to avoid dark spots for people to hide. Download the Baltimore city 311 app and report a variety of issues immediately — street lights, potholes, snow concerns, sanitation issues, etc. Make a donation today! Through Midtown Community Benefits District, MVBA is able to hire additional Segway patrols to specifically patrol Mount Vernon. Each Segway shift costs $320 and includes two officers for four hours patrolling in specific areas of Mount Vernon. Every donation is beneficial, regardless of the amount of the donation. Every $5 helps! Every $25 helps! Yes, we pay a lot in taxes already, both to Midtown and Baltimore City, but if we want to obtain additional patrols to help increase visibility of said officers to PREVENT crime from happening we have to step up. Preventing incidents from happening is our objective and we can only do this with additional resources designated to our neighborhood. Join the Mount Vernon Safety Facebook page today to keep up-to-date on what is happening in your neighborhood! Alley Gating Project:The Safety Committee identified two alleys for potential gating thus far. A local attorney will do some leg work to see if these alleys can be converted easily. If so, we must obtain 61% of owners who have property that “touch” that alley to agree to privatize and residents of said alley must pay for the expense to convert access points to become gated. Teakle Alley West Branch Alley Join A CommitteeThe Community Service and Engagement Committee will be meeting on Saturday February, 21st at 2:00 pm, 218 E. Preston Street. Please call Matt for entry at (914) 602-8584. The Membership Committee meets at Spirits of Mount Vernon on the second Wednesday of every month at 6:00 pm. Contact Julie Canard for more information at membership@mvba.org. The Development Committee meets on the first Monday of every month at 6:00 pm. Contact Lance Decker at development@mvba.org. For the Clean & Beautiful Committee please contact Michele Richter at vicepresident@mvba.org. For the Green Committee/Trees contact Andy Smith at trees@mvba.org. For the Dog Park Committee contact Samantha Braun or Geoffrey Hart at dogpark@mvba.org. For the Safety Committee contact Jason Curtis at safety@mvba.org. Things to doFree Yoga: Parks & People hosts a free weekly yoga class every Thursday at 6:30 pm at their new campus located at 2100 Liberty Heights Avenue — just minutes away from the Mount Vernon Belvedere area. It’s an all-levels vinyasa yoga class taught by LA Finfinger of Free Baltimore Yoga (www.freebaltimoreyoga.com). Climb the newly restored Washington Monument! The Monument is open to the public: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm and Saturday & Sunday from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. For more information visit mvpconservancy.org. Elections schedule2016 Primary Presidential / Mayoral Election 2016 General Presidential / Mayoral Election Click here to download the full print version of the newsletter. |