And usually very solid quality

I think you'll have a tough time convincing Roland Park and Guilford residents that they need to make their neighborhoods more accessible to 'affordable' housing when the people who live there largely bought there because it wasn't affordable to the sort of people they don't want to live near...

As far as the city zoning code goes: the single-family zones (R-1 through R-4) explicitly ban multi-family properties. Multi-family are already allowed in zones R-5 through R-10 (including basically all the rowhouse neighborhoods), but isn't always economically feasible, as converting a house from SF to MF requires a zoning variance plus conformation with parking regulations. The zoning variances are issued at councilmembers' discretion, and I believe that parking regulations require off-street parking to be provided for all units if you have more than three units on one lot - which is tough to do with rowhouses. Both of these requirements introduce uncertainty into the conversion process, which makes investors less likely to make the conversion happen.

Dorsey's bill would allow for by-right conversion in all zones (so explicitly allowing multi-family in current single-family zones, removing the need to provide parking, and removing the need for a variance), which would lower the costs associated with converting single-family houses to multi-family units.

My guess is that if Dorsey's bill were passed, you would see a large wave of condo and apartment conversions out of existing rowhouses.

Edit: to actually answer your question - yes, I think it would help alleviate the concentration of multi-family housing. I think Torrence's concern is that the logical choice for multi-family conversions would be houses in neighborhoods where poor people currently live, and that freeing up developers to drive up prices in poor neighborhoods is only going to hurt the people living there (via unaffordable rent hikes for renters and unaffordable property tax bills for owners). I don't necessarily agree with Torrence, but my guess is that's his concern.

Shit, you don't even have to look that far... Pugh got $500k from UMMS, $100k from Kaiser Permanente, and $80k from the Associated Black Charities for her nonexistent childrens books.

We need more unions. Even tech workers should be thinking about it seeing how things at twitter and meta are going right now

Birthday Cake slice at Sally O’s. Heath Bar bread pudding at Food Market.

Vacarros chocolate hazelnut gelato

Vaccaro's

Yea, just seems like covenants need to be done with altogether. But I'm still confused by Torrence's argument. If multifamily is already extremely concentrated, wouldn't Dorsey's bill help alleviate that concentration even if it excludes certain neighborhoods?

This is just making me miss Haussner's strawberry pie

I have a nostalgic attachment to Vaccaro’s and the smell of their butter cookies.

Aldi's big strategy is efficiency. Limited selection, limited square footage, you go in, get your stuff, the checker rushes you down the line, you pay and get the hell out, see ya next week.

A bag of onions/peppers/etc. can be scanned and swept down the conveyor, rather than count and enter how many (like Trader Joe's) or find the tiny sticker on the pepper with the code and weigh them out.

It's easier to stock, easier to track for inventory purposes, easier to scan and move down the line.

Torrence's objection to calling Dorsey's bill 'city-wide' is that Roland Park and Guilford (among other wealthy, majority-white neighborhoods) have covenants that explicitly ban the conversion of single-family houses (attached or detached) into multi-family units. Legalizing by-right conversions of single-family into multi-family without enabling it to spread into all corners of the city concentrates any growth pressure that may exist into the places where it is legal. Thus, any growth will only occur in less-wealthy, less-white places, accelerating gentrification and displacement in poorer neighborhoods while preserving the neighborhood character and property values of already-wealthy (largely white) neighborhoods.

I find this position frustrating, especially because West Baltimore's housing stock is on the average fairly large, as it was the wealthy side of town back in the day. Big houses throw big bills, and conversion of 4000 sq. ft. rowhouses into three or four 1000 sq. ft. condominiums would help ensure that folks with lower incomes would be able to afford to purchase and maintain their residences.

The half-baked blondie at Food Market. Although, full disclosure, last time I got it it wasn't nearly as good as it had been in the past. Hopefully that was just one odd off night.

There was a similar thread about this recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/baltimore/comments/y5sijb/best_dessert/

The Charles St. location is at Preston, on the corner next to the Chipotle. But all 100+ of the stores that have won union elections are doing this today.

None of the unionized stores have a contract yet, which is part of the problem.

some additional context:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmbpa/starbucks-union-nlrb-cease-and-desist

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1137296597/starbucks-strike-red-cup-day

Basically, it's only a one day strike, and the NLRB's trying to get a national injunction to stop Starbucks from doing any more anti-labor actions. I'm not sure what the prospect is for getting a real budget through before the end of the session, but it certainly doesn't look rosy. Love stepping on rakes.

Cafe Poupon and Patissere Poupon, my wife and I got our wedding cake from there and get a few slices once or twice a year to celebrate. Berger cookies for a more casual treat. The PB round from G&M is great too

If price isn't an issue then Patisserie Poupon is slappin

I don't understand Torrence's argument. My impression is that Dorsey's bill is city wide, but Torrence seems to say otherwise? Or is it just the covenants that prohibit its application in certain areas? That seems like a separate issue that needs to be tackled and shouldn't hold up this bill.

Also, if Torrence believes this destroys wealth, what is his message to the neighborhoods that already permit this? Tough shit? You don't get to build wealth? Almost seems like a scapegoat

So is Reddit. Where I asked the fellow people in my community, in a more up to date version, for advice.

the North Charles St store is in the Midtown neighborhood of Baltimore City.

we've tried minimum wage and we're all out of ideas!

Sounds good for another trip. We need to be at the airport by 5:00 am. Lol.

I'm sold!