Recent comments in /f/baltimore

Hansel4407 t1_iy4aw18 wrote

Reply to Money for string lights by LaunderMachine

Any which way they can give you money (venmo, cashapp, cash, check, zelle, etc) and just track it with a google spreadsheet that you share with everyone who is interested as to who has paid and who hasn't.

Good luck!

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BeyondRecovery1 OP t1_iy4ai8q wrote

Reply to comment by buuj214 in As someone new to the area and wanting to get into hiking, any recommendations on where to start and what trails to pursue (with car park)? Also shoe recommendations would be great. Woman with a bit of flat feet here. by BeyondRecovery1

That reminds me, I need to buy a bike. I love riding one but I don’t want anything I have to bend on. Where should I go looking for one?

And when is the best time to buy?

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kyleg5 OP t1_iy485gs wrote

Reply to Car won’t start - street cleaning day by kyleg5

Thanks for all the comments. Unfortunately the reason i was asking is because I knew I couldn’t get it towed in time—ticketing started at 8am. The good news is nobody showed up to ticket today, so I’m safe until next week which is more than enough time to resolve the issue.

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Tim_Y t1_iy47w3i wrote

Reply to Car won’t start - street cleaning day by kyleg5

Before you call AAA - check with your insurance carrier to see if they offer towing. They usually tow within a certain area for free, 50 - 100 miles - something like that. Get it towed to a shop and have your car fixed.

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EntireAd9048 t1_iy47gaq wrote

Reply to comment by Ambitious-Intern-928 in Pension for Baltimore City council members by 2468975

People in the sub have aggressively defended Santelises (city schools CEO) and the city council in the past week.

It's the strangest thing. It's like a reflex to criticism. People think it's "anti city" to point out that these ppl suck at their jobs and Baltimore deserves better. They said "if you don't pay 400k, no one will want to be schools CEO", despite people in the same that pointing out city schools is like the 5th biggest school district in the state and top 5 performers like Howard, Carroll, and Harford pay their school superintendents half of what Santelises makes.

You're simple not allowed to criticize city leadership. And that's part of the culture that holds Baltimore back.

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EntireAd9048 t1_iy46gbk wrote

Reply to comment by winnower8 in Baltimore is short on poles, complicating installations of new stop signs and speed humps by NarutoIvy

The MBE and WBE qualifications are abused anyway, leading to absurd results. One of the biggest contractors in the city is M. Luis contractors. They do paving, concrete, etc.

They identify as Portugese. And the father of the business into the daughters name. They are one of the biggest, of not THE biggest, contractors in Baltimore City.

Lots of contractors who do good work in surrounding counties won't bid on city work because they know they won't get it, they'll have to deal with the MBE/WBE giveaways, or payment will be delayed by months or years after the work is finished.

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winnower8 t1_iy40xts wrote

Reply to Baltimore is short on poles, complicating installations of new stop signs and speed humps by NarutoIvy

Almost all of the city's poor efforts to provide services can be traced to by the Department of Finance Procurement Division and the Bureau of Accounting and Payroll Services. We can't buy things and we can't pay our bills. The city is broken. No vendors want to work with the city agencies. The city can't function because it doesn't have supplies, services, or real time procurement.

We could solve it be throwing bodies at the problem: Mass hire hundreds of people for a six month contract until the backlog is at zero on both sides of the problem. Then figure out how many people are needed to meet equilibrium.

Also, it is difficult to restore the full faith and credit of the city. There are only a few suppliers of certain city services where specifications were already established. For example: if the city establishes specifications that they only use a specific type of light pole from a single vendor, then that nationwide vendor only has one local distributor, then Baltimore City owes that one vendor $300,000 in unpaid bills, then Baltimore City can't order light poles until it pays it's outstanding bill. Also the two departments mentioned don't talk to each other. Additionally, Baltimore City will burn the vendors that are on a blanket contract and they city will have no supplier for that service. Vendors are often owed over $1,000,000+ and then refuse to accept any additional work in the city.

Traffic sign poles are sort of universal, but we could have cause some stupid error by not sourcing properly.

Also Baltimore City has minority business and women owned business requirements for most contracts over $300,000. So if Baltimore City has a contract to supply $500,000 of sign poles, the MBE/WBE office wants you to have 15% of that contract go to a subcontractor that is a MBE and 11% that is a WBE, so roughly 26% of your contract. All you do is supply sign poles, now you have to find another company to somehow take 26% of that contract and often if makes no sense. They want you to add a waiver or add garbage hauling to that contract by a MBE/WBE. There's roughly one person in the WBE/MBE office and they'll kick good vendors for not meeting the MBE/WBE requirement of their contract.

The city is broken. A mayor or city administrator that could get it to pay it's bills and buy things quickly would be the best thing since Willy Don Schaffer.

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Cunninghams_right t1_iy3zarw wrote

Reply to comment by BeyondRecovery1 in As someone new to the area and wanting to get into hiking, any recommendations on where to start and what trails to pursue (with car park)? Also shoe recommendations would be great. Woman with a bit of flat feet here. by BeyondRecovery1

deeper tread that you would find on hiking shoes mostly just gives you the ability to not slip in mud as much. for rocks or slopes, I don't think they give any more grip

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