Around three dozen businesses in Fells Point, Baltimore, said in a letter that they won’t pay taxes unless the city adequately deals with a surge in crime in the area that included a series of recent shootings earlier this month that left three dead.
Last week, 37 restaurants and small businesses sent a letter to the mayor’s office stating that they would stop paying local taxes and other fees until “basic and essential municipal services are restored.” The letter was addressed to Democrat Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Democrat City Council President Nick Mosby, Democrat City Councilman Zeke Cohen, and Police Commissioner Harrison.
According to local reports, in response to a recent spate of violence in the area, the Baltimore Police Department’s Mobile Command Center has set up in Fells Point for the weekend. Harrison, days after the letter was sent during a town hall, promised more officers would be deployed around the historic bar area and would be “laser-focused on scanning for weapons and potential incidents.” It’s unclear if the heightened police presence was due to the letter or due to the general spike in crime and homicides.
“What is happening in our front yard—the chaos and lawlessness that escalated this weekend into another night of tragic, unspeakable gun violence—has been going on for far too long,” the letter states.
The business owners who signed the letter want the city to enforce traffic and parking laws, pick up trash, stop the open-air drug sales, and allow police to enforce laws.
“The trash that piles up every week drifts into the Inner Harbor and hurts the environment, attracts rodents and fosters disease, and stinks up the streets and damages the beauty of our wonderful waterfront community,” they wrote.
If nothing is done, the businesses said that the “undersigned parties are prepared to withhold our city taxes and minor privilege and permit fees and place those funds into an escrow account, which we will not release until and unless basic and essential municipal services are restored.”
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