This years effort is among the top three City-wide cleanups to date and had 1,000 more volunteers than last year. Not only were alleys were swept and vacant lots cleaned up, but many vacant lots were converted into vibrant gardens through the Mayor’s Power in Dirt Initiative.

What makes this year different than the rest other than the impressive participation, of course? This year served as the kick-off of the very first Clean Community Competition. Even though a clean city and cleaner communities is incentive enough to get out and participate,  71 communities are competing for four first-place prizes of $5,000 and four second-place prizes of $1,000, a little something extra for such impressive effort. Winners will be announced on October 27,2012 which is also the date of the Mayor’s Fall cleanup. Good luck to all of those competing!

The statewide central foreclosed property registry helps communities keep property values stabilized because it enables local governments “to determine who is responsible for upkeep of vacant properties during the period after a foreclosure auction.”  A property would not be added to the list until the foreclosure has been ratified, leaving the responsibility of homes still in the midst of the foreclosure process still up in the air.  While this bill will strengthen communities, more is to be done to ensure that vacant homes are attended to while the house is in the foreclosure pipeline.

Another bill allowing mediation to homeowners presently in debt or “default on their mortgage” gives the homeowner the option to seek assistance before their homes are foreclosed upon. Homeowners and lenders will be able to find alternatives to foreclosure by gaining help before it’s too late.

These two new pieces of passed legislation are part of a group of three. The third bill was passed in April and establishes the Neighborhood Conservation Tax Credit that gives “potential homeowners an incentive to purchase foreclosed properties in targeted communities,” helping to get them back on track. The three bills together and the development of the Maryland Foreclosure Task Force are part of O’Malley’s response to the “most severe national housing crisis since the Great Depression.”

The Voice of America posted a video that features interviews with Baltimore Street artist Gaia, artists from Ukraine and South Africa, and Ben Stone, the Station North district executive director. According to the Baltimore brew article, Ben stone reports that in only hours after he has posted photos of newly completed projects on the web, “they are picked up by a dozen others.” He also estimates that tens of thousands of people have already seen Gaia’s mural at the corner of North Ave. and Charles St. along with the ten other completed works.

The attention “Open Walls” is receiving is very exciting, not only for the artists themselves, but for the City of Baltimore too. Baltimore looks to the growing art community to help it grow, especially in blighted neighborhoods. With the national and international attention, Baltimore is serving as an example and success story for other communities.

There are 18 events around the Baltimore area to make Bike to Work day even more diverse and better than ever! What can you expect? Stop at a pit stop and receive a courtesy bike check and on the go snacks or attend an after work happy hour–connect with other Bike to Work participants.  Register your attendance and view details, a full listing of events and their locations here.

Lots of resources about biking to work can be found on the Baltimore Metropolitan Council’s website about Bike to Work Day!

In Baltimore, “single occupancy vehicles are responsible for 20% of the dangerous ozone-emission pollution.” Help keep the City’s air quality from being diminished and ride your bike to work not only on Bike to Work day, but as much as possible. Every little bit counts!

Appearing on Moyers & Company, Blackwell discusses her vision for a change in equity that is yet to come, but sure to come, because of advancements our country has made over the years: a larger proportion of people of color, the inclusion of those who had been “left behind” for so long, and the national awareness of inequity at a national level. Although her evaluation of our country is optimistic, it’s not unrealistic. Blackwell states that although President Obama is not governing first and foremost on the issue of race, he is the first president to consider inequality at  a level closer to home, literally.

Blackwell explains that the Obama administration is the first to seriously consider  “how the places where people live can hold them back.” Because we live in a country in which location is a “proxy for opportunity,” whether or not kids can attend a good school, whether or not job opportunities are close by, etc., are issues which must be examined on the level of the neighborhood. Blackwell feels this issue needs to be better understood in these terms in order to be addressed.

Neighborhoods, local government, and even the federal government can work together and with other sectors to “create neighborhoods of choice, for low-income people, putting housing near good schools, near grocery stores, near public transportation; establishing a community that supports people.”

Watch the entire interview with Angela Glover Blackwell here.

Maxwell House partnered with Rebuilding Together  (a national nonprofit with an affiliate in Baltimore)  and country star Trace Adkins to inspire hope and bring change to struggling communities. “Drops of Good” was developed because nearly 50 percent of Americans are currently receiving government aid and are relying on local community centers for aid and support more than ever before. Ten Cities, Baltimore included, have been nominated and the three winning cities will receive a “makeover of a lifetime”–up to $50,000 in renovations.

Dewees Recreation Center, located in Govans, is the Baltimore community center that received a nomination. Dewees is known for its after school and skill building programs. If selected for the full renovation, the center will receive a much needed and well deserved up-to-date technology center and a community coffeehouse for adult members to hang out and community centers to meet.

“Drops of Good” isn’t forgetting the importance of the remaining seven cities in need of help. Each remaining community center will receive a $5,000 grant.

Through June 8, Americans are asked to visit Maxwell House’s website to read about each community center in the nominated ten cities and vote for their favorite to receive renovations. “Drops of Good” will announce which three community centers were chosen to receive a $50,000 make over, which community centers will receive a $5,000 grant and, as an added bonus, which ten nonprofits will receive surprise grants.

The nomination of Dewees for this project is indicative of two things. First, that Baltimore’s recreation centers are in peril of not being able to provide the kind of programming that communities rely upon. Second, when individuals come together to rally around having quality programming at their rec center, good things can happen. CPHA has been working to get Baltimoreans more engaged with determining the future of the city’s recreation centers. The state of recreation centers is no doubt a citywide issue, and will require folks from around the city getting together to make tough choices about what programming should be where.

Although voting for Dewees on Maxwell House’s website may only be a drop in the bucket on the issue of improving rec centers, it is indeed a “drop for good.”

According to the Baltimore Sun, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis “played a key role in bringing the initiative to Baltimore.” As the vice chairman of the United Athletes Foundation (UAF), which has partnered with Builders of Hope,  Lewis picked his team’s hometown to pilot the rehab program “Bring it Home.”

Builders of Hope will work with the city’s existing Vacants to Value program and has already begun collaborating with the city’s housing agency to find a neighborhood to begin. The group seeks a neighborhood that will make a large impact on the community; a neighborhood “with a good density of vacant housing all within a certain block radius.”

The Sun article reports that the nonprofit has already secured $100 million in a venture fund investment for it’s rehabilitation project and Baltimore is due to receive $30 million of it. The investor whom wishes to remain anonymous has made a five-year commitment to the project. With the help of Lewis, the group homes to raise an additional $15-20 million for the initiative and to invest more into the city. Atlanta is the second city chosen to pilot this project.

The Banner Route, partially provided by the Paul S. Sarbanes’ Transit in Parks Program , hopes to ease the problems caused by “vehicle congestion around America’s parks and other federal land.” Congressman Sarbanes believes that by adding bus service to Fort McHenry Baltimore residents, visitors and tourists will have an easier, less stressful time enjoying the “local historic treasure” and birthplace of America’s national anthem because they won’t have to worry about traffic or parking.

This new route is a clean, environmentally friendly resource connecting Baltimore, the Inner Harbor and Fort McHenry and is expected to begin this June–just in time for the City’s celebrations of the War of 1812 Bicentennial. For more information about events taking place this summer, click here.

The report shows the importance of location as it rates counties across the entire country based on access to health care, rates of premature deaths, and of education and income of individuals. Howard County is the wealthiest county in Maryland, complete with suitable supermarkets and plenty of parks for recreational activities, which explains why it was rated number one in the health report. Baltimore, on the other hand, has a long way to go before developing unfaltering resources resulting in a universally healthy environment.

As reported in an article in the Gazette, Baltimore City is working on one of the biggest contributing factors to poor health in the city–a lack of affordable and convenient supermarkets with fresh produce. Residents living in poorer neighborhoods are relying on corner stores “seeking the largest quantity of calories for the lowest price.” With the launch of the healthy policy action plan, Baltimore can “attack the root causes of the City’s poor health” and develop a lasting solution.

Peter Beilenson, the Health Commissioner of Howard County who used to serve the same position in Baltimore told Gazette.net that the city needs to “develop more livable wage jobs in the poorer socioeconomic neighborhoods. To much is focused on downtown and not in neighborhoods.”

Read more about health factors and determining healthy counties here.

According to the article in the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore Orchard Project will be using the fruit dropped by trees and not used by people to “bring the abundance and the need together.” The west coast has utilized this waste-eliminating, community feeding system longer than the east coast because of higher abundances of fruit trees and longer growing seasons, but Baltimore is now getting in on the act. Currently, BOP’s members are taking an inventory of Baltimore’s municipal spaces and private yards to find available fruit trees; after one month they found 120 trees in 3 locations. If you know of a tree or a location that can be utilized for this project, register it here.

This project also encourages landowners in Baltimore City and Baltimore County to plant fruit trees on their property for the sole purpose of donating their produce. Planting of fruit trees adds beauty to the community; provides shade and adds to the overall tree canopy which reduces greenhouse gasses;  soaks up storm water; and feeds the community while promoting a self-serving market.