Send us ideas," Baltimore mayor-apparent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told businesses.

Here's a radical one: Deliver minimum amounts of cleanliness, safety and service to city companies or keep watching them bug out to the suburbs.

The people in Crossroads Industrial Park don't just perform the equivalent of two or three jobs - the typical lot of the small-business operator. They also have to be cops, detectives, trash haulers, snow plowers, railway repairers, lobbyists and God knows what else to get basic services they pay the city for but don't receive.

"This is a big deal," says David Johns, manager for Bond Distributing, a beer and liquor wholesaler that employs 160 in the Southwest Baltimore park. "You've got a lot of disgruntled business owners."

Taking Rawlings-Blake at her word, I interviewed Crossroads folks to sample the view from Baltimore's real economy - the one far from high-rises and harbor views.

Sure, they want the next mayor to lower taxes and improve schools. But for now, they'd be happy having fewer break-ins, thefts and trash deposits without having to hire private guards.

"We've had vehicles stolen off the lot, and we've had vehicles in our fleet stolen - not just employee vehicles," says Marc Van Camp, chief financial officer for Bindagraphics, whose 120 employees bind books, pamphlets and other printed material. "If we can't do business here, then we're going to have to do what we need to survive - and that might mean leaving the city."

Almost every company in the park has had industrial air conditioners destroyed in the past two years by thieves removing the valuable copper. Maryland Thermoform, which makes plastic containers for food and medicine and employs 60, got hit twice. At $100,000 a pop.

"The small businessman, manufacturer, distributor or retailer doesn't feel like he's wanted here," says company owner Scott MacDonald.

The city and the state need to crack down on scrap dealers who buy stolen material. Dedicate police officers to the problem, Crossroads business operators say.

And do something about the trash! Companies get construction waste dumped on their lots at night. The landscaping on Bernard Drive under Interstate 95 includes a mattress, a TV, a credenza, couches, tires, cartons and garbage bags. A block away is the abandoned boat - the third or fourth one deposited there in four years.

"Someone has targeted us as a great place to dump boats," says Kathryn Holmes, a vice president at K&W; Finishing, a competitor of Bindagraphics' and employer of 50. "How do we get that designation? You dump your boat one time. Nothing happens. You figure out it's a great place to dump your boat."

Van Camp, at Bindagraphics, sent a picture of the latest boat to the city in an e-mail titled, "Ahoy There!" No response.

When customers visit, companies survey the neighborhood to plot the least trashy, least embarrassing route on which to direct them. Or at least the one that's been cleared of snow, most likely by their own hands.

"I'm the guy that plows the entire industrial park," says Bond Distributing's Johns.

Crossroads' newest corporate citizen is Fells Point Wholesale Meats, which plans to move from Monroe Street.

"We got broken into a couple times. Copper's been yanked out [from air conditioning] - $31,000, thank you very much. Illegal dumping. I put a fence up," says Vice President Leo Pruissen, who employs 50. "I'm worried there, I'm telling you. I didn't know this coming in."

That's five companies in the park. And that's more than 400 jobs, largely held by Baltimore residents, paying Baltimore taxes, in a city that has lost 40,000 jobs in the past decade. Every manager/owner likes Baltimore for its central location, but every one also wonders whether he or she has a long-term future in the city.

Some seem willing to give it a go. "Put this relationship down as a marriage. Through counseling, we can work this out," says Bond Distributing's Johns, who said he spent $100,000 repairing rail tracks that are the city's responsibility.

But the companies need reciprocation from their municipal partner, namely Rawlings-Blake. Your Honor-To-Be, they await your visit. If the boats and trash don't get in the way.

Mark Van Camp's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this article. The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.