Regarding Dan Rodricks column, “Reverse Baltimore’s population slide: Promote the tech ecosystem, keep the geniuses here” (May 24), if you really want to keep the geniuses here, start with reducing crime in Baltimore and not just talk about it. You could start with electing mayors who don’t belong in jail, start with police commissioners that don’t belong in jail, start with giving the Inner Harbor back to its citizens and away from the young thugs or criminals (yes, criminals).
Then you could start with not living in a city that can’t keep its computer systems from ransomware, one that routinely issues $40,000 quarterly water bills to a row home owner (and seems to think that’s normal), one that can’t control dirt bikes on its city streets. You could start with reducing the number of vacant houses and again, stop talking about it, and start with an education system that can educate its youth.
You could start with a city that should be valuing its citizens more than illegal immigrants, start with raising standards of the police force and stop worrying about diversity goals and women participation, start with a state’s attorney who will prosecute criminals and wrong doers and not simply slap them on their wrists or let them walk, and start with a local newspaper that doesn’t slant everything hard left. These are all quality of life issue on which the city fails miserably.
Robert J. Stryjewski, Baltimore