Councilwoman Odette Ramos discusses housing in Baltimore and I.C.E. terrorizing local communities

We always discuss housing and urban development with Councilwoman Odette Ramos but when the I.C.E. folks are randomly targeting Latinos and Trump has taken over Washington D.C. with force, you can expect the only elected Latina in Baltimore City to have a lot of questions for masked federal agents terrorizing our local communities and citizens of color.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos discussed her efforts to address housing issues and ICE’s impact on Baltimore’s Latino community. She highlighted the success of the group violence reduction strategy in reducing the homicide rate and the importance of addressing vacant properties through the in REM process. Ramos emphasized the need for a vacancy tax on vacant lots and buildings to incentivize rehabilitation. She also announced the Baltimore Book Festival, set for September 12-14 in Waverly, to promote local literature and community engagement. Ramos criticized ICE’s racial profiling and lack of transparency, advocating for legislative action to protect residents.

• [ ] Continue fighting against ICE’s tactics and protect the immigrant and Latino communities in Baltimore.
• [ ] Expand the in rem foreclosure process to include vacant lots and implement a vacancy tax to incentivize property owners to address blight.
• [ ] Promote the Baltimore Book Festival in Waverly on September 12-14.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos’ Introduction and Background

• Nestor Aparicio introduces Odette Ramos, a member of the Baltimore City Council, and mentions their current location in Ocean City, Maryland.
• Odette Ramos discusses her involvement in networking with colleagues from other parts of the state and her participation in diversity, equity, and inclusion sessions.
• Nestor Aparicio expresses confusion over the current political climate and mentions the president’s stance on diversity and inclusion.
• Odette Ramos highlights the importance of continuing to comply with state values despite the federal administration’s actions.

Discussion on ICE and Immigration Issues

• Odette Ramos shares her experience at a session where the Baltimore ICE Director was present, discussing threats to the Latino community.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the one-sided nature of the immigration session, which focused solely on ICE’s actions without addressing community protection measures.
• Odette Ramos confronts the ICE Director about racial profiling and the separation of families, emphasizing the need for legislation to protect residents.
• The conversation touches on the lack of body cameras and identification for ICE agents, leading to frustration and the need for state intervention.

Challenges and Frustrations with ICE

• Odette Ramos describes the frustration of not being able to discuss legislation during the session and the need for a balanced discussion.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the broader implications of ICE’s actions, including the impact on American citizens and the need for due process rights.
• Odette Ramos shares her experience of confronting the ICE Director and the lack of response from her.
• The conversation highlights the ongoing efforts to protect the immigrant and Latino communities and the importance of community resistance.

Legal and Political Strategies

• Odette Ramos discusses the legal strategies being employed to address ICE’s actions, including the potential for legislation and community resistance.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the challenges faced by residents in Washington, D.C., and the need for support from Baltimore.
• Odette Ramos emphasizes the importance of community involvement and the role of local leaders in protecting residents’ rights.
• The conversation shifts to the broader political climate and the impact of federal policies on local communities.

Housing and Community Development

• Odette Ramos discusses her district, which includes Johns Hopkins, Remington, Hamden, and other neighborhoods, and her role as the first Hispanic/Latina elected official in Baltimore City.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the challenges and successes of community development, including the importance of housing and addressing vacant properties.
• Odette Ramos highlights the success of the group violence reduction strategy and the impact of alternative solutions on reducing the homicide rate.
• The conversation touches on the importance of addressing the root causes of violence and the role of community engagement in achieving long-term success.

Addressing Vacant and Abandoned Properties

• Odette Ramos discusses the efforts to address vacant and abandoned properties, including the use of the in REM process and the importance of strategic rehabilitation.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the challenges of identifying properties that need to be torn down versus those that can be rehabilitated.
• Odette Ramos shares her experience with a test block in her district and the success of rehabilitating homes through community involvement.
• The conversation highlights the importance of community engagement and the role of local leaders in achieving long-term success in community development.

Tax Incentives and Vacancy Taxes

• Odette Ramos discusses the introduction of a vacancy tax for vacant buildings and the potential for a vacancy tax for vacant lots.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the challenges of addressing tax issues related to vacant properties and the need for additional legislation.
• Odette Ramos highlights the importance of using tax codes to change behavior and the potential for increasing tax rates to incentivize property rehabilitation.
• The conversation touches on the broader implications of tax policy on community development and the need for strategic planning.

Baltimore Book Festival

• Odette Ramos announces the upcoming Baltimore Book Festival, which will take place in Waverly from September 12 to 14.
• Nestor Aparicio shares his personal story about the challenges of promoting his book at a Ravens convention and the broader implications for literacy and community engagement.
• Odette Ramos emphasizes the importance of the Baltimore Book Festival in promoting literacy and community engagement.
• The conversation highlights the role of local leaders and community organizations in supporting literacy and cultural events.

Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos discuss the importance of community engagement and the role of local leaders in addressing social and economic challenges.
• Odette Ramos shares her gratitude for being part of the solution in Baltimore and her commitment to representing her district.
• The conversation touches on the broader implications of local and national policies on community development and the need for continued advocacy.
• Nestor Aparicio and Odette Ramos express their commitment to working together to address the challenges facing Baltimore and its residents.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

housing issues, Baltimore City Council, ICE terrorizing, diversity equity inclusion, immigration session, racial profiling, vacant properties, in REM process, group violence reduction, Baltimore Book Festival, community engagement, local authors, tax incentives, city government, Latino community.

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio, Odette Ramos

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We’re positively down here in Ocean City, Maryland. We’re doing all for the Maryland lottery, our friends at curio wellness as well as GBMC. We’re out on the road doing our 27 favorite things to eat in 27 days. I actually have one of them back here right now. Odette Ramos is here from Baltimore City Council, and she said, What? What are you doing eating this coconut pie I can’t continue to eat because I’ll be spitting coconut at you. But this is the death by coconut. It’s what? It’s death by coconut from the ugly pie at in Salisbury, Maryland. That’s number 21 or 22 on the list, but I’m getting back to Baltimore to eat. That’s good. You dragged me to a vegan crab cake at my cousin John shields this place. How are things good to see you down here again? It’s good to see you. Council people do down here in regard to moving around, because you’re the third city councilman, Councilwoman I’ve had on, but I had some of your your cohorts on, yeah,

Odette Ramos  01:05

absolutely. So we do lots of things here. We network with our colleagues from other parts of the state who be able to share ideas. We participate in sessions. I spoke at a diversity equity inclusion session yesterday.

Nestor Aparicio  01:21

Such a thing still exists.

01:23

Yes,

Nestor Aparicio  01:26

yes, I am wildly confused by a president who’s at war with everyone who looks like us and every

Odette Ramos  01:35

That’s right, and so what we well yesterday was very interesting day here. So I was able to speak with the diversity, equity, inclusion directors across the state, and they, you know, it was, it was a good discussion around, what are the things that they still want to be able to do and are still doing. And so we’re a state that is, you know, not going to back down and going to continue to do what we are supposed to do, to comply and to with our values, you know, not necessarily with what’s his name, but with with our values as a state. And so it was a good discussion. And there were, there were three, there’s been three diversity equity inclusion sessions here at Mako. So there was a diversity caucus, there was a session Wednesday, and then yesterday’s session. So that’s good that the conference is really having those kinds of discussions yesterday, also, though the Baltimore ICE Director was here and at a session talking about threatening you in any way, well, I confronted her directly, and it was they didn’t have their agents here to come and get all the Latinos. What

Nestor Aparicio  02:40

is control. I hear all these attack confront, dude, you’re putting people like my brother in a in a cage.

Odette Ramos  02:52

So there was a session about immigration, and there was, it was very, very one sided, and

Nestor Aparicio  02:59

one sided from them, from the federal side of the states,

Odette Ramos  03:02

well, I mean, the Maryland Association of Counties, which I am in leadership so well, I’m in the legislative committee. I’m not on the board, but invited the ICE Director of the warden from Harford County Jail, one of the legislators and the National Association of Counties for a panel on, you know, clearing the air is what they called it on immigration. But it was very one sided as to what ice is doing and what can and what they are. It didn’t even say what we can and can’t do. We didn’t even talk about that. There was nobody from the side saying, here’s what you can do to protect your residents, which was very frustrating. I was in the front row. I got to ask the first question, and my question wasn’t a question, it was really just pinning her on the fact that our the ICE agents are racial profiling, because all they’re doing is go roaming around the streets, looking for Latinos, looking for brown people, assuming that each of us are here, you know, and that shouldn’t be here, separating families, you know. It’s really been very, very frustrating. So I talked for about 10 minutes about what you know, and she didn’t, she didn’t answer any questions. She deflected. I had some of my other Latino electeds talk, Mako, I think, did, you know? I think this is a great organization, but they did a really poor job on that session. And so, you know, we will continue to fight and protect our immigrant community and our Latino community, because what’s his name, what he’s trying to do is just really go after anybody that’s not white. And that’s what’s happening. And I told her that,

Nestor Aparicio  04:40

here’s what I don’t I mean all the budgeting and big, beautiful bill I had Johnny Oh on. We’ll talk to Chris Van Hollen later. But who are, who are these people working for ice, and what are their qualifications to be putting masks on without any identification, to round people into unmarked brands? Well, that’s what makes. Thought that’s an essence, right? That’s not an American. And

Odette Ramos  05:03

she lied about that. I mean, the director, director Baker, lied about that because she said there’s no law saying that they can’t wear a mask, so they’re all gonna wear a mask, which is just horrible. Let’s pass a law and, well, yeah, that that’s the state is gonna be working on that, because locals can’t do it just, we’re just don’t have the authority. But that she was also talking about how they’re also all have body cameras, and they’re all identified. And we just said it’s a lie. So anyway, it was, it was really frustrating. I’m glad we were able to have the discussion, but we if it was about legislation, that’s not what happened. So, you know, we came together as Latino elected officials. We’ve been very clear about how to conduct business, you know, moving forward, and that that should have been a session, that we could actually have a discussion and not necessarily have just one side presented. And you know, we’re here to protect our residents. And the greatest strength of our of our state and of our city is our diversity and the people that are here and that make it great. And, you know, to be able to start eliminating a whole section of the population just because of how they look and what language they speak is just abhorrent. It’s just horrible. It’s un American, so and, well, that’s right, it’s

Nestor Aparicio  06:14

unChristian. It’s on so kind. It’s undies. It’s indecent. It’s, I

Odette Ramos  06:19

mean, I’m glad I got a chance to confront her. I’m shocked that I’m not in jail right now. But you know we we have to keep put. We will continue to keep fighting, and we will have whatever it takes. You know our Know Your Rights, trainings, our bystander trainings are, you know, in this how

Nestor Aparicio  06:37

many people are in the room at this it was about 150 people room. There’s no video, no cut. This is just work.

Odette Ramos  06:45

Somebody took a video. There’s video somewhere.

Nestor Aparicio  06:47

Know what you said? Because I’m wondering if that ice person came over to me right now, whatever you said, I’d be uglier. I’d work more blue. I just would,

Odette Ramos  06:57

well, so I work more blue on the air. Well, I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t curse, okay, but I did say that. You know, this is and I also, I also pleaded to her, as a mom, that I think she’s a mom I don’t know, but, and as a as you know, somebody who should have a conscience, I asked her to please stop this and to resist doing this, because it is just un American, unconscionable. And what, you know, I get that she’s just trying to do her job. But this is not the way. This is not the way. They never said anything about going after criminals. They literally said, you know, we’re going after people who don’t have status, well, then they’re taking away all of the legal statuses from everybody in order to then bake people out. But they’re not even they’re going over after Americans. I mean, I carry my birth certificate with me, so it’s like, it’s a really, really horrible, horrible thing. So I mean, I went on and on about a lot of different things, and the mask issue right

Nestor Aparicio  08:00

now, if I got picked up out in front of the plen Plaza by ice here, what would literally thrown into a van, taken off? I’m American. No, you’re not. F you get I mean, I’ve seen the videos of so what would happen is that you would kids out walking his dog and they let his

Odette Ramos  08:13

dog die. What would happen is that you would be detained. You would be detained and you would have to wait until you have a trial, right? It’s not like you get released, and then you come back. You are you would have to wait. So the conditions are, they arrest me. I don’t even have a call to a lawyer. You can call a lawyer, you can call family, but you will not be released. You will not be released. 17 year

Nestor Aparicio  08:34

old kid in Los Angeles, and he goes into a van. What Chris Van Hollen, all the electeds Quay say, went down, they wouldn’t even let you. Were you there that

Odette Ramos  08:44

day? They wouldn’t let anybody in, right? I wasn’t there with them, but I was there with when the senator in Baltimore, right? Yep, when the senator went to El Salvador, the first time, the elected came together to welcome him back, but also to rally in support of what he was trying to do. In that particular case, they just took him, took kilmar, and then they sent them away. There were, there weren’t the due process rights. Since that time, when the Senator has been calling for due process rights, they at least detained. Well, you have to be detained, then you get a hearing, and then you’re, you know, sent away. So it’s, you know, there’s a pastor from the Eastern Shore who has done nothing. He’s been a upstanding citizen, for a really citizen. He’s been an upstanding resident for a really long time in in the eastern shore. He’s got a family been contributing to the community, huge congregation. They picked him up like, what is going on here? And so it’s, it’s we’re just going to continue the battle. And if we have to continue in here, we have to continue have to continue

Nestor Aparicio  09:43

in here. What do you think of the DC thing? Because the whole idea of them not having a governor, that not having representation in that way makes it Yeah. I mean, if I’m a DC wreck, if I’m a DC resident right now, there’s a whole different level. A concern I would have for what my rights would be when Donald Trump is looking to usurp my rights and I don’t, and there’s no middle ground of getting picked up on the streets in DC. Yeah, where? What happens then?

Odette Ramos  10:16

Yeah, well, you saw somebody threw a sandwich at one of the guys and is now being charged with a felony, so he is going to try to do some martial law stuff there, and I think that residents are organizing to resist, which is the right thing to do. Mayor Bowser is doing exactly what she can. They’ve just got DC is just this, unfortunately, weird status where the federal government has a lot more say. Now, if they came into Baltimore, first of all, they’re not going to go very far, right, because this is Baltimore City. We defend our city to the max, and so we it’ll be very interesting to see what happens if they do come into the city. But we’re prepared if they do. We’ve got a great legal team. We have.

Nestor Aparicio  10:58

He should keep our city out of his mouth. He

Odette Ramos  11:01

needs to. He needs to, especially since everything that we’re doing is going in the right direction, and he is just, you know, telling lies about our city. So anyway, I think DC is in a tough spot, but you know, we have their back. Whatever Mayor Bowser needs, whatever the residents need, I think that you know, as residents, you know, we’re not in DC, but, you know, very close. I think it’s very important that we come together. So, yeah, it’s a lot, and this is unfortunate, because this whole issue around our residents and ice, it’s really a horrible issue. But we also still have to still do the day to day business of city government

Nestor Aparicio  11:40

sat down. I didn’t know we were going into the ice lane to get me all fired up. Ramos is here, Councilwoman from Baltimore City representing, when I say districts, I had mark on I said district form like, okay, that’s north. So I go district by district, but you’re basically, you know, Johns Hopkins area, center, center, center of the city. I’m trying to get your board

Odette Ramos  12:01

of. I mean, I’m, I’m from, I’m got sort of North Central, so from basically Falls Road to Clifton Park. So I’ve got Johns, Hopkins and Remington and Hamden. But I also have great neighborhoods, like edner Gardens, Lake Montebello. Montebello, you’re that far east? Oh, yeah, yeah. I have Lake Montebello Coco’s,

Nestor Aparicio  12:20

though, no, that’s Ryan, Yeah,

Odette Ramos  12:24

but you’re I have parts of Morgan State University. I have, you know, so my district is, you have the y Memorial Stadium, I sure do. Yeah. So, John, it’s a great, it’s a great district. Also being the first Hispanic, Latin a elected official in Baltimore City. I also answer to, and want to give voice to a whole city wide contingent you know, of our of our community, and of our Latino community. So

Nestor Aparicio  12:51

FCC owner, in the history of the state, I’m the only Latino host that’s been on the radio 35

Speaker 1  12:57

years, still the first and people you know, I thought I was white for a long, long

Nestor Aparicio  13:01

time. I’m not white. No, no, I’m just not. I mean, I’m just not. I thought I could sort of fit in and be white, but I’m

Odette Ramos  13:08

not white. Yeah, no, I can’t. I can’t do it. And

Nestor Aparicio  13:12

it’s not because I don’t want to be white. It’s because I’m not, you know, it’s just I was raised in that way, and really, the last 10 years have shown me this animus of racism that has been below the surface in a way that I have not fully respected since Archie Bunker, like literally, no.

Odette Ramos  13:33

I mean, it’s, I think these are times where we all want to be very proud of who we are and want to make sure that people know who we are, toilet paper to yourself. Oh, I know who’s horrible. This is we were in Puerto Rico recently

Nestor Aparicio  13:46

and Saturday, except it was real, this

Odette Ramos  13:49

great mural of of that situation right in the middle of city, and, you know, with political commentary on it. And so it’s it, you know, our act of resistance, in terms of Baltimore City, is obviously getting involved with all the rallies and anything that we can do. But also, you know, because what’s his name, you know, continues to think that we’re doing something terrible. You know, our city is actually, you know, we double down on how amazing our diversity is we can love whoever you want to love in our city. We’re going to protect our immigrants and so making sure that we’re doubling down on on being involved with our city and making it the example of how every other city can be successful by celebrating our

Nestor Aparicio  14:39

diversity. Well, give me the postcard or debt on because I’m trying to get Brandon over here and I haven’t he’s doing what he’s doing, what has changed since you and I did this together five years ago, where the murder just the murder rate alone, not car yeah. I mean, I saw Ivan Bates talking about young people and problems and holding parents accountable. I’m fine. I’m good for that. Um. Um, but what has fundamentally changed that someone in Bel Air Westminster or Hereford who says, I ain’t going back to the city and like all of that, and even thinking We’re faking the numbers of murder, you know, like, oh, there’s they’re not reporting. To cry. I was in a place the other day. They’re not reporting crime, it’s house, and there’s a lot more crime, it’s house, and they’re reporting. And I’m like, shit you people believe you know, I don’t. I don’t know. Like, there’s,

Odette Ramos  15:24

it’s ridiculous. I mean, I think part of some of what we’re seeing in terms of attacks on our city is is blatant racism, because he is a black mayor, but mayor Scott has done a great job on reducing the homicide rate and crime, not through policing. Okay, we have really done a great job of investing in alternative solutions, like the group violence reduction strategy, where you basically figure out who’s doing, which groups are doing the violence. We’re going to them and saying, okay, man, you got a choice. You we will put you in jail, or we can give you all the resources you need to get out of that life. Okay? Housing, job opportunities. We will give that to you with the promise that you will not be in this life anymore. And people are taking that up and actually doing it. And we the violence interrupters at safe streets. It’s absolutely working, because a lot of the murder rate was really about interpersonal conflict. So it’s about teaching people you can have a conflict, but you don’t have to shoot each other for it. So this is these

Nestor Aparicio  16:27

were not random, random acts of violence. Are carjackings and to strangers. These murders were not

Odette Ramos  16:35

very much interpersonal, but for the most

Nestor Aparicio  16:37

targeted and they were vengeance. Yeah,

Odette Ramos  16:40

yeah. Okay, so, so I think we’ve done a good job. You know, we’re still got work to do, right? I mean, it’s not perfect. There’s a lot of guns I had. Well, I had a quadruple shooting in my district in May, in March, so we do have some. But, I mean, I think, I think, in general, we’re moving in the right direction. Everybody’s moving in this direction to really think through how we can do this differently to get to the root causes of why even people are in this, you know, in this situation. So, so that’s what. It was very intentional. It wasn’t accidental, like it was a trend. This was very intentional work that we’ve done. And so, you know, I credit the mayor for his vision on that. And you believe in that

Nestor Aparicio  17:19

from the beginning, were

Odette Ramos  17:19

there? Yeah, I was always something, is what I Yeah, no, I was always a big fan. I was on the Public Safety Committee last term, and I know that we had a lot of these discussions, and there wasn’t always belief that it would work, but I’ve always been a big fan of this approach, and it’s definitely working now, you know, there’s still a lot more work to do we, you know, obviously, with the death of the three firefighters in 2022 that really sparked more emphasis around addressing vacant and abandoned properties, even though there were those of us who have been yelling about it for about 30 years and coming up with policies about how to address it. But I think the housing person, yeah, I appreciate it. But how I, because I think housing is really the basis for everything. I mean, you can’t be healthy unless you have housing. You can’t if you, you know, we saw with the overdose thing a few weeks ago that we had to search all these vacant properties to make sure nobody was in there overdosing. We had, you know, there’s health issues. I mean, it’s, we’ve got to address this problem. And so at least that there’s, you know, the governor’s behind the strategy, the mayor be putting more money to it. I don’t always agree with how the approach is going, but I’m part of the that work getting the right tools in place. So we’re making progress there. For sure, we’re going in the right direction. And at least everybody’s got the same goal. You know, we’re trying to reduce the number of vacant and abandoned properties, not by just leveling the entire city. Why would we do that? I mean, these nobody makes houses like that anymore. They’re still standing, even though they’re falling apart, because the bones are really good. So let’s rehab them so we can get more families in there. And that’s what we want to do,

Nestor Aparicio  18:59

rehabbing these homes. How many these homes have lead paint, asbestos, like, what

Odette Ramos  19:04

buildings? No question. So it does. It is expensive, but it is so worth it to have such an amazing, amazing house. Wow. At the end, my

Nestor Aparicio  19:12

wife and I, for the first time last week, she went down Lombard and saw the community college just gone next to the Holocaust Florida Park, right? And she looked, and I said, this is what Detroit looked like when they came in and started sort of like greening it a little bit. It’s just a whole block of grass, and that’s probably a whole lot better than a block of blight, but somewhere in between. Well, that’s why I was asking you, what blight or why would look at and say that place falling apart? Yeah, not just rats, but just maybe it should be raised and reconstructed. But I’m not in that world, and certainly not in that world where you are, where there’s blocks and blocks and blocks and say, we can. Knock them all down, right? But you’ve, you’ve got soup to nuts, stories, successes and probably failures in both lines of work to say, well, that one, we did a good job. That one’s still in progress. That’s an empty lot. But I think the Blight itself taking that away is its own broken window thing for me, you know, just driving and seeing grass, but that building wasn’t falling apart. The community college building didn’t look like maybe it was on the inside. Yeah, obviously it was, but it that wasn’t a city blight, but it is now a city parks,

Odette Ramos  20:30

yeah? Well, I actually don’t use the word blight. I think everything that we’re seeing is actually opportunity. It’s an opportunity for a family to be in that house, whether it’s a brand new construction or it’s, you know, rehabbing that house that it’s an opportunity.

Nestor Aparicio  20:43

But do we know the difference between things that need to be torn down and face? No,

Odette Ramos  20:48

we’ve got, we’ve been working on the DHCD has a roof study. So they did initially a roof study to see what’s actually, you know, unsafe. And so we took us a few houses down as a result. But we’re not going to take everything down. I mean, we have a block in my district, the 1600 block, of course, such beautiful homes, all of them vacant. You have a lot of that. And they but we, we foreclosed on all, most of them through the in rem, I N REM process that I helped to bring to Baltimore, where, when the liens get higher than the value of the property, the city the assessed value, the city can foreclose. So that was our test block. We acquired the whole thing, and instead of demolishing the whole thing, because those are beautiful houses, we have a developer from the community that’s doing house by house. There’s a couple of them that were owned by private owners that they actually rehabbed the houses. So we’re going to have a whole new block of families there, and it’s going to rejuvenate everything on the rest of the street. And with all the other work being done in that neighborhood, I mean, we can do it. We’ve got the tools. And I’ve introduced recently another bill to expand the in rem process, and we’ve got, you know, some other things lined up. So, you know, it’s not about just mowing our entire city down. It’s about making sure that we’re doing it strategically, but also that we put in the dollars to make sure that these houses and with those there’s a new homeowner there on that block, and she knows the promise of the rest of the block, and she is really happy with that rehab, and she’s working with the community on the rest of the block. I mean, it’s great. So this work is hard because it’s block by block and house by house, right? But if we do a whole block around the same time, you really see that impact, and it makes a big difference. So we’re going to continue to do it that way. The in REM process has been super lightning fast. I mean, it used to take two years to acquire a property. Now it’s taking six months. And that’s sure, in REM is the Latin for the thing, and it’s basically the when the unpaid taxes get higher than the assessed value of the property, the city can take it to foreclosure, and we have a dedicated docket in the circuit court so that there’s all these cases are going through. It’s designed to be quick and extinguish the liens at the end of the process, so that the city can take possession and then work on figuring out the next steps for that house and city asset literally, right? It does, and that way we but we don’t have to auction it off to another owner. We can, unlike other processes that we have, we can keep that whole block and then work, you know, with the community on the outcome that they want to see, and with the goals that we need for our city. We want to grow our city’s population, but we need housing to do it, right? I mean, we need everything. You know, by housing is part of it, like we talk about bringing people in, but we need the housing people actually want to move into Baltimore. But despite what Fox News says, people want to move here, and we need to make sure that we

Nestor Aparicio  23:55

have the Megan McCorkle, and she tells me that all the time, Odette Ramos is here. She’s councilman. My time is short, I had Zach by yesterday, we were talking about sort of that big hole where the mechanic is, and the tax situation in these big holes in the ground where Mr. Big owns something and just says, I’m not dealing with it. I’ll pay the 10 cents in taxes. Let it be, I’ll use the word blight. You don’t like it, but let it be a hole in the ground. You know, I don’t care. I’m a billion. I’m Mr. Big, or it’s just not at the top of my list of things to deal with as a company, harbor place became that for that bankrupt company from out of town, right? So what’s being done tax wise for that to make sure that holes are exactly explained it to me, but I wanted to ask you a little

Odette Ramos  24:40

bit more about it, sure. So we currently, we passed a bill last term that adds a tax to vacant buildings, and so that we would tax vacant buildings three and then again four times the tax rate, so that it would be an incentive for somebody to do something with it. Yeah, nobody’s going to pay it, but it does get houses up to be able to be eligible for in REM so that we can foreclose. So I have a bill coming that Councilman Blanchard helped me with to add the vacancy tax to vacant lots. And so that’s what we’re doing, is we’re adding the tax to vacant lots. So the vacant lots, it’s coming out on Monday, the legislation will be taxed four times the tax rate. And again, the idea, to some degree, if you’re not, I mean, if you’re not doing anything with to do, you need to pay this tax. Now, again, this is, I don’t expect that we’re going to get revenue from this, but what I really want to do is to pressure either people to do something, you know, because you can use the tax code to change behavior, so that’s part of it. But also, if they’re not, then that we can foreclose, we can either do in REM, what I call in REM one, which is what I explained to you. I have another bill that we just introduced to add the foreclosure process to when properties have the and they’re blight. Excuse me, they’re vacant. Vacant lots are vacant properties when the liens are below the value of the property, we can still foreclose. So we’re going to put all those tools in place to be able to do what we need to do strategically. The mechanic is, is tough one, and I know that’s something that Councilman Blanchard really wants to work on. So we’re the vacancy tax that we’re about to introduce will will help in that regard. He’s also interested in what’s called a split value tax, or a land value tax, where you could sort of flips, flip the script on, you know, taxing land more than you tax properties. Jury’s still out on how that’s all going to work. If it works, the general assembly needs to take action for us to even have authority to do it, but we’re using the authority that the General Assembly already gave us to be able to add these taxes. We may go up to, you know, 10% 10 times more than the tax rate at some point, but we’re going to start with

Nestor Aparicio  26:51

this four anything else you’re excited about? We’ve done a lot of complaining and fixing problems here. Is there any PR you want to do? Odette,

Odette Ramos  26:59

actually, yes. So we I am so grateful to be in Baltimore and be a part of the solution in Baltimore, but also to represent my district. I represent 18 bookstores, and so the mayor’s office agreed two years ago to move the Baltimore book festival to Waverly. That’s right. Baltimore Book Festival is coming up September 12, 13th and 14th, same footprint as last year. So on 30th in front of Peabody heights, 31st street in front of normals bookstore, and 32nd street in front of red Emma’s along with the market and everything in between,

Nestor Aparicio  27:44

the smile of a four time Author of books. Yes,

Odette Ramos  27:48

we are great. We’re a city that loves books. We produce amazing writers. We produce amazing art, obviously. So I’m just so happy to host the Baltimore Book Festival, and I want everybody to come. It will be a great three days of what today’s. We got dates on this, yeah, September 12, 13th and 14th. I’m in town. Okay. So, yeah, there’ll be author talks at each of the bookstores. There will be vendors. There will be city lit project is also a partner, so they’re going to have a tent, and red Emma has a tent, and then we’ll have a children’s tent, and it’s really going to be great. It was great last year. We’re perfecting how the layout looks in Waverly. So I want everybody to come out and enjoy learn about some local authors and some national authors. There’ll be workshops on writing, there’ll be poetry readings, there’ll be, you know, everything in between. And we also have the book thing will be open that weekend, so you can pick up some books. We can drop off some books over to the book thing that you’ve already finished reading. So it’ll be really great. So we hope everybody comes to Waverly for the book festival.

Nestor Aparicio  28:58

Well, it’s two Latinos. You’re one of us, actually bilingual. I want to tell you my book story that I knew that the country was falling apart. You ready? And it happened about 12 blocks away from here. Okay, where we’re sitting? Okay, 2013 ravens went to Super Bowl, right? And in February, and I, I took 100 days and stopped. I didn’t watch any hockey. I didn’t I didn’t talk to my wife, I didn’t go to concerts. I wrote Purple Rain two and I labored hard to have it ready to go for Father’s Day, which is in June, to be delivered. And Father’s Day week, always second week of June, the Ravens have their convention down here. So I had Brian Billick. I had books behind me, stacks and boxes of books in a thing like this. I paid the Ravens roost people $500 for like a table at the convention. They had a castle in the sand 28 street. So we’re 38 911, blocks away. So I’m there, and I got my book out, and my book ain’t got any pictures, it’s all words. Lots of words, and it’s about this big, and it was 400 and some pages, and there were 15,000 Ravens fans, hardcore paint your basement purple. I wrote a book third person, telling all of the stories and their words. Of the most significant thing that ever happened to Ravens fans, these people all are spending 1000 2000 bucks to be down here. They walked by. They looked at my book. They did not balk at the $20 price. They balked at the fact that it was a book. And I cannot tell you how many people I think I sold 40 books. I don’t think I made the $500 back, but I sat there all day, and the thing that I remember about that day, so we’re talking early, mid 13, middle of the summer, 13. I don’t read new books. I don’t read new books. I read new books. And I didn’t read books in high school. And I thought, This is how Donald Trump gets elected. We don’t read new books. So that’s my it’s been 12 and a half years ago now that I felt like the world was coming to an end when there’s this proud aer, you know, sitting there at my own little book festival for nothing but Ravens fans writing a Ravens book, I found out that 99% of the population there hasn’t read a book in so long that that a book fair and a book festival is so necessary in this country.

Odette Ramos  31:30

Yeah, it really is, especially that, you know, people are getting, like, the audio books and all that, and that’s all fine. It’s all fine. But, yeah, baby. But you know, there’s nothing like, you know, reading an actual book. And so Baltimore is still, still the place to do that. And Baltimore Book Festival, district 14, Waverly, September 12 through the 14th.

Nestor Aparicio  31:53

Secretary of Labor’s around a corner. I couldn’t see you when I had my reading glasses I could hear I love you. Debt. How’s John? Good? Everybody’s good. I’ve known her husband longer than her All right. Thank you for your service. I always say that like you’re out on the flat and if I couldn’t get into the face of the ice woman yesterday,

32:15

bless you. I did.

Nestor Aparicio  32:18

I am Nestor. We are wnst am 1570 Taos in Baltimore, back from the beach. We’re going to have labor. I’m not in labor, but I’m a part of labor. I’m laboring different labor, different kind of labor. Stay with us. You.