biking to Hopkins

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What will it take for the city to wake up? I have been biking to this campus for 4 years now and have been repeatedly assaulted. Now when it happens I don't even call the cops. Its no use.
On Aug 3, 2009, at 4:54 PM, JHMedicine wrote:

It has been reported to Corporate Security that staff members have been assaulted off campus while riding their bicycles on East Monument and East Madison streets between the East Baltimore campus and downtown. Groups of juveniles have attacked the staff members and, in one case, attempted to rob the victim. The Baltimore City Police Department has been notified.

Staff members are advised to avoid these areas altogether and are further advised to be extra cautious if they choose to ride their bicycles on or near East Monument Street or East Madison Street.

Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to contact Corporate Security's Communications Center at 410-955-5585 (24 hours/7 days) or the Investigations Unit at 410-955-9140 (weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

All faculty, staff and students are reminded to alert Security Communications immediately (410-955-5585) of any suspicious persons or activity.
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By the way, if you take Hopkins out of the city, there is hardly a reason for people to come and live here. With an already dwindling population, Baltimore will collapse. Does it not then make sense to protect the people who risk their lives to make Hopkins what it is?
What? Baltimore's population is hardly "dwindling", and Baltimore was here long before Hopkins existed or even before John[s] was born for that matter. JHU is hardly a good neighbor in East Baltimore. Nonetheless, that certainly doesn't justify assault and robbery, especially since JHU employees are hardly responsible for what JHU has done on the eastside. But it might go someways to explain the lack of police response. Not that there's really much of a police response to issues in this town that don't involve guns and drugs. I didn't even report a bike theft a few years ago to the police until my insurance co asked for a report. The officer asked, "Why did you wait so long to report this?" I told him I thought it was a waste of their time.
1. Hopkins is the largest employer in the city. Without it, dont expect outsiders to come here 2. the population of the city has fallen below 1 million the last I heard.
Was the population of Baltimore ever over 1 million? Last I heard, the population was going up anyway. We have one of the ten most populated "downtowns" in the country. JHU is a huge employer, but I don't think Baltimore is going to exactly disappear if it were to leave (not that it's ever going to leave). And there are probably some folks on the Eastside that would be glad to see it go -- working in University/Community relations, I can testify to ill-will that exists. But that's besides the point. JHU isn't going anywhere, and neither is Charm City. The problem is that the police aren't acting on information that they are given. The problem is a policing issue, not how necessary JHU is to the life of Baltimore. No one should be made to feel unsafe in an area that the police were notified is a problem. That's just poor policing, IMHO.
you know Universities do disappear when they stop attracting the best brains.
1) There are quite a few universities that don't have "the best brains." By definition, they can't all have the best. And yet they are all open. 2) Do you really think the "best brains" aren't going to come to JHU because of crime? Yale is not exactly surrounded by meadows and sunshine, and parts of Cambridge around Harvard are downright scary. (Yes, I've been to both, recently.) 3) When was the last time a university in the US closed because people were afraid to come near it? If there is such a case, I'd be interested to know about. 4) The JHU "best brains" are largely at the Homewood campus, where crime is not as much of an issue. I certainly AGREE with you that something must be done. But the claim that JHU is going to close and that Baltimore is going to collapse if nothing is done is outrageous.
homewood is crap. people come to baltimore because of the Medical School. and yes JHMI is loosing grad students and postdocs to Boston etc
you have to provide a safe and happy environment for Science and creativity to flourish plus the more people these punks drive out of the city, the less revenue the city generates. simple maths. they are cutting the very hand that feeds them.
JHMI staff, faculty and students may be interested in contacting Elfago Moye, director of JHMI external security, at emoye1 at jhmi dot edu to politely urge him to do everything he can to ensure the safety of staff, faculty and students who commute to JHMI by bike.
well i dont think he will understand. He will say we provide shuttles. Take the shuttles. Why do you have to bike? I dont think he will get the fact that some of us build our cities near the slopes of the Vesuvius.... There is nothing that will stop me from biking. I have seen it all.
"homewood is crap. people come to baltimore because of the Medical School. and yes JHMI is loosing grad students and postdocs to Boston etc" There are [inter]nationally renowned scholars at the Homewood campus who would, no doubt, take offense at that. You said that BALTIMORE was losing its population, not JHMI. If JHMI is losing grad students, there are likely more reasons than only people being assaulted on bikes. You're arguing about a point we agree on: Certainly police/JHU security should DO SOMETHING.
the Homewood campus is ranked 14 nationally. JHMI is ranked 1 as a Hospital and 2 as a medical school. Home wood is in a very nice neighborhood. JHMI is in a BAD area, really really BAD area. On average, one person gets murdered in East Baltimore every day. I have friend and coworkers from the neighborhood who have seen dead bodies on the streets all their lives. We just dont get to hear about it every day. The city has different priorities - bikes have no value at all
You've been assaulted several times? What happened? Presumably this occurred on Monument street. Perhaps there's a different route you can take? I also commute through some sketchy areas, but I haven't been assaulted. Usually cyclists are attacked by children. If you see kids, the best thing to do is to stay away from them. I don't know exactly what route you're taking, but maybe you should stay further south than monument and then access the campus from Broadway or Washington? These streets are a little safer and more populated.
Both Monument and Madison streets. In my experience, Madison is worse because of the houses and the trees that provide space to hide. Anything north and further east to the JHMI campus is pretty much a NO-GO area if you are not from the hood. Right now, on most days I take Monument both to and from the JHMI campus riding on the sidewalks. This is because a good chunck of Mounment has government/ private buildings with cameras (fire dept, BGE, etc) On some days, Monument is inaccessible because kids are out roaming. On these days, I change my route further south to Fells point from Broadway and then from there to Inner Harbor and then N Charles up north. This ofcourse is longer. I hope none of the East Baltimore punks are following this forum....