THE DAN RODRICKS COLUMN/KIM MARTIN'S FAREWELL LETTER TO BALTIMORE CITY

The following is an excerpt from Kim Martin's:

" Farewell to Baltimore city"

"It's as if there's been some weird turn." Three weeks after moving into Charles Village "I woke up on Sunday morning at 6 a.m. to discover a man in my back bedroom stealing my computer and camera. That shook us up pretty good, but we decided to batten down the hatches (bar the windows, install the alarm system) and try to make a go of it. The winter passed fairly uneventfully except for the rats, and used condoms and needles I constantly find outside my back gate.

About a month ago I heard screaming at the back window and opened it up to witness a man stabbing a woman in broad daylight. I screamed at him to stop, called 911 and ran down to help her. I have never seen anything like this in my life and have lived in a variety of urban settings, including Miami, D.C.. and New York City.

Two weeks later we came home from Target across 28th Street to find it blocked by fire engines, ambos, and police cars. That was the scene of the fatal shooting of a cab driver.

(Martin says the city has issued her a series of parking and other citations, one of them for putting her trash out too early)

"Between the overzealous regulation of minor offenses by citizens you should be happy to have in your city and the criminal activity that is completely out of control, we have no choice" "I am not naive, nor paranoid. Just a single working mom hoping my daugher is not touched by the violence that is overwhelming this town."

Please try to understand what life is like here for the average citizen in your pursuit of the mayoral office this fall. If nothing changes, I can't see why anyone would want to stick around to see what happens next."

(My comment. Kim is one of the lucky ones.  I also hope I can get out before it's too late)