Metropolitan Digest

May is the beginning of Ozone Season in the mid-Atlantic, and to mark the occasion BMC sponsored Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 11, and Clean Commute Week from May 21-25. Cyclists gathered at the Inner Harbor's Hard Rock Café for coffee, bagels and good company on their way to work, proving to themselves and others that going to the office doesn't have to mean driving alone. Guest speaker and cyclist Parker Williams, State Highway Administrator, provided inspiring comments.

For the third year, citizens across the Baltimore region helped clean the air during the annual Clean Commute Week, May 21-25. During that week, participants tried an alternative commute on at least one day. Alternative commutes can include any means of getting to work besides driving alone-for example, taking transit, carpooling, or teleworking.

If you missed Clean Commute Week 2001, it's still not too late. You can join the Clean Commuter Club, sponsored by the American Lung Association and the Maryland Department of the Environment. Help clean the air while enjoying discounts at area retail stores. Check out www.lungusa.org/maryland/ for more information.

On Sunday, June 10, BMC staff joined with volunteers from the Patapsco Back River Tributary Team and other organizations for the third annual Secchi Dip-In. Participants dipped an 8-inch black and white Secchi disk into the water at a number of key sites around Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and the Patapsco and Back River watersheds. The depth at which the disk disappeared provided a measure of the transparency and quality of the water. The Chesapeake Bay Trust provided financial support for the activity.

Preliminary readings indicate that the water was clearer this year than in 2000. The Baltimore City Department of Public Works is preparing a final report on this year's Secchi Dip-In.

More than two-thirds of the region's residents obtain their drinking water from Baltimore City's municipal reservoir system.

Through CrimeSmart, a project funded by a Byrne Grant from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council provided six law enforcement agencies with high-tech tools to fight crime. Each participating agency received customized crime mapping and analysis software, a computer and printer, installation, training, technical support and a local computerized base-map. The SLAM, or Street Level Activity Mapping, software that was provided to participating law enforcement agencies was developed by BMC in cooperation with the Baltimore County Police Department.

Representatives of the Howard County, Laurel and Westminster Police Departments and the Bel Air Barracks of the Maryland State Police, who provide law enforcement in Harford County, received training at the Howard County Police Department's Southern District facility in early June. Members of the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office and Salisbury Barracks of the Maryland State Police were trained in Salisbury in July. Training included both the use of crime mapping and crime analysis.