So I moved into the Abell Community area about 2 months ago. I rent an end unit place with 3 of my friends cause on our own we would not be able to afford anything decent in the city. I had heard horror stories about the previous tenants who were JHU undergrads who apparently used the place as part of the "party circuit." The place was trashed when we first moved in. I mean, they had a fricken beer bong that went from the top of the staircase down, and it was attached to the stairs.

So wanting to make a good impression and ensure the neighbors that we were indeed NOT JHU undergrads whose main purpose in life was to get drunk, I sent out a letter. In the letter I also included that fact that I help to run the Baltimore Free Store.

You see this place came with a garage out back and being an end unit we are right next to an alley way. We had the idea to turn the garage into a Free Store that could be open on the weekends and maybe once during the week. Wanting to get the neighbors feedback on the idea I threw that in the letter to see what they thought.

Overwhelmingly the response was negative. People didn't want traffic down the alley, they didn't want "those kind of people" hanging around, they didn't want "the peace of the neighborhood" disturbed, and so on. Most of their points were valid. They were worried about having items stolen from their back yards thinking that increased traffic would enable people to see stuff in their backyards that they would come back later to steal. Reasonable, so we decided against putting a Free Store in there. Instead we decided to use the garage for storage, which we are doing.

Every Saturday we receive more donations. Sometimes when I feel up to it I put out a couple of tables in front of my house and lay stuff out for free. It doesn't block the sidewalk, its not in front of anyone's property, and it is in front of the house I rent.

So today I was doing just that. We feared a large inflow of donations due to the City Paper article so we wanted to make room. I started at about 10 taking tables out and setting them up in front of my house. Then we started bringing some boxes out, bags of clothes, etc. As I was unloading the first box to display items an obviously tense woman approaches me.

She says "you can't do that." Confused I ask for clarification. She says I am so and so President of the Abell Community Association and "We told you not to do this. You asked us and we told you we did not want you doing this." I said right, I asked everyone about turning the garage into a Free Store, people didn't feel right about it, so we didn't. "Yes you did. The garage is being used for a Free Store and has been used for a Free Store." I say no, it hasn't. We use it to store items. We have volunteers come to help sort items, sort clothes, etc. She says, "That is not what I am hearing. I have people calling me telling me you have all kinds of people coming up and going through things to take them." I say no, they are going through things to sort them. They are volunteers. She then goes on to address the stuff set up out front. She says we can't do that either. I ask her why. She said “because of zoning laws.” I said it is like a yard sale, there are yard sales all over this neighborhood every weekend. I don't think zoning laws play into a yard sale. She says "the Abell Community Association doesn't want you doing this here." She also says that I do it every weekend. Having lived here for 2 months, today would have been the 3rd time I would have set stuff in front of my house. After a few more words, her insistence that she knows what the situation is and that I must be lieing, she walks away.

Ok, so I can't set up 3 tables in front of my house to display things for free. Why? Because the Abell Community Association says so.

I can’t have people in my garage sort through things to organize them. Why? Because the Abell Community Association says so.

So I go back to the garage where volunteers are going through things when this sweaty man in his mid 30's, obviously angry due to the twitching of his face muscles and shaking hands, says "we told you not to do this." Again the conversation continues. However this time it involved some cursing, and a bit more heated of a discussion. His wife stepped in to level things off. Good thing there were sensible women around. The biggest thing pulled from this encounter was when people who would want to get stuff from the Free Store were called "them people", as if they are some alien force.

So anyway. I just wanted to share this experience. This is my first experience living in a "community" that is ruled with an iron fist. I am just waiting for someone to say something about my garbage cans, or that I have my lights on too late at night, or that I shouldn’t sit on my front porch, or something along those lines.

So we will see how things go from here. They threaten to call the police, check on zoning laws, and I don’t know what else. We will continue to use the garage for storage. We have a right to do that. Who knew giving away Free Stuff could make people so angry?

The worst thing was that they were all very condescending, very aggressive, never once asked us what we were doing, they just assumed. Hooray for authoritarian dictatorial community organizations!!!