Give Baltimore vacants the Schaefer treatment | READER COMMENTARY

I hope the digital inventory of vacant homes will speed their becoming useful (“Can blockchain help Baltimore with its vacant property problem?,” Dec. 27). Sometimes more direct action works. When Mayor William Donald Schaefer lived in his West Baltimore rowhouse, he took a pad with him in morning rides to City Hall and noted abandoned cars by license plate and location, and after he had attached it to his “Do It Now” memos, the follow-up was efficient. Finally, he came to City Hall and issued a memo with license numbers of abandoned autos without their location, saying he would drive back that evening to check on them. They, and all the other abandoned cars in the city, were removed.

— Stan Heuisler, Baltimore