11 Things to Know if you Are New to Downtown Frederick, Maryland

If you are new to the Frederick Maryland area, or just moved to downtown Frederick from further out, here are eleven things you should know about, sign up for, and track.  They will make your life more informed, easier and fun! The first two would be helpful to any Frederick County residents as well.

1.          Alerts     Stay informed of weather issues, street closings, and other notices and emergencies.

• Frederick City Alerts, sign up for NewsFlash: http://cityoffrederick.com/list.aspx?Mode=Subscribe#newsFlash which come to your email under the name of CivicPlus.  
• Alerts for Frederick County (and City) for things like weather and other emergencies at:  https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/list.aspx?Mode=Subscribe#newsFlash

2.          Know Which Nights are for Trash/Recycle/Yard Waste/Move Your Car -    Downtown Frederick has something going on most nights of the week: put your trash & yard waste out, put recycling out or move your car to the other side of the street.  It differs by street. If you live on 3^rd street  I  have a handy calendar that shows you everything on one page. Email me: darcyrichards01@gmail.com and ask for the calendar for your street.  For everyone else:

• For Trash  Collection: https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/420/Residential-Trash 

•  For Recycling: https://www.cityoffrederick.com/239/Recycling    To find your recycle schedule, to to https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/1764/Recycling-Information  and enter your address.

• For Yard Waste: https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/240/Yard-Waste

•  For Moving Your Car - Parking    https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/207/Parking

3.          Snow Removal 

• https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/snow Emergency Routes
• Shoveling Your Sidewalk
• Snow App
•  Snow Removal Maps
• Snow Removal Plan (PDF)   

4.          Neighborhood Advisory Councils - Frederick city Neighborhood Advisory Councils (NACs) are your citizen voice. The city defines a NAC as "a forum for residents to become involved in identifying and recommending positive changes to improve their neighborhoods by enhancing communications with elected officials. It is the goal of the elected officials to work with residents to understand and address the issues that impact the quality of life in neighborhoods."   Most of the heart of downtown is NAC11. But all city residents have a NAC. See NAC map.  Find out where your NAC meets and get to know the facilitators. Get their contact information. Go to the meetings and see what's happening in your neighborhood.  To find your NAC, go to:
https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/316/Neighborhood-Advisory-Council-NAC\

5.          Parking

• Get a residential   parking permit   https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/1345/Residential-Parking

• How to get a Visitor Parking Permit  Visitors Permits – A resident of 3^rd Street may obtain a visitor permit in the form of a hang tag for those times when a guest will be staying and they wish to park their vehicle on the street. The resident may obtain the hang tag in advance of the visitors’ arrival if necessary. The resident will need to visit the Parking Office and present the following: address where vehicle will be parked, tag number of vehicle to be parked and duration of stay. The cost is determined by the street being metered or non-metered All vehicles still need to adhere to the restriction for street sweeping/trash pickup night as posted for each street.   Court Street Parking Garage Office between 8:00 am – 5:00 pm, Monday – Friday. City of Frederick, 2 South Court St, Frederick, MD 21701  800-984-1429

6.          Where to Vote - See the City Website on various types of elections and how to find out how to register to vote and your polling place.  https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/faq.aspx?TID=25     

7.          Know Your Elected Officials  

• Mayor   https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/520/Office-of-the-Mayor
• Board of Aldermen   https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/122/Board-of-Aldermen
• Frederick County Executive   https://frederickcountymd.gov/5931/County-Executive
• Frederick County Council      https://frederickcountymd.gov/591/County-Council       

8.          Frederick Media –

Social Media Here are just a few	Facebook  There are several social media sites specific to Frederick that can be very helpful.  If you are a FaceBook user, check with your neighbors to see if there is a Facebook Page for your street or area. Several examples of "residents only" pages include  Third Street Residents , & Northe Pointe Neighbors,  These pages can be invaluable for information about what is going on on your street: lost cats/dogs, shady characters, furniture giveaways, notices, warnings, etc. All the NACs have a Facebook page.  There is a Frederick Rentals page, Frederick Freebies,  and many more. There is also Nextdoor.com which has several Frederick "neighborhoods" including Downtown Frederick. Nextdoor can provide an overwhelming amount of posts, but you can limit your views.   Feel free to comment below and add your own Frederick social media sites.
Television And Online Broadcasting	Channel 99 - You can See your elected officials in action, find out the outcome of an issue, or just learn what topics are trending in city government.  If you missed a public meeting or vote on an issue, you can see the replay online at Channel 99. https://cityoffrederick.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=2 To see the schedule of meetings on Channel 99, go to: http://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/901/8709/City-Online-Meetings  https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/calendar.aspx?CID=14 To see Archived Videos  go to  https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/901/Public-Meetings
Print Media	Newspaper:  The Frederick News Post is a good source of downtown activities, particularly the Thursday 72 Hours supplement. They have an online version, but the printed one is a lot easier to scan.  https://www.fredericknewspost.com/special/72_hours/  Other good sources are:  Magazines Frederick Magazine  https://www.fredmag.com/  Sass   https://sassmagazine.com

9.          Downtown Events and Activities -  

•  Visit Frederick - Tourism Calendar:  https://www.visitfrederick.org/events/ though this used to be a quick scan list, now it involves scrolling through pages and pages of individual events in large print with Photos/.

•  Celebrate Frederick events are here:  http://www.celebratefrederick.com/calendar-of-events/      

• The events sponsored by the Downtown Partnership can be found on their calendar:  https://downtownfrederick.org/upcoming-events/events/ 

10.     Frederick Farmers Markets  - Frederick is blessed with quite a few farmers markets operating from May through November.  The list on this website is pretty much up to date: http://www.homegrownfrederick.com/farmers-markets  Maryland Farmers Market Directory  https://mda.maryland.gov/maryland_products/Documents/2020-Maryland-Farmers-Market-Directory.pdf 

11.     Report Problems and Code Violations (Anonymously) - If you see something, you can say something. Anonymously if you prefer.  The city handles some  issues such as property violations on a complaint driven basis. Early citizen input is also important on other important problems such as potholes, sewer issues, garbage, traffic lights, vandalism, street lights out, broken windows, sidewalk damage, etc. See the image below for the types of issues you can report.  There are three ways to report problems:  online, by telephone, and via your cell phone app.

• Report a violation online  https://spires.cityoffrederick.com/cof/codeenforcement/codecomplaint/

    or  https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/518/Report-a-Problem \

•  Online from your Cell Phone  

o   To get the iPhone App - go to
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ispires/id862605376?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 

o   To get the Android App - go to
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cityoffrederick.com.ispires 

• Telephone  Code Enforcement https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/157/Code-Enforcement  or call Ph: (301) 600-3825 or Email violations@cityoffrederick.com