It all started when David Bramble called the City of Baltimore about the junk piling up in the vacant lot next door. That was back in 1998. He got no response. Bramble called a few more times. Nothing.

"In the last four years I've called the City over a hundred times and all I get is the run around," says Bramble, a retired carpenter who suffered a stroke in October.

Across the alley from Bramble's house on Gorsuch Avenue, Etta Henderson's row home has come under attack from rats.

"They come from that lot over there," says Henderson as she sits in her tiny but immaculate backyard, pointing to the pile of junk across the alley. "The rats use my yard for the bathroom, they even tried to dig through the wall into my kitchen."

Henderson estimates that junk has been piling up in the lot for about ten years. Neighborhood residents aren't exactly sure who owns the property.

"Mustafah sold it to Jimmy Johnson, I think, but the lawyers never gave him the title," says Bramble. In 1989, Johnson reportedly cleaned up the lot somewhat, then parked an old truck and heavy paving equipment on the property. Soon trash began piling up again and Johnson, who also owns property down the block, never returned for his truck. It rotted there until the City hauled it away as part of last year's "Big Clean Up" day, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's annual public relations event celebrating municipal trash pickup.

"They said they'd come back to clean up the rest of it, but they never did," reports Bramble.

The Mustafah-Johnson lot isn't the only illegal dumping flashpoint in Baltimore's Waverly neighborhood. Ardent local trash recycler Richard Wills is fed up. He reports that the alley between Carwell and Gorsuch Streets is "so full of trash that you often can't drive your car through it."

Corroborating Wills report, fellow Waverly resident Leroy Hutton says that "the city ignores most of this community when it comes to bulk trash pick-up."

Last Saturday, Bramble and others forced the City to take notice. At noon, 15 residents, several organizers from the local ACORN chapter, and 40 members of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) dragged junk from the Mustafah-Johnson lot onto Gorsuch Avenue, blocking occasional vehicles from passing. Organizers called the Department of Public Works, announced the action as a protest and requested the speedy dispatch of DPW trucks to the scene. After waiting a few minutes for a response from the City, protesters dragged the trash to nearby Harford Road, bringing a steady stream of traffic to a halt on the major four lane thoroughfare.

Chants of "Hey, hey, ho, ho, all this trash has got to go!" met police as they arrived on the scene fifteen minutes later. Officers confronted ACORN organizer Sultan Shakir as the leader of the protest.

"I'm not in charge," said Shakir to a police sargeant. "What's that guy's name who's the head of DPW? George Winfield? He's the one in charge."

As both protesters and police waited for the DPW to arrive, additional squad cars sealed off several blocks of Harford Road on either side of the impromptu roadblock, diverting traffic.

Two members of NEFAC were threatened with arrest as they dragged a couple of tree branches down Gorsuch.

"Take it back, take it back!" yelled three officers as they approached the NEFAC members. The NEFACers stopped, dropped the branches in the street and retreated, pursued by two officers who eventually backed them against a brick wall. Police attention was soon diverted, however, by a half dozen protesters carting an old piano towards the already impressive pile blocking Harford Road. Brief negotiations between Shakir and police allowed activists to wheel the piano into the road in exchange for the immediate break-up of the protest.

Shakir explained to police that "the problem isn't city workers, its city services. People have been asking to get alleys and lots cleaned up for years."

Forty minutes after the protest began, a DPW truck and crew arrived to clear the road. With applause, cheers and expressions of solidarity, protesters joined the DPW crew in removing old tires, rusty iron headboards, bike frames and other debris from the road. Police soon demanded that protesters stop helping and disperse.

DPW director George Winfield arrived shortly after the protest ended. He listened to the complaints of several residents and followed ACORN organizers on a tour of trash strewn alleys and lots. Winfield insisted that the housing department, not DPW, is responsible for cleaning up private property like the Mustafah-Johnson lot.

An ACORN spokesperson says he's heard it all before. "DPW says Housing is responsible and Housing says DPW is responsible." Meanwhile alleys and empty lots become health and environmental hazards. Pressed by ACORN and residents for a commitment to cleaning things up, the DPW Director reportedly demurred. "Winfield is a politician, he won't make specific promises about anything," says the ACORN spokesperson.

The City will, however, be quite specific in painting ACORN as a scofflaw organization worthy of zero tolerance. When the city detective arrived at ACORN offices today, he had more than just a complaint to deliver. He had a message from on high.

"When you throw trash in the street, the Mayor gets involved," commented the detective.