by FERN SHEN
It was a strange way for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon to spend the evening before her felony theft charges were to go to a Baltimore jury: standing in front of a neighborhood cafe, struggling through a version of The Chicken Dance in the company of an Elvis statue and women dressed up in campy beehive hairdos and pink feather boas, but there she was.
Introduced by Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting to a smattering of boos but mostly cheers, Dixon was there to celebrate the return of the restaurant’s giant pink flamingo. She came to the microphone and, after leading the crowd in The Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance, said a few words connecting the flamingo to neighborhoods and commerce.
“It’s not just the brick and mortar of our neighborhoods, it’s the people” she said, somewhat vaguely. On the other element, the flamingo-as-an-inducement-for-retail-sales, she had more conviction.
”Come in and spend some money!” she shouted with a smile.
In the crowd of about 200 people who came to see Dixon unveil a new-and-improved flamingo (it was a shiny pink fiberglass version) opinions about the flamingo were uniformly positive. On the topic of Dixon, judgments were mixed.
“I support her all the way, I think she’s innocent,” said Doris Wheat, a Hampden resident, juggling a small video camera and a pink plastic flamingo.
(Wheat thought the Cafe Hon was innocent too, of whatever it was the city was trying to charge them with by imposing that fee, prompting the owners to remove the bird. “I cried when they took it down.”)
Doris Wheat, flamingo, and Dixon, fan.
Other flamingo fans, however, were not so happy with Dixon.
“Honestly? I’m very proud of her as a woman and she’s a pretty good mayor, she’s done a lot of good things, but I think she’s guilty as sin,” said Marge Hamilton, another Hampden resident. “They get into a mindset: the more you get, the more you want.”
“Common sense prevails,” Hamilton said. “You see an envelope with no name on it with a bunch of $25 gift cards, you know it’s not for you, really.”
Two Hampden women, two views of Dixon. Which one reflects the prevailing view of the mayor’s jury today we’ll know soon.
