If Occupy Baltimore leaves the square: 7 ways to rechannel that energy

“Those suggestions are great! Thanks so much. There has been motion on several of them already, but not enough. Hopefully commentary like this piece will help those not currently involved in OB directly to find other ways to be of service to Baltimore while we’re all so fired up to do something about these pervasive systemic issues.”
– Damien Michael Nichols

“All of those ideas you mention are good ones, and they will all also fall on deaf ears. Why? Because they all require actual work, which most of the Occupiers are loathe to do. It’s much more fun to squat, march, play drums, chant, and hold signs than it is to actually do some real work.”
– Balt Observer

“C’mon, Brew-sters! If you aspire to more than just another lefty-talking-points organ, you have to talk to people you might disagree with, and ask tough questions of erstwhile fellow travelers.”
– James Hunt

“Excellent recommendations, not just for OWS but for any group committed to social justice issues.”
– Nina Therese Kasniunas (via facebook)

“Gandhi occupied–
Emerson occupied–
King occupied–
the spaces denied–
the ideas denied–
the ideals denied–
have been occupied–
by those who dreamed the impractical–
to the consternation of those who preached the practical,
the seekers of the impossible versus–
the banner wavers for the possible–
that is the awakening–
the spring amidst the chaos-
the push against the pull,
and soon the capitulation,
already in Tahrir Square–
the capitulation.

Must you hasten
the drawing of the curtain?”
– Final stanza of poem by Usha Nellore

“I like #2 and #6 [Monitor City Spending and Get Serious about the BDC] personally. The great thing about this list, and with OWS, is that no one has to be a part of ‘the movement’ to [do] any of these things tomorrow.”
– SmileyMyrus

“‘The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.’ – C.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News (1924).”
– James Hunt

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City rejects OB’s bid to stay until April

“Ryan O’Doherty, the spokesperson for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, completely misses what the Occupy Baltimore Movement is all about. They think that they are (1) dealing with the ‘homeless’ among us and (2) those out of work who need jobs. They completely miss that there has been Criminal Injustice on Wall Street and in our Government that led to the Financial Collapse that we all are trying to recover.”
– Raymond D. Bahr MD

“So when is our Mayor going to begin a conversation with Occupy Baltimore? Dispatched edicts are not conversations and fail to allow for compromise, negotiations or exceptions… Did SRB rewite the constitution and neglect to send a press release???”
– Ktrueheart

“I don’t think it’s in the Constitution that the Mayor is required to have a conversation with Occupy Baltimore… She is elected to run the city government.”
– Balt Observer

“Please let me know when she plans to run the part of the city the 99% occupy.”
– Ktrueheart

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Designer cries “fowl” on Orioles’ new bird

“I like the original more so than Vonster’s version. The most glaring change was in adding highlights to the bird’s pupils. In smaller versions and lower resolutions it makes the bird look like he’s holding back tears, or just a bit off mentally.”
– cbroome

“The Vonster makes some good points but… his revised design contains annoying trace elements of Fred Flintstone (incipient five o’clock shadow) and Woody Woodpecker (too lean; the original was big and puffy, like Boog Powell, the genial anti-Ed-die. Which is why we loved him, too.)”
– James Hunt

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Why Baltimore’s new shelter has fewer beds than the old shelter

“Glad that @OccupyBaltimore realizes that Homeless are part of 99% and often are victims of 1% RT.”
– robinbaker55 (from Twitter)

“Thanks for printing both sides. I was there and the city and [shelter operator] JHR did not tell the truth.”
– James Crawford Jr

“Thanks for following this important story BREW!”
– Anonymous

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Crowd gives rec center privatization thumbs-down

“If the city continues to lose population and fail to attract wealth, services should and need to be cut. It makes little sense to have public services meant to serve 750,000+ for a city of 600,000.”
– Baltimoreplaces

“Actually, the # of municipal rec centers has dropped far quicker than the city’s population. In the late 1970s there were about 130 rec centers (we haven’t found an exact count). Currently there are 55 centers. Under the mayor’s plan, there will be about 30 publicly operated centers.”
– baltimorebrew

“Unfortunately, city leaders are unwilling to make cuts to the services that should scale up and down. Population drops should mean we need a smaller police force, yet politicians want to add officers, etc. When the services that should scale up and down with population do not do so equally, then some services will have to bear the brunt harder than others. It looks like rec centers drew the short straw in Baltimore.”
– arturo_bandini

“The issue is not that the city lacks the necessary funds. The city has funded several major development projects over the last few years. The problem is that the city does not value the services provided by these rec centers. In this years budget $8 million dollars was allocated to these rec centers. That is in contrast to the $100 million dollars allocated to the new juvenile detention center.”
– Llee454

“Government may be inefficient, but the non-profit sector will never have the capacity to replace government services. Find me a time in history when slashed government programs have been replaced by non-profit services entirely. It hasn’t happened and it will never happen.”
– Jed Weeks

“We are on the chopping block. The city wants to build 4 huge state-of-the-art facilities (a la Montgomery County – the richest in the nation), at the expense of the rest of the kids in the city. 4 big fat money pits that won’t have nearly the outreach because, unlike Montgomery County, Baltimore is a poor city with kids who need to have easy access (walkable) to these centers.”
– Genny Dill

“I wonder how many of the attendees at this meeting voted for Stephanie Blake for mayor?”
– UpperFells

“When the youth wake up and turn their guns on the politicians and the police, they’ll wish they had kept the rec centers open.”
– David Anthony Wiggins (via facebook)

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Conaway v. Meister (again)

“And to blame the investigation on Conaway being black and the states attorney being Jewish is pathetic, and part of the “blame someone else” culture that seems to permeate the Baltimore black community. Meister is also an idiot for provoking this.”
– Pat

“Love the hat. Reminds me of Huggie Bear.”
– Devil’s Advocate

“Now if this was Frank Conaway the bus driver….”
– Edfitz

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BDC ditches developer, will rebid Parkway Theatre at Station North

“This is a perfect example of the process of city decay. The landowner lets a property deteriorate because doing that costs less than investing in it. Then the city goes through a protracted process to acquire it while it deteriorates further, and an even longer process to award it to someone else. Baltimore needs a land tax, so that disinvestment costs more than investment, and to instill landowners with a sense of urgency and responsibility. If they sit on a vacant building, they will pay dearly.”
– Gerald Neily

“I could see this working strategically in Baltimore with properties like this, but doesn’t the city already city on 10,000+ vacant houses that they haven’t been able to flip to private investment? Is the fear there that the city would have to city/maintain thousands of more properties without any additional funds to do so with that model, seeing as the market for housing in many Bmore neighborhoods is poor?”
– Gman

“For current landowners, a relatively higher tax on vacant and underutilized properties would be an incentive to either invest, sell at a lower ‘distress’ price, or voluntarily let the city have it for nothing without the ordeal of eminent domain. For buyers and developers, in turn, the incentive would be the discounted land price and lower tax on improved properties. These incentives would all speed up the now painfully slow development process.”
– Gerald Neily

“Beh. Outside of the obvious timing issues (seems a presumption was made that they could take the project quickly and that didn’t happen?), I don’t know what process I agree with here. On one hand, you’d like entities like the BDC to move boldly and quickly on these projects. But I can’t imagine the city’s populace giving them even more ability to eminent domain private property in a quick fashion, without that violating inherit constitutional rights. And I also can’t see people, say, doubling the BDC’s purchasing budget to take over these projects quickly.”
– GMan

“This is a great set of buildings in a great, growing area, I really hope and have confidence someone will come forward to restore this gem!”
– treje

“Some interior views and photographs of the Parkway are available at the Parkway Theatre Revitalization Initiative website at http://www.parkwaytheatre.com.”
– John Grant

“Seawall did a great job on Union Mill and was really cooperative with the community. Maybe they’ll be the main developer this go around for Parkway?”
– Tracey Brown (via facebook)

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Washington Monument is lit for holidays

“If you add the annual cost of this government-paid celebration to the amounts we lost in the auto race, wouldn’t that cover the rec center budget shortfalls for the next few years? I believe it might be enough to open all the pools too.”
– Bmorepanic