Paving paradise

“As the President of Patterson Park Neighborhood Association I was taken completely off guard last week when the city released this proposal to add 96 additional parking spaces in the park which shares the name as my neighborhood. It is insulting that the city would not only plan to convert limited downtown green space to asphalt but planned to do so without any community input. This is a blatant a slap in the face to the growing communities surrounding the park.”
– Joe Di Mattina

“Patterson Park is one of the reasons my family purchased a home one block from the Park. We need to find ways to increase opportunities to experience nature and fellowship with our neighbors, not take away those opportunities.”
– Bhayden90

“This is like a bad dream. . . The City is short on funds, I get it, but is smack in the middle of historic Patterson Park the best place to host senior activities? Is this not severely short-sighted? Wait and do an adaptive reuse on one of the scores of abandoned, vacant, or available commercial properties with parking lots spread throughout our concrete and asphalt laden city.”
– City Slicker

“This is ridiculous. I have already noticed an increase in traffic in the park the last few years with people driving to the pool, parties in the pavilions, BSSC games, jerks on motorbikes, much less that annoying ice cream truck. Hello!!!”
– PJG

“The plan for health care reform in Maryland of which Barbot is the driver is to have clusters of services for the poor and the elderly. So, since that location already has the Alzheimers care facility they are moving the senior center there as well. You will no doubt see a complex for senior medical care/clinic in the near future. So I dare say if you do not fight it now that whole expanse of green will be a great big senior complex!”
– Cwals99

“When I moved into the neighborhood the pagoda was my front yard. I could hear the concerts in the park from my window and had my very own napping tree hidden in plain sight. Patterson Park is an escape from the city and I cherish that peace and quiet.”
– Jamie Schott

“I think if they make all the spots for handicapped and security/maintenance vehicles then it would be ok. Let’s face it, seniors can’t be expected to walk long distances to get to the rec center.”
– Super Doggie

“Where is the money to do this coming from? The city can’t afford to fully staff the Fire Department or Rec Centers.”
– P Johnson

“Hooray! Let’s also pave the lawn in front of City Hall! And, and…let’s fill in the Harbor and pave that, too!. . . This urban heat island isn’t inflamed enough yet! I want an even hotter summer! More asphalt, please!!”
-blackeye

“Think of all the development that could be, uh, developed, if we’d just shrink Patterson Park to, say, 10 acres! Think of it! Apartments! Condos! Mixed use buildings! We could call it…Harbor East North-East!”
– krempel

“This is simply unbelievable, even for Baltimore.”
– Jed Weeks
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Easement could torpedo parking sought by city for Patterson Park

“Idiots. The Wreck & Parking fools award a 1-1/2 million contract to Hord for, I assume, on-going architectural service. Now a portion of that contract (and we would LOVE to know how much exactly) is up in smoke, with no one ever thinking to check to see if there was an easement.”
– Davethesuave

“As a member of the current Booth Senior Center I know there is no designated parking for the existing center. The Booth Center currently serves folks who live near it, including the Senior housing at Lombard & Haven. All these folks walk and don’t drive. The crux seems to me to be that they let the Booth Center fall into disrepair and also that the Commission on Aging is located there and needs office facilities.”
– Sjs2201

“If the city can’t afford to run the programs at a small location, where is the funding for this location?”
– Bmorepanic

“Congratulations to the person who had the forethought to execute an easement on the property to protect the pavillion. Given the park’s connections to the Battle of North Point, are there archeological resources waiting to be discovered, and should they be protected as well? I hope Rodney Little and CHAP take this into account as they consider any ‘compromise’ to this ill-conceived proposal. Congrats also to the Brew for unearthing this important angle to the story.”
– JS

 “This is great reporting. Very well done.”
– SRS
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How to fit the proposed casino into Baltimore’s downtown landscape

“Gerry, your commentary is spot on, each point, but especially #5. By facing the water, with outdoor terrace, smoking and event space, there is an actual opportunity to make good on the promise to build something other than a ‘slots barn.’”
– Mark C.

“I still think a riverboat casino in the harbor would be successful. Tourists would love it, and Baltimore residents might actually go near the Inner Harbor.”
– Jen

“I[t] does not matter how or where Baltimore City builds its casino because that ship has already sailed. Evidenced by the casino in Cecil County being negativley effected when the casino in Arundel County opened. Now there will be another in at National Harbor – game, set, match. The region (including surrounding states) can only support so many casinos.”
– Fire and Metal

“The Baltimore site . . . its a winner, lets get this done and get the revenue flowing into  the city.”
– Ppsc18
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Inside City Hall: An inconvenient truth about Superblock

“If it was a good project, they would have been able to get financing. . . This is not a good project and as a taxpayer I resent throwing money at it.”
– Terry Lorch, via Facebook

“The Superblock has what Harbor Point doesn’t have – lots of transit, historic buildings and close contact with the city. That’s an even more inconvenient truth. Howard/Lexington has suffered because its so intimately a part of a Baltimore (including its culture and government) while Harbor Point, Harbor East, Canton Crossing and Locust Point have not because they stand apart.”
– Gerald Neily

“Every day that passes with the Superblock as nothing but an assembly of shuttered dead space is increasing the drag from this weight around the neck of all who invested in the west side, do business there, live there or shop there. Lexington Partners had enough chances to show us that they can fit the square peg of big boxes into the round hole of the small parceled historic Westside. It is time for a new approach, smaller, more incremental, phased and more attentive to the existing structures. Let’s not have another extension. We can’t afford it.”
– Archphips

Man, @BaltimoreBrew just keeps bringin’ the pain. I love it.”
– LionelBMD, via Twitter

“And yet another inconvenient truth about the Superblock developers: BLDG Management, a company headed by Lloyd Goldman of Lexington Square Partners, proposed an avant-garde tower designed by “starchitect” Rem Koolhaas for Jersey City. There was a troublesome pre-Civil War tobacco factory, populated by artists’ studios, standing in the way. So they decided to tear it down despite opposition from the neighborhood and the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy. The building was demolished in 2006. The lot still stands vacant.”
– JS

“When-o-when will ‘Brodie’s Folly’ be acknowledged for what it is, another top-down, pending disaster that was an outmoded, incredibly stupid, scorched-earth misfire in the making, over a decade ago?. . .”
– Tom Kiefaber
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Plea from a city tree: euthanize me!

“I got a dead one in front of my house. Liking the dangling skeletal prompt. May have to borrow that one!”
– Cathy Goucher, via Facebook

“I’ll say Forestry has a long to-do list! My hood has been waiting for ten years now. At least your tree seems to be out in the open and doesn’t pose a property damage threat. Get in line Brew . . . we’ve been asking longer.”
– Mairzdoatz

“OK, I just called 311 & reported both. Well actually, it turns out someone reported the dead tree at Charles & University already – on 9/19/12. It’s Request #725508. The Clifton Park one is #735582. Judging by Mair’s experience this could *ahem* take a while!”
– baltimorebrew
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Harborplace to pay higher rent for pavilions

“I’m still waiting for someone to explain how the city has NOT earned a penny from the [current] lease clause that nobody wants to discuss – ‘plus Percentage Rent of 25% of net cash flow.’ The BDC simply says, ‘The City has not earned any Percentage Rent under this Lease Agreement since its inception.’”
– Kim Trueheart

“Must be nice to be so wealthy that the city can afford to not collect fees due, like Romney paying extra taxes. Oh but wait a minute, wasn’t non-payment of fees the expressed reason for booting out the carrousel from the Inner Harbor? So rules are rules when?”
– Meliza

“Most high end stores have moved out and those left will only pass the buck to the consumer.”
– Carole Garrett Williams, via Facebook
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How does The New York Times tout Baltimore?

“What’s at the Inner Harbor to attract new Yorkers? Bupkes and cream cheese, that’s what!”
– John Bosley, via Facebook

“Baltimore Brew gives us authentic Bmore news, What Weekly gives us authentic Bmore events and the New York Times gives us authentic Bmore tourism.”
– Gordon Steen
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A ride to show families that cycling city streets is fun – and safe

“I think this is great. I was just reminded again by City Paper naming Barclay the ‘Best Up-and-Coming Neighborhood’ (good choice!) but failing to mention the Guilford Avenue Bike Boulevard, which is one of the neighborhood’s big new pluses. The lesson: Good neighborhoods and bikeability go hand in hand.

“I also can’t mention City Paper without mentioning their naming our Mark Reutter as the ‘Best Online Journalist,’ which is sorta like naming Beethoven the best jingles songwriter, but this is CP talking. And they pondered his motivation in terms of money, which is ridiculous. His motivation is obvious to me: He believes in the power of The Brew!!”
– Gerald Neily
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New Sparrows Point owners suggest (once again) most of mill will be scrapped

“There will be new opportunities at SP because it is too valuable to be a nature preserve. Most likely, if it is handled correctly, it will become the largest port on the East Coast of the United States. And that isn’t bad. A massive port, which is projected, will be able to support thousands of good paying jobs.”
– Dr. Raymond Boothe

“Joe Rosel’s accomplishments so far since he has been union president:
1. Told members to sit and wait
2. Made members believe that a strategic steel producer would come at auction
3. Had members attend a Obama rally in Philly instead of a local rally for our jobs
4. Says he will be meeting with Hilco, never happened
5. Asked Kamenetz to be allowed on Sparrows Point Advisory Group and denied
6. Unable to figure out how to use facebook or email
7. Passed a motion to allow his union buddies to work while we are all laid off
8. Didn’t tell membership that McCall signed our benefits away. The Brew did.”
– Jason

“the people layed off have worked there asses off there for years, now you say they might not get called back. what kind of union is this, payed into the uswa all these years and get treated like you are nothing.”
-awife

“I am a WOMAN STEELWORKER! Proud of my past, but letting go and moving on with my life and not crying over spilled milk.”
– ????