Home | BaltimoreBrew.com

Best of Brew Comments

Though labeled as “bleak,” Wal-Mart store is on track for approval

“I live near this neighborhood and WE DO NOT WANT WALMART anywhere near us!!! Walmart is a terrible store and I am so upset that I’m gonna have to see this now in my neighborhood. Disgusting!”
– Jane

“Funny how some of the Remington folks will tell you with a straight face that the site’s appropriate use within the neighborhood context is four Starbucks stores, a Whole Foods, a Chipotle, and some type of Coal Fired Pizza restaurant. Because those are all critical needs in Remington.”
– River Mud

“Those businesses would elevate the value of the neighborhood instead of chiseling in cement ‘Ghetto’ forever. If they could convince Food Hole to open there you would see a lot of great positive changes in the neighborhood.”
– Andrew

“Did they ever decide if it is to be a 24-hour Walmart or not? When it left my neighborhood talks, it was NOT going to be 24 hours. But I never understood why.”
– Billy

“The poor people who have to shop for their groceries after 3rd Shift should have access to 24-hour shopping – of course they should – to not have that possibility would be unfair!”
– River Mud

“I get that people think it’s unfair to restrict a restaurant’s hours, but when they’re in a residential neighborhood it’s a different matter. More so when they have a liquor license.”
– ham_snadwich

Walmart is largest employer of people on welfare because they dont offer a living wage. I have lived in this city 22 years and there is nothing a Walmart can offer that I need that is not provided by local businesses that also create jobs. Jobs and wealth that will stay in the community rather than sent down to a 6 stock holders in the Walmart family that has more wealth between them than half of the Unites States population combined.”
– BaltimoreDave

That is not the way our economy works…if you have a problem with what Walmarts employees get paid, work on increasing the minimum wage, strengthening the power of organized labor, and creating labor shortages by attracting more businesses to the area. We can not and should not, as a city actively choose which businesses are and are not granted permits and will be allowed to operate here .”
– Matthew Reisner

“That is straight up not true. Communities all over the country allow their citizens the power to keep corporations out that the populations finds undesirable for one reason or another. . . they have predatory business practices on two levels. The first is an absence of labor equity, meaning that an employee who approaches full-time work has not only not been offered benefits, but also has not been allowed to take the final 2.5 hours in their full-time status because of the federal health insurance standards. This yields a gross yearly salary of $14,137.50, placing net earnings well below the poverty line. The other practice is market saturation by brand equity; open as many stores as possible and keep them all open, even if an individual store is unsuccessful. The people who don’t want a Wal-Mart in their backyard move away because of the sense of destitution it brings in its wake.”

– Joshua Bornfield

“Chiapparelli’s didn’t offer a ‘living wage’ when I worked in the kitchen and neither did Mercantile when I was a teller. But – and I know this is crazy talk for some lefties – I rented with other people, kept my expenses down, and managed to get by without welfare.”
– James Hunt

“Your assertion that you personally didn’t go on welfare doesn’t change the fact that Walmart depends on our tax dollars subsidizing a huge percentage of their workforce (through various forms of assistance to) so that they can avoid paying more in wages.”
– snarkycomments

“Perhaps if this had been a better-thought-out project from the start, or at least if the developer had attempted to work with the community to improve it (as Seawall does) there would not be such opposition to the project. This project is symptomatic of the broken development process in Baltimore: BDC works behind closed doors to bring in mega-developments that are not supported by or sympathetic to the surrounding communities. Developer pretends that the project is impossible without gigantic tax breaks. Citizens get upset because of the bad design/lack of vision/$-giveaways/lack of transparency/etc. Legal fights ensue. Project is delayed for years, generates mountains of ill will, or fails entirely. (see Superblock etc) Repeat. Small-/mid-scale and market-driven projects are the ones that are succeeding in Baltimore. Why doesn’t the city recognize this?”
– bruuuce

“What is the point of citizens paying years of staff time to develop a master ‘plan’ to ‘direct quality of life initiatives’ and a new zoning code (‘Transform Baltimore’—how, and for whom?), plus pay staff to oversee ‘that development proposals are . . . aesthetically pleasing, within the character of the respective neighborhood” when these objectives are essentially meaningless when it comes to development?…. Thank you Baltimore Brew for coverage of the conflicts that illuminate the fight that citizens throughout Baltimore have in common.”
– imariep

“Walmart is a heartless giant. In Mexico it built itself on historical Mayan edifices. It bulldozed its way into the heart of ancient sites and sat smugly over precious artifacts, bribing the corrupt local officials into compliance. Walmart thinks it is above the law.”

– ushanellore
______________________________________
Sewage overflow stopped at Gwynns Falls

“So, DPW can’t even keep a routine maintenance (including cutting downed trees) and inspection schedule, both of which have been required by federal and state law for decades, but somehow, according to some, the existing agency structure is capable (with more staff and money) of magically conducting the City’s portion of the Bay cleanup themselves, without contractors and consultants. Sounds legit.”
– River Mud

“Baltimore’s streams could be a real asset to the city, if only they could keep them clean…Why would you ever go to Gywnns Falls when Patapsco Valley State Park is so much better maintained?”
– Aaron Mirenzi

“Many of the “stream parks” have E. coli densities beyond the safe/legal limit during the entire spring/summer/fall. Not safe for dogs to swim in, either.”
– River Mud
____________________________________
Rawlings-Blake in New Jersey, stumping for fellow mayor

“Sounds like he’s got the same itch our very own Mayor Rawlings-Blake caught. I’ve got one question: who’s paying for this trip, especially the executive protection costs???”
– trueheart4life

“Of course the city is paying her Big Tab, again, just like the other 4 trips this past year. Very very sad.”
– will tonnessen

“. . . So Cory Booker was involved in one of those [San Francisco] upstarts? Why am I not surprised? The cosmopolitan techies of San Fran are not beneath political shenanigans. There is an unholy connection between these morally pretentious techies and politicos.”
– ushanellore
_____________________________________________
City granted temporary order against sewage shutdown by Sparrows Point owners

“SteelMill equipment ‘clogged with fecal matter or condoms.’ A story to maybe NOT read over breakfast!”
– baltimorebrew, via Twitter

“GOOD ADVICE!!!”
– Mair

“City pays $80,000.00 per mo while the water bill is delinquent for years with a Current Balance: $2,055,738.83.”
– Linda Stewart, via Facebook

“Great business arrangement, just not for us. Probably an oversight. #eyeroll”

– Mair, via Facebook

“There are two separate matters here, at least legally: The OLD owners of Sparrows Point (now bankrupt) owe the city millions in delinquent water bills. Separately, the city uses Sparrows Point to dispose of treated wastewater from its Back River sewage plant. The NEW owners of Sparrows Point get $80K a month to handle this effluent, but are now trying to modify or end this agreement.”
– Baltimore Brew

“Dr. Wolman saw to it that the water from the Back River plant was almost drinkable. The smells came from steel making, rancid rolling mill oils, galvanizing and coating lines, and the coke ovens. The water going into Humphrey’s Creek is so good all of the crabbers and fishermen take advantage of the good crabbing and Rockfish in the area. . . I do feel that Hilco has the upper hand because the City was so stupid not to upgrade the advanced waste water treatment plant at Back River to handle our needs and not factor in a future problem at the Point. The City should pay Hilco and ELT what ever those folks demand!”
– Walter
_______________________________________________
Insider named to head Baltimore’s embattled recreation centers

“Mr. Wall has 35 years of service to overcome and I wish him well, but I’m a skeptic!!!”
– trueheart4life

“Bob Wall is a public servant who comes in early and stays late. He knows he is in the life saving business because every young person in a program under the watchful eyes of adults is safe at that moment in time. The trick is to get hundreds and hundreds of more city youth in such supervised environments. The city is pursuing a fresh but narrow course with its plans for community/recreation centers, and consolidation of rec centers with the plans for new school buildings. . . Where the city is short sighted is that there is little discussion about programs and outcomes; the fixation on buildings remains so strong that it is assumed that the buildings, alone, are relevant to the future well being of the city’s youth. Maybe so. Maybe not. But limited none the less. . . A way to show respect for Mr. Wall and rely on his extensive experience would be to give him the resources for many, many programs and encourage the department to affiliate and partner with non-profits all over the city to make programs, quality programs of all types, available for our children”
Chris T. Delaporte

“I think the rec centers are a good idea and provide an important service. However, we could alleviate some of the pressure on the rec center if we scrapped our moronic 19th-century model for public education. School should be 12 months a year with no more than two weeks off between terms, and it should operate from roughly 9-5.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“He is surprised he received a promotion and he is trying to re-invent himself mentally and physically? Those statements seem a little odd. Regardless, I wish him the best of luck. A very challenging position in a very challenged department.”
– Mike Weston

“Mr. Wall is Baltimore City Parks and Recs. You ask anyone in Baltimore if they know Bob, Robert, Bobby and see what you get. Have you read the whole history of Mr. Wall. Mr. Wall is genuine and will do what he has always done. Love the Parks and Recs.”
– Thersa May McMillion, via Facebook

Most Popular