In the fine print, city agrees to pay for additional cost of Central Avenue bridge

“I would like a mayor who would promise to be transparent and straightforward with taxpayers. Its not that I don’t understand the corporate welfare economic strategy behind this endeavor – it is the lying to the public that just gets to me.”
– BmoreFree

“I’m so glad that the Harford Road bridge, scheduled for replacement over 10 years ago because its in failure will have to wait for yet another funding cycle as will many other road projects. I am thrilled that making already rich corporations happy is what my tax dollars actually do. Particularly knowing the benefit amounts to shaving about 3 blocks from the commute of people who live in the county versus the potential loss of life for everyday citizens.”
– bmorepanic

“Oh I’m sorry sir/ma’am. That bridge is filed under ‘non-waterfront neighborhoods where poor people live.’ Unfortunately we can’t obligate any funds to that category.”
– River Mud

“I stood up at the Fell’s Point neighborhood Association meeting and asked this very question, ‘Who is going to pay for ANY cost overruns on the bridge?’ One of Beatty’s yes men said, ‘We will pay for any cost overruns.”’
– wje811

“Beatty has never had any trouble telling a community whatever will make them happy and encourage them to go away. An oily fellow with a smile, combed hair and shined shoes. Never trust him.”
– Steven Bunker
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Hard questions ignored during mayor’s online chat on data

“With all due respect, wasn’t this result a given? Opening up to the blogosphere/twittosphere, where everyone can post their snarky, dimwitted, illogical, non-fact based comments (rarely ever legitimate questions) was bound to fail. . . the Mayor or someone on her staff had to see this coming. I like the Brew, read it everyday, but this article was a bit unfair.”
– Dbaums

“Dbaums, while several people did ask ‘snarky’ questions, there were dozens of people asking questions that, while they may have come across snarky or pointed, were genuine and perfectly legitimate. I asked at least three times for the Mayor to identify which specific programs she was referring to when she said that she was shifting money away from the ones that didn’t work. I asked her what specific data she used in deciding to continue to support the criminalization of marijuana. People asked over and over again about audits, and about rec centers, fire stations, and other vital services. The devolution into silliness was because there was no discussion happening at all.”
– #EverydayCitisnazz

“Not to defend any of the non-answers, but to be fair, by definition, a ‘hard’ question requires more than 140 characters to answer.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“I guess I’d say if this was the result that City Hall expected, they shouldn’t have held the event. People communicate electronically and there were more than enough ‘reasonable’ questions asked. Again, if SRB doesn’t like the medium, she shouldn’t engage in it.”
– River Mud

“Agreed. I just sometimes wonder who certain elected officials get their political and strategy advice from. Technology is a great tool, but if you’ve never used a chainsaw, and no one’s ever taught you how to use a chainsaw, be damn well sure you know what you’re doing or else you might lose a limb!”
– Dbaums
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Baltimore shuts down for a day of snow and falling temperature. Fashionista Alert: Even the malls are closed!

“Looks like the weather-people got it right. It happens.”
– davethesuave

“Insanity.”
– Beth Hawks

“I love the Fashionista Alert.

What killings in what malls,
what persons held up where
in what parking lots,
around what malls what cars hijacked,
what shops packed,
what brand names gone
from what racks,
what stacks of designer clothes
arrived in what store
via what back door,
came gusts of wind
from the polar ice cap
to cap the shopping spree
and the browsing glee
of the Fashionistas.”
– Usha Nellore
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Mizeur comes out against CSX rail facility in Morrell Park

“So easy to oppose something. Heather – please speak to this issue. It is not like there was not a lengthy exhaustive search for an alternative. Tell us what neighborhood you think it belongs in and your logic behind choosing that neighborhood. 100% guaranteed that neighborhood will also oppose it.”
– Diogenes

“Morrell Park is not a location chosen to optimize economic development. MDOT and CSX have already admitted, in effect, that Morrell Park is a fourth or fifth choice among possible sites for this facility, behind the various suburban locations such as Elkridge in Howard County that had been considered for many years. Beyond that, MDOT has also consistently failed to develop the rail and port infrastructure that would create a decent double stack intermodal facility right at the waterfront where it belongs.”
– Gerald Neily

“I was responding to the article about Mizeur stating it is easy for her to oppose MP placement without presenting any alternative. You saw this as an opportunity to write about what you view to be the incompetence of MDOT. . . So, where would you put it. Elkridge? is that the advice you would give Mizeur if she should become Governor. She sure is not gong to run on that or putting it any place since that is sure fire vote loser in whatever community she should recommend.”
– Diogenes

“My point was that the Governor has a huge MDOT bureaucracy that is supposed to provide sound advice and planning on decisions such as where the best site is. This should not be a purely political decision. Putting the facility at the 4th best site means that it is a political decision, not one based on merit. MDOT’s choice was Elkridge, which the Governor rejected, based on politics or distrust in his own bureaucracy, rather than merit.”
– Gerald Neily
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SuperShuttle drivers protest franchise terms they call “intolerable”

“Thanks for running a story on the struggles of the Veolia operators. I think it’s so important to note that they are working under an increasingly common scenario in the US, where large corporations hire owner-operators to essentially function as employees. We live a culture that touts ‘entrepreneurship,’ however, business models like this have warped that dream. By using this kind of business model, companies such as Veolia avoid payroll taxes and paying into workers compensation, and pass on those responsibilities to their ‘workers.’ They are quite literally, tax cheats that are passing on these costs to someone else.”
– Claudelaw

“Thanks for this great story. . . What is happening with these Super Shuttle drivers here in Maryland is simply an example of what the TPP – Trans Pacific Trade Pact along with the Immigration Reform bill by the Senate will do to immigrant workers and domestic workers forced to compete for jobs and forced into the same work standards.”
– cwals99

“I wonder if Veolia runs the Red Line will it make the operators buy the light rail car they run? *sarcasm* The shape of things to come.”
– aconcernedmarylander

“How can you fire someone who doesn’t work for you?”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate
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Prostitution and other allegations, but no police officer to testify

“Prostitution on the Block!!! Say it ain’t so!!”
– George Lopez

“Ah, the Liquor Board – it is so excitingly cloak and dagger. It carries the dagger, the bars wear the cloak and their skulduggery flits over the pages of The Brew like the red light in Red Light districts.”
– ushanellore
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Will a bankruptcy in Canada take the spin out of Baltimore’s bikeshare?

“Another program that has already been tried in other large cites and mostly failed.”
– Joshua Drexler, via Facebook

“Joshua that hasn’t been a major problem with the system. The bankruptcy for Alti has to do with internal issues with a software contractor from what I understand.”
– Mike Kaurich, via Facebook

“It’s true that the infrastructure isn’t there yet; it’s the same in most cities. But I firmly believe if we begin to place these programs they will build it. BikeShare’s aren’t just about saving gas and the freedom of biking, its about mobility for all.”
– AllieB

“Bikeshare is a perfect concept for our city leaders, based solely on its hype value – an upscale program based on a common folk theme. It’s David Brooks’ ‘bourgeois bohemian’ concept as morphed into Richard Florida’s ‘creative class.’”
– Gerald Neilly

“I live here and would rent a bike. I take the light rail into work. Tomorrow I have to go check out my rental property in fells point. It would be nice if I could bike there instead of taking a Lyft or cab. Much cheaper.”
– Wally Pinkard, via Facebook
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Bixi bankruptcy will slow, not stop, bike rollout, city says

“It’s time for cities to consider the low cost and scalable solution that BitLock is offering: http://bitlock.co/bikeshare.ht…  A bikeshare system implementation with BitLock costs 20 times less than systems similar to BIXI and does not require the chunky and expensive docking stations.”
– Mehrdad Majzoobi
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City to settle case of drunk and armed police officer

“How many millions in settlements will the city taxpayers have to cough up before we start firing police officers?”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“This is what years and years of city government cutting corners to save a buck, the ‘doing more with less’ approach and lowering recruitment standards because of the miss guided thinking that ‘anybody can be a police’ gets you.”
– KnowNothingParty

“That Tshamba was still on the police force can only be seen as a triumph for the Fraternal Order of Police. The complete absence of a credible disciplinary system aids and abets the chronic police brutality, perjury, and other misconduct that the citizens of Baltimore deal with on a day-to-day basis. And it also brings discredit and suspicion on the police officers who are honest and hard-working.”
– asteroid_B612

“The job of the FOP is to ‘protect’ its members. It is the city of Baltimore who hires bums to begin with.”
– KnowNothingParty
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Developers quietly pushing ahead on 25th St. Wal-Mart project

“Wal-Mart’s poverty wages force employees to rely on $2.66 billion in government help every year, or about $420,000 per store. In state after state, Wal-Mart employees are the top recipients of Medicaid. As many as 80 percent of workers in Wal-Mart stores use food stamps.” (see this from Daily Kos)
– Laborbelle

“All people deserve low cost shopping offered by Wal-Mart. Build it now. The mom and pops will have to compete or wither away. That is the American way. Wal-Mart employee insurance is less costly to the individual and offers better medical coverage than Obama care. Really, you can look it up.”
– KnowNothingParty

“Under your theory, large box stores would take over every community. Corporate profits would leave Maryland (as all of those companies are out of state), the jobs created would be “full-time” employees capped at 36 hours per week (to avoid fed/state employment law requirements like requiring health insurance), and cheap (in price and quality) goods mostly made overseas would dominate the market. The list goes on. Is that what we want? Is that the mark we’d like to leave on society, our imprint on Baltimore? Aside from groceries and family necessities (e.g. diapers, school supplies), isn’t the majority of stuff sold at large box stores superfluous? Instead of encouraging people to spend smartly, don’t stores like Walmart subconsciously encourage people to spend money on pointless consumer goods they don’t need?”
– Dbaums

“People do need cheap goods here, and being price-gouged by the Safeways, Rite Aids and corner stores in the area make their lives much more difficult. As far as small businesses go, while their owners can certainly make a living wage if the business is successful, their employees often are paid minimum wage with no benefits (they are also exempt from the ACA). And some of our small businesses make Walmart and the other big boxes look like an ethical corporations.”
– asteroid_B612

“Within a two-mile radius of the proposed Remington Wal-Mart, there are presently zero mom-n-pops selling clothes and consumer electronics affordable to low- and middle-income families.”
– James Hunt

And the presence of Wall-Mart will guarantee that there won’t be any in the future either. This is the wrong way to approach development.”
– green lisa

“Not so. Many small mom-n-pops have figured out how to thrive in the shadow of Wal-Mart. . . as they have over the years when Woolworth’s and Montgomery Ward were the Wal-Marts of their day. The entire Howard-Lexington-Saratoga shopping district was premised on thriving among behemoths. Lexington Market, with its many small merchants, was never stronger than when the big stores prospered. As far as small stores go, the only development we’re getting in the vicinity of Remington are boutique specialty stores like Atomic Books and Trohv. Which are fine, but the people who work and shop at Wal-Mart can’t get hired at places like that and generally can’t afford to shop there.”
– James Hunt
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Young questions lack of minority participation in rec center consulting

“Rec’n’parks consulting groups tend to specialize along theories. There are some quite good ones that are about visioning and connecting, but this company isn’t one of them. This company seems to specialize in implementing strategies that are around doing what you have the money to do. . . I think the thing that ‘outsiders’ will not consider is the extreme differences between what’s available to the rich areas and what’s available to the poor areas. And also, that the poor areas need recreation services and programs, not just empty rooms in a building with a recreation center name. I’m thinking along the lines of study centers with basketball and computer rooms. Plus, they do need to be subsidized. They are one of the ways the city can fix itself by structuring safe places for children to play, do homework and get some caring support structures that can be missing in their neighborhoods. . . Which brings me back to thinking about these GreenPlay guys. Is learning to provide services only for those who can pay what we need to re-invigorate the department? Cause I think I’d rather see rec’n’parks figure out grant application writing and project management.”
– bmorepanic

“A paving contract is a paving contract is a paving contract. I understand the historical rationale behind the set-asides, but it may be time to debate whether they have outlived their usefulness.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“GreenPlay, what a pun!
You’re thinking vistas and vistas
of panoramic, pastoral verdure,
on the trees and on the ground
where kids can climb, run and roll,
They’re thinking lustrous, lustrous,
green back, newly printed
rolled off the press, pressed–
into their palms– a tantalizing goal!”
– Usha Nellore
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DPW candidate sails through appointments hearing

“You seem to have forgotten that the issues of Mr. Chow’s residency in Baltimore and the exorbitant rate increases that are promised in future years were brought to light during the hearing by an outraged citizen!”
– trueheart4life

“Welcome to Baltimore as a resident, Mr. Chow. You will start paying our property taxes, piggyback taxes, rain taxes, telecom/energy taxes, bottle taxes, and those ever increasing City water rates, all while living through and around the water main breaks, streets that do not get salted or plowed, crime (house break-ins, auto larceny and people holding guns to your head to get your cell phone or wallet), higher auto insurance rates, and the speed cameras that trap people who are not speeding. That is the downside. The upside – Baltimore neighborhoods and the citizens who stay despite all the problems, interesting and thoughtful people to talk to, great medical institutions, history, culture, the arts and churches, terrific food, and lots of beautiful things to look at that cost people nothing … You make the job about working on behalf of, and protecting the interests of, the citizens of Baltimore, you may go down in history as an enlightened agency head. You make the job about working on behalf of, and protecting the interests of, the Mayor, you will join a long line of agency heads that the citizens have forgotten about.”
– Lizzie 58

“Every time he moves up, so does our water bill.”
-Rhonda Wimbish, via Facebook