Everything’s a little topsy-turvy in Baltimore when the mayor who was expected to be a shoo-in several months ago decides not to run for re-election and the tradition-steeped Baltimore Flower Mart takes place in September rather than May.

The Brew checked in at the Flower Mart, as well as other parts of town, to see what people think about Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s surprise announcement that she is dropping out of the race for mayor. The annual spring celebration was an apt place to go for comments.

Usually held in the first week of May, it was one of many events that had to be rescheduled due to the protests, rioting and curfew in April and May that followed the death of west Baltimore resident Freddie Gray in police custody.

“I wasn’t going to vote for her anyway,” said Vicki Bringman, a retiree from Hunting Ridge, who described herself as “very happy” the mayor decided not to run. Like most fair-goers approached for comment, Bringman had little good to say about the mayor.

“I was sorely disappointed by how she handled the Freddie Gray incident because she just cloistered herself, she seemed to cloister herself in City Hall and wasn’t heard from,” Bringman said, adding that she believes the mayor’s predecessor, Sheila Dixon, would have done better.

Bringman said Dixon “would have been talking to people in the streets, and not because the cameras were following her.”

Speaking of Rawlings-Blake, she said, “I always got the impression that she would rather be doing something else. I didn’t think her personality was suited for the job. I never thought she cared.”

Lawyer John Murphy made a similar observation, albeit a bit more charitably.

“I always thought that she was handicapped by her personality, which wasn’t her fault. That was the personality she was born with,” Murphy said. “She didn’t have a bubbly, outgoing personality, and that was a handicap.”

Meanwhile Bobbie McKinney, a community activist from Edmondson Village, had no ill-will for Rawlings-Blake, just enthusiasm for her predecessor.

“I wish the mayor all happiness and luck in her retirement, and I’m so happy for Sheila Dixon’s return,” said McKinney, unfazed by the information that Dixon is not actually back in office just yet.

“I’m going to put her there! I wish she had never left. Not that I had anything against Stephanie,” McKinney said. “I’d just rather have my Sheila back.”

Despite the four month postponement, the Flower Mart brought out a cross section of Baltimoreans, more than a few of whom noted that the cloudless blue sky was uncannily similar to the way it was on September 11, 2001, when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

No Help on Taxes and Drugs

On downtown streets near the courthouse, news that the mayor was dropping plans to run in the primary was uniformly met with one reaction: “good!”

“She didn’t do nothing!” said Eugene Barnhardt, a 73-year-old West Baltimore resident who said he’s lived in the city for 40 years.

“She should have cut the heads off of the snakes that are selling drugs in this city. But she ain’t done nothing to stop the drugs,” he said.

Kia Spencer and two other women walking downtown at noontime were united in their negative reaction to the mayor.

“I didn’t appreciate when she gave us that curfew. I mean, we’re grown people” Spencer said. “And during the protests and riots, she called them thugs. I didn’t appreciate that.”

Jane, a bus driver for the Maryland Transit Administration who said she feared “retaliation” and didn’t want to give her last name, complained of past and future tax increases.

“She’s done increased our taxes,” she said. “We gotta pay more taxes now for the ones that are tearing up our streets. Why? Because of Freddie Gray. They got to raise taxes to pay for all that.”

A resident of the city for 17 years, she said she has no enthusiasm for any of the other candidates in the race, “We don’t have anybody else! That’s the really sad part!”

Political Ripple Effect

In City Hall, meanwhile, 12th District Councilman Carl Stokes, was buttonholed by reporters coming out of the mayor’s announcement press conference.

Stokes, who declared his intention to run for mayor this week, said he was “very surprised” by the mayor’s decision, called it “huge” and thanked her for “sparing the city some aggravation” by exiting the race.

Asked whether her departure helps his candidacy, the 12th District representative said after a pause, “I don’t know that it does.”

“I think that in some ways it opens it up a lot a lot more in terms of folks who feel like they want to jump in,” he said adding  that he needs to discuss strategy with his campaign.

“I think we had a game plan that we felt at the end of the day we would emerge victorious in,” he said. But now “I don’t know.”

Former mayor Sheila Dixon, for her part, kept her emailed public statement brief and bland.

“I commend Mayor Rawlings-Blake for her 20 years of service to the City of Baltimore,” she said. “She and her family have made many sacrifices and I think she has earned the right to pursue other goals. I pray for the Rawlings-Blake family and for the people of Baltimore.”

So did City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who said he learned of the mayor’s decision through news reports. “I’m sure her decision was reached after careful consideration. I respect her desire to spend the final 15 months of her term focusing on Baltimore’s recovery,” he said.

Echoes of Tommy D’Alesandro

Councilman Bill Henry, meanwhile, reflected on “the emotional strain on the mayor of the last few months” and pointed out the historical resonance in the mayor’s decision.

“The cold political observer in me would not have been surprised – it was what [former mayor Thomas] Tommy D’Alesandro III did after the [1968] riots,” he said, speaking with The Brew. “He didn’t get beat. He just didn’t run.”

But he said “on a human level,” he wasn’t expecting it.

He noted that the mayor had scheduled a kick-off fundraiser at her campaign headquarters in Remington this weekend and had noticed them cleaning up the building for the event

“There were SRB campaign signs on the loading dock door a couple of days ago – but then suddenly there weren’t,” he said. “I thought that was odd. Maybe this decision was made in the last 72 hours?”

(The mayor said in an email to campaign supporters that she would go forward with the event as a way to thank them.)

Others took to Twitter to express their opinions on the mayor’s move, among them Dr. Heber Brown, III, activist and pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church.

“By not seeking re-election, @MayorSRB may actually be free enough now to govern in a way that really helps to right the ship in #Baltimore,” he said.

Dave Troy put it this way on Facebook.

“I can’t say I’m shocked. She has no fundraising base. . . There is almost no way the next six months were going to play out well for her. . . The election would be on the eve of the anniversary of the unrest,” he wrote. “She never really wanted this job, and kudos to her for finally being honest with herself about that.”

 Not-Too Flowery Words

Many of the comments about the mayor at the Flower Mart were unprintable, but some were more reflective than rude.

Daniel Brogden, an East Baltimore resident who is retired, empathized with the 45-year-old mayor.

“I think she’s tired because she’s been there a long time. She’s been with the government for nearly 20 years and now she has a chance to stay home and spend time with her family,” Brogden said. “With all she’s done as mayor, she did a good job.”

Meanwhile ubiquitous Mt. Vernon resident “Bow-tie Bob” Nelson said he was glad Rawlings-Blake did not give “I want to spend more time with my family” as a reason for sitting out the election and relinquishing her position as mayor.

“Everyone always says that. I’m glad she didn’t say that,” Nelson said.

Nelson said he had two observations on the mayor’s move. “She did the right thing, and she did it for what she said was the right reason, which was to be in office as opposed to running for it again,” he said. “I respect that. That’s good.”

But then “she spent 15 minutes telling us what a good mayor she was,” he complained. “It’s almost like she was preparing for a campaign for something else. That’s the impression I got. ”

 – Fern Shen also contributed to this story.