You can read the entire speech here.
The Baltimore Sun gives a quick and efficient summary of Monday’s speech here.
Before the speech started City Council President Jack Young announced all the “dignitaries” in attendance. Most of the people he announced currently hold elected office. He announced two people who do not hold elected office who stood out to me: Union leader (and husband of city councilwoman and Pete Welch supporter Sharon Green Middleton) Glenn Middleton and disgraced former State Senator Larry Young. You have to love the Baltimore political establishment club. Such “dignitaries” do not give me much hope for change in local government.
Jack Young stumbled through the introductions and then the mayor took over. She talked about property taxes, ethics, and the police right away. This was a good move on her part. She wanted to show that she cares about property taxes (an issue that is clearly picking up a lot of steam), the ethical questions of the previous administration, and the disgruntled police union. Once she got these issues out of the way she really did not have anything earth shattering to say. She basically said all the right things, but really did not talk about anything big she was going to do to fix our economic problems. She brought up her father pretty early on in the speech, which is a classic move of hers.
The mayor deserves credit for addressing our economic problems. She knows the economic situation is the biggest problem facing the city and it is behind just about every other issue. It’s nice to have an administration that understands fiscal problems. I think the mayor knows that if she tells the truth about the fiscal problems and does minor things here and there to address them that she probably will not lose the election. She is playing it safe by saying the right things.
At times the Mayor appears to have a machine-like personality and parts of the speech reflected this. It was as if she was trying to portray herself as a logical economic machine that would not lie to the people and would deal with hard emotional issues without worrying about hurt feelings. We do need a leader like this, but I wonder how much of this is just talk. The mayor said Baltimore spends more on employee benefits than we do on entire police department! Now that is bold, and it is true, but what specific hard decision is she going to make in order to correct this problem. The hard answer that a machine would give would be to drastically cut city employee benefits! The mayor did not bring that up. She did bring up a nebulous ten year economic plan. More words about a far off future instead of actions about our current problems.
There was another reason behind the Mayor’s “honest answers” rhetoric. The mayor knows that some of her competitors are talking about drastic property tax cuts. She tried to say that drastic answers have their consequences and that some people propose fanciful solutions to certain city problems. She definitely was implying that she thought drastic property tax cuts were not the answer. I strongly disagree with her on this issue. A drastic property tax cut is something a leader who takes bold actions would embrace. Large property tax cuts are not fanciful, they are very possible if the city reevaluated how it did business with developers (giving them huge tax breaks instead of giving property tax cuts to the citizens) and if the city cut salaries, befits, and jobs of city workers.
The Mayor gave a safe speech that touched on many important issues. In the past such a speech was the perfect start to a reelection campaign. It is clear that if the Mayor is reelected that life as we know it probably will not change much. The mayor will talk a good game, but the huge positive changes that Baltimore needs to blossom will not occur. We need a leader willing to make logical big moves. The mayor could easily be this person, but at this point in time I only see her making safe little moves. It will be interesting to see how this election year plays out.
) so I would advise them to come out in larger numbers this year if they want more political attention.
Adam is the most recognizable face of the recent resurgence in Reservoir Hill. He has appeared on many national and local radio shows, in several news publications, and at numerous events discussing his innovative urban redevelopment ideas and his unique lifestyle. Adam is a successful entrepreneur, community activist, and a local political guru who ran for city council in 2007. He is the founder and director of the TechBalt.com Buy a Block Project and BaltimoreHourly.com. His fearless local political commentary has rocked the local blog scene for most of this decade and he plans to take it to the next level in the next decade here on Charm City Current.