Archive for May, 2011

A legitimate Gregg Bernstein complaint

Posted by ameister on Friday, May 27th, 2011

I have read some insane conspiracy theories about Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein.  I will not dignify them by even mentioning them here.  There clearly are some people who dislike the guy and what he said he stood for.

Gregg Bernstein is not perfect though. He told us he would run things differently than Patricia Jessamy. These days in Pigtown there are many people who do not see a big difference between Jessamy and Bernstein.

Page Croyder sums up the controversy here.   It is a great article so please read it.

Prosecutors cannot quit on carjacking cases!  The voters expected more than this. Bernstein needs to deliver and differentiate himself from his predecessor.

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Sheila Dixon tells it like it is

Posted by ameister on Thursday, May 26th, 2011

BmoreNews.com interviewed Sheila Dixon the other day. Watch the video below.

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I love how Dixon starts off the interview by completely disagreeing with the interviewer. She straight up tells the truth when she says that this mayoral election year has not been very exciting!  It is hard to get excited when the incumbent has done nothing controversial and has a TON of money in the bank. Expectations of the continuation of the status quo do not bring about feelings of excitement. The challengers are going to have to come up with some major attention grabs soon if this campaign season is going to end up exciting.

In a previous post of mine I pointed out the strange desire of some people to make this campaign more controversial than it really is. I am happy to see that Sheila Dixon is not one of these people.

Dixon clearly is not satisfied with the job the current mayor is doing.  Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Dixon basically ran on an incumbent ticket together in 2007.  That clearly was a marriage of convenience because this interview makes me think that Dixon would run again Rawlings-Blake if she could. She may get that chance in 2015. It is clear to me that Sheila Dixon is not staying away from politics and that she will run for office again one day.

Toward the end of the interview the interviewer (Doni Glover) alludes to the
“special tactics”  that Dixon  has used in past elections. I do not know exactly what he meant, but if you think about it that is a pretty funny line.

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In-state reimbursements for Maryland General Assembly members and some Preakness thoughts

Posted by ameister on Monday, May 23rd, 2011

A reader sent me a link to this list of in-state reimbursements for Maryland General Assembly members.

Am I reading this wrong or do none of the members or the Maryland General Assembly cook for themselves during session? Membership definitely has its privileges.

In this article officials at the city’s emergency management command center estimated the Preakness infield crowd at 14,500.

In this article the total Preakness attendance is listed at 107,398.

This article states that in 2008 there were 40,000 infield tickets sold. Through the years the 40,000infield/60,000grandstand ratio was the standard rough attendance estimate. It is impossible to have 14,500 people in the infield and 92,898 in the grandstand. So either the infield estimate was way off or the total attendance number was inflated by the people who put on this watered down version of Preakness.  You can decide which number is close to being correct.

The post-BYOB era Preakness does not have as much infield space as the old versions of Preakness. Now they have to accommodate a volleyball area and a large concert stage/area. Not as many people can fit on the infield.

Here are some photos from the 2008 Preakness (the last BYOB Preakness). There were 112,222 people in attendance for that race day.

In the BYOB days there were no bands to pay and promote.  This new financial factor has to cut into the profit margin.

Attendance numbers through the years.

The Sun says that the Preakness is not going to leave Baltimore.  People were saying the same thing about the Colts in 1984.

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When will our leaders investigate Rikki Spector and other council members with residency issues?

Posted by ameister on Thursday, May 19th, 2011

This signed agreement from 2007 shows that 5th district councilwoman Rikki Spector currently occupies a condo unit at Harborview in the 10th (soon to be 11th) district of Baltimore City.

Rikki Spector lists 7404 Park Heights Avenue in the 5th district as her primary residence and receives a homestead property tax credit there. You can view her property tax bill here.

This is not a new revelation. The members of the City Council know about it and accept it by not investigating it. The board of elections, the inspector general, and the board of ethics also do not touch this issue. Yesterday was taxpayers night at city hall. If a person is occupying a condo downtown, then why should they continue to receive a homestead property tax credit at another location?  The average taxpayer, who showed up at city hall last night, can not have it both ways so why should our leaders? With Baltimore in dire economic straits why do we put up with these types of games?

Rikki Spector is not the only city council member with residency issues. Today the Mobtown Shank wondered why Belinda Conaway’s residency issues have not been investigated by the Baltimore City Council.  You can read the Mobtown Shank piece here.

The city council needs to investigate why the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee receives a homestead property tax credit at her house in Randallstown. Should a person with so much influence over Baltimore’s finances be suing a soon to be 7th District constituent for millions of dollars? What message does all of this send to the citizens of Baltimore about transparency and the priorities of Baltimore’s City Council. Shame on our leaders if there is no investigation into all of this!

An interesting WBAL TV story.

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Is this what FDA employees do at work?

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

I received the following comment on my “Conaway for mayor propaganda on cars in Ridgely’s Delight” entry at 9:32AM today. It came from an fda.gov IP address!

“you know i am so tired of hearing and reading your stupid writing.. if anything you are one hell of a clown especially if you think somebody is going to vote for your blues brothers ass. you are one hello of a clown yourself. and what is it with you and going thru people real estate records and personal information?? go somewhere and ssit down because are not voting for you trust me. you lost the last ellectionand you going to lose this one to. We dont want you. you are irresponsible and no experience.”

I wonder how much we pay this federal employee? Wow!

PS- Charm City Current comments are messed up. No comments are appearing on the site, but they are being emailed to me. Sorry about that.

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SLAPP lawsuits are for the desperate

Posted by ameister on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Wikipedia defines a SLAPP lawsuit as:
“A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.

The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff’s goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate. A SLAPP is often preceded by a legal threat. The difficulty, of course, is that plaintiffs do not present themselves to the Court admitting that their intent is to censor, intimidate or silence their critics. Hence, the difficulty in drafting SLAPP legislation, and in applying it, is to craft an approach which affords an early termination to invalid abusive suits, without denying a legitimate day in court to valid good faith claims.”

In this day in age all of us have to be aware of this cowardly type of intimidation. One can only wonder what kind of person would stoop this low.  The target of this disgraceful and shameful tactic would clearly be a person who was speaking about facts that others had not dared to bring up before.  We need to embrace facts and reject the people who try to suppress them.

Shame on the cowardly SLAPPers and the people who stand by silently and let such travesties take place.

I would like to point out that I run 40 miles a week (at least 13.1 miles three times a week). I am not familiar with exhaustion.

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This is why people like Jill Carter

Posted by ameister on Monday, May 16th, 2011

Jill always gives an honest interview. Check out what she had to say in this Doni Glover interview:

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No fluff from Jill! People get frustrated with wishy-washy  political machine politicians and Jill Carter is definitely not one of them! I like how she straight up says that Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is black. This fact is obvious to everyone, but from the way certain people portray the mayor you would never know this obvious fact.  It is hard to believe that some people want an election that most likely will be dominated by an incumbent black female mayor to be about the fear of a non-black mayor. Jill Carter shows she is not playing that game when she states the obvious.

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Links to interesting stories from sources you may not be familiar with

Posted by ameister on Friday, May 13th, 2011

What an interesting news week in Baltimore. All of us are familiar with the mainstream sources of news in Baltimore, but there are some others out there that deserve our attention. There are also times that DC sources cover Baltimore stories before Baltimore sources do.

The Washington Post is as mainstream as its gets, but yesterday they covered a story that the mainstream media in Baltimore has not touched for a while. I predict the potential move of the DC United soccer team to the Baltimore area will make the news up here again soon enough.  Here is what the Post has to say about the potential move of the team.

WAMU in Washington was also talking about Baltimore today. Starting a little bit after the five minute mark of the “The Politics Hour” the host and guests talk about the city council residency issue. The hosts were already familiar with Jack Young’s residency issue.  The host and guests did not have all of their facts straight and at times made incorrect statements, but it is now obvious that the Baltimore city council residency issue is known in the nation’s capital.

I really love the Hampden based Mobtown Shank. They also talked about the Baltimore city council residency issue.

Yakov Shafranovich is a guy in Baltimore with a blog. You probably have never heard of him before, but he has gathered a lot of public information about Baltimore and posted it on his site. He also had some thoughts about the Baltimore city council residency issue.

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Stop ignoring the elephant in the room: The city council residency issue

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

This email was sent out to numerous leaders, citizens, and media members:

“Stop ignoring the elephant in the room: The city council residency issue

My name is Adam Meister and I live in Reservoir Hill. I am writing you this email as a citizen of Baltimore.  I live in Baltimore THUS I receive a homestead property tax credit at 2216 Linden Ave. If I received a homestead property tax credit at this address and if I lived in Randallstown then I would be committing fraud.  Every citizen of Baltimore has a right to complain about his or her local government. Every citizen of Baltimore has the right to free speech. I will not be silenced.

The city council residency issue is not going away no matter how much some of you want it to disappear. Frivolous lawsuits by elected officials against vocal constituents will not silence anyone, in fact they will only increase the volume of the voices of the people who demand an investigation and the resignations of those involved in questionable residency/property tax paying practices. What does it say when a City Council remains silent when a fellow member makes a mockery of the property tax system? The recent developments brought on by pure greed and power hunger are embarrassing and are a slap in the face to the honest property tax paying citizens of Baltimore who could easily run away to the suburbs instead of dealing with the many everyday challenges Baltimore presents.

Since the above paragraph describes more than one member of your body it is going to take a strong leader to stand up and deal with this elephant in the middle of the room. Every day this issue grows stronger. It will soon be the main issue of election season 2011. Handle your business now before your city council class is remembered as the one that condoned these insulting practices at a time when everyday citizens are dealing with harsh economic realities.

I have copied state election officials, media members, elected officials, and the inspector general’s office on this email. Below are links to recent stories that appeared in traditional print and TV media that show how ridiculous and embarrassing the current situation is. Read the comments below the articles, the citizens are rightfully angry and frustrated. The city council needs to address the elephant in the room  before the voters do.

Regards,
Adam Meister
Citizen of Reservoir Hill and recipient of a homestead property tax credit for the ONE house I live in here.

http://www.wbaltv.com/r/27850462/detail.html

http://citypaper.com/news/homes-of-contention-1.1125236

http://www.examiner.com/politics-in-baltimore/belinda-conaway-receives-a-homestead-property-tax-credit-randallstown

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/maryland/baltimore-insider-blog/bal-councilwoman-belinda-conaway-sues-examiner-columnist-adam-meister-20110510,0,4265291.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/maryland/baltimore-insider-blog/bal-if-your-city-councilwoman-is-sleepy-snippy-and-sick–20110511,0,5738516.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-mossburg-20110426,0,2276610.column“

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Excuses and frustration in Pigtown

Posted by ameister on Monday, May 9th, 2011

I was included in an email thread about the Baltimore nuisance abatement program not working in Pigtown.
Some people in Pigtown are tired of running around in bureaucratic circles. It was not a shock to read typical pro-bureaucratic run-around type comments from 10th district councilman Edward Reisinger.  Here is what the Pete Welch supporting councilman had to say:

“You are on track. We can’t change the PAST. We need to move FORWARD. There are some Core people, that want to make a difference. We all want a CLEAN and SAFE neighborhood. That is our OBJECTIVE. Stop BICKERING and work TOGETHER.
Councilman ED. Reisinger
10th District”

Reisinger does not want the people of Pigtown to remember the past since in the past his friend Agnes Welch did absolutely nothing to improve the chaotic drug situation in Pigtown. He does not want you to remember how he blindly endorsed her son to take her place to reward her decades of incompetency.  Reisinger does not want you to remember how Terry Hickey was gerrymandered out of the 10th district.

Reisinger thinks it is easy not to bicker and to work together. This is not a shock since he is a member of a one party good old boy (and girl) city council that blindly supports their own. The same city council that refuses to talk about the numerous council-people who do not live in the district (and in some cases CITY) they are supposed to live in.  Everyday people can not stifle debate like our leaders can! We can not gerrymander our way out of our challenges.

Reisinger, the good old boy establishment leaders, and the people who work for the oragnizations that are supposed to solve the problems the city created in the first place all want the citizens of Pigtown to continue to run in bureaucratic circles moving from station to station hoping things will be different this time. Everyone loves a little lamb right?

Some people (and I am one of them) think being a sheep solves nothing. In order to get things done in this city you have to call people out by their names and embarrass the establishment. People who do not think outside of the box will condemn you, but in the end of the day you will make a difference while the people who condemn you will continue to run around in circles and get nothing accomplished.

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