I jogged by the Baltimore Grand Prix and I only took away positives from what I observed and heard. There were a lot of people downtown who never would have been down there on Labor day weekend. Lots of money was spent on hotels and other tourist related businesses. LOTS of earplugs were purchased. The cars were incredibly loud. That was the overpowering surreal aspect of what I saw. On Pratt street you could easily go up to the fence and see the cars zoom by for free. I talked to people who were at the event and were out on the town later on Saturday night and all of them only had positive things to say about the event. The bottom line for me is money and we may never know the real numbers behind everything, but from what I observed I can see this race becoming a self-sustaining Baltimore tradition. I thought the marketing of the event was lacking yet there were still many people down there.
There are some things we can learn from the event and the lead up to the event. The idea itself is not very original or special. It was pushed through because some guys had some connections and money to contribute to political campaigns. Everyone would have a better taste in their mouth if they could confidently say that in the future those in charge will be open to ideas from ANYONE. There are so many people who do not donate to political campaigns who have much better ideas than the Grand Prix which would be smaller scale, much cheaper, but definitely generate revenue for the city. Instead of having a nebulous BDC and various city hall bureaucrats decide what new events and policies Baltimore should adopt, there should be some sort of innovation officer who meets with regular citizens who have ideas about how to improve Baltimore. This innovation officer should then help the citizen find the person he or she needs to talk to in order to make their idea a reality. This person should also be able to nicely say to no to some ideas.
Many people say the Baltimore Grand Prix could be a new Preakness-like event for Baltimore. This could happen, but why try to create a new event when the original event (the Preakness) is not living up to its full potential? This reminds me of what the great Park Advocate Chris Delaporte once told me. Baltimore has awesome parks that need maintenance. The city insists on creating new park related attractions instead of maintaining what it already has. The more new things created, the less money available for maintenance of older attractions. Eventually the new attractions need maintenance also and the parks’ financial pie gets split in more pieces. Before we create any more new Baltimore mega-events we need to make sure that our main mega-event (the Preakness) is as strong as possible.
The following video played on the jumbotron during the Grand Prix. A few people have complained and said it was a campaign ad for the mayor. Since the majority of the people who saw it are probably not registered to vote in Baltimore City (although I hear you can claim a homestead tax credit in Randallstown and be registered to vote in Baltimore City) I do not think it is going to influence any voters. It also is not about the mayor, so it is a reach to say it is campaign propaganda:
Since nothing remotely catastrophic happened at the Grand Prix, this event will be considered a success for the mayor. For the next week people will be praising the event and the positive vibes generated may even get the mayor more votes.
9/5/2011 Edit- The New York Times gushes over the event here.
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.