Posts Tagged ‘Hampden’

General election update- Hampden

Posted by ameister on Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

As of 10AM 56 people had voted in Hampden at the “Third-School No. 427, 1300 W. 36th St.” polling place. 38 were democrats, 7 were republicans, and 11 were others. So about 20% of all voters who voted so far did not have an opportunity to vote in the primary. The anti-Conaway sentiment was literally audible this time. One young guy (and I am almost positive that he was an independent) loudly laughed at the two Belinda Conaway supporters stationed there. I was at that same location all day on primary day and I did not experience anything like that. Some of the people who came out today passionately wanted to vote against Conaway and I suspect it is because their lack of party affiliation did not give them the opportunity to do that in the primary. In my three hours at the polling place I saw four people arrive by bike, for the primary I only saw one person arrive by bike all day. I wonder what those bikers think about Conaway’s support of the Monroe street bike lane removal?

Team Conaway members did not show up until 7:15AM and they never put on their yellow shirts as long as I was there, but they did hand out materials and tried to talk to just about every voter. The one makeshift Conaway sign did not arrive until about 9AM. No candidate for any other office had signs. The Conaway poll workers were VERY different than the people Belinda had out in Hampden on primary day. That day she had members of the police force hand out materials for her. Those men and women did very little work. Two of them stayed in a running air conditioned Yellow Ford Mustang take home Baltimore city police car for four hours. On Primary day I asked one cop how he could support Conaway after the way her father spoke about police. The cop calmly told me he did not care about that, he only cared about his pension. One of the cops lived in Anne Arundel County.

So why on earth did team Conaway try so hard this time, but clearly did not give out even half the effort during the primary campaign? I believe they thought that they were going to win on the Conaway name up until the final days of the primary campaign. When it became obvious the last name was not going to save them it was too late. Now they have put themselves in situation for further humiliation. They did try very hard this general election, but they may come in third place in Hampden!

I guess now would be a great time to share a Facebook message that Conaway supporter and former 12th district councilman wannabe Aaron Wilkes sent me on Sunday.   I had to edit out the N-word:

“you are a racist liar the way you attack the conaways because they wont uncle tom to you like hassan giordano and all those uncle ni—rs you have like nick mosby”

Artists need to learn to be proactive buyers and not reactionary complainers

Posted by ameister on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

The Baltimore Brew published a thought provoking article about an industrial building in Hampden that has been purchased by a developer. The building has been occupied by artists for a decade. I remember going to a party there in 2001 or 2002. The developer who plans to update the building for mixed use purposes is named David Tufaro. Tufaro is actually a real businessman and not some scam artist like most “developers” in Baltimore.

The artists and some community members are not pleased that Tufaro is about to modernize the building and displace the renting artists. Tufaro is legally buying the building, something the artists should have considered over the past decade. It is unfortunate when a renter has to leave because of a new owner, but it is also sad that so many artists do not see the opportunity that ownership provides. If you think you have found the next “underground” living space in Baltimore then I highly recommend that instead of paying the current owner rent, that you make him a a purchase offer so such future “unfortunate situations” can be avoided and so that you can totally dictate the socioeconomic makeup of your neighborhood,