Over the years I have attended numerous tech events and meetings in Baltimore. The ideas and energy at these events are inspirational.  These people and ideas are mostly ignored by the establishment bureaucracy of Baltimore. The minute these young idealists encounter the monster Baltimore bureaucracy they begin to realize the unfortunate truth about Baltimore. If you are a smart person with a great idea and you quietly choose not to play by the bureaucratic rules of this city then there is no way your idea will ever be adopted by the government.  If you choose to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops, participate in all the time wasting  formalities, and play the archaic bureaucratic game then most likely your idea will still be rejected and you will be bitter and want nothing to do with this city.

Leaders talk about bringing people to Baltimore, but their slow bureaucratic actions and inability to adopt efficient mechanisms for change drive away countless great idealists who would rather take their talents to places where they will be welcomed instead of bogged down at every point in the game.

I am not the biggest fan of the mainstream national media, but it can not be denied that they provide a lot of exposure for whatever or whoever they choose to feature. Baltimore can always use the free positive publicity so I am looking forward to seeing what the people at NBC put together.  I will be watching channel 11 at 6:30 tonight!

Here is some of the footage that appears on NBC’s site.

I assume the encampment will be shut down soon. Apparently there are other groups that already have permits to use the area over the next five months. The city does not seem to like the permanent camping aspect of the encampment.

I hope that Occupy Baltimore can morph into a local movement that goes beyond a campsite. There is symbolism behind the campsite, but symbolism can only go so far in this world. Hopefully the people at Occupy Baltimore will read this recommendation of mine that I wrote two weeks ago.

Those of us who are unlucky enough to have open air drug markets on our block or on numerous nearby blocks are very familiar with the city’s inability to enforce its own laws on a regular basis. Open air drug markets are the ultimate slap in the face to productive social behavior.   Open air drug markets are signs of lawlessness and anarchy. They make it clear that this block is not under the same laws that Baltimore is supposed to be under. The police make all sorts of excuses about why they can not take care of the obvious problem. One of them is that there are not enough police in cars in the district. We all know there are tons of police in Baltimore, but many are behind desks or in internal affairs or physically unable to preform their job. The kind of cop that society is so familiar with (beat cop in the car or on the street) seems to be the least common in Baltimore. The bad guys know this, they know the odds are in their favor so they continue to conduct their anti-social dealings in front of children, seniors, and anyone else who may be unlucky enough to look out their window in the middle of the day.

In my neighborhood of Reservoir Hill you are more likely to get fined for somebody else’s trash in your backyard, or a chair on your front porch, or lack of a permit for that piece of  sheet rock you had to replace than you are to see a police car stop to deal with an open air drug market.

Baltimore has enough money to fund the housing inspectors, meter maids, and all the other tools with attitudes that harass and fine law abiding productive citizens and landlords, but they can’t get the obvious drug dealers off the streets.

What would happen if the home owners and landlords took an Occupy Baltimore stand and refused to pay the harassing fines they received? Does the city have enough manpower to make everyone play by the so-called rules if most people started to ignore them?

In these tough economic times I hope the city tells its inspectors to take it easy with the homeowner occupants in the neighborhoods filled with drug related lawlessness. It really is insulting to receive a useless fine when your block is haunted by open air drug markets and all the anti-social behavior that goes hand in hand with it.  Fines for nothing, permits for everything, all sorts of punishing taxes, and uncontrollable anti-social behavioral are major reasons people leave Baltimore, do not want to live in Baltimore, and do not want to do business in Baltimore.  The bureaucracy needs to prioritize soon before it loses complete control and drives even more productive people away.

“If you want to prevent nearby fracking then read this and go on Monday’s bus trip to Trenton
Ban fracking!

It’s time to take action and stop the Delaware River Basin Commission
from allowing “Big Oil” to use the dangerous & poisonous technique of Hydraulic Fracturing
(commonly called “fracking”) in the Delaware River water shed.

“The DRBC is a federal-interstate compact government agency that was
formed by concurrent legislation enacted in 1961 by the United States
and the four basin states (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and
Delaware). Its five members include the basin state governors and the
Division Engineer, North Atlantic Division, U.S. Army of Corps
Engineers, who serves as the federal representative. The commission
has legal authority over both water quality and water quantity-related
issues throughout the basin.”

If Hydraulic Fracturing is allowed, it will endanger public health by
seriously degrading the air and water quality of the Delaware River
basin – a watershed that 15 million people rely on for clean, drinkable water!

We can not let this Happen!!!

On November 21st 2011 we are taking a bus to Trenton New Jersey to show
them that we do not support this course of action. We cannot accept more
contamination to our water ways and air quality!

PLEASE, JOIN US! Get on this bus and show your support for friends, family,
and fellow citizens in neighboring states. This is a situation that affects us all and
we must take a stand.

Get on this bus. Register today.

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?event_KEY=72173

Thank you for your time and action towards this cause.

Sincerely,
Jazmin
&
Rich”

The concert had been promoted in the mainstream media since at least November 8th.  If the police and the government thought that an acoustic concert was a bad thing then they could have easily canceled it on Wednesday or Thursday instead of waiting until the last minute and potentially angering people who had planned to attend.  I would have had no problem with an early cancellation, but this move is suspicious to say the least.

64,378 Democrats voted in the 2011 primary election. Only 23,902 were men! Almost twice the amount of women voted.  There is no legitimate excuse for this embarrassing statistic. At least 10,000 more men need to take responsibility and vote in the primary election.

The number of young people who came out to vote in the primary was just as pathetic as the number of men. 14,802 Democrats who were between the ages of 25 and 44 voted in the 2011 primary. 16,804 of the Democrats who voted in the primary election were over 65.  Those two numbers generate a depressing comparison. People in the prime their lives allow people who are past their prime (and in some cases close to death) to electorally influence the future  of Baltimore more than they do. Young people need to wake up. Young people could quickly eliminate the tired old last names of Baltimore politics if they actually took a few minutes to vote every four years in citywide elections!

30,942 of the 64,378 Democrats who voted in the 2011 primary election were between the ages of 45 and 64. This is the number of Democrats who are between 25 and 44 that SHOULD be voting. There is no good reason why the total number of middle aged voters should be over double that of young voters.

All of these sad numbers show why women over 70 years old who have held office for decades like Agnes Welch and Rikki Spector easily win election after election. The young men who have little in common with these relics do not even bother to vote. This goes way beyond sex of the public official. If young people voted do you think Frank Conaway Sr. would still be holding a CITYWIDE office?

As a registered democrat male between the ages of 25 and 44 I can proudly say that I am part of the 8% (5,159/64,378).  Young men and women need to increase their numbers on election day 2015 in order to drastically alter the direction the city is going in.  I believe it can happen, it will just take an organized campaign or some type of once in a decade event. WAKE UP!

When idealistic young people and Baltimoreans with serious mental and drug issues get together and try and share a space, bad things can happen. Baltimore has a terrible homeless problem. The people who make up this population suffer from all sorts of afflictions that need professional help and maybe even imprisonment. Young middle class idealists are not properly equipped to handle what these seriously messed up people bring to the table in a communal situation. I have been to Occupy Baltimore and to Occupy San Francisco and some of the people sleeping at and roaming around these locations are homeless people who could care less about a “99% movement”. Occupy Baltimore people who want to focus on Baltimore’s economic problems should not be burdened with taking care of people that are virtually impossible to take care of.

There is no need for me to go on about the obvious problems that setting up an encampment (that has some free food) in a drug infested city will bring about. I hope the rational members (and I know a few personally) of Occupy Baltimore use the current situation as a jumping off point for a more focused and stronger Occupy Baltimore movement.

The following post by Casey McKeel from the Occupy Baltimore Google Group beautifully sums up what the movement could easily be (I predict big things for Casey in Baltimore):

“I think it’s time that we pay some thought to how we want to move forward and how we want to use our time and energy. We are faced with several hard challenges, and at the moment, I don’t think we have the resources to take them all on successfully. Do we want to create a safe encampment or do we want to focus on actions that work to truly raise awareness and bring about change in Baltimore? I feel that both are ambitious and noble causes, but are the two simultaneously achievable? In an ideal world, I’d like to say they are, but in light of recent events, I feel this might need to be reconsidered. Right now, I can personally say, more of my time and energy is being used to work to maintain an encampment, rather than work on the actions (marches, rallies, public meetings, teach-ins, etc) that I’m truly passionate about and that I feel are of great importance in this moment of global action and energy.

Occupy does not have to mean encampment. This is a movement, as a friend put it very well, that transcends any location. The people that have come together, the ideas and passion that have been shared here in Baltimore, and across the country, is incredibly inspiring. And I don’t think it needs to come to an end. But I do think, it is time to reconsider what we want our occupation to look like here in Baltimore. In order to be successful, we don’t have to replicate what’s going on in New York or in other cities. We need to do what works best for our city and the people involved here. This is what will build a lasting movement that is sustainable and effective.

At the moment, my personal opinion would be to end the encampment. To find a way to help those that are homeless, find a place to go (I’m not saying to abandon them!), and to redirect our resources. We could still use the square for General Assemblies, for teach-ins, for speakers, as a starting point or actions and marches, even for a shared nightly meal. But there are also other options, perhaps relocating, perhaps an indoor location, whatever the group feels is best; or if the Occupation is to continue the encampment at McKeldin, perhaps all logistical matters pertaining to the on-site location should be taken over by those sleeping over. However, I do think it’s time to think about this and how we want to move forward if our goal is to create a lasting change. I understand this will be a sensitive subject to those that have been down there every night, around the clock. But try to look at this long-term, about what is sustainable, and what would allow the most people to get involved.

I’m going to throw it out there – perhaps a transition from Occupy Baltimore to Liberate Baltimore…”

I hope the Occupy Baltimore participants keep their demands, messages, and goals simple and local. They should be persistent and not only occupy a space. Marches around Baltimore to various spots would also be effective. On a Google group I suggested that they demand open Baltimore City primary elections and an end to the Baltimore Development Corporation (the BDC). Open primaries and the absence of a BDC dictated development agenda would weaken the corporate power over the political process in Baltimore and give more political say to all voters of Baltimore no matter what their party affiliation is. They should use 13th district councilman Warren Branch as the prototypical Baltimore political corporate shill that is financed and influenced by corporate entities and desires instead of the people of Baltimore. This Baltimore Brew article could be used as a rallying point for those who want election/BDC reform in Baltimore

So after a few days off I wanted to post as soon as I could. Saturday night is not a big blog readership time anywhere so I am going to give you lucky readers an unusual post that might be considered a sneak peak of things to come.

Check out what this guy wants to see happen to the JFX. I wonder if people even half this creative work for the city?  There obviously are not many of them in the bureaucracy.

OccupyBaltimore is now following me on Twitter! What is this all about?

Did you make it this far? You will be happy if you did.

On October 10, 2011 the Baltimore Sun will start charging for online access. The Beta site for BaltimoreHourly.com will launch on October 10, 2011! Do you want more information? Do you want an invite to the Beta site? Do you know what I am talking about? Email me for details. Competition is a good thing!