Baltimore Beefs Two recent articles have me pondering the glacial ways of government and how process has become more important than progress.

In early May, Mayor Dixon held a "summit" regarding the proposed Red Line rapid transit route in Baltimore. The Red Line would run from the Social Security headquarters on the east side of town, through downtown and Harbor East, to the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus. In the face of increased traffic and expected population growth from new jobs moving to the area because of BRAC, the project’s benefits were obvious even before gas prices hit $4 a gallon.

This project has been on the drawing board for years. Two years ago, I went to a community meeting in Canton where city and state transportation officials presented schematic drawings of possible routes and station locations. What caught my eye was the comment that construction on the project could begin by 2012 with completion in 2016 (subject to funding, the website is quick to note).

That is eight years from now!

Mayor Dixon stated that community involvement is crucial. That's fine and important; but it is hard to understand why that should take more than the two years it has already been going on. As for funding, yes, it won’t come cheap at around $1 billion (think of the jobs). Nevertheless, this ought to be a pretty high priority for our political leaders at both the state and local level.

A second article noted that the City Board of Estimates' approval of a PILOT for the Fitzgerald, a new apartment project and parking garage that will benefit the University of Baltimore, was delayed nearly three years after requests for proposals were submitted. The developer of the project noted that, had he been doing the project on his own, he could have broken ground a year ago. What was the cost of that delay?

Last year I went to an exhibit in New York on Robert Moses. Moses built parks, highways, bridges, playgrounds (658 of them), housing, tunnels, beaches, and civic centers; and he is largely credited (and criticized) for the New York City we all know today.

Moses was controversial and not all of his projects were considered successful. Like our Mayor Schaefer, he was a “get it done now” kind of leader who was impatient and disdained his critics. Moses famously said, “Those who can, build; those who can’t, criticize”.

We could use a little of that spirit in getting the City’s Red Line built a lot faster.

One cautionary note, however: Since I didn’t build it, I am going to criticize the new Hilton Hotel that now pollutes the view from beyond Camden Yards. The hotel may be necessary, but was it necessary to make it so ugly? Its presence detracts from the beauty of Oriole Park and will be a stain on Baltimore’s skyline for generations.

Note to Mayor Dixon, please get it done now, but make sure it looks nice. Generations of Baltimoreans will thank you.  11:15 AM •  0 Comments • Links to this post

Should Obama Punch Hillary’s Ticket? After almost five months of primaries and caucuses, with almost as many elected and super delegates as Obama, Hillary Clinton and her supporters can make a case that she deserves to be on his ticket.

It’s a legitimate case, worthy of some consideration, but not much. Hillary’s negatives would be a burden to Obama.

When Hillary went negative to negate Obama, her negatives soared. In New Hampshire, Obama said that Hillary was likeable enough, but today not enough people like her. Polls show that her negatives now outweigh her positives.

Plus, Hillary and Bill are now a double negative that has been over exposed. Bill accomplished what his impeachers couldn’t. His petty performance diminished him, and deep-sixed his wife.

As the first serious woman candidate for president, Hillary could have claimed the theme of change from Obama. Voters wanted inspiration, not experience. In a year of change, she didn’t get it so she won’t get it.

That said, Obama needs to extend an olive to the branch of the party that supported Hillary. Too many Hillary supporters say they will vote for McCain or stay at home. A dream ticket is doubtful, so who else is on the list?

A double play would be New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson who could counter McCain’s foreign policy experience and appeal to Hispanics whom Obama needs to capture. But Richardson is too nice a guy, and Clintonistas like Carville consider him a traitor for switching his allegiance to Obama.

How about Hillary supporter Strickland of Ohio. Who’s he you ask? So will most Americans.

In keeping with his theme of change and to capitalize on Hillary’s support with women, a particularly intriguing choice would be Missouri’s Senator Claire McCaskill.

But Obama himself epitomizes the change that he espouses. Too much change may be too much.

What Obama needs to do is reassure a public that will like his youth but question his experience. He needs to reach out to the moderate democratic demographic that supported Hillary. He needs someone tough to tackle McCain. The GOP is already selling fear. He needs someone that the Republicans will fear.

And if he can swing someone from a swing state, so much the better.

Memo to Barack: the tough guy you need has been a district attorney and a big city mayor. He carried Clinton to a win in the key Keystone State that you’ll need in November. This is a guy who can land a punch on the GOP for you. Pick the man from PA – Ed Rendell.  8:59 AM •  0 Comments • Links to this post

Maryland’s Democratic Delegate Math According to CNN, as of today, Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton by 139 delegates in the race for the Democratic Party nomination. Only real political junkies can explain how the Democratic Party apportions its delegates; but the net effect of this arcane process is that if Obama and Hillary continue to split the remaining primaries, Obama will still lead in the number of committed delegates when the voting is all done. He is also likely to continue his lead in the national popular vote and will have won more states than Hillary.

That’s why the focus is on the Party’s “super delegates” and how they will vote. Clinton says that each super delegate needs to make his or her own judgment and vote for the candidate who can win in November. Obama says super delegates should follow the popular will of democratic voters in the primaries and vote for the candidate who has won the most delegates.

After the primary election in 1980 when Ted Kennedy tried to pry away delegates committed to Jimmy Carter, the Party created the Hunt Commission to come up with new rules to govern how delegates elected in primaries or caucuses should vote. Rather than requiring elected delegates to be bound to a particular candidate, the guidelines were loosened to require elected delegates pledged to a particular candidate to vote for that candidate “in good conscience”. But Members of Congress still complained that they didn’t have enough say in the party nominating process; so the Hunt Commission created the concept of super delegates. Like the old soviet politburo, party officials were given a special role in the nominating process. The concept was that by virtue of their exquisite political sensibilities, elected officials would be best able to respond to “changing circumstances" and exercise their judgment to pick the best nominee.

Since then, the primary process has served up the nominee without controversy, and the judgment of super delegates hasn’t been put to the test. Though in retrospect, the savvier of them might have saved the Party from the Dukakis debacle of 1988.

It is pretty clear from reading the Hunt Commission report that super delegates were created precisely to deal with a situation like that Party is facing today. Jim Hunt, the eponymous chair of the Commission said that elected officials could serve a role choosing the Party’s nominee by making a “reasoned choice" when the will of the voters is not clear.

What is at stake is the meaning of "reasoned choice". If “reasoned choice” means responding to “changing circumstances”, then it is hard to see what circumstances would require super delegates to reverse the vote of Democratic Party voters.

The case for following the will of the voters is especially compelling here in Maryland. Super delegates would be hard pressed to give a reasoned explanation as to why they should allow Hillary to win a majority of their votes after Obama won Maryland’s democratic primary by a super margin of 25 percentage points (61% to 36%). Obama won 27 delegates to Clinton’s 19. Yet by one count, of the 27 Super Delegates in Maryland, ten are committed to Clinton and only four are committed to Obama; 13 remain undecided. For Obama to equal his margin of victory in the primary, he would need to get a total of 16 super delegates. To do that, he would need 12 of the remaining 13 uncommitted delegates, or get some committed to Hillary to switch their allegiance.

The Hunt Commission gave the super delegates the ability to exercise discretion. But absent a compelling reason, Maryland’s super delegates ought to reinforce the will as expressed by the voters in last month’s primary and cast their votes for Obama.  9:47 AM •  0 Comments • Links to this post

Cell Phony The past three days, world markets have been whipsawed over concern that the credit crisis is going to lead to a recession in the US. Congress and the President in a rare moment of bi-partisanship are rushing a stimulus package to bring confidence back to the markets, even while it is acknowledged that whatever stimulus is agreed to won’t have an immediate effect.

In Maryland, it is time to throw out last fall’s revenue projections as the downturn in the real estate market will likely extend through 2008. The sales tax increase may only soften somewhat the decline in retail sales tax receipts as worried consumers extend their cautious buying well into the New Year.

Prices at the pump are pinching consumers’ pockets and declining home sales are going to similarly pinch the flow of revenues into the state’s bank account.

The state’s revenue picture will be much worse than projected last fall. The Governor has already played his hand on taxes in the special session last fall before the extent of the credit and housing crisis was known. Now he won’t have much room to maneuver and will have to look to spending cuts to balance the budget.

When the world is falling around your ears, it’s better to find other things to talk about. If you are a member of the Maryland General Assembly and are powerless to stop the credit crisis or the decline in the value of everyone’s home, and you want improve the common good, what do you do? How about introducing a bill to ban the use of hand held cell phones while driving?

Telling people they can’t use hand held phones in their cars is like telling teenagers to just say no to sex. It sounds nice but it isn’t reality. Cell phones have become one of life’s necessities, like cars and computers. We all drive and talk on our phones even though we know it is distracting and potentially dangerous. You don’t need to look at statistics to know that. I use a hands free and I still find that distracting, but no more distracting than kids fighting in the back seat or having an argument with your girlfriend (mine once got pulled over for going 85 in a 60 mile hour zone while yelling at me about something that I am sure justified the $150 fine she had to pay).

Even if a law is passed, this one is guaranteed to be broken by everyone. Enforcement will necessarily be selective. Like speeding, everyone will do it and take the chance of being caught.

Legislators are always looking for ways to do something to justify their pay and existence. It is an understandable human trait. In this case, instead of doing something, we should be satisfied to pay them just to stand there.

Labels: cell phones, legislature, Maryland

  7:39 AM •  0 Comments • Links to this post

Danger for the Democrats? After the split results from Iowa and New Hampshire, it now looks entirely possible that ‘Tsunami Tuesday’ Feb 5, when 22 states hold their primaries, might not decide the democratic nominee for president. The race would move to Maryland and Virginia which hold primaries the next week. Assuming the race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton remains up in the air, the role of the party’s super delegates, consisting of its elected officials and party leaders will start to loom over the selection process.

It is not surprising that race has emerged as a sticky issue in the democratic primaries. Barack Obama is the first African American with a legitimate chance to win his party’s nomination. What is surprising is that Hillary’s campaign was responsible for bringing the issue into the public debate with her clumsy comments about Martin Luther King and potential first husband Bill’s reference to Obama’s positions being a “fairy tale”.

Hillary and Bill have to be extremely careful in criticizing Obama. Even Hillary’s campaign message that her experience should trump Obama’s message of hope carries with it the subtext that Obama needs to wait his turn. This condescension is guaranteed to raise the ugly image of a black man not being ready for the White House.

New Hampshire demonstrated the power of identity politics when Obama patronized Hillary as being “nice enough”. Both this episode and Hillary’s emotional moment motivated women to come to the polls in unprecedented numbers for Hillary and enabled her to claim an upset in a state that she had been leading by more than 20 points a few short months ago.

Democrats have relied on black votes to win races around the country and bring them the presidency. With Obama having a real chance, blacks will be able to vote for one of their own notwithstanding Bill Clinton’s prior support in the black community. So, criticizing Obama carries grave hazards for Clinton and the party.

If Clinton wins but she is perceived to cross a racial line in her criticism of Obama, black voters may feel burned. And if the super voters end up choosing her as the party’s nominee, blacks might believe that their best hope got the shaft by the party’s leaders.

Even the Clinton’s record with the black community might not be enough to overcome the resentment that might engender. It probably won’t mean that blacks will vote for the republican candidate, but they could stay home in critical swing states like Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.

With a small turnout of black voters in those states, even in a year when the political winds are strongly behind the democrats, could result in democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory next November.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, Obama, politics, Race

  4:47 PM •  1 Comments • Links to this post

Baltimore on the Bosphorus? The Laureate Connection. It might seem a bit of a stretch to connect Baltimore to the city of Istanbul where historians say the Christian Church began in 325 AD in Constantinople with the Nicene Creed. There are few similarities between Baltimore and this ancient city of more than 10 million people.

But surprisingly, there is a Baltimore connection with Istanbul, and it runs through the headquarters of Baltimore based Laureate Education, Inc. Laureate has a joint venture with Istanbul’s Bilgi University, one of Turkey’s fastest growing private universities.

Bilgi University is Laureate’s stake in a country of more than 70 million people with a rapidly growing population. With an average age of about 26, Turkey is the youngest country in the European Community.

Only ten years old, Bilgi University has ten thousand students that are divided between two modern facilities - more a series of interconnected buildings than a college campus. One of Bilgi’s missions is to combine higher education with social responsibility. It built its undergraduate facility just a few years ago in an area that was previously a slum. Now the area is in the midst of being revitalized with cafés and shops that cater to the students. The Johns Hopkins medical complex in east Baltimore could learn something from Bilgi about how a university can transform a neighborhood.

Bilgi’s modern and functional buildings are a far cry from our state’s large College Park campus. For one thing, there are no multi-million dollar athletic facilities; in fact, there are no sports teams. Bilgi is a commuter school: think University of Baltimore, not College Park. Recognizing the need to educate its students to compete in the global economy, all coursework and classes at Bilgi University are conducted in English. Bilgi is not unique in Turkey in this regard; surprisingly, there are ten Turkish universities that also conduct classes in English.

Bilgi targets students from middle class backgrounds, but the cost of tuition at around $14,000 a year is hardly middle class in a country where the average income is about $5,000. There are no student loans, but the government mandates that tuition scholarships be awarded to 10 percent of its students.

Laureate and Bilgi want to double the size of the university to 20,000 students in five years, and has ambitious plans to expand campuses throughout Turkey and set up similar universities in the Middle East, Russia and countries like Kazakhstan.

The Laureate story in Turkey stands in sharp contrast to the depressing news from the Middle East. Turkey is modernizing at a fast pace and as its middle class grows, Laureate is helping to meet the growing demand for higher education for young people who want to learn in English. This is a hopeful sign for Turkey, and for Laureate.

Labels: Baltimore, education, Johns Hopkins, Laureate

  8:37 AM •  0 Comments • Links to this post

Readers Survey - What do you think? I have written about what’s on my mind, what’s on yours? Here are some national and local issues that I hope will elicit a response.

Radio shock jock Don Imus has dominated the talk shows with the reaction to his comments on the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Is his apology enough, or should he be fired?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently went to the Middle East and met with Syrian President Assad. She has been praised for reaching out to our enemies while others call her naïve. Did her trip help or hurt how the U.S. is perceived in the Middle East?

Maryland is facing a structural deficit. It looks like the Governor may propose new taxes on services to raise more revenue. There already have been proposals to raise gas and tobacco taxes.

Should gas taxes be raised in Maryland? Would it make a difference to you whether the money is used for creating more roads or improving public transportation?

Do you think taxes on tobacco should be raised and the proceeds used to provide health insurance to the working poor?

Was the Maryland General Assembly right to ban smoking in restaurants?

A few weeks ago, the City Council approved a pay raise for itself and the Mayor. Do you think they deserve it? If you live in the city, would that affect how you vote?

Whether you live in the city or not, are you satisfied with the current candidates for Mayor of Baltimore and who would you vote for? If not, who would you like to see enter the race?

The race for President has already started. Fundraising among the candidates is at an all-time high. Is there a defining issue for you in this race? Is America ready to elect a woman (Hillary) or an African-American (Obama) President?

Labels: Imus, Mayor, Race, Tobacco

  10:57 AM •  3 Comments • Links to this post