B-More oh B-More.................Bodymore, Maryland?

Okay I know it's been a while. I haven't posted since the wee hours of Sunday morning. LoL. This afternoon while on a walk outside to stretch my legs, I finally thought of something to talk about besides my non-existent love life. LoL Basically this post is meant to be a little more sophisticated...a little more serious...a little more grown and sexy.... HaHa. So here goes.......

I work in downtown Baltimore, which means I live and work in the 18th largest city in the country. B-more has more people than Atlanta, Boston, and DC among other places. I bet someone out there didn't know that we were that big. Don't sleep on us in the mid-Atlantic. Anyway, my office is right across from the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards, and not that far from City Hall. Hmmm I know it seems I just figured out that downtown is the center of the city mmm but anyways it helped me realize that there is a lot happening here in Baltimore.

Right now there are plans in the works to build a new convention center hotel. The plan calls for a new hotel to be built right next to the Baltimore Convention Center, which is right next door to Camden Yards. The Baltimore City Council has been engrossed in hearings for months, and residents like me are anxious to see what the council finally decides. You see the new hotel would cost $305,000,000 dollars to build. The funding source would be revenue bonds aka municipal bonds. Okay not trying to bore anyone with technicalities, but basically it means the city will be funding this venture with public money, which means it's my money. Yes, I do pay taxes: local, state, and federal. If you break it down Baltimore will shell out over 400 dollars per resident of this city, and the population of the city is somewhere around 640,000. The city government wants this plan to go ahead in hopes that the hotel drums up enough business so that the hotel is deemed successful and they won't have to fork over any more dough.

So I'm thinking to myself we want the city with the most vacant houses of any city in this nation, a city with failing public schools, and a city with a high murder rate to have a new hotel. Hmm sounds good to me, ummm not. Sounds to me as if the city leaders are focused on doing more for those who care to visit this city, and not enough for those who are already here. Don't get me wrong; though Baltimore has its issues, as do all major cities, it's also a decent city. Our last mayor called Baltimore, the city that reads younger generations have taken to calling Baltimore, the city that bleeds, or the city that watches TV. While clever it's not really amusing. We are a city with a proud legacy, we are after all, home to the Orioles (yes, I can say that with pride now), home of the Ravens, home of the Inner Harbor, home of the National Aquarium, home of Fort McHenry (birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner), birth place of Babe Ruth and Thurgood Marshall among others. It is also home of the new Reginald F Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History, which stands not just as a symbol of pride for African Americans, but all Americans. Our current mayor calls Baltimore, the Greatest City in America; I would hope that the greatest city in America would do more for the everyday Baltimorean.

I can think of tons of other ways $305 million dollars can be spent, I propose the city try a combination of the following:

1) Improve the public school system (If our citizens are well-educated, they're well prepared for their future, which means they can do for themselves, and end up in situations where they do not live in danger and poverty.)
2) Improve public safety (big construction lights peering down on "high crime areas" is not the best we can do to deter crime)
3) Build affordable housing (hello we have vacant houses galore; question is How did a responsible city government let that happen?)
4) Improve our neighborhoods (there is more to Baltimore than the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Canton....let's revitalize the other neighborhoods here in Baltimore.)
5) Restore communities (What happened to the days where people knew their neighbors? Better yet, what happened to the days where kids had community centers which actually served their needs?)

Those are just five ways in which $305,000,000 will be better spent....and let me tell you, it looks and sounds like it'll benefit more people than a 752 room hotel.

I'm jumping off the soap box. Until next time this is CNEL$, from somewhere in Baltimore, Maryland.