Baltimore: Middle of the drunken pack

Well, it could have been better, but it could have been worse. Baltimore is the 46th safest drunken city in a recent survey by Men’s Health magazine. Not bad out of 100.

The survey, which is being reported by KNBC in Los Angeles, looked at drunken driving, liver disease, and other alcohol-induced crimes. But seriously folks, I have never felt that Baltimore is a city that drinks to excess, though we are prone to a certain type of brew.

However, some of our neighbors are more extreme examples from the survey. Richmond, Va. was the ninth best, while Washington was the eighth-worst.

So what do you think? Is Baltimore really that much safer than Washington when it comes to alcohol consumption?

-ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

Baltimore: becoming safer by comparison?

A new list of the nation's most dangerous cities is out, and Baltimore didn't even make it into the top 10 - just a lowly 12. (In context, Washington, D.C. is No. 27, and New Orleans is No. 65).

The controversial report, issued by CQ Press and based on the FBI's crime statistics, considered 378 cities with at least 75,000 people. It took into account per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.

Here's their top 10 most dangerous:

1. Detroit, Michigan
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Flint, Michigan
4. Oakland, California
5. Camden, New Jersey
6. Birmingham, Alabama
7. North Charleston, South Carolina
8. Memphis, Tennessee
9. Richmond, California
10. Cleveland, Ohio.

The AP reports that critics argue the study isn't making accurate comparisons:

"You're not comparing apples and oranges; you're comparing watermelons and grapes," said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI section that puts out ... the data for the Quitno report.

As for the safest, here's the top 5:

1. Mission Viejo, California
2. Clarkstown, New York
3. Brick Township, New Jersey
4. Amherst, New York
5. Sugar Land, Texas

It should be noted that the media blitz may be motivated, in part, by CQ Press's publication of a $49 book, City Crime Rankings.

Based on your travels, which cities would be in your top 10 list?

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Re-Dew the Dew…

One of this year’s most exciting downtown events is coming back next year: the AST Dew Tour.

With flying skateboarders and death-defying motocross tricks, June’s spectacle drew about 55,000 people over four days to the Camden Yards Sports Complex.

The Maryland Stadium Authority said yesterday that the only thing in doubt was where exactly the four-day event would be held.

In June, it was set up in the parking lot between the two stadiums. The problem for 2008 is that the Orioles are in town during the time Dew is usually setting up and during the first day of competition.

The MSA is trying to work out a deal to let them use those same parking lots. (Here’s a question: Shouldn’t the MSA have asked the team to be on the road all week as opposed to June 19-24?)

My question is why do they need to work out a deal? Really, do any of us believe that many people are going to an Orioles’ games on a Thursday night in late June? Couldn’t the MSA arrange parking at a gas station somewhere?

Or am I to believe the Orioles are concerned that their fans aren’t going to have anywhere to park? If they are, then big things might be happening in the executive suites that the rest of us aren’t privy to. It’s been a long time since this team has given fans anything to be excited about in mid-summer.

I guess all that remains now is to see if the Orioles make a deal with the MSA to let Dew in or if they rebuild this team and give long-suffering fans a reason to go to the stadium.

What do you think’ll happen? Call me cynical, but my bet is that more people will watch the exploits of Bucky Lasek than Nick Markakis in June 2008.

-LOUIS LLOVIO, Business Writer

Update on Alabanza

As of 3:30pm this afternoon, many former Alabanza clients were still without their sites – and NaviSite was still scrambling to fix the issue.

NaviSite explains:

The primary concentration in resolving outstanding issues has been to bring up all of the name servers - as we continue to collaborate with Cisco to handle Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) issues.

As we were bringing more name servers online, ARP requests were overloading the network. As a result, we have been focusing squarely on ensuring the overall stability of the network.

It boggles the mind that it's now day four of the outage.

Assistant Business Editor Ben Mook is writing about the sale of Alabanza's Baltimore-based hosting business, the company's retention of Baltimore Technology Park, and the weekend's disastrous move in tomorrow's paper.

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Oh, construction debris is frightful…

Yes, forecasters are calling for possible snow in Western Maryland this week, but hasn’t it been a little warm in Baltimore?

Well, if you’ve looked out of your downtown window and seen white powder swirling around, you’re not crazy, and it’s not residue from the Domino Fire.

Photographer Max Franz and I traveled by foot to the West Side Monday to check out some buildings for a story, and we captured an interesting spectacle.

A building near the corner of Howard and Franklin streets is shedding white foam as builders work on a re-siding project. The wind is catching the detritus and swirling it all around. As I write this on Monday evening, foam is still clinging to my socks. I’ve seen it as far east as Park Ave.

Have you experienced the foam, and is it OK with you that this is littering our beautiful downtown?

-ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

Photograph by Maximilian Franz

Over-hauling technology

Thousands of web sites (or more), formerly hosted by Baltimore-based Alabanza, have been down for almost three days - and the frustrated clients are holding Alabanza's new owner, Massachusetts-based NaviSite, responsible.

Over the weekend, NaviSite physically moved the servers from the Baltimore data center (think tractor-trailers) to a new home.

Unfortunately, many of Alabanza's clients (who lease the servers from the company to power their Web sites) say they weren't informed this was happening. And when complications arose, the situation worsened.

One client I spoke with this morning said she had 60 sites affected; she knows others who have thousands of sites, many still inaccessible right now.

These clients are converging online, sharing their stories and passing on tidbits on forums.

For its part, NaviSite writes on its Web site:

“We've run into a number of unexpected issues during the migration process. Ultimately, it is taking us longer to move [Alabanza clients] to this new environment than we had anticipated.

“As of 10 a.m. Monday morning, we believe we are down to a couple of gating issues that, when completed, will have the significant majority of you up and running by 1 p.m. EST today and close to 100% of the environment up by this evening.”

Are any of those affected able to share their experiences?

What kind of disruption has this caused your business?

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

An issue of (gun) control

One of the contributors to Red Maryland scoffed today at City Councilman Jim Kraft's attempt to bring legislative powers to the Baltimore City Council to regulate guns.

"The faith of liberals in laws, no matter how sporadically or inefficiently enforced, never ceases to amaze," writes RM's streiff.

For his part, Kraft argued at Monday's council meeting, "Our colleagues in other parts of the state don't really understand the severity of the gun problem in Baltimore. We need to be able to pass our own laws."

streiff's argument:

1. The criminals in Baltimore who use firearms -- and there are many -- wouldn't be deterred by the prospect of breaking a law.

2. It has been "fairly well documented" that Baltimore juries are reluctant to convict accused felons. (Can any attorneys speak to this?)

The situation's definitely a bleak one, but Streiff seems to be of the opinion that there's nothing we can do to curb the illegal use of firearms in the city ("assuming for the sake of argument that criminals can be deterred at all").

Would a stricter gun control law have any effect on violent crime, and should the City Council be able to pass one?

Is there anything that can be done legislatively, or are outreach programs and community centers a better approach?

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Singing Baltimore’s praises

When Prairie Home Companion impresario Garrison Keillor takes his radio variety show on the road, to venues outside his home base of St. Paul, Minn., he usually writes and sings a song about the city that he’s visiting.

And the broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” from the Hippodrome Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 13, was no exception. Keillor composed a catchy song about Baltimore, which perfectly caught the spirit and quirkiness of our city.

Here are the lyrics of the song, which you can hear on the Internet here. (I didn’t recognize the tune, which may be original, although Keillor frequently adapts his songs to other, well-established music.)

Keillor had many nice things to say about Baltimore, and it’s well worth listening on the Internet to the entire broadcast, if you didn’t hear it on Saturday night on National Public Radio (or even if you did).

Baltimore, Baltimore

Lying near the Eastern Shore

Not Washington or New York

Baltimore my Baltimore

Camden Yards and Pimlico

Little houses in a row

Home of Edgar Allan Poe

Baltimore my Baltimore

Baltimore, on the Bay

Crabs fried or sauté

Life is just a big buffet

Baltimore my Baltimore

Gimme a plate of steamed crabs

A pair of pliers, a mallet perhaps

With a napkin in our laps

Baltimore my Baltimore

It’s the city of crustaceans

Fifty different combinations

Baltimore’s crustacean-nation

Baltimore my Baltimore

Waiting for the oyster truck

Hose ’em down and get ’em shucked

And toss the shells on the rug

Baltimore my Baltimore

Let’s go to Fells Point

Dive bars and breakfast joints

The omelets do not disappoint

Baltimore my Baltimore

Babe Ruth’s birthplace is near

John Waters made a great career

Anne Tyler, she lives here

Baltimore my Baltimore

Climb the hill on Charles Street

Hear an autumn melody

From Peabody Conservatory

Baltimore my Baltimore

Mount Vernon, Federal Hill

Looking for a corner grill

Need some crab, I’m hungry still

Baltimore my Baltimore

Baltimore, Baltimore

Lying on the Eastern Shore

Not Washington or New York

Baltimore my Baltimore

In looking up other Baltimore-related songs on the Internet, I came across one, entitled “My Baltimore Song,” which is on a Web site associated with the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Council. In 1977, songwriter Randy Newman released a song entitled “Baltimore”, which is much less complimentary of Charm City.

Are there other Baltimore-centric songs out there? Which one do you prefer?

-PAUL SAMUEL, Associate Editor

A marathon post

I’d love to write about how I’m getting ready to run the Baltimore Marathon. But I can’t because, frankly, that would be a lie.

In all truth, I drive 26.2 miles and I’ve got stop twice to use the bathroom and once to stretch my legs. So, running it will have to wait for another day.

That doesn’t mean I’m not a fan of marathons, though. Three years ago I got the opportunity to travel to Germany and watch a friend of mine, Bill Gries, run in the Berlin Marathon.

Let me tell you, I’m a lifelong sports fan who has been to my fair share of sporting events, but I’d never seen anything like that. To see that mass of people taking on one of the toughest physical challenges imaginable is a sight to behold.

What makes it so awe-inspiring is not the spectacle; it’s seeing people in all shapes and sizes, in all age groups, running together as miles of spectators cheer them on. And, the farther back and the more out of place a runner is, the louder the cheers are.

Baltimore’s marathon, while not as large as Berlin’s, evokes the same kind of feelings. It’s astonishing to see the 22-year-old track star running alongside, however briefly, the 70-year-old living out a life-long dream.

If you get a chance to do it, trust me, set out your chairs and watch. You won’t regret it.

As for me, well, I’m hoping my wife will buy me a Segway in the next few days so I don’t have to walk all the way from the car to my spot on the sidewalk.

-LOUIS LLOVIO, Business Writer

New York Times upsets Bill Struever

Bill Struever was a little riled up Thursday morning as he addressed folks who were about to take the Baltimore Development Corp.’s 2007 Baltimore City Real Estate Tour.

What had the founder of Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse upset was a New York Times story that appeared Thursday that suggested – OK it said – that Baltimore’s revival was being slowed by the “turmoil in the national economy.”

Actually, to me, the story didn’t put Baltimore in that bad a light. And it certainly laid the fault on the national economy – not on anything that was or wasn’t done locally. But I’m not a developer with tens of millions of dollars on the line.

Anyway, at the beginning of a 10-minute welcome at the impressive Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, Struever – dressed much more casually (jeans and a plaid button-down shirt) than any of the other 200 or so attendees -- said he wasn’t happy.

“If you give me that reporter and let me drive him around town for two hours, I’ll straighten him out,” Struever said.

He mentioned the article twice more in the welcome.

Did you see the article? Was the reporter correct about Baltimore? Do you think Struever had reason to be upset?

-ED WALDMAN, Managing Editor, Business

No questions for health

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department, is the latest guest blogger to present his "audacious idea" on the new blog of the same name.

Sharfstein centers his post on his frustration with the dearth of health-related questions raised at community meetings:

But that first question went to the Department of Transportation ....Then the second did too. As the minutes and then hours went by, I sat like a stone. No questions for Health.

According to Sharfstein, the few questions he has fielded are mostly concerning rat eradication. Reminds me of colleague Andy Rosen's post about dead pigeons.

We all know the city of Baltimore faces a host of problems, all of which are pressing; but is health really at the bottom of the list?

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Downtown Partnership: "Center Plaza has growth potential"

Strolling downtown (PDF), I’ve often marveled at the way the crowds thin out as I make my way away from the Inner Harbor up Charles Street. Sure, the area around City Hall — and lately the area around Charles Center — seem to be busy at lunch time, and Mount Vernon is busy at night.

Still, it seems like tourists and others who aren’t familiar with Baltimore are reluctant to travel north of Pratt Street, let alone Baltimore Street. I saw something different last night at the recently-updated Center Plaza, where the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. brought together hundreds for its annual meeting.

Guests described an area with the potential for growth in retail and entertainment where flat, somewhat uninviting concrete and several empty storefronts stood as recently as a year ago.

Is it possible that Center Plaza, once a key piece of Charles Center’s 1960s redevelopment effort, could begin to draw visitors northward? What do you envision there, and is there any value to keeping tourists by the water so we locals can have the rest of the city to ourselves?

-ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

‘Audacious ideas,’ anyone?

Want to know who has the most “audacious ideas” to improve Baltimore? If so, you might want to connect with Audacious Ideas, a new blog launched by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore that was created to stimulate ideas and discussion about solutions to difficult problems in Baltimore.

The George Soros-funded institute launched the blog only a week ago, on Sept. 10, with a posting by OSI-Baltimore Director Diana Morris laying out the parameters of the site.

This week’s entry is by Baltimore City School CEO Andres Alonso; in it, he urges schools to rethink themselves as "part of a supportive, connected ecology that embraces innovation and a rethinking of what cities, neighborhoods and schools offer a citizenship in need of a reinvention of teaching and learning."

Deborah Rubino, OSI-Baltimore’s director of communications, says the blog “is by invitation at this moment. But my feeling is that this is really going to be an evolving thing.

“OSI believes in the idea of discussion and debate, and that all members of our society should be able to be participants,” Rubino said. “At this point, we want for people to go to the blog and comment on what’s there.”

Future bloggers who will post their ‘Audacious Ideas’ include Dr. Josh Scharfstein, Baltimore City health commissioner; Hathaway Ferebee, director of Baltimore Safe and Sound; Victor Capoccia, program director of OSI's new national initiative to close the drug treatment gap; and Jane Sundius, director for the education and youth development program at OSI-Baltimore.

Then, too, you can always come to The Daily Record’s blog to see what’s on our mind. We, also, invite your comments to any of our postings.

What are some of your "audacious" ideas?

-PAUL SAMUEL, Associate Editor

Is this election really necessary?

In a city like Baltimore, with voter registration skewed overwhelmingly toward one political party, do we really have to go through the motions of a primary and a general election?

How about one non-partisan election with runoffs when needed?

-TOM LINTHICUM, Executive Editor

Special education--public or private?

For parents of disabled children in Maryland, it has to seem like there's no good choice for their children’s education.

After reading this afternoon that more than 30 Baltimore city school bus drivers are refusing to work because their paychecks bounced, I happened upon an AP story that, for a moment, had me thinking privatization may be the answer.

Former social worker Mark Claypool entered the world of private, for-profit special education schools in 1999. Now his company, Educational Services of America, operates more than 120 schools in 16 states (none in Maryland). The company generated $75 million in revenue this year.

ESA, based in Nashville, Tenn., partnered with a private equity firm in 2004. It also receives funding from vouchers, state contracts and, of course, tuition, which ranges from $8K to $49K per year, depending upon the student's needs.

One of ESA's competitors is Baltimore-based Alternatives Unlimited, founded by Dr. Stuart Berger, who served as superintendent of both Baltimore County’s and Frederick County’s school systems. Berger also received a law degree from the University of Maryland.

But Berger's company doesn’t operate any schools in Maryland. Although the company Web site says Berger "conceived Alternatives Unlimited because of his deep concern about the number of students who 'fall through the cracks' in public education, especially in urban school districts," the nearest A.U. schools are in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Maybe that's because of the controversy surrounding his tenure in Baltimore Co., including his "inclusion" program that reassigned many disabled students to mainstream schools.

How about it? Who should (and can) serve Maryland special education students best: private companies (any takers?) or the public system?

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Down to The Wire

The Wire has reached the end of the reel…

Yep, after five years of portraying Baltimore as a den of sleaze and corruption with ambitious young politicians making hay out of troubled schools, rampant murder and drug trafficking, production has shut down.

And I, for one, am thrilled! Baltimore, a city beset with violence and drugs? Come on, gimme a break!

That’s not my town. Baltimore is a place where people BELIEVE and Get In On It, not shoot each other on the street. Portraying it otherwise is a disgrace and scares away tourists who are afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.

Right? Well…

There are those who have said exactly that—that The Wire has somehow helped give Baltimore a bad name, as if we haven’t done a bang-up (pun intended) job of that ourselves.

What do you think? Are you happy to see The Wire coming to an end? What do you think of it as a television show? What about the estimated $100 million in direct spending and $200 million in economic impact during its five-year run, according to the state Department of Business and Economic Development? Are you glad to see that go, too?

Sound off! Let us hear from you.

As for me, when I leave my downtown office before sundown today and head north on the subway to my home in the suburbs, I will shout out a hearty farewell. At least until the show’s last season surfaces on HBO, likely early next year.

-LOUIS LLOVIO, Business Writer