Nobody asked me, but maybe more property owners should sue the spray-painting vandals who tag their buildings and businesses. Graffiti is out of control in many Baltimore commercial areas. It’s depressing and seems almost impossible to stop. But sometimes surveillance cameras catch taggers in the act. The other day, I saw still images of a young guy with a can of spray paint at 4 a.m. in Waverly. The camera caught him tagging Herman’s Discount on Greenmount Avenue. Ricky Herman, owner of the business, posted clear pictures of the vandal on his Facebook page. Seems to me that, if Herman can identify the tagger, he can sue him in District Court as a small claim (under $5,000). If he can sue him, he can score some restitution and take a bite out of the vandal’s paint budget. The whole neighborhood would benefit.
Nobody asked me, but I have discovered the reason why certain politicians oppose big public transit projects: They don’t want to get stuck with the blame for construction delays and eye-popping cost overruns. Consider Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor. In 2015, he killed the Red Line light rail system for Baltimore, then backed, with far fewer state funds than originally planned, the 16-mile Purple Line in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. That project is now expected to cost $4 billion more than originally estimated and not open for three more years, a full decade after construction started. That’s on Hogan’s record, and I’m sure he’ll hear about it during his Senate campaign.
Most politicians do not personally rely on the bus or train so they only have second-hand sympathy for those who do. Ben Ross, a longtime advocate of public transportation in Maryland, has a trenchant take on why big transit projects get so costly and messy: “You’ve got people who are fundamentally hostile [to public transportation projects] in charge, so they don’t care about whether they succeed.”
Nobody asked me, but I hope Cafe Poupon reopens somewhere soon and with the same presentation it offered at its Charles Street location before the pandemic — hot coffee in an individual stainless steel pot, ceramic cup and saucer with a complimentary macaron on the side. It was the most civilized brew in town.
Nobody asked me, but there are two major benefits to the return to weekly recycling in the city (versus the biweekly schedule Baltimore had kept since the pandemic). First, it’s again easy for citizens to remember when the trucks are coming; we don’t have to think so hard about it. And the second major benefit to weekly recycling: People finally stop bellyaching about biweekly recycling.
Nobody asked me, but if you think the official approvals of MCB’s Harborplace overhaul have moved too fast, you’re not alone. The Joseph Heller novel, “Something Happened,” opens with the line, “I get the willies when I see closed doors.” I get the willies when I see too many politicians and government officials lining up fast, with hardly a murmur of hesitation, to endorse a big, commercial redevelopment project on public land requiring hundreds of millions in public investment. Caveat civis.
Nobody asked me, but, what did Dr. Sherita Golden write that was so offensive, inaccurate or off-base? In January, the now-former chief diversity officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine defined “privilege” in an emailed newsletter, stating that white men and, more specifically, heterosexual Christian men, enjoy privilege in America. That’s hardly a radical idea; history says Golden was not wrong about that. But conservatives, who rail against efforts at diversity and inclusion on college campuses, went bonkers. That was predictable. A lot of white men do not want to hear that they enjoy certain unearned advantages; they’re kind of snowflakey that way. Too bad that officials at Johns Hopkins Medicine appeared to bend to the right-wing pressure when they said Golden’s words ran “counter to the values of our institution and mission.” But just how, I’m sure, many at Hopkins would like to know.
Nobody asked me but, in the Trump disqualification matter, the Supreme Court’s conservatives discarded the originalism they usually embrace and scurried away from the Constitution’s clear denial of future ballot positions for anyone who engages in insurrection. The justices left disqualification to Congress — that is, in political no man’s land.
For Mark Graber, the University of Maryland law professor and constitutional scholar, the ruling marked another failure to do what both Republicans and Democrats have had opportunities to do — reject Trump forever as a menace to democracy. Graber, considering the possibility of another Trump presidency, offered a dark take after Monday’s ruling: “Each of us will have one cause for solace as we watch constitutional collapse in the United States, Putin triumph in the East, and the disastrous carnage inflicted by global warming. This never would have happened, we will remind our neighbor, if everyone had agreed to our preferred means for stopping Trump.”
One last thing you didn’t ask for: If you celebrate Easter (March 31), and if you’re thinking Easter bunny, you might consider this: A $27 donation to Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services provides a rabbit to a small farmer or family in a developing country — not for stew, for manure. Apparently rabbit droppings make great fertilizer. Michigan State University’s extension service says “bunny honey” has four times more nutrients than cow or horse manure and does not need to be composted.
That’s it. My job is done here.