Baltimore Grand Prix

Bluegrass, Jimmy's Famous Seafood and Ryleigh's make a good showing at Baltimore Grand Prix. I had a good time at the Baltimore Grand Prix . I'll share the same observation about the environment within the race grounds that I would about a restaurant I was reviewing. People were having a good time. I think the crowd for this event  was highly self-selecting. That created a crowd almost entirely free of grousers and malcontents. I was very pleased to see Baltimore restaurants represented within the grounds.

The promoter of last year's Starscape Festival says a new event he's marketing that targets a similar audience won't have the safety problems associated with last year's June concert. Promoter Evan Weinstein says he wants to disassociate the new Moonrise Festival from the issues of Starscape last year. City officials said Starscape, the long-running electronic dance event at Fort Armistead Park, could not return because of issues at last year's concert, including overcrowding and drug overdoses.

As long time fans of the CART racing series, which has evolved into the Indy Car Racing League, and as race attendees in Denver, Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Road America over the years, my husband and I were thrilled when the city of Baltimore announced its intention to host an Indy Grand Prix. For its inaugural effort, Baltimore did a fantastic job. Though some kinks need to be worked out (fan entrance and exit fluidity, additional race car passing zones), Baltimore was in some ways superior to other race venues we have been to. The grandstands were easily accessible.

Some Baltimore legislators, determined to win state approval of the city's ambitious plan to launch a $2.4 billion, 10-year overhaul of the state's aging school facilities, are actively considering bringing in the Maryland Stadium Authority to provide construction expertise and financial oversight. The lawmakers' concern is that some state leaders who are otherwise sympathetic to the plight of Baltimore schoolchildren have concerns that the city school system lacks the ability on its own to manage a project of that scope.

Among the tens of thousands of fans who came this weekend for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix were a large number of racing rookies. They were attracted for a variety of reasons — fast cars, a party atmosphere and the idea of supporting their hometown. For Tim Trochimowicz of Pasadena, it was the free tickets he won in a raffle outside the local Giant supermarket. "There was a band playing outside the Giant and people were putting their cards in for a raffle," Trochimowicz recalled.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakewould like to see the grand prix bring Baltimore to world's attention. However, last year the Ravens brought Baltimore to the world's attention when it was in the AFC championship game. I hope we stay with a winner! Jim Holechek, Baltimore

As the dust settles and rain washes away the last vestiges of this year's Baltimore Grand Prix, I hope everyone reflects on the past few days in a way that allows them to see the potential and excitement of this event, rather than spend time complaining about what went wrong ("After Grand Prix, crews hustle to clear streets," Sept. 4). I moved to Baltimore from Paris, France, in 1998, and I'm originally from Montreal, Canada, a city that hosts its own Grand Prix (albeit of the Formula 1 kind)

The extent of the financial liabilities of the Baltimore Grand Prix promoters is a continuing revelation, but let's face it: The race had "bad idea" written all over it from the beginning ("Papers say Grand Prix debts over $12 million," Dec. 8). Yes, the event generated some revenue for downtown hotels and restaurants, but has anyone calculated the cost to the environment? And what was the expense of tying up the downtown for months in advance and virtually shutting it down the first day of the race?

January 1. A dropped pass and a missed field goal keep Joe Flacco and the Ravens out of the Super Bowl. February 2. Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson becomes Mr. Super PAC by pumping millions into Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign. 3. Riots in Athens kick off a year of public unrest over the European debt crisis . March 4. Federal regulators approve Chicago-based Exelon's takeover of Constellation Energy , leaving Baltimore without a Fortune 500 headquarters.

With the less-than-stellar second running of the Baltimore Grand Prix this year, when is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake going to permanently park the notion of moving forward with it? The numbers don't lie. Baltimore Racing Development, the event's original promoter, projected 58,000 hotel rooms would be booked. Oops, they were 21,000 shy of reaching that figure. The promoter also projected that $12 million would be spent on food. In fact, only $3 million, a quarter of that figure, was actually spent.

What a deal. Last week, the Baltimore Brew reported that the Rawlings-Blake administration agreed to recommend that $6 million in grants meant to mitigate the impact of traffic and other nuisances near Baltimore's planned casino site near I-295 should be used to reimburse the developer for infrastructure costs. According to a memo written by a policy advisor in the Mayor's Office of Government Relations and published in the Brew, a local development council, which the mayor has yet to appoint, is supposed to have advisory input on use of what are called "local impact grants.

For 25 years I called Baltimore City home, and for probably two-thirds of that time I could not have been prouder. I graduated from City College at a time when it was a wonderful school. But after returning to Baltimore at the end of 2000, I must say nothing could be more disappointing than the current city leadership, from a former mayor who conned the system and stole gift cards intended for needy children to a current mayor who cons the system and blames every mistake on others.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake reversed direction Tuesday on a plan to close a West Baltimore fire company after months of protest from community members and fire unions. West Baltimore's Truck 10, which city officials had planned to close this month, will be kept open at least through June 30, administration officials said. They said funding would come from about $1.4 million in taxes, fees and lower-than-expected costs related to the Baltimore Grand Prix. Two other companies — East Baltimore's Truck 15 and Southeast Baltimore's Squad 11 — closed this year and will not be spared, officials said.

I woke up Labor Day morning after Baltimore's IndyCar race and opened the paper thinking I'd see great headlines and stories about what a fantastic party and sports spectacle we hosted, especially given there was so little time to properly prepare for it ("After Grand Prix of Baltimore, crews hustle to clear downtown streets," Sept. 3). Instead, what I read was negativity from the first paragraph: "A sloppy race full of fits and starts before a diminished crowd. " Well, if it was diminished, the people crammed into the stands around us didn't realize that - and these were people from around the country who came to Baltimore just to see this race.

After citizens have seen millions of their hard-earned tax dollars spent on making the Baltimore Grand Prix a reality, they should also be given the common courtesy to see how their money was spent and the city's return on its investment (Race's economic impact a secret," Sept. 5). To have the mayor's office decline to release the economic impact this year's race had on the city is a slap in the face to voters who were promised transparency in government by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.