City Of Baltimore

Baltimore's property values are growing faster than anywhere else in Maryland, while the rate of increase in wealthy Montgomery County trails the state, according to 728,185 reassessment notices to be mailed today by state officials. The topsy-turvy results showed the smallest percentage increases in the state's most prosperous places -- such as Montgomery and Howard counties -- while areas that often lag economically saw much greater gains, despite a sluggish real estate market. "Anyone who's been paying attention to the city of Baltimore has watched it become a much more desirable place to live," said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, referring to recent news of a slight increase in the city's population after decades of population declines.

Minority-pact law will set compensation targets in city Baltimore will set specific targets for how much money black- and Hispanic-owned subcontractors should receive from companies that bid on city work under legislation signed yesterday by Mayor Sheila Dixon. At a City Hall bill signing, Dixon praised the law - which will reauthorize and revise the city's minority-owned business program - as an important measure to ensure that minority- and women-owned businesses receive a slice of the wealth generated by city spending.

Amid a sea of black and gold banners in the War Memorial Plaza, Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley will become the city's 47th mayor today in an inauguration ceremony celebrating the diversity of the city's neighborhoods.Nearly 2,000 people are expected to attend the noon ceremony, at which ethnic dance troupes and groups playing Irish, Big Band and gospel music fill the Plaza with the sounds of the city.In the evening, more than 3,000 people are expected to attend a 7 to 10 p.m. celebration at the Baltimore Convention Center, where musical groups such as the Grammy Award-winning Neville Brothers and 70 city restaurants will provide food and entertainment.

ON THE EDITORIAL page of this newspaper the other day there ran a piece so important, and so packed with adult phrases such as "revenue sharing" and "unified approach," that in the entire state of Maryland, with its 5 million inhabitants, it is officially estimated that maybe six people paid any attention whatsoever.And that estimate may be high.The subject was regionalism, which is one of the most boring important words of our time. It's a philosophy poignantly embraced over the past three decades by political leaders around here looking for help with their pants pockets turned out, while fat and happy political leaders, imagining they live in some separate universe where rain does not fall, have decided, "Who needs their problems?"

BILL BRADLEY brought his presidential campaign here last week, telling a poignant story about a fourth-grade class somewhere out there in America. And it was wonderful to hear all of his famous intelligence, and his famous empathy for poor black children, but unfortunately it arrived at the same time as the statewide public school test results.They are once again a calamity. In the city of Baltimore, 83 percent of all kids fail to make satisfactory grades. Seventeen percent pass. In Baltimore County, nearly three times as many students passed -- but that's only 49 percent.

ON THE DAY his handsome 89-year-old profile graced the front page of the New York Times last week, John Pente, the movie hero of Baltimore's Little Italy and role model for us all, sat at his kitchen table with his daughter Marge and pushed down a button on his telephone answering machine."

Police commissioner, prosecutor are not feuding over procedure; Getting away with MurderWe were highly concerned when reading the editorial "Governor must lead repair of justice system" (Feb. 17). The editorial mentioned two points that were grossly inaccurate.The first being the alleged "active feuding" between the State's Attorney's Office and the Police Department. To suggest that we actively feud with one another couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, we have met many times recently regarding effective management strategies and solutions pertaining to violent crime prevention, enforcement and prosecution in the city of Baltimore.

AS ECONOMIC development tools, property tax breaks for developers can be valuable incentives. To compete with other cities for major hotels and other construction projects, Baltimore needs such tools. That, quite simply, ais fact of life that policy-makers can't ignore.Hearings today in Annapolis will look at an amended bill that would help level the playing field for Baltimore, following a Circuit Court decision late last year to curb the city's use of "payment in lieu of taxes" (PILOT) programs.

For city to unite, drug users must be returned to societyThe Sun's Dec. 8 front page evoked mixed emotions, as Mayor Martin O'Malley's prayer to "heal and unite" was coupled with news of escalation in drug violence and failures of the state's juvenile justice system.How can a city unite when one person in 10 is by definition a criminal because of his or her use of illicit drugs?Such people live outside the law and have no trust of the police, because they fear arrest. They even fear that social and medical services may lead to the detection of their crime and to incarceration.

SOMEWHERE OUT there on the side of a highway, which is his natural habitat, is a man with a paintbrush and a dream. He is the Hon Man. A long time ago, in a more uptight era, the city of Baltimore talked itself out of his benevolent gifts. But now a new day is arriving at City Hall, and it is time for the Hon Man to come in from the cold.Remember the Hon Man's dream, Bawlamer? It goes back to the early days of this grim city decade, when that first official inscription appeared on the last stretch of the Baltimore- Washington Parkway, just as Oriole Park at Camden Yards came into view.

It's an elegant little word that ends any number of dramas, from Othello to the Merchant of Venice to - who knows - maybe even High School Musical. Exeunt. The common stage direction, the actors' cue to exit a scene, is Latin for, "They go out." In real life, though, exits tend not to be so simple. Lights don't fade to black, curtains don't fall with finality, the dramatis personae may go rogue and simply refuse to exit, stage left or right. So it went on Wednesday, when the long-running drama of Baltimore's Senator Theatre headed not necessarily toward its final conclusion, but at least the end of one act. Having teetered on the brink of closure for years as a result its owner's mounting debt, the Senator was going to auction.

The Baltimore mayor's chief of staff and two other government officials sued an Ocean City Domino's pizza and related businesses for $30 million after employees at the beachfront pizzeria refused to serve them and allegedly imprisoned them in the restaurant for five to 10 minutes about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 15. The owner of the Ocean City restaurant, John S. Basil, said service was refused because the three were "uncooperative," "belligerent" and "intoxicated," and...

It's difficult to find much mention of the city of Baltimore these days without reference to crime. There is open argument, in the pages of this newspaper and its online edition, on radio talk shows and in private conversation, about the relative danger of working in or visiting "Charm City." Is it really charming these days, or a place to be avoided because of random acts of violence that appear increasingly directed toward people in neighborhoods that once seemed safe? Everybody has an opinion, it seems - some based on personal experiences, some shaped by a need to reassure potential visitors that there's no need to avoid the place.

Wells Fargo loan officers guided minorities toward high-rate mortgages and joked that they were "riding the stagecoach to hell" for routinely steering prime-loan-qualified customers toward subprime loans, according to sworn declarations by two former employees, filed in federal court this week. The affidavits were offered as evidence in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Baltimore last year and amended Monday, alleging "tens of millions" of dollars in losses from racist, predatory lending, known as "reverse redlining"- the targeting of minority borrowers, regardless of credit history, for unfavorable subprime loans.

Support police, not lawless kids As an Inner Harbor resident, I'm outraged my neighborhood has become the stomping ground for "roving groups of young people." ("A city on guard," May 31.) It might occur to Mayor Dixon and Commissioner Bealefeld there also is a problem with police morale. From the few conversations I've had with local officers, I'm told they get no support from "the brass" when they apprehend a young troublemaker. And if these are racist, black on white (or reverse) hate crimes, Commissioner Bealefeld needs to say so. Above all, it's time to stop whining whenever a young person is brought to justice.

GM to sell Hummer to Chinese company NEW YORK - : Bankrupt automobile maker General Motors said Tuesday it has reached a tentative deal to sell Hummer, its military-style-vehicle brand, to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Tengzhong, based in the Chinese province of Sichuan, is a privately owned company that makes road, construction and energy-industry equipment. Final terms of the deal, expected to close in the third quarter, are under negotiation, the companies said in a joint statement.

Catholic schools need saving It is interesting that Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Clarence Thomas are both products of the Catholic school system in the U.S. Both came from backgrounds of material hardship yet both were provided with the education necessary to succeed. Unfortunately, in Baltimore we are witnessing the dismantling of this Catholic school system in poor and marginal areas of the city. Recently, the Archdioese has announced the closing of St Mary's School in Govans. This school has struggled financially for many years but has been an important part of the local community.

Gov. Martin O'Malley asked nearly 1,800 of University of Maryland, Baltimore's professional school graduates, "Is this world going to change us, or are we going to change the world?" O'Malley, a Maryland law school graduate who wore its purple academic colors Friday afternoon, spoke of his joy when his wife, Katie, graduated from the same school. He said that at the time, they had a 1-year-old at home and one on the way. "The most important line of the day is, 'Congratulations. You did it,' " he said, adding, "The hard work you have done to invest in your skills and talents puts our state in a better place in a global economy."

The check was almost in the mail, to Florida. The city of Baltimore needed 4.2 million envelopes to send out water bills and asked companies to bid for the job. At the end of April, the city's Board of Estimates picked a Florida company called Cardinal Unijax. But the decision didn't sit well with Mark Jones, a customer service rep from Oles Envelope Corporation, which has been in Northeast Baltimore for almost a century. He offered the envelopes for $101,000. It was $13,000 less than the Florida company's quote, and the lowest of seven bids.

Correctional officer shoots alleged robber 2 An off-duty correctional officer shot and wounded a 15-year-old who was part of a group of juveniles that tried to rob him with a toy gun, city police said. Shortly after midnight Monday, the correctional officer, who works at the Central Booking and Intake Center, was waiting for a food order at Wo Hing carryout in the 1600 block of W. North Ave. when three juveniles tried to rob him, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a Baltimore police spokesman.