Downsizing

Downsizing may be a good euphemism for weight reduction. Downsizing as a philosophy to characterize the nation's destiny leaves a lot to be desired.Few would argue that government often becomes bloated, especially when it follows a principle of spending to the extent possible, rather than when necessary. Certainly, helping impoverished and hopeless people at society's bottom economic rung to lift themselves up through educational and employment programs is far better than giving handouts that increase dependency.

In July when Marianne Banister was dropped by WBAL-TV, I wrote about the move as part of a larger issue of middle-aged women anchors being fired as cost cutting moves. Read that here . Last week, Sue Simmons, a long-time star on local TV in New York, made the same kind of headlines when WNBC-TV said goodbye to her after a long run atop the NYC ratings. And while Simmons is 68, her 68-year-old male co-anchor remains on the job. Well, Banister will be back on local TV Sunday for the first time since WBAL dumped her. She'll be talking about the changing dynamics of TV news at 11 a.m. Sunday on Richard Sher's "Square Off. " I know I appreciated Banister's straight talk back in July when I first reported the story with her. She didn't pull any punches about the fact that leaving WBAL was not her decision.

State government's $1 billion budget crisis is forcing the University of Maryland to take some overdue steps to bring about a more coherent and compact public higher-education system. By the time the downsizing is over, UM probably will have fewer institutions, fewer program offerings and fewer research ventures. But what remains is likely to be far better focused and adequately funded.When Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg was formally inaugurated this summer, he talked about shaking up the UM hierarchy and questioning how the university system can deliver its services more effectively and more efficiently.

Downsizing often means making big changes in lifestyle. David and Deborah Russell never regretted the decision to do so. With their daughter, Marie, long out of the nest, the couple thought it high time to leave their six-bedroom single-family home in Harford County and find something smaller to accommodate their needs. There were self-imposed conditions, however. They would not leave the area, nor would they spend a fortune on new furnishings. The Russells discovered a new development, Monmouth Meadows, close by their former home.

Bob Kean really likes the Roland Park house he carefully restored. But now - as he searches for a job to replace the one he lost - five bedrooms and 4,200 square feet strike him as a luxury he can't afford. His plan: Sell and move into a much smaller home with much smaller costs. Cheaper utility bills. Lower property taxes. Little or no mortgage. "I'd prefer to stay exactly as I am, but that's not going to happen. And I accept that," said Kean, 60, who lost his credit management position more than a year ago after his employer was acquired.

Blame it on the finance mergers?Top business executives in the Baltimore region assign "industry consolidation" the top blame for corporate downsizing in recent years, in slight contrast to their peers in other cities.In a survey by the Gallup Organization for phone company MCI, 555 chief executives, owners and presidents of mid- to large-size businesses were questioned about competition. The poll included 116 bosses in the Baltimore area, plus people in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

Honest communication is the simple solution."Very, very simple," says management consultant Matt Oechsli, "but not easy."The problem is spelled out in Mr. Oechsli's new survey of 1,485 workers and managers. According to the report, 89 percent of those who were asked what two changes they would like in the workplace answered that they'd like to "change management," and 91 percent said the workplace needed to "improve communication."From these and other responses to 10 open-ended questions, asked with the promise of anonymity, Mr. Oechsli concluded that many workers do not feel they are listened to or appreciated.

IF DICK DAVIDSON hadn't fired so many people, he might have made some money last week.Thursday, Nov. 20, was supposed to be his big score.Options for a whopping 281,100 shares of stock in railroad Union Pacific Corp., in Davidson's name, were supposed to go live that day, regulatory filings show. Had everything happened according to plan, Davidson could have cashed options worth -- this is a conservative estimate -- $2 million.Don't make a deposit on the Gulfstream yet, Dick.The Nov. 20 options are worthless so far. Union Pacific is a mess.

WORDS TO make employees shudder: restructuring, downsizing, re-engineering. They've become part of the everyday lexicon at hundreds of U.S. companies that have laid off hundreds of thousands in the name of efficiency.But recently some corporations, consultants and business leaders have questioned the wisdom of large-scale cutbacks. How much is too much? What of survivors and their morale? Productivity, efficiency, corporate image? Have investors and others begun casting a wary eye toward downsizing as a quick fix that detracts from long-term, healthy growth?

No matter who takes over at General Motors as Robert C.Stempel's replacement, or how good he is, the new chairman will locked into a corporate strategy even before he takes command -- a strategy dictated by the nation's weak economy.Simply stated, GM waited too long for ballooning sales to save the day. Sales are running at an annual rate of barely 13 million a year, far from the 15 million American car and truck sales that in the late 1980s had created enough demand to mask GM's numerous inefficiencies.

With two sons grown and out on their own, it seemed that it would be a cinch for Mark Hyman and his wife, Peggy Brennecke, to downsize from their large home in shady, hilly Mount Washington in northern Baltimore City. "We agreed to go smaller and disagreed about everything else," said the soft-spoken sportswriter. Seeking a smaller home, the couple still wanted lots of outdoor space. Brennecke, a Johns Hopkins radiologist, thought living at the Inner Harbor might be an interesting option and looked at various complexes in Federal Hill and Locust Point.

On Thanksgiving, one blessing for some of us is a large-group feast that we plan and prepare in stages for several days, if not weeks. Regardless of whether some of the guests are bringing a variety of side dishes, the head chef still has to wrestle with a turkey or two. Depending on the size this usually requires getting ol' Tom into the oven in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. Others of us are thankful for a smaller party. And it is to those November celebrants we proffer this petite menu of seasonal dishes that, while "lavish," can allow us to sleep in on Turkey Day, at least till it's light out. It may seem to flaunt tradition, but this somewhat free-form menu is designed for six (but there's plenty for eight)

I have often thought of downsizing. Even when the children were babies, I daydreamed about a smaller house to clean, with fewer rooms for them to scatter their messes. But I have never been sure I could leave my neighborhood behind. And I don't think I could walk away from the house that has been the scene of so many memories. And I am certain I could never leave my garden. I can't imagine driving by my old house a season or two later and seeing that new owners had plowed everything under because they know what I ignore: My garden is too much work.

After living in the same home for 43 years, John and Pat Kasuda found that downsizing was a cinch. "The downsizing was actually getting rid of all the things we no longer needed and realizing that all of it was just stuff," said Pat Kasuda. But when they moved to the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville, they did not have to sacrifice a lot of room for their stuff. Hardly a cracker box, the spacious 2,000-square-foot unit was especially designed and constructed for the couple by combining two smaller apartments into one large dream home.

The United States contains just 5 percent of the world's population, yet its prisons house nearly a quarter of all the people incarcerated around the globe. We imprison our citizens at a greater rate than any other country; as a result, nearly 1 in every 100 Americans today is living behind bars. Since 1970, the U.S. prison population has increased by 700 percent, to 2.4 million people. In Maryland, the state's prison population has tripled to more than 22,000, at a cost of more than $783 million a year.

The departure last week of Marianne Banister from WBAL-TV after 15 years of co-anchoring a team that always finished first or second in its time period raised big questions about the changing face of television news in Baltimore. In the past year and half, several long-time anchors have signed off the local airwaves, including Sally Thorner at WJZ, and Mary Beth Marsden at WMAR. By long-time, we're talking 15 years or more of coming into Baltimore homes every night with the local news.

Part one of a two-part series. It's a tough world out there. Just in time for Halloween, administration officials are pointing to wisps supposedly indicating recovery, tantalizingly beyond reach. Meanwhile, Westinghouse and Martin Marietta are laying off workers, IBM is in the midst of a major downsizing, Du Pont is cutting 4,000 jobs and more than a billion dollars in expenses . . . and on and on.Well, if you think it's tough out there for the private sector, take a quick look at the non-profit world.

WASHINGTON -- Federal downsizing in Maryland means more than a decline in jobs. A new government report suggests that it also means millions of dollars for the private sector in government contracts.As government shrinks in the era of decreasing budgets, more federal dollars are going to Maryland businesses, according to a report released yesterday by the Bureau of the Census.The report -- the bureau's annual accounting of all federal spending, by state and county -- ranked Maryland No. 2 in federal dollars earned, at $7,361 per capita, for fiscal 1995.

Those of us who managed to hold onto our jobs through the four U.S. recessions since 1981 have grown used to seeing the workforce around us downsized, with human beings "outsourced" or replaced by machines and new technologies. We've also seen the economy bounce back and even expand, though our wages remained flat during most of that time. A couple of those recessions didn't do much permanent damage. But something's different now. With Friday's breathtaking government report noting only 18,000 new jobs in June after only 25,000 in May, with U.S. unemployment at 9.2 percent - and at least 8 percent for the last 28 months - you're allowed to wonder if we haven't entered an era of downsized permanence.

Baltimore needs a better way to handle juveniles who are charged as adults. The current system of housing them in a wing of the city's detention center is dangerous and inefficient. But a new report from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency confirms what youth activists have been saying for six years — that a plan to fix the problem by building a $100 million, 230-bed juvenile jail next to the adult jail is the wrong approach. Gov. Martin O'Malley needs to scrap the current plan, which got its start under the Ehrlich administration, and at the very least propose something half the size, though some of the ideas in the report for further reducing the number of youths locked up while waiting for trials in adult court merit serious consideration.