Great City

MY FELLOW Americans: You lived through the horror of 9/11, witnessed our nation under attack in an unprecedented way. Now you see our ruined cities and towns along the Gulf Coast, and you look at your government's response to this devastating natural disaster, predicted several days in advance, and you wonder whether your government is prepared for another surprise attack by terrorists in this dangerous age. It's an understandable concern. The catastrophe of 9/11 should have made us razor-sharp ready for anything, even something on the scale of a Category 4 hurricane hitting a major coastal city sitting below sea level.

My final full day in office begins like my first -- full of hope for Baltimore City. I love this city and leave City Hall after 23 years in public service secure in the knowledge that Baltimore's best days are ahead. It has been a privilege to serve the people of this great city, but it is time now for me to move on and begin a new chapter in my life. People often ask me, "What was your greatest accomplishment?" My answer is simple: my staff. We recruited and held onto experienced, talented and passionate individuals who worked tirelessly to improve services, respond to constituent issues and reform government.

Los Angeles.-- A transcontinental flight into southern California comes across the clear northern Arizona desert. Ahead is the painted Mojave, then the snow-capped San Bernardino Mountains. Beyond the jagged peaks, the vast Pacific sparkles in the sun.On this morning, gray clouds fill the valleys which run through the western mountain slopes toward the sea. The clouds cover the narrow coastal basin. The airplane slides into them as it begins its descent. They're surprisingly dirty. They feel like cigarette smoke.

THESE are edited excerpts of responses by some Democratic candidates for mayor of Baltimore to a Sun questionnaire. Additional Democratic responses will be published tomorrow. Republican candidate responses will run on Friday.Martin O'MalleyOn mayoral style: I will be an activist mayor, committed to returning urgency and accountability to the work of city government. I will look to other cities for policies that work, and reach out to innovators in our community to address problems affecting the livability of our city.

IT WAS a beautiful weekend in the city of Baltimore, if you don't include Anthony Brooks. He was fatally shot in his wheelchair and then buried back on Page 7 of the morning newspaper. The important news was out on Page 1, where the newest census figures showed 15,944 more people packed their bags last year and did not look back at the city, fearing they'd be turned into pillars of salt. Anton Keating noticed some of this, and wished to launch a few hundred balloons to symbolize the troubles: one balloon for each killing of the past year.

LOS ANGELES -- One secessionist says succinctly, name another city that has a mountain range running through it. And geography is but one reason why the two-fifths of this city that sprawls north of the Santa Monica Mountains may try to do what 11 states attempted in the 1860s and 13 colonies did in 1776: declare independence.Tom McClintock, a state assemblyman, is to the San Fernando Valley's secession what John Calhoun was to the South's -- the most trenchant theorist: ''The ultimate check on an abusive or dysfunctional government is the ability of people to walk away from it.'' When Mr. McClintock was a high school student in White Plains, N.Y., he came home one day to find his mother in tears over her taxes.

SOMEWHERE IN God's heaven, where the angels sit in celestial puzzlement over Dominic "Mimi" DiPietro's enduring grammatical miracles, the great man's spirit gazes down and smiles. His friends haven't forgotten him. They'll gather at Mimi's old Claremont Street political club Thursday night to celebrate the upcoming centennial of his birth and raise a few bucks to spruce up his old East Baltimore neighborhood. Mimi's ghost will love it. After all, Mimi's the guy who once spent lunch with President Jimmy Carter, at Chiapparelli's Restaurant in Little Italy, and told the befuddled leader of the free world, "Mr. President, you gotta do something about them potholes in East Bawlamer."

April, 23, 1971: as City Council president, announcing his mayoral candidacy "I know about the city's problems, but I also know what the real possibilities are. There are not any easy solutions. Real solutions depend on the kind of hard work, imaginative planning and decisive action that has characterized Baltimore's recent moves forward. … I don't promise what cannot be delivered. But I can and do promise the people of Baltimore that as mayor I will use all my knowledge and experience to bring Baltimore close to that ideal city which every citizen wants for himself and for future generations.

Looking to attract a share of the defense workers expected to stream into Maryland in the next few years with the military base realignment, Baltimore officials urged the state yesterday to expand commuter rail service, upgrade a key highway gateway to the city and help with neighborhood revitalization. Mayor Sheila Dixon presented the city's "BRACtion" plan to Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, who chairs Maryland's base realignment subcabinet, during a meeting yesterday morning at City Hall.

AT THE HEIGHT of last week's first snowstorm, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. joked with Gov. Parris N. Glendening about the importance of snow removal to his 1998 re-election bid.Mr. Miller cited the oft-told tale of Jane M. Byrne's defeat of Chicago Mayor Michael A. Bilandic in that city's 1979 Democratic primary. Ms. Byrne walloped Mr. Bilandic, who was supported by former Mayor Richard J. Daley's machine, by beating the incumbent about the head and ears with the issue of snow removal -- or the lack thereof.