Kurt Schmoke

Does Baltimore need a return to William Donald Schaefer's "do it now" approach or more of the cerebral but detached style of Kurt L. Schmoke? Or something else?Send us your thoughts on the abilities, experience and %o management style Baltimore should seek in its next mayor, who will lead the city into the 21st century.Letters should be no longer than 200 words and should include the name and address of the writer, along with day and evening telephone numbers.Send responses to Letters to the Editor, The Sun, P.O. Box 1377, Baltimore 21278-0001.

Irene Bennett Reid, a retired social worker who was the mother of former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, died of lung cancer Tuesday at Sinai Hospital. She was 78 and lived in Northwest Baltimore. Mrs. Reid was also the stepmother of the Rev. Frank M. Reid III, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. "You watched your grammar when you spoke to her," said Mr. Schmoke, who is dean of the Howard University School of Law. "She was an old-fashioned school marm, but was also an inspiring person.

You know that storm Saturday night, when the snow descended and the wind rumbled across the heavens and thousands of homes were left powerless? You know what caused it? It was God's convulsive reaction to the news that Kurt L. Schmoke had been named one of the three funniest mayors in America.Funny? The mayor of Baltimore is many things, but funny? Sorry. He's earnest and charming (between political campaigns), but funny? Forget it. (Although the mayor did get off a real knee-slapper during last summer's campaign, when he said, and I'm quoting loosely, "Did you hear the one about Danny Henson and Park Heights Avenue?"

After six years spent largely outside the public spotlight, former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke was suddenly back - in one of the more remarkable images that followers of local politics have seen in recent years. There, in a photograph on the front page of The Sun on Oct. 21, was Schmoke and his longtime nemesis and predecessor as mayor, William Donald Schaefer, flanking the man who finally got them on the same side of a political issue: Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who was announcing his candidacy for governor with their support.

Baltimore's next mayor doesn't take office for five days, but the impending departure of the city's leader for the past 12 years hit home yesterday when he saw a press release that read "Kurt Schmoke, former Mayor of Baltimore."It wasn't the kind of statement Schmoke was looking for, not on this of all days -- the day he turned 50 and one of the last days before he retires from decades of public service to go into private law practice.It was, Schmoke said, an example of "the syndrome of the king is dead."

After six years spent largely outside the public spotlight, former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke was suddenly back - in one of the more remarkable images that followers of local politics have seen in recent years. There, in a photograph on the front page of The Sun on Oct. 21, was Schmoke and his longtime nemesis and predecessor as mayor, William Donald Schaefer, flanking the man who finally got them on the same side of a political issue: Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who was announcing his candidacy for governor with their support.

WHERE WAS Kurt Schmoke? When a state panel heard testimony on casino gambling for the Inner Harbor last week, Baltimore's mayor missed the meeting.Barry Rascovar is deputy editorial-page editor of The Sun.

Someone better tell those Tontons Macoutes that just because Somalia is not an important U.S. national interest doesn't mean Haiti isn't.In case you were wondering why the U.S. kept the Guantanamo naval base, it never prevented Cuba from going bad but it might prove useful with Haiti.Bobby Neall is getting out. It's just no fun if you don't have Kurt Schmoke to run against.

The Rev. Thomas R. Schwind, the Catholic priest turned Pentecostal pastor who is facing a 13-year-old allegation of rape, has hired former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to represent him. Schwind, 50, now pastor of the New Covenant Tabernacle in Jonestown, east of downtown, was accused Thursday by Rita Monahan, a former nun, of sexually assaulting her while she volunteered in 1989 at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, where Schwind was pastor. Monahan, 53, of Chicago also contended at a news conference here that Cardinal William H. Keeler and the Archdiocese of Baltimore covered up the incident, an allegation church officials denied.

Havre de Grace. -- It's poignant and disheartening, for exurban Marylanders, to see the way Baltimore continues to dissolve before our eyes. More crime. Worse schools. Fewer residents. Tawdry political scandals. Fiscal chaos.These disasters might have been avoided if Kurt Schmoke were still around.It's a fact that someone resembling Mr. Schmoke still occupies the mayor's office, and is occasionally seen being driven around town in his low-profile Jeep. This person is seeking another four-year term, and the voters, for lack of a persuasive alternative, will presumably give it to him this fall.

Doug Duncan leads off with endorsements of William Donald Schaefer, the Maryland State Crank given to verbalizing any foolish or ignorant thought that pops into his head, and Kurt Schmoke, the nice man who sat on his hands through three terms as mayor of Baltimore while the city suffered record population decline and criminal violence. Great stuff, Doug. Whom do you bring out next: the popular and successful owner of the Orioles? How about the former police commissioners who despise Martin O'Malley?

OBTAINING BUILDING permits in Baltimore is so cumbersome that even a simplified consumer guide to the procedures contains 38 pages. It takes 32 additional pages to explain rules and regulations for land subdivision. And no wonder: In the Public Works Department alone, applications may have to be approved by as many as 11 divisions. As a result, a peculiar cottage industry has emerged. Major developers hire private expediters to cut the red tape. They hand-carry applications from one city office to another and generally keep track of the paperwork's progress.

The Rev. Thomas R. Schwind, the Catholic priest turned Pentecostal pastor who is facing a 13-year-old allegation of rape, has hired former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to represent him. Schwind, 50, now pastor of the New Covenant Tabernacle in Jonestown, east of downtown, was accused Thursday by Rita Monahan, a former nun, of sexually assaulting her while she volunteered in 1989 at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, where Schwind was pastor. Monahan, 53, of Chicago also contended at a news conference here that Cardinal William H. Keeler and the Archdiocese of Baltimore covered up the incident, an allegation church officials denied.

Former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke returned to City Hall yesterday to take his place in history with the unveiling of his official portrait. With about 200 friends, family members and current and former city officials on hand, the 46th mayor of Baltimore claimed a permanent corner spot on the west wall of the second-floor Board of Estimates meeting room. "There are a number of people in the city who wanted to hang me, and now they get their chance," Schmoke said to laughter. "I was just extremely honored to serve as the mayor for 12 years."

UNTIL A certain day in April of last year, Patricia C. Jessamy, the state's attorney of Baltimore, bore neither blame nor minor complicity in the long and wrong incarceration of Michael Austin. Jessamy was but 22 years old, a year out of the University of Mississippi Law School, at the time Austin went to prison, convicted of killing a security guard in a Baltimore convenience store holdup. Jessamy had nothing to do with his prosecution. She had no reason to feel self-conscious or defensive as new evidence indicated that Austin was innocent, the victim of a flawed trial back during the Ford administration.

Top officials of the United States Olympic Committee are scheduled to meet in Chicago tomorrow to select a new chief executive, and there is strong support for former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke - although the voting could get messy. Schmoke, now in private law practice, declined to comment, but several sources familiar with the search say it appears to have come down to him and two others: Scott Blackmun, the acting chief executive, and Lloyd Ward, a former chairman of appliance maker Maytag Corp.

About 100 activists and other members of the AIDS community marched through downtown Baltimore last night and placed an empty coffin on the steps of City Hall to memorialize John Stuban, a leader of the AIDS movement who died of the disease on Aug. 15.Mr. Stuban was the founder of ACT UP/Baltimore, part of a national network that uses civil disobedience to press for greater efforts to combat acquired immune deficiency syndrome.Before the march, nearly 200 people, including City Council members, health professionals and activists attended a memorial service for Mr. Stuban at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Cathedral Street.

It was classic Du all the way: "The question on my mind," he said, after announcing that he would run against Kurt Schmoke in September's primary is, "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?" Hardly a creative or poetic re-entry into the mayoral race, but a nitty-gritty approach that, like Du Burns himself, has an uncanny, unpolished way of getting to the point: Progress in key areas like education, fiscal policy and service delivery has been at times lackluster.Blame it, in part, on Schmoke's style -- so dramatically different from his precinct-wise, headline-grabbing predecessor.

AT FIRST blush, it's easy to empathize with Patricia C. Jessamy. Everyone is out for the Baltimore state's attorney's head. The mayor thinks she's lazy. The press (including this page) characterizes her office as ineptly run. And state lawmakers have been asking tough questions about whether her prosecutors break the rules to get convictions. So why would she want to encourage the re-examination of Michael Austin's quarter-century-old murder case, which raises similar issues? That could open the floodgates, giving tidal momentum to those who believe the system was and is faulty.