Mayor

Kudos to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for facing the un-glamorous reality in her State of the City address this week ("Mayor takes a risk," Feb. 12). It pains me as a life-long resident to have grown pessimistic about the outlook for Baltimore City. Despite regional and national trends, city government has become an anchor preventing us from moving forward and making progress. The way the city delivers services is so firmly rooted in the past, and guarded by narrow special interests, that it is out of alignment with the citizens and those most in need.

Please, let me click my heals to find out I am still in Baltimore after all ("Mayor takes a risk," Feb. 12). We city residents have stuck by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as she promised lots of magical change if we only stay. We waited patiently to see if she really would invest in our neighborhoods - those of us who don't live at the Harbor or in Canton, that is. We gulped when she closed recreation centers at a time when our crime rate is still too high, but we didn't bolt. But now the mayor has proposed a fee for picking up our trash.

WEATHER: Sunny, with highs near 50 . TRAFFIC: Icy conditions are causing major problems for today's commute. Check our traffic updates for the latest. TOP NEWS Top police commanders not aware of training where officer was shot : Top Baltimore police commanders, including the director of the agency's training academy, were unaware that training exercises were being conducted at an Owings Mills facility where a rookie University of Maryland officer was shot in the head and critically wounded, officials said.

Tuesday of last week was such a great time to be a Baltimorean. Then came Wednesday. One day after approximately 200,000 fans helped the Ravens celebrate their second Super Bowl victory, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that without significant financial reforms, the city will face growing budget deficits every year for the foreseeable future. According to a budget forecast developed by Public Financial Management, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm, by 2023 the cumulative total of these annual shortfalls could reach $744.8 million.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that charging residents for trash collection would actually help the city attract new residents because it could reduce its property tax rate. Defending a hotly debated proposal in her State of the City speech, the mayor said imposing such a fee while reducing property taxes would help Baltimore compete with surrounding counties. "Many jurisdictions have a fee for trash service," Rawlings-Blake said. "It's not included as part of their property tax. Their property tax is either artificially low or ours is artificially high.

Mr. President, Madam Comptroller, Senators and Delegates, members of the City Council, clergy, colleagues in public service, committed people of Baltimore - thank you for the opportunity to report on the progress of our city and to renew our commitment to the great cause of a growing Baltimore. Mr. President, thank you for the invitation to speak before the Council and for your candor, conscience, and commitment to Baltimore's future. We share an understanding that the privilege to lead comes from the people - and that our success is measured in our service toward them and in the achievement of tangible results for the greater good.

A year ago, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced an ambitious goal to grow Baltimore's population by 10,000 families in a decade. Today, in her State of the City address, she began to lay out her vision for how to make that goal a reality. She is seeking to increase investments in the things that will make city living more attractive and to reduce the costs that make it unaffordable. Her proposals reflect a clear-eyed view of Baltimore's assets and liabilities and a remarkable willingness to take on politically unpopular causes.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called Monday for "bold reforms" to fix a looming financial shortfall, including requiring more city workers to contribute to their retirement fund, charging residents for trash collection, asking firefighters to work longer hours and cutting the city workforce by 10 percent over time. In return, she said, the city could use the savings to raise employee salaries and cut property taxes by 22 percent - 50 cents per $100 of assessed value - over the next decade.

Baltimore city government employees are now able to devote up to two work hours per week to helping third-grade students hone their reading skills, the mayor's office announced this month. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake signed the executive order on Feb. 1, according to a release, that would allow full-time employees to volunteer in the Baltimore city school system to provide one-on-one tutoring to students struggling with reading--a cause the mayor has taken up as part of her "Third Grade Reads Initiative.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said today that the fatal stabbing of a teenager after the downtown Ravens parade incident was a "grim reminder that there's a lot of work to do. " "It's a tragedy. Whether it happened during the parade, as a part of the parade, or it happened it another part of town, a young person has lost their life," she said. "I'm not satisfied with the rate of violence reduction in the city. We continue to strive to improve. I know a lot of work can be done by the police department, but I know none of it can be done alone.