New Mayor

At the end of 2002, Baltimore's homicide tally stood at 253. It was considered a remarkable achievement: the third consecutive yearly drop that finally ended the stigma of the 1990s, a decade in which more than 300 people were killed each year. But in 2003, killings jumped to 270. Four years later, they hit 282, edging close to that fateful 300 mark that has long served as the unofficial benchmark of whether Baltimore is out of control or merely dangerous. In 2008, homicides dropped to 234, a 20-year low. The number roughly held through 2009, ending with 238. The unstated meaning behind those figures did not go unnoticed at the Baltimore Police Department's Fayette Street headquarters.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made national headlines last year when he made a rare move for an elected official and donated $30 million of his own money to programs for underserved black and Latino youth in New York City, has spread his wealth and commitment to Baltimore.  Bloomberg, who visited the city last week, donated $5 million to the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, the organization announced, for a new education program...

Fewer than 48 hours after being sworn as Baltimore's new mayor, Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake found herself grappling with her first citywide emergency - a snowstorm that dumped 2 feet of wet, heavy snow on city streets, paralyzing travel, snapping trees and collapsing at least two roofs. Rawlings-Blake, who until Thursday had been City Council president, showed she could be a quick study in mayoral leadership. She monitored the storm and worked the telephones at the city's bustling emergency operations center until 1 a.m. Saturday, then returned by midmorning for a briefing on what had happened overnight.

As a handful of undecided Maryland delegates wrestle over their position on same-sex marriage, they've received calls from national leaders trying to move them one way or another on the bill. Prominent figures dialing Maryland area codes include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and Cardinal-elect Edwin F. O'Brien — who called from Rome — according to delegates who've received messages from them and sources familiar with the calls.

SEATTLE -- The intensely multicultural, potentially contentious cities of the 21st century will demand new leadership skills of U.S. mayors.In futuristically oriented Seattle, a beta test has just begun. The new mayor, Paul Schell, has spent a lifetime espousing such causes as good urban design, inventive transportation solutions and regional unity from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Portland, Ore.But however strong his convictions, Mr. Schell is not taking office with a rigid agenda. No, he says: "We are building a city of choices."

ATHENS, Greece -- In this city of breathtaking ruins and some of the nastier urban tangles of these times, an ambitious planner has taken office, impatient to mobilize barriers and bulldozers and start changing the face of the capital.He is the new mayor of Athens, Antonis Tritsis, an architect, engineer and town planner, trained in Chicago and the first man to come to this job with a far-reaching new master plan for the town center in more than 150 years."It's a matter of survival," said the mayor, who has gained a reputation for creating controversy.

A new mayor is sworn in, palm on the Bible. Mere hours later, that hand is stuffed into a snow glove as a snowstorm bears down on Baltimore. It happened to Clarence H. Du Burns in 1987, and it is happening now to Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake who, fresh off her swearing-in, is getting a crash course in the politics of a snowstorm. A big-city leader can have the money, the contacts and the savvy, but if she leaves snow to pile up on side streets, her career could melt before the drifts do. Just ask New York Mayor John Lindsay.

WE'RE SUPPOSED to have hope, in spite of it all. Howard Street merchant shot Friday night on the way to his parked car. Five women, including a grandmother, fatally shot Sunday night inside a rowhouse in Belair-Edison, their sprawled bodies inscribing some "message" drug dealers wanted to send to rivals. The anchorwoman on the "Today" show tells the nation all about bloody Baltimore bright and early Monday morning. And the same morning in Northeast Baltimore some kids find the body of another victim, a man with $500 in his pocket and a bullet hole in his head, on their way to elementary school.

Union Bridge has a new mayor for the first time in 12 years. The Town Council selected one of its members, Bret D. Grossnickle, to fill the post vacated by Perry L. Jones Jr. Jones, who was elected to the board of Carroll County commissioners on Nov. 5, stepped down as mayor last week. Grossnickle, who has been on the Town Council for 15 years, will serve out a term that ends in May. He said he will probably seek election then. Grossnickle, 44, said the town government's priorities won't change much under his watch.

MIAMI -- When Edna Benson's doorbell rang the other night at 10: 30, she picked up her .38-caliber revolver and peered through the glass to find a tall, angry-looking man with some paper in his hand.The paper, it turned out, was a letter of complaint the 68-year-old retiree had written to Miami's new mayor, Xavier Suarez, and the man at the door was the mayor himself."Oh, I recognized him right away," said Benson, who worked 26 years for the city. "But what a lot of nerve showing up at that time of night, without the courtesy of a phone call."

Dear Democrats, You will be electing a new mayor and City Council on September 13th. There are other marginal candidates running in the general election, but the primary has been the "official" election for many a decade in the city. So, you need to fire all of the incumbents unless you are happy with the downward spiral in which this city continues to plummet. The current incumbent gang has no concept of leadership or much else for that matter. They are a bunch of scofflaws, the same candidates and people who waste an inordinate amount of time just trying to explain where they live.

Baltimore City schools CEO Andrés Alonso may be a top contender to take the helm of the long-troubled Chicago Public Schools, according to an article published by the Chicago Tribune. According to the report, Alonso's successes in Baltimore during his near four-year tenure have drawn the attention of Chicago's recently elected mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who has made it a priority of his administration to seek a reform-minded school leader to take over Chicago's struggling school system.

The first snowflakes whirled down less than 48 hours after Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was sworn in as Baltimore's mayor. Before a week had passed, two blizzards had walloped the city, dropping nearly 4 feet of snow. Once a reticent legislator, Rawlings-Blake found herself guiding the city through the most massive snowfall in a century. She logged long hours in the cramped, windowless room that serves as the city's emergency operations center and, from a Humvee, surveyed streets studded with stranded cars.

In a bid to pump up Maryland Republicans of all stripes, former GOP Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. hosted a rally Sunday that featured moderates such as Rudolph W. Giuliani along with Ehrlich's conservative primary foe, Brian Murphy. The theme: Don't be distracted by recent political polls and go vote. The event was held at a Montgomery County farm and capped off a frantic weekend of Ehrlich campaign events focused on persuading Republicans to take advantage of the state's new early voting rules and cast their ballots for change in the governor's mansion.

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes to Maryland Thursday to endorse Gov. Martin O'Malley's re-election bid, he'll do it at a Bethesda-based business with the slogan "Be Real. Get Honest. " The company is Honest Tea, which I could describe as a maker of iced teas, but that would be a little like calling Whole Foods a supermarket. Honest Tea is a maker of fair-trade, antioxidant-rich, low-sugar and organic iced teas — which come, naturally, in BPA-free bottles.

Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake came into office last month with a huge budget deficit but also a promise to set priorities to protect the services that are most essential and to let go those things the city can no longer afford. She wasn't terribly specific at the time about what that meant in practical terms, and so it would be easy to grow alarmed about the details City Council members have heard so far about how the budget is shaping up. The preliminary plan calls for the closure of three fire stations and the continuation of rotating closures; the elimination of the police helicopter, marine and mounted units; the end of bulk trash collection; and the closure of rec centers.

Standing on a stage at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Dean L. Johnson hugged his wife, waved to a crowd of 600 and took a bow as he was sworn into office yesterday as the new mayor of Annapolis.In a speech full of promise and hope, Johnson painted a future that would include a friendlier city government, improvements in public housing, fewer traffic problems and more economic development in the city.The inauguration marks the beginning of a government under the leadership of the Republican economist and his Democratic majority city council, which includes five relative newcomers.

Baltimore's green building law, considered one of the most sweeping in the nation, lingers in a legal limbo of sorts more than seven months after it supposedly took effect. The city has yet to publish regulations to carry out the law, which requires most private as well as public buildings to be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly in their design and construction. Though promised by the end of 2009, the rules and a set of home-grown green building standards are still being tinkered with by city officials.

I tried on Sheila Dixon 's mink, and it felt, well, dirty. The fur itself was perfectly clean, but both pockets contained a strange, pebbly something. Like sand. Or tiny seeds. Or the remains of a tattered soul. Whatever it is, Dixon's grit goes to the highest bidder, along with the burnt umber coat, the Mano Swartz hanger and - best of all - the red evidence tag. State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh put the mink on eBay Wednesday along with a sporty, worn-looking Persian lamb jacket that also contributed to the mayor's undoing.

Thank you to Watchdog ("Icy sidewalks persist at inactive fire station in South Baltimore," Feb. 21) for pointing out the disparity between what the city government expects of its citizens and what it expects of itself. The unshoveled walks at the Riverside fire station are just one of many infractions on the part of the city. I watched a TV report of city inspectors issuing citations to business owners for not clearing their sidewalks of up to four feet of snow, while city streets, let alone city owned sidewalks, went uncleared until Mother Nature took care of the problem.