Nobody Loves Ya, Baltimore!

To be clear, I have lived on the same corner in Northeast Baltimore my entire 60-plus years. I will die on my corner. Having said that, it is embarrassing to see this city relegated to second-tier status in the past 20 years simply because of its leadership (“Who Loves Ya, Baby?” Mobtown Beat, Feb. 8). This town is run by a few moneyed interests through the stooges they make sure get elected.

Kurt Schmoke is a brilliant man who lost interest in being mayor halfway through his first term. The problem is, he served three terms. His successor, our current Gov. Martin O’Malley, only cared for Baltimore as a stepping stone to higher office. He left the city in worse shape than when he took over. Next came Sheila Dixon, and we know what happened there. Now we have Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a name’s-the-same candidate who succeeded Dixon and won her own term in the most recent election. This is a woman who can’t make a decision without asking the governor’s brother Peter to first clear it with Martin. We can’t have anyone in Baltimore upset the ambitions of the governor. Hence the lack of decision making during the Occupy movement.

There isn’t much to say about the City Council except it is populated by name’s-the-same candidates, people who aren’t sure where they live, and scofflaws. The jury is out on Brandon Scott and Nick Mosby since they are new, but they will need to toe the line to stay viable. Does anyone really think that Pete Welch or Robert Curran could get elected to anything if their last names were different? All the while the strings are being pulled by very rich developers who make sure the get what they want, when they want it.

C.D. Wilmer

Baltimore

Correction: Last week’s Whose Responible? (Feb. 8) was made unreadable in print by a bad JPEG.