Zach Sowers five years later

Below are excerpts from an email I received from Anna Cheng yesterday:

“June 1 (tomorrow) marks the 5-year anniversary of Zach’s brutal attack in front of our Baltimore City home. As you know, he spent a great deal of time at Johns Hopkins during his 9 months in a coma. Hopkins treated him, and all of his friends and family, with amazing care. We will never forget how wonderful everyone at Hopkins was to us during that time. And to memorialize Zach’s name on this 5-year anniversary, his mother, 2 sisters and brother in law are running the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon to raise money for the Zach Sowers Brain Trauma Research Fund at Johns Hopkins — dedicated to provide money for laboratory and clinical research of brain trauma as well as continuing education for the medical/nursing staff in the Hopkins Neuro Critical Care Unit, which saved Zach’s life on June 1, 2007.

We would love your support in honoring Zach in this manner. Information about the marathon and how to donate can be found at http://zachsowers.com, where you can read the April 27 entry or click “How Can I Help?” at the top.”

Anna is well on her way to becoming a lawyer!

Although I do not like to end my posts on negatives notes, I have to end this one with the following unpleasant tidbit. Hopefully we can all learn something from this and make a change in Baltimore.

“The first of Zach’s 4 attackers is scheduled to be released within the next 30 days. He’s served 5 years of his 8 year sentence. The other 2 offenders will probably follow suit since 3 were sentenced to 8 years, and the last offender sentenced to 40.”

Mervo video

Vocational schools make sense:

It is pretty obvious that traditional high schools do not appeal to everyone. Vocational schools teach useful trades that will enable students to enter productive jobs with good salaries. Baltimore city school system decision makers should seriously consider turning some of the failing traditional schools into vocational schools.

Tom Kiefaber’s house is scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction on Thursday

The house of Tom Kiefaber (the former owner of the Senator Theatre) is up for foreclosure auction on Thursday.

Kiefaber wrote the following email to State Senator Joan Carter Conway this morning:

“AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR JOAN CARTER CONWAY:
Dear Senator Conway, Well here we are, the final day before The State of Maryland DHCD breaks its promises to me & the public & auctions my principle residence home, using a 13 year-old DHCD note, which democratic operative Ellen Janes & Robert C. Embry at Abell got me roped into in the 90′s. The State never tried to resolve this dispute with the City, over the State’s Senator Theatre equipment lien, though you are well aware that the replacement cost of the theater’s projection & sound equipment exceeds the DHCD’s note value being utilized as a stealth ruse to auction my home on May 24th, through a small shill law firm.

A terrible miscommunication process is playing out between our city & state, Senator Conway, as both know well. We both also know that in past years an awful injustice has taking place that’s been destroying me & my family as well, after several decades of hard work, risk, community service & great personal sacrifice. For over 72 years, Senator, my immediate family contributed greatly on a daily basis, to the very same business & residential communities you’ve represented for decades.

I’ve reached out repeatedly to you as the single elected official in the middle of all this, my liaison to DHCD, who knows it’s morally and legally wrong as well. You should be doing the right thing Senator conway & supporting some endgame justice for me and my family in this matter.

Yet, your silence is deafening.

Sincerely, Tom Kiefaber

http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/friends-senator/stop-dhcd-foreclosure-kiefabers-private-residence “

Important Baltimore livability issues

Every day when I go jogging through Baltimore all sorts of scenes attract my attention. I see a lot of positive things, but I also see trash, crime, and empty houses.  Grime, lawlessness, and abandonment drive away people because these challenges make the city less livable.  Over the last 48 hours I have received three emails related to making Baltimore a more livable city. I want to share these three situations with you.

Today the North Baltimore Patch published the following opinion piece: Remington vs. Business: Why? The author wonders why some people in Remington seem to want to eliminate development. The author sees the grime of Remington and doesn’t understand why some people would hold back progress that could help eliminate some of the lawlessness, grime, and abandonment in Remington.

Councilman Nick Mosby sent out the following two emails to his 7th district constituents (I am one of them). The first email addresses the trash issue that plagues the entire city.  I really hope people jump on the pick up one piece of litter campaign. It seems like that I see people littering every day instead of picking up trash. Yesterday I confronted a guy dumping a SOFA in my alley behind another house. He claimed he lived there and that his uncle worked for the city and he was going to pick it up last night. The sofa is still there. I was on my fire escape when I yelled at him so I could not see his license plate unfortunately. The sofa is still there and I am pretty sure the guy does not live in the 3-unit house.

In the second Mosby email we are informed about the new city council ordinance that is supposed to “stop liquor store owners from selling food, goods, wears and merchandise to youth under the age of 21″. Problem liquor establishments plague many areas of Baltimore. Kids see adults hanging out at these places and they want to be part of the “cool crowd” that hangs out. Adults need to stop setting such poor examples and liquor establishment owners need to take the high road and stop allowing or ignoring the illegality that can emanate from their establishments.  The emails are below:
“COUNCILMAN NICK J. MOSBY AND BLUE WATER BALTIMORE PRESENT THE “ONE PIECE” LITTER CAMPAIGN

Baltimore, MD (May 21, 2012) Every time it rains, storm water carries trash from the streets into storm drains, which lead directly to our streams, harbor, and the Chesapeake Bay, and the Baltimore City Department of Public Works spends an extra $10 million every year to clean trash from our streets and waterways.

In response to these serious environmental issues, Councilman Nick J. Mosby and Blue Water Baltimore have partnered to introduce a viable solution, the “One Piece” Litter Campaign. “What we are asking is simple,” says Councilman Mosby. “If every citizen in Baltimore picked up just one piece of trash a day, and disposed of it properly, the costs to our environment and our tax dollars could be dramatically reduced, and the benefit to our neighborhoods would be tremendous.”

Councilman Mosby and Blue Water Baltimore are asking you, and members of your community, to pledge to become part of the “One Piece” Campaign. All you have to do is click here to download your pledge certificate, and then go out into your community to pick up at least one piece of trash every day, and dispose of it properly.

Once you have participated, post your picture on the “One Piece” Facebook page doing the “One Piece hand” symbol (the number 1 sign on your left hand, and the peace sign on your right hand) to let us know you are part of the “One Piece” family.

Follow the “One Piece” Litter Campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

Like us on FacebookFollow us on Twitter

Click to download the “One Piece” Pledge

For more information about the “One Piece” Litter Campaign, contact Eli Lopatin at Eli.Lopatin@baltimorecity.gov. “

and…

“7TH DISTRICT COUNCILMAN NICK J. MOSBY TO DISCUSS LIQUOR ORDINANCE DURING CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING AND TWEETCHAT ON TWITTER

BALTIMORE, MD (May 21, 2012) In some Baltimore City communities, liquor stores have become the neighborhood “corner store”, serving as the only place community members can purchase minor groceries. In March, Councilman Nick J. Mosby introduced an Ordinance to City Council that proposed to stop liquor store owners from selling food, goods, wears and merchandise to youth under the age of 21.

“The fact that minors patronize liquor stores, rather than convenient stores, to purchase soda, chips and candy on their way to and from school, normalizes alcohol, making it more likely that they will purchase alcoholic beverages when they are of age,” says Councilman Mosby. “It is critical that we turn the tide on this reality.”

Wednesday, May 23, 2012, the Baltimore City Council will hold a public hearing on the Liquor Ordinance in City Council Chambers at 100 North Holliday Street, 4th Floor, at 5:00 p.m. You must have I.D. in order to attend the hearing.

After the Liquor Ordinance Hearing, Councilman Mosby will host a Tweetchat for further discussion on the Ordinance. The Tweetchat will take place on Twitter, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 from 8:00pm-8:30pm. To follow the chat live, log on to www.tweetchat.com, and enter the hashtag #LiquorOrd.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

8:00-8:30 p.m.”

Audit every city office

For the last few weeks “The Park Advocate” Chris Delaporte has been sending out emails promoting the very simple idea of auditing every Baltimore city office every two years. Tonight (right now) Delaporte’s fiscal accountability crusade will be the focus of the Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 88.9-FM. You can sign the “Audit Baltimore – Every City Office, Every Two Years” petition here.

Below is an unrelated video that Chris and I made in Harlem park a few years ago:

A year ago today

A year ago today I learned about a frivolous lawsuit filed against me that would doom a sitting city councilwoman’s reelection bid.

From the Baltimore Sun:

“If they’re trying to intimidate someone, they’re messing with the wrong person,” Meister told me in an interview Tuesday. “There’s a lot of frustration out there in Baltimore with politicians trying to intimidate people, and politicians don’t intimidate Adam Meister. There you go. That’s a quote.”

The Sunday trashing of Whitelock street: Stop treating Reservoir Hill like a ghetto!

Whitelock street runs through the center of the Reservoir Hill neighborhood of Baltimore. It used to be the “main street” of the area. The shops are long gone, but recently some hard working residents have been involved in rehabbing the German Park playground and setting up the now legendary Whitelock Community Farm. Both of these projects have brought a wave of positive energy and publicity to Reservoir Hill. Over the last decade quite a few new and old residents have been involved in all sorts of endeavors that have encouraged home ownership, clean streets, and less crime. Our (I live in Reservoir Hill) hard work has paid off. The neighborhood is in MUCH better shape than it was in 2000. There is a still a lot of hard work left, but if everyone stays on track then in a few years we are going to end up with something super special here that many people can not even imagine at this point.

Things are far from perfect here and we have to be honest about this in order to properly fix things. What is really annoying is when outsiders who do not live here come here and sell drugs and cause all sorts of other problems just because they feel that Reservoir Hill is their ghetto-playground. They get off on the legend of the area. They think it’s cool to keep a neighborhood down and portray it as a ghetto that it may have once been. Here is a photo of Whitelock street during the 1968 riots:

You can view photos (taken by Howard Fink) of the amazing positive things taking place around Whitelock street in 2012 here, here, and here. Some people who do not live here need to stop treating this place like it just experienced a riot. The riot took place 44 years ago! Get over it! Poverty pimps and hustlers need to GO AWAY!

Yesterday this guy (please note that most of the ghetto images used in this ghetto glorification video are NOT OF RESERVOIR HILL) brought his so-called fundraiser to Whitelock street. Last year there were many complaints about how the event trashed the area. Things were supposed to change. This year was worse. The area is trashed again. Below is an eyewitness account of some of what happened on Sunday:

“I went over to German Park today to see the festivities at about 8pm. I made a short video which you can see in the link below. The video doesn’t do the event justice as it was just briefly filmed on the basketball courts. After having my camera out for a few minutes I started to attract a lot of un-welcome attention.

I have not seen such a total disregard for or disrespect of Reservoir Hill in the 5 years I’ve lived here. When Stokey was selling drugs in Reservoir Hill it was treated like a toilet by the city and many of its residents. It seems like Stokey brings that attitude back to the community when he returns with his yearly fund-raiser. Here is what I saw.

When I first arrived at the party the dirt-bikers were in a full on confrontation with the TWO police officers who showed up to respond to the complaints of dirt-bikes racing on the sidewalks. The two officers walked slowly down Whitelock while the dirt-bikers raced up to them at full speed and then turned around at the last minute and slowly drove away, just out of arms reach for the cops. At some points the antics of the dirt bikers were so dangerous the police officers probably would have been justified in shooting these guys, but of course the BPD has better sense than that. While this confrontation went on, the crowd gathered on the sides of Whitelock cheering on the dirt-bikers and laughing at the police. The police kept their cool, but looked pretty nervous and got out of there as soon as they could.

The scene was chaotic and I was sure that at any minute someone was going to die in an accident. The crowds pressed into the street to see the dirt-bike show. Young children and toddlers raced into the street between parked cars into traffic. Dirt bikers popped wheelies or accelerated from 0 to 60 in 2-3 seconds zipping past parked cars and crowds and diving off onto the sidewalk or the empty lots on Whitelock to either show-off or escape police. At one time I counted 15 dirt-bikers participating in the antics.

When I entered the park, I was clearly entering the ‘party zone’. Marijuana smoke rolled out of German Park like fog out of a mountain forest. Several people with red, glassy eyes approached me asking me to take their picture (which of course I did, and might actually make an interesting exhibit one day). This was clearly the adult section of the event which with the darkness made for a night-club like atmosphere. I was reminded of college type parties or maybe Pimlico races of years past with people walking about zombie like, with blood-shot eyes after a hard night of drug or alcohol consumption. In the video you see the crowd off of the basketball court under the trees.

When I arrived on the court there wasn’t any kind of tournament. A lot of kids shooting hoops with music blasting, but that’s about it. More like a party than a fundraiser. Once and a while the DJ would shout over the song “Never Give UP!” and “Thanks for coming out to the cook-out”.

Stokey should lose his privileges for using German Park. Last year was a fiasco and we were promised that it wouldn’t happen again. This year it was even worse. But the fact that should matter is, this is putting peoples safety at risk. Whitelock was blocked. If there had been an accident or a fight or a shooting it would have been chaos and police and emergency services wouldn’t have been able to pass. A fire or emergency elsewhere in the neighborhood would have had the same problem. This event attracted a bunch of show-offs on dirt-bikes who could have killed one of the children who were running around unsupervised. Not once did I hear the DJ say: “hey you idiots on the bikes, go away you’re putting people in danger” or “hey you guys get away from the street someone could get hurt” and of course he never said “hey you people standing over there on the side, stop using drugs in front of so many children”.

My opinion is that the party that took place tonight was about one man, Stokey, helping himself at the expense of Reservoir Hill.”

Very short video of part of the party here.

What it looks like today:

“Looks like Never Give Up is also Never Clean Up.

For the third year in a row they have left the park and the St. Francis lawns a mess. Ironic that last week the St. Francis kids cleaned up the lawn and posted a bunch of Do Not Litter signs.

I guess Stokey thinks that cleanup is not his responsibility? Maybe he thinks the children who use that park need to step up.

Really, he should be ashamed of himself.”