Sparrows Point, 1953. Photo courtesy Bethlehem Steel Corp.

By MARK REUTTER
Patapsco Neck has long been the greasy elbow of greater Baltimore, a dumping ground for hazardous wastes and cancer-causing metals produced by the steel mill at the boot of the peninsula, then spread by wind and water to surrounding communities.

A recent report by the Baltimore Sun’s Tim Wheeler — that the Sparrows Point mill has allegedly failed to live up to a 1997 agreement to clean up contaminated soil and ground water around its 2,500-acre facility — is part of a long history of regulatory neglect by state officials.

It was neglect that flourished at a time when everyone, from Johns Hopkins University experts to Dundalk homeowners, was predisposed to downplay dirty discharges from the area’s largest employer. Read the rest of this entry »

By DOUG DONOVAN

     Baltimore got a crash course in colonial common law Thursday when nearly half of the pending criminal charges against Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon were tossed by the judge presiding over the case. The same judge, Dennis M. Sweeney, also threw out the entire public corruption case against City Councilwoman Helen Holton.

     The two Baltimore Democrats had argued that the Maryland State Prosecutor had convinced a grand jury to indict them by presenting evidence that legally he was not allowed to use. What was the evidence?

The doctrine of legislative immunity, which dates back to colonial days, prohibits prosecutors from bringing civil or criminal charges against elected officials by using their legislative work as evidence against them.

     Vote in favor of a tax break for a boyfriend who gave you a fur coat and paid for expensive trips, as Dixon did for developer Ronald H. Lipscomb? The vote itself can not be presented to the grand jury as evidence of her motivation in not reporting the gifts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sam Sawyer, of the Sweet Prospect Church, flanked by board members, standing where the church used to be.

On Saturday there’s a party planned at Baltimore’s Reginald F. Lewis Museum to celebrate the release of “Middle East Baltimore Stories: Images and Words from a Displaced Community,” a project of the Save Middle East Action Committee and Art on Purpose. 

The book is a collection of photographs and interviews by Elizabeth Barbush, of Art on Purpose. “Middle East Baltimore Stories” is meant to convey the experiences of those most affected by the city’s massive East Baltimore redevelopment project, in which about 100 acres in the so-called Middle East neighborhood are being converted into a biotechnology research park associated with Johns Hopkins Hospital. Whole city blocks were razed and more than 400 families were relocated as part of the $1.4 billion project. Read the rest of this entry »

Arthur W. Lambert outside his building, which the city has moved to condemn for redevelopment.

Arthur W. Lambert has sold insurance from his office on Edmondson Avenue since 1979 and it’s been his intention that his daughter Kearney take over the business he built right there in southwest Baltimore. “It’s been ideal to be here in this location,” he says.

But the city of Baltimore has different plans for Lambert’s 70s-style office building and the other properties wedged on a triangle-shaped parcel of land between Swann Avenue and Old Frederick Road. The city has included the Triangle as part of its redevelopment of the demolished Uplands housing complex site and has moved to take the properties by condemnation.

Lambert and a few others are fighting it and tomorrow evening, the Baltimore City Council will consider rezoning and other matters related to their case. A lot of political momentum has gone into the huge $200 million Uplands redevelopment project, which is intended to uplift the community, but these property owners have not shared the bounty. Read the rest of this entry »

By GERALD NEILY

What’s dizzy about the city’s $28 million proposal for six new roundabouts isn’t that traffic circles are inherently bad. Roundabouts are often the best solution when dealing with intractable traffic problems isolated at a single complicated or high-speed intersection. They work well in rural areas, for instance.

But city transportation officials want to slap roundabouts onto all sorts of urban trouble-spots, whether or not they’re the best solution, showing once again their chronic failure to grasp the big traffic picture or to try simple fixes first. The most potent tool in an urban grid is to coordinate the traffic signals, for instance, which would go a long way toward calming some of Baltimore’s most clogged-up areas. Read the rest of this entry »