Crossbar representatives seek City Hall’s help to lobby a zoning official

 “Baltimore rats @ work.”
– Richard Herbert, via Facebook

“Haussners property is sitting vacant. If they want a brewhaus, they should open there.”
– Balmy Balmer

“Great idea BB, but the Crossbar folks do not really want a brewhaus. They want a building in Federal Hill that will morph into a megabar within 6 months. Two of the BMZA realized that and voted against. In fact everyone knows what will eventually happen with the property: Tanner and the three other BMZA members, Cole, Parthemos, Auchincloss, the South Baltimore Neighborhood Association and Stephan ‘a clearly different animal’ Fogleman, whose LB decision allowed this charade to continue.”
– Tom Gregory

“What a tangled web we weave,
when we have positions of power,
we pull strings,
use stings,
insinuate,
bait,
and with bated breath we wait
for things to turn our way,
if not today, tomorrow.”
– ushanellore

“Great reporting on this issue! Without good journalism there is little hope for a civilized society in Baltimore. Baltimore Brew is the answer to keeping city government in check.”
– Michael

“The Brew is truly shining a light into the dark corners of city government and we’re all seeing who is scurrying away from that light.”
– gctommy
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Beatty lavished funds on mayor and City Council as they lavished tax credits on Harbor Point

“$21,750 gets you $107,000,000! Sign me up! I’m buying Mega Millions like a dope.”
– John Molino

“I thought that buying a city council vote would cost about the same as a lobbyist. Who knew lobbyist were that expensive or that our city council sells itself so cheaply?”
-Bmorepanic

“First takeaway: Baltimore City politics work just like politics everywhere else. Second takeaway: next time, give Stokes a couple grand, too.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“Disgusting. Just disgusting. And not one of them is fearful of repercussions. They know that in Baltimore they are the only people who are ‘bullet proof.’”
– Sheila Ebelein, via Facebook

“What a deal! SRB has a track record of this.”
– BaltimoreDave

“does this really surprise anyone?”
– Chris Sikora, via Facebook

“So our City Council will vote to give big tax incentives to large development firms, but also vote to put residents in danger by closing fire companies. Gotcha. I would call this business as usual, but I think using the word ‘business’ makes it sound too legit. Let’s just call it what it really is – sleaze and corruption, sanctioned by Baltimore City voters.”
– Carol Ott
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Harbor Point set to get $100,000 credit for work the city will do

“This is a cheap shot, and bad reporting based on incomplete information, innuendo and ‘facts’ obtained from un-named sources who may or may not know what the hell they are talking about. If you intend to report a scandal, how about finding a real one?”
– CMcM

The Mayor, Mr. Beatty and DOT were all asked to comment about why the 18.2% bridge credit was contained in the traffic mitigation fee, offsetting the fee by about $100,000.
• The Mayor said (after she voted to approve the agreement at the BOE meeting yesterday): ‘I don’t have an answer for you.’
• Mr. Beatty, asked via phone on Tuesday, said he would return the call. He has not.
• DOT’s public information office was also asked on Tuesday. It has not yet responded.
-BaltimoreBrew

“I do not blame Beatty one bit. I blame the people elevated to the highest positions in city government for not having the best fiscal interests of the citizens in mind. It doesn’t escape me that of those citizens who bothered to vote, the majority voted for essentially the status quo. I therefore blame us. Although I did not personally vote SRB or her colleagues (I’m being nice) into positions of power, well, there they are. And here we are. Slowly cooking in Stephanie’s sauce-pan, wondering if we could possibly get a bit more juice ladled on our heads.”
– davethesuave
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Au Revoir, Video Americain!

“waaah, waah.”
– Heather Dewer, via Facebook

“Sad how great things die,
‘We’ve got to move on!’ we say–
and we let go of what mattered once
or it lets go of us and drops out of sight. . .”
– ushanellore
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Red Line project passes a key federal hurdle

“As someone who works at the Social Security complex in Woodlawn, I’m really looking forward to the Red Line starting. Too bad it hasn’t already been running for years. It seems to take longer to do environmental studies than it did for our grandfathers to defeat Hitler and Hirohito.”
– mttwls

“The big news here is the huge ridership reduction, which no doubt reflects many of the blatant errors and falsehoods I pointed out in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), like ridiculously optimistic population growth, convoluted feeder bus routes, and gross imbalances between ON and OFF riders. See http://baltimoreinnerspace.blo…
– Gerald Neily

“I think people are underestimating how much the red line will help facilitate intracity travel, giving people more access across Baltimore when taking the light rail and metro into account. While the 2-car trains is a disappointment, the current light rail only ever runs more than 2 cars on big events. The Red Line cars should be able to hold more passengers and have easier on-and-off because they will be low floor. The Red Line is also projected to have a shorter headway than the current light rail, and with the central part of the line (West Baltimore to Canton) in a dedicated ROW and tunnel will be able to move unencumbered through downtown just as quickly as the metro.”
– CB

“My question is, who in City Hall looks at the existing light rail, running empty and snarling traffic, and thinks, ‘Yeah, we need another one.’?”
– Andrew Bober, via Facebook

“I agree that Baltimore needs a more user friendly mass transit system, but if the goal is to create an East-West connector from SSA to Bayview, it should not dip down Boston, forcing it to come above ground, then turn back up to Bayview. It should go straight down Eastern underground the whole way. In going down Boston you’re losing half your potential ridership, and potentially losing value of businesses and properties that are big taxpayers (cough cough, Howard street anyone?). Never mind the fact that they are saying it won’t be able to handle game day ridership. If we are going to do this, we need to do it right!”
– Beth Manning, via Facebook

“My understanding is that it can’t go on the blocks surrounding Patterson Park because of environmental regs that would prohibit federal funds. Something about designated green space and transit projects.”
– GX Walsh

“I just wish Baltimore will finish a project it starts. When the original Metro was constructed in Baltimore it was supposed to extend further up into northeast Baltimore, and we were supposed to have another subway line or two. But like then, as now, the people of this city always have their hand out. Anytime a company or the city wants to build something to improve and update the city, all types of organizations have their hand out and are asking, what are you doing for us.”
– Joe M.
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HUD report decries city’s management of homeless funds, but says no fraud found

“Sadly, Baltimore missed a valuable opportunity to assist the homeless by their greed and corrupt political buddy system.”
-Kay Adler, via Facebook

“Audit all departments.”
– Richard Herbert, via Facebook

“It’s always the most vulnerable that suffer in this city, the elderly, poor and homeless.”
– Rhonda Wimbish, via Facebook

“And it happens all the time and has been happening for a long time and I/we have yet to see whose responsible for this! Follow the money!!”
– Gayle A. Grove, via Facebook

“mismanagement of money seems never-ending. it’s difficult to keep track of them all. the links at the end of this article are helpful. would be interesting if Brew published links to the many accounting issues in one place so we can see the multitude that there have been in recent years.”
– imariep

“Here’s a good place to start, imariep: Best of 2013: Inside City Hall.
– BaltimoreBrew