Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott today publicly asserted that opposition to apartment towers along the city’s Inner Harbor waterfront stems from the fact that the developer, P. David Bramble, is Black.

“When Harborplace sat there deteriorating for 20 years, no one tried to do anything. No one said they wanted to redevelop it,” he said today at a City Hall press availability.

“Then the moment that a Black man from West Baltimore decides to intervene and jump on top of that and actually build it – and went out and talked to everybody downtown – all of a sudden, there’s a group of people who are opposed to it,” Scott said, reacting after a judge nullified the ballot question needed for the 900-unit apartment project to be built on land designated as a public park in the City Charter.

Responding to the mayor’s allegation, the lawyer representing critics of the plan denounced Scott for “playing the race card.”

“That was such a preposterous suggestion, that race is the reason we want to keep our public park,” said former Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah, speaking to reporters downtown at McKeldin Square.

“There’s a lot of white donors to Mr. Scott’s campaigns, too,” continued Vignarajah, who frequently points out the political contributions made by Bramble’s MCB Real Estate to Scott and other local elected officials.

“I promise you, if a [white-led company] proposed luxury condos in a public park, this exact same group would be raising the exact same objections”  – Attorney Thiru Vignarajah.

“I promise you, if it was the Manekin crew or any of the other [white-led development] companies that had proposed luxury condos in a public park, this exact same group would be raising the exact same objections,” said Vignarajah, who has run for mayor and other local offices unsuccessfully.

Vignarajah stressed that his remarks were aimed at Scott and not Bramble, whom he praised for his candor in reportedly describing himself as a “spreadsheet developer,” undertaking projects he believes will be profitable.

“What I don’t respect is a proposal that was carved out and forged behind closed doors, presented to the public in the most nefarious way and then put to the people in a way they could not possibly understand,” he added.

City to Join Appeal

Vignarajah was referring to Question F to appear on the city’s general election ballot in November.

He represents a group of 20 city residents who challenged the 133-word description of the charter change, saying it violates state election law requiring such ballot measures to be “easily understandable by voters.”

Faulting Question F’s “unnecessary verbiage,” Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Cathleen Vitale wrote that the ballot question failed to “explain the proposed amendment’s effect on what already exists.”

“The Court finds that the formulation of Question F is not easily understandable and does not fairly apprise voters of the nature of the question on which they are voting,” Vitale wrote in a 13-page memorandum.

• Behind the “bold vision” of Harborplace, a shift from people’s park to private development (11/4/23)

She agreed with the opponents that Question F’s wording violates the state constitution because it “does not touch the fundamental character of ‘form and structure’ of government as is properly reserved for charter amendments,” but instead “sets out to rezone Inner Harbor Park in both use and size, full stop.”

Because ballots are currently being printed and could not be re-issued, Vitale said any votes cast, either pro or con, on Question F would not be counted.

Her decision sparked a sharp reaction from the Maryland State Board of Elections.

As expected, it voted unanimously yesterday to appeal Vitale’s ruling to the Maryland Supreme Court.

Scott announced that the city would seek to join the appeal, denouncing Vitale’s opinion as “overstepping.”

“We don’t believe that a judge in Anne Arundel County should be telling the residents of Baltimore what to do,” Scott said. “I think that’s very disrespectful to the residents of Baltimore City.”

According to Vignarajah, state law specifies that legal challenges to ballot questions be filed in Anne Arundel County because the state elections board is located there.