Tag: mary pat clarke

Mayor Acts Like Speed Cameras Are Not for Generating Revenue

By
Robert OBrien
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Since the installation of speed cameras throughout Baltimore city in the fall of 2009, the annual revenue generated by the $40 tickets issued to motorists caught traveling 12 miles per hour over the limit has increased nearly tenfold — from just $2.4 million in 2010 to $19.2 million over the past 12 months. That increase in revenue is partly due to the number of speed cameras jumping from 28 to 56 to 83 over the course of the program. But it can hardly account for all of it. And anyway, if the speed cameras are intended to deter motorists from speeding, the revenue should be going down, at least per camera.

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Hopkins Says Goodbye to the Infamous SHHHHH Lady; Let the Loud Charles Village Parties Begin!

By
Rachel Monroe
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Johns Hopkins Shush Lady

Charles Village is one of those neighborhoods where the mix of residents — students, young families, older folks — is part of the appeal. At least until the porch parties start getting raucous at 1:30 a.m. and you’ve got work at 8 the next morning. Enter Hopkins’ famous “Shush Lady,” aka Carrie Bennett, who was tasked with the unenviable job of making sure students in the Charles Village didn’t treat the neighborhood like their own personal frat house.

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Urban Farmers Can’t Get a Break

By
Robert M. O'Brien
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They are small-scale agricultural visionaries. They are concerned Baltimoreans who adopt vacant lots in the city and transform them into functional, welcoming green spaces. But they’re not getting any tax breaks after a bill to provide 100 percent property tax credits to land banks that promote agriculture or preservation failed to pass in the City Council on Tuesday.

The bill met opposition from the Mayor’s office, with the city’s director of revenue and tax analysis voicing his concern about the “precedent” that would be set by the bill.

A sponsor of the bill, Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke did not mince words in her outrage at the opposition to the bill. “I know we give tax breaks to well-to-do developers,” she said. Speaking of urban farmers, she said, “They don’t hang out and sit with their suits at tables and talk about how they’ll help the city. They just do it.”

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