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Baltimore History Examiner
Showing entries for Category: Baltimore
Showing entries for Category: Baltimore
Plan, Control, Subsidize--Fail
 Previously, I discussed the historical examples of the perils of government regulations and government planning. See here and here. My point was that the more fingers government puts into the market the larger the impetus for big business to buy off politicians and purchase influence. If government is involved then big business has a vested interest in writing the regulations and being part of the plan. The unintended consequences of regulation and planning can be a bitch. In many cases New Deal, Great Society and No Child Left Behind programs created or exacerbated the problems they were intended to solve. The state prosecutor’s investigation into Sheila Dixon’s ties to Ronald Lipscomb/Doracon and related developers is just another example of my argument. The Baltimore Sun has reported that Lipscomb and his 57 LLCs are linked to Baltimore’s biggest developers. In their report released this week, Baltimore’s Flawed Renaissance: The Failure of Plan-Control-Subsidize Redevelopment, Baltimore based researchers Stephen Walters and Louis Miserendino lay bare the failures of Baltimore’s government planning. In a nutshell, since the 1950s Baltimore has seized private property through eminent domain and then provided tax breaks and subsidies to developers to revitalize the area. It is, dare I say it, a form of a planned economy. Walters and Miserendino argue that this plan-control-subsidize strategy has made Baltimore’s “revitalization” a tale of two cities. The Baltimore that tourists see at the Inner Harbor or Camden Yards, and the Baltimore we know from The Wire or The Corner. In addition to that sad dichotomy, we also get the Ronald Lipscomb’s of the world, who need to lavish money on politicians in order to receive government largesse in the form of taxpayer dollars to fund their business empires. As the Examiner’s Aaron Cahall notes today:
Power indeed, power concentrated in Baltimore’s political and economic elites. While the big developers (and generous campaign donors) get subsidies and tax breaks, the small business owners and middle class citizens are saddled with property tax rates double that of surrounding jurisdictions, and the burden of funding increased city spending. The elites arrogate more power, the middle class is squeezed out and the plight of the Bubbles and Dookies of the world gets worse. |
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Charm City's Literary Titans
 Frank Defilippo deserves credit for inspiring this post. In my harangue about the New Deal I cited One from One Leaves Two, a poem by Ogden Nash, which satirized the absurdity of the New Deal’s centralized planning. Frank mentioned to me that Nash was a Baltimorean, and actually lived in the Village of Cross Keys, where my daughter’s pediatrician practices. Nash lived at a couple of places in the Guilford area before moving to Cross Keys where he lived until his death in 1971. Nash tried living in New York for a brief spell, but soon returned to Charm City saying “"I could not love New York. Had I not loved Balti-more.” Growing up in the DC suburbs of Maryland we were taught that Edgar Allan Poe and HL Menken called Baltimore home. However, after perusing the Baltimore Literary Heritage Project website, I was absolutely stunned at the literary heavyweights, who called Baltimore home at one time or another. Here are a few names on the list:  Stein was famous for her quip about the city of Oakland saying “there is no there, there.” During a Monday Night Football game featuring the Oakland Raiders, Jerry Rice made a spectacular touchdown reception, prompting then MNF analyst Dennis Miller to say “Gertrude there is a there, there!” I bet our own Tony Giro didn’t know that one!  One famous writer not on the list, but should be is Whittaker Chambers. Chambers may be more famous for his unmasking of Soviet spy Alger Hiss, however his autobiography Witness is one of the great works of American literature. Hiss lived on both Mt. Royal and St. Paul streets. When he broke with communism he lived in a safe house with his family on Old Court Rd. In addition to Witness, Chambers was an editor for TIME and National Review he even translated Bambi into English from the original German. Say what you will about Chambers, he did prove F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong; there are second acts in American life. PS I would also argue, very strongly, that David Simon belongs on the list as well.
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Mark Newgent
Mark Newgent is a writer and editor with a talent for breathing history into everyday happenings.
Mark Newgent is a writer and editor with a talent for breathing history into everyday happenings.
- Historical Context to the Maryland State Police Surveillance Operation Part 2
- Historical Context to the Maryland State Police Surveillance Operation Part 1
- "Doc" Long: Maryland's Connection to Charlie Wilson's War
- How Beer Saved Civilization and Answered a Nagging Question
- The International Spy Museum
- Self Evident Truths
- Eminent Domain and the Flight of the Colts
- Plan, Control, Subsidize--Fail
- Maryland Political Scandals
- "A More Perfect Union"
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