Baltimore City To Start Non-Profit Car-Sharing Service Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, November 29, 2008:

Baltimore officials are preparing to launch a nonprofit car-sharing service, hoping that the initiative will reduce the overall number of cars used in the city.

The idea is to create a service similar to that provided by the for-profit firm ZipCar, which allows subscribers to reserve a car via a Web site for a short time. Subscribers pay a monthly fee for the service, in addition to a per-mile or per-hour usage fee.

...

In 2006, Little had hoped that ZipCar or Flexcar - then the country's two largest car-sharing companies - would expand in Baltimore. Flexcar initially showed interest, but when the two firms merged last fall, the resulting company decided not to commit more cars to Baltimore. ZipCar, the merged company, still has a handful of vehicles at the Johns Hopkins University.

A few points.

1) Baltimore's public transit system is quite weak and parking is pretty plentiful in almost every neighborhood, at least compared with Washington where many residents simply view occasional parking tickets as a condition, not a problem to solve or avoid. Very good public transit is what makes DC livable as a car-free city; even the maligned bus service here is "Swiss-run" compared with Baltimore's MTA.

2) DC is a wealthier city with a lot of single-occupant households who like to go out to eat and travel a lot. Baltimore had one of the lowest frequencies of dining out in the country recently and is generally a poorer city. A ZipCar can act as a cab substitute on dates, out of town travel and the like. If you have ever held two preschoolers' hands on a moving bus, you understand the appeal of the car. I would go so far to say that a public transit system that can figure out how to handle the preschool problem deserved the Nobel Prize.

3) Washington is much more of a residential college town; unlike Baltimore with its many regional schools, Catholic, GWU, Georgetown and American are all national or international in scope. It is, after all, the nation's capital; people come here to go to school from every time zone. Baltimore's college students are more likely to live with Mom and Dad in the suburbs, and have no need for a ZipCar or its municipally branded equivalent.

That said, maybe this is a situation where the City can do the market some good by treating this program as a broad-based market test, ideally to be supplanted later by private market players for new pump-primed market. I don't generally favor the use of public resources for market catalyzing purposes but in this case, there may be positive externalities to come from this as an experiment. Particularly if the City is smart about how it marks its vehicles both to discourage theft AND to encourage visibility of the vehicles in hipster nodes like Canton and Fells Point, this could be a winner for getting folks to own 1.2 cars, so to speak, rather than 2. For something as daunting as giving up a vehicle and going car-less, nothing short of live proof of concept will get people to give up the vehicle mode that they know (if dislike) and replace it with a ZipCar style vehicle.

Soccer Dad on the Death Penalty Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Soccer Dad has a good post on the state of Maryland's death penalty. I don't know that his piece makes the sale for me for the death penalty itself, but it does a great job of debunking a lot of the theoretical, practical and political opposition to it in Maryland.

I am not sold that the death penalty is administered in a racially discriminatory manner in Maryland; like Soccer Dad, I don't see a large enough sample size. It appears to be the case that the racial balance of the jury pool correlates to the frequency of the pursuit of the death penalty in Maryland's different jurisdictions. In my view, the quality of evidence may also come into play; the "stop snitching" culture of Baltimore crime makes it a lot harder than elsewhere to pursue all criminal prosecutions both at trial and on appeal. Add in the extreme cost of a death penalty case, and it's easier to respect the Baltimore City State's Attorney's choice never (or nearly never) to pursue the death penalty.

Turkey Bowl: Loyola Pounds Calvert Hall 35-0 Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, November 26, 2008:

A recent transplant from North Dakota, Loyola quarterback Connor Bruns didn't know quite what to expect in his first start against archrival Calvert Hall in today's 89th Turkey Bowl.

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The strong-armed junior threw fourth-down touchdown passes on his team's first two possessions, and teammate Terence Garvin added a career-high 190 rushing yards as the No. 2 Dons polished off a perfect season with a 35-0 win before an announced 12,347 at M&T Bank Stadium.

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Loyola (11-0) has won six straight and 20 of 24 in the series, which it leads 48-33-8. It was the largest margin of victory for either team since Calvert Hall won by the same score in 1976.

Roll, Dons, Roll. Ah, to spend a day again in the spring of 1987....

Pikesville McDonald's Goes All Starbucks On Us?? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Dining@Large Blog, Baltimore Sun, November 19, 2008:

McDonald's seems to have turned into a -- gasp -- stylish coffee house with cozy nooks, custom furniture, limestone countertops, limited edition artwork, wi-fi and flat screen TVs. (OK, a coffee house wouldn't have flat screen TVs.) ...

Check out the pictures in the original.

For non-locals, the 500 block of Reisterstown Road in Pikesville is not where I would expect a McDonald's to "go Gucci" with a flat screen TV, dark paneling and comfy-butt couches. Pikesville is a diverse community; this part of Pikesville is maybe 3/4 mile north of the city line at Milford Mill Road. There are some wealthy families in Pikesville but for the most part this end of Pikesville/Milford Mill is pretty much middle class, with a fairly nearby Orthodox Jewish community that would not be particularly likely to patronize a non-kosher restaurant. It's not near a college or particularly near a morning transit node, though there's a Metro station maybe 1 mile away or less. There's a kosher bagel shop perhaps 3 blocks north of it, probably aiming at a different market segment, and to my knowledge no Starbucks or Caribou Coffee within 1 mile (though a struggling Seattle's Best is less than a mile away.)

I have eaten quite a few times in that McDonald's, back when I lived in NW Baltimore and would sneak a newspaper and a greasy meal on a Sunday during a nearby Jiffy Lube run or whatnot. Now it's McLatte? McSpresso? How about just McNuggets?


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Half of Baltimore Light Rail Service Halted Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, November 18, 2008:

Thousands of Baltimore-area commuters were forced to abandon trains and board buses yesterday, the first workday disrupted by a light rail shutdown that closed the northern half of the system. State officials were unable to say how long service would be curtailed by a problem caused in part by the fall of autumn leaves.

Commuters attempting to take light rail between North Avenue and Hunt Valley were diverted to shuttle buses, which passengers said added as much as 90 minutes to the trip.

Of course. It's Baltimore. What the heck did you expect from public transit - administratie competence or efficiency?


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Quadruple Shooting Kills 2 in Odenton Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, November 16, 2008:

Two men were killed during a quadruple shooting in the parking lot of an Odenton shopping center early this morning, according to Anne Arundel County police.

Police responded to the North Odenton Plaza, in the 1600 block of Annapolis road, about 1:30 a.m. to find the two men dead, apparently of gun shot wounds.

Odenton is a strange sort of suburb in a lot of ways. It stretches NW-SE along Annapolis Road at almost the exact midpoint between downtown Baltimore and downtown DC. The MARC trains passing through and stopping at Odenton reach Baltimore and Washington in almost exactly 30 minutes in each case.

In and near Odenton lies an amazing mix of housing stock, from upper-income ego palaces to blue-collar off-base housing for adjacent Ft. Meade to section 8 nastiness in Pioneer City. My ex and I lived at the very edge of Pioneer City for about a year when I had a law practice in Upper Marlboro and she worked north of Baltimore City. It was not as bad where we were as its reputation but the police presence was pretty thick, and the local pizza parlors would NOT deliver to us even though they would deliver to points further away.

The shopping center at 1600 Annapolis Road is not one that I remember very well. I think I recall an Asian restaurant, maybe Chinese, one with a liquor license. But that's all I remember.

I do not ordinarily post about local crime reports, but this area is scheduled for massive BRAC development over the next 10 years. It would be great if BRAC could result in the clean-up of this area's crime problem, ideally through increased attention to the area as a population center, rather than as a distant "no-man's land" 15 miles from Anne Arundel's county seat.

Odenton and the surrounding communities have a lot of history, and some measure of local pride, but the political dynamics of the area are a little weird. NSA is next door, so there are a lot of people who "work with computers" or "work near the airport" but won't say where they get their paychecks. The military presence puts an element of transience or of focus outside of local dynamics. Odenton is a long-distance call from Baltimore and Washington both; while in the age of cell phones this probably matters less, it's indicative of the ambiguous identity of the region. There are multiple county borders quite nearby, especially if one counts nearby Laurel that sits essentially in four different counties.

In short, it's harder for this area to produce political influence than some others; the political geography and demographics make political power harder to organize and focus.

UPDATE: many thanks to sharp-eyed reader RCH again for his editorial acumen.

MD Court of Appeals Overturns 1st Degree Murder Conviction Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Daily Record, November 12, 2008:

A unanimous Court of Appeals has overturned a first-degree murder conviction, saying the prosecutor violated the defendant’s attorney-client privilege by asking him about the timing and content of his pre-trial discussions with defense counsel.

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"The state has every right to challenge a criminal defendant’s credibility through vigorous cross-examination," [Judge Mary Ellen] Barbera wrote. "The state has no right, however, to effect that goal through improper means. In this case, the state undermined petitioner’s credibility by the improper means of invading his attorney-client privilege."

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On cross-examination, the prosecutor sought to undermine [Defendant] Blanks’ credibility by asking when he and his attorney had first discussed his testimony that he had had an affair with the victim.

After the defense attorney’s objection was overruled, Blanks responded that he had discussed his testimony only briefly with his lawyer.

The Court of Appeals said the objection should have been sustained.

No Mercy from the Ravens Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Good. I think we need to inflict a good old-fashioned beat-down another team. We are doing that now with I think 6 minutes to go, three four touchdowns up. Poor Texans, they look like last year's Ravens.


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Combined Tax Reporting for Maryland Corporations Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Per the Daily Record's business blog, Senator Paul Pinsky (D-21) seeks combined reporting for Maryland corporations on their Maryland-based income.

I am not an expert on the comibined reporting debate, but I am familiar with two tools for moving profits into low/no-tax states while moving expenses into higher-tax states on paper for tax efficiency. One common way to do this is to set up a holding company in Delaware, a low-tax jurisdiction, to hold intellectual property that the parent company then pays out of high-tax state profits for licenses for trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, etc. Another method is to set up a "captive REIT" or real estate investment trust in a low-tax state to receive rent paid from high-tax state operations. Others probably exist.

I would like to know more about the precise nature, the details, of the combined reporting regime sought by the famously progressive (and friend of fair ballot access laws) Senator Pinsky.


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Adam Pagnucco: Marylanders Vote Strongly Against Tax Increases Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Check out the analysis by Adam Pagnucco of Maryland Politics Watch of the multiple anti-tax referenda and initiatives that prevailed even in the more liberal parts of the state. No quote here would do justice to Pagnucco's systematic analysis of the entire results.

Even Robin Ficker got his (first) Montgomery County anti-tax charter amendment, though barely. This bespeaks some ill tidings for Governor O'Malley reelection prospects, in my view; while Montgomery is almost certainly the most liberal jurisdiction in the state both politically and culturally, a move by Montgomery's wealthy taxpayers to the center (even the center measured by blue Maryland's liberal median and mean) on taxes could inflict serious damage on his reelection efforts against possible (my hunch: quite likely) GOP gubernatorial nominee former governor Bob Ehrlich.

Ehrlich paid lip service to social conservative agenda items but in his heart and habits Ehrlich was largely a GOPAC-style cost-cutter and advocate of restrained government. O'Malley is no Kathleen Kennedy Townsend but his approval ratings are way down into the "gonorrhea/kidney stone" level, in part due to modest but real tax increases on sales, excises and incomes. And Democrats should not get overconfident about Maryland after the twenty-point Obama win; Ehrlich got a much larger share of the vote in both 2002 and 2006 than McCain got in Maryland this past week - before Marylanders got their taxes increased.

UPDATE: I pretty much agree with the analysis by Brian Griffiths on these general points.


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CityPaper: Baltimore Red Line Alternatives and Limitations Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Michael Byrne of the Baltimore City Paper, November 4, 2008:

IF YOU GO THE WEB SITE OF the Transit Riders Action Council (TRAC), you will find an online petition "for heavy rail (Metro Subway) and an alternative alignment temporarily routing the red line along the Yellow Line alignment through Camden Station and north through Penn Station to the Baltimore Museum of Art." As of last week, it had 248 signatures.

Notably, the options outlined in September's Red Line alternatives analysis don't include an option for heavy rail. Heavy rail, a vague term that encompasses a lot of rail transit styles, means in this case transit in the style of the existing Metro--longer and faster (theoretically) trains that are powered by a ground level "third rail," as opposed to the overhead wires that power light rail trains. Because of that third rail, and because of the longer trains, heavy rail always needs its own right-of-way--it can't share roads or most existing trackway. Hence, it's the most expensive.

More below the fold.


Well done to Mr. Byrne for noting that both light and heavy rail are rough terms, nor precisely defined. Overhead catenary wire power as opposed to ground-based third rail power are rough guidelines for the differences between the two broad categories, but neither is definitive. For example, diesel powered "light rail" needs no power wires at all for core thrust; diesel-powered transit is fairly common in Europe and is the method of power for South Jersey's RIVER LINE connecting Trenton to Camden circumferentially around Philadelphia immediately east of the Delaware River.

While most would probably call such service "light rail" due to its modest speed and lack of a grade-separated right-of-way, there is nothing "light" about the experience of the trains blasting through the towns along its path. Due to federal regulations regarding the passenger use of freight rail tracks, the trains must make a full horn blast at most at-grade crossings - an annoyance to many residents and businesses according to reports.

Baltimore as an older city is cursed with narrow streets in much of its residential core. It is very difficult to send overhead rail or even at-grade rail through much of the city because of the narrow streets, at least without major cost-exploding takings under eminent domain of the homes of many of the residents who are to be well-served, not rendered homeless by legal force, through transit improvements.

I had the chance to speak informally with TRAC's manager informally some months ago on a MARC commute northbound. While it was more of a chat than an interview, his comments to me reflected the possibility of using currently available AMTRAK rights of way and a portal out of the Eutaw Street tunnel. I also learned from him that the Baltimore and Washington Metro trains use identical power systems and can run interchangeably on each other's tracks, subject to the short length of the Baltimore Metro platforms. It would be good if the two systems could someday link, once population densities justify it. Since Fort Meade is growing through BRAC, perhaps a heavy rail connection of both systems (heavily expanded) would make sense, as suggested recently in Greater Greater Washington. If that happens, I hope that someone will wheel me out of the retirement community to see it.

Good Sun Article on Lightning Speed of Local Government Re: Slots Vote Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Local governments in Maryland have wasted no time getting ready for the arrival of "video lottery terminals" aka video slot machines - in Anne Arundel, Baltimore City and elsewhere. Good Sun article - a noun clause I don't use often.

MD-1 - Kratovil Ahead by <1000 Votes, Counting Continues Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, November 6, 2008:

With tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted, the bitterly fought House race between Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. and Republican Andy Harris is unlikely to be settled before the end of next week, state officials said yesterday.

Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County, led Harris, a state senator from Cockeysville, by fewer than 1,000 of the more than 329,000 votes cast Tuesday in the contest for the seat now held by longtime Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest.

We shall see....

I Continue to Disagree with Brian Griffiths re Palin Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I respect Brian Griffiths. He and I disagreed earlier this year about whether Sarah Palin would be a net plus or a net minus to the GOP ticket. Today, on his personal blog, Griffiths maintains that "Anybody who thinks that Sarah Palin lost this election is out of their mind."

I think that's a pretty rude way of dealing with people you disagree with. But since I am sometimes rude, I am "equitably estopped" from making any complaint on that basis.

The issue is whether Palin killed McCain's campaign. I say "probably"; Griffiths says "no are you nuts?" in substance. I have read that as many as one in seven Obama voters is a former McCain supporter who ditched him in disgust at Palin. I do not currently have a link to that claim, however, so I cannot stand behind its methodology or its sourcing. My hunch - and that's all I have, a hunch - is that the drop off of the cliff that happened right around Palin's disastrous interview with Couric that made her a topic of mockery was fatal, and McCain's apparent terror about sending her to the Sunday morning talking heads shows where Biden has lived and chatted since the administration of Hammurabi came from her blatantly apparent weakness. Palin could not be sent to win for Team Blue Red on Sunday morning in front of an audience of millions; she was too much of a winking train wreck.

He could have sent Minnesota governor Pawlenty or especially the brilliant Bobby Jindal - both strongly pro-life, both likable - into that lion's den; Palin was too delicate a flower, apparently. He could have sent Linda Lingle - a two-term Republican governor of the moderate-to-liberal state of Hawai'i, though pro-choice - into that environment. Lingle is Jewish; while Jews certainly don't automatically vote for a Jewish candidate by any stretch, Lingle might have provided Team McCain a new set of fora in which to address Jewish voters, who went for Obama almost 4-1. Florida, Ohio and Nevada went for Obama but ugly close; all of those states have sizable Jewish communities.

I have heard this claim about "turning out the base" as if Republicans en masse would fail to vote in the absence of theocratic red meat on the ticket. Without some hard figures, I do not buy it. I do not think that "the base" is both that brittle (or what economists call "elastic") in its Republican reliability at the polls AND present in enough numbers in swing states to "out-thrill" the "out-puke" effect of chamber of commerce Republicans and independents nauseated at Palin's corruption, her incompetence and her hideous mischaracterization of blue states as less American than her party's base. I think that the stories of fundamentalist Bible Christians staying home in pecksniff resentment are mostly a myth. Furthermore, to match the effect of one McCain-to-Obama switch, there would have to be two marginal McCain votes that no-show (since the hard-core theocratic vote WON'T vote Obama, period, with or without a Palin.) I don't see them marginally outnumbering the marginal "Palin pukers" two to one where and when it counts.

Marcy Wheeler - a liberal battle blogger who made some of her bones hounding Scooter Libby not too long ago - is closer to Brian's position. She thinks that McCain's pick of Palin kept this race from being a total blowout. I am not convinced she is right; her link to one set of stats on Indiana's increase in the share of the evangelical electorate ignores too many variables, such as the growth in megachurch evangelical Christianity during the last four years and possible racist animus against Obama that would not have abated with a more qualified GOP VP pick, and did not apply to Kerry. I suspect there are more suburban Jews, Catholics (who barely went net for Obama) and moderate Protestants who pulled away in revulsion from Team McCain right after the Couric interview and stayed away in the face of Palin's "divide America" strategy than there are evangelical Protestants who voted for McCain AND would not have voted had McCain picked someone else. But go read Wheeler's piece and make your own judgment.

Palin brought another set of problems according to recent reports: vicious infighting between "her" people and those of her running mate McCain. I suspect that Lingle would have squashed that beef. I suspect that Jindal would not have tolerated that sort of stupidity. Once the memoirs come out, we might see more clearly how catastrophically bad this pick was on the in-house efficacy of Team McCain, and how poorly the choice reflected on McCain's ability to hire talent, command respect and delegate tasks. I think it's more likely than not that I am right about Palin being a total disaster and ticket killer, but I don't think I have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, right now.

Long Lines for Obama - Worth It Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Last night, I got to slog through nasty, long traffic lines out to Manassas by car and on foot to see Barack Obama's final official rally. Getting both in and out of Manassas, parking almost 2 miles away and walking each way, getting "penned in" for a long time at the Prince William County Fairgrounds when they would not let 20,000 of us in the back out for quite a while - all gave me a more direct appreciation of what folks in New Orleans went through at Katrina in terms of the evacuation logistics alone. We didn't get a very good view of Senator Obama; his face and torso were blocked by the teleprompter from our angle. And Obama arrived quite late due to a late arrival at Dulles.

Today I voted. I stood in line in Northeast DC for about an hour. They could have done a better job of dividing up the voter rolls; A-B had one clerk looking bored with nothing to do while for my bad luck F-I had one very slow-moving clerk and a larger pool. But in the end, I got my scantron sheet and voted. My precinct is probably 99% African-American and appeared today to reflect that demographic proportion in terms of my fellow voters in line. A lot of senior citizens, some with canes, wheelchairs, walkers or O2 tanks. Nobody complained about the lines, at all. People looked happy and relaxed to vote.

Never before in my ENTIRE life have I been prouder of my country, not even the day we beat the Soviet Union in Olympic hockey when I was 10.


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Election Night Scoreboard: Talkingpointsmemo.com Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I am in awe of the work done by my Princeton classmate Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com re: the district by district election data for tomorrow night. TPM's map of Maryland looks great; because of Maryland's brutal gerrymandering, the boundaries of the Congressional races are a little off, as a comprimise between the M. C. Escher-like districts and the vector requirements of, I suspect, Java programming for images and boundaries. But you can easily track any Maryland race there.

The Maryland race that most people are likely to watch for is MD-1, the Eastern Shore/Annapolis/Timonium district pitting Queen Anne's County State's Attorney Frank Kratovil (D) against Senator Andy Harris (R) of Timonium. Harris' Senate District is on the extreme northwest edge of the Congressional district, while Kratovil's Centreville office is probably fairly near the geographic and population-weight midpoints. I encourage any and all readers of WBA Blog to follow this race closely at TPM; that race and the slots and early voting "referenda" are the meaningfully contested issues for Maryland tomorrow night. (Unfortunately but understandably, TPM's tracker does not cover non-federal races or issues, including the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California.)


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Slots in Maryland - Why can't I get fired up about this? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I don't have a strong analysis of slots in Maryland one way or another. I am familiar with the general range of opinions on the policy merits and demerits of the industry, the side effects, the likely revenue, the fact that Marylanders are already using slots venues in Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania (and would in many cases choose to play in Maryland instead.)

I can respect both libertarian support (in that it legalizes and makes available an activity in which players want to participate) and opposition (because it increases the size and funding of the state, i.e. the apparatus of force.) I get conservative support (because it raises government revenue without direct taxation) and opposition (because it tends to undercut morals and promote crime in some instances.) I get liberal support (because the revenues will fund useful projects for society at large) and opposition (because its incidence of gambling's costs may be characterized as regressive against income levels and/or exacerbate the costs of already strained government services.)

I have played slots in Delaware a few times, and enjoy video blackjack in Vegas a few years ago. Speaking only about my subjective feelings (not my analysis of policy), I would dislike local slots parlors, whether run by the government directly or under contract to a gaming company. This is not an argument against them, just a subjective opinion. I just find them annoying. On the other hand, I would enjoy bona fide table games including Texas Hold'em poker tables.

A close friend has described to be his frustrations with his parents' frequent trips to a casino near their home in a mid-Atlantic state. They are middle-class folks, not of great or poor means, and have thrown a lot of money down the hole in the slots parlor. Now grown-ups get to make decisions for themselves, including poor ones; that's almost the technical definition of an adult: someone free to make a bad decision. But purely subjectively, I would view a slots parlor the same way that I would view a carnival freak show: something negative that a free society permits to exist without interference.

Doesn't mean I will like it if it happens.

I have not been following any polling on this topic; it's not a high-valence issue for me re: my home state, since I don't plan to play there if it happens. I wish I had something stronger to say about it; having an opinion and voicing it is not generally a problem for a "battle blogger." But I guess I am "meh" about the whole topic.

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