>Stop electing folks that don't do their job.

We don't elect BPD

You shouldn't have a problem at Starbucks. My first job as a teenager was Target. Its retail but they pay a little above minimum wage and you get a small store discount.

Hogan is the least of Baltimore City's problems

If you want something a lot more unique and fun, I HIGHLY recommend looking at working as a deckhand on the Baltimore Water Taxi.

In addition to getting lots of customer service experience you'll learn a ton about working on the water and the hospitality/tourism industry. If you enjoy working on the water, you can use the sea time you earn to eventually get a USCG captain's license which is incredibly valuable professionally, even outside of the maritime industry. If you don't care about that it can just be a hell of a fun place to work where you can make a lot of good friends while getting paid to play on someone else's boats.

I worked there while in high school back in the mid-90s. Fell in love with working on the water and got my captain's license as soon as I was able (back then that was all on my own, these days they pay for sea school and all training once you have enough time). With that captain's license I spent most of the next decade working all over the country on all sorts of different vessels from tour boats to heavy offshore industry. These days I work in tech but I keep my captain's license current and it is still a great ace in the hole on my resume to set me apart from other candidates when interviewing for jobs... plus it's a skillset that I'll always have as a fallback option.

The point is that, quite frankly, your parents are wrong. There are a ton of other job options out there above and beyond fast food that can give you much more valuable experience than just a paycheck. I have no affiliation with the Water Taxi but working there was a great experience when I was your age and still serves me well these days almost 30 years later.

Did you live in the city for the last few elections? Who were your top 2 or 3 candidates for Mayor (you don't have to say who you ultimately voted for) in 2016 and 2020?

The fact that he thinks of "environment and infrastructure" as one thing is probably a good sign. A lot of spending in this country doesn't consider those linked so you get like... a state passing laws about emissions reductions at the same time as they spend billions on widening highways. The built environment is the environment in some sense.

I'm typing in those little block. Obviously, "being better" is a generalization. Most public defenders are underpaid and overworked. There aren't enough of them either. That's nationwide. There are policy changes and others things that can be done to help.

Locking people up? No, but firing when not doing their job, yes. There are other ways to discipline folks.

I keep that to myself. I'm mostly a libertarian but not the typical beltway type. I'm fiscally conservative but generally I believe you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't infringe on my rights.

...You think that politicians should just decree that the public defenders "be better" at being lawyers without spending money?

I can't think of what "policy changes and corrective actions toward those who do wrongdoing" means other than 'lock people up for longer' which (1) isn't free and (2) doesn't work.

I agree there are zoning changes that could be made that would reduce displacement, although I disagree tha alone would be sufficient to ameliorate the issue

Who have you voted for in the past few primaries elections, if I may ask?

LOL you're both crazy, and it's four things. I mean environment and infrastructure is a combo category it seems, but that's funny.

Not everything is corrected with funds like when minority men are sentenced longer to similar crimes because they don't have money for better lawyers. Or minority families being pushed out of neighborhoods because of gentrification. Politicians let that happen! It's not just corporate America.

You don't change how systems are run with just funding. It also comes down to policy changes and corrective actions towards those who do wrongdoing.

What issues do you believe are free to solve?

Also, there's a massive difference between saying "these issues cannot be solved overnight" and "well I guess we shouldn't do anything ever."

Mayor Scott's focus on environmental issues is a good example of something that is fairly unlikely to result in short term returns, but will result in better health, employment, and economic trends over a longer timescale. The hard truth is that generations issues usually require generational inverventions (which of course does not mean we shouldn't address immediate issues simultaneously).

>Scott said his top three priorities are public safety, the environment and infrastructure and quality of life.

Am I crazy or isn't that four things?

What do we have to do to get Keith Ave/Broening Hwy repaired please help us :(

It's going to be the same thing over and over again until someone out of nowhere comes in a truly cleans house. It might be a different name but it's the same promises and same failures.

I agree. It's not going to improve overnight. Not expecting it to. All those things you stated are an issue and need to be resolved. This goes deep and I get that. I'm tired of hearing problems and not solutions.

How does asking for funding help with acting on solutions? Are funds being used currently to help with those issues? I believe a lot of those issues are free to solve.

Maybe the problem is the government as a whole. How is the government supposed to provide solutions when they are the problem? These issues are embedded in our society and let's assume they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. What now? Continue to watch the youth get slaughtered on the streets? Schools fail the kids? Admission fail the teachers? Infrastructure fail? Jobs leave? Resources diminish?

Well next year we'll have a new head coach. Who do you think it'll be? I think we're gonna have some of the same folks from before in the running - Scott, Dixon (ugh), maybe a new Miller-like outsider (but not Jayne, she's not doing that), the usual weirdos that have no shot that run, and whichever grifter wbff puts up. Now in 2028, ZC is on deck mos def. Hopefully we'll have flying hacks by then.

Well I've enjoyed your comments over the years and I thought when you talked about how he wasn't responsive over various things (the funding for new gun toys comes to mind) I thought you were spot on. You should always be responsive or at least have an explanation for your constituents.

That said, sometimes I really do wonder how much of an undercurrent there is of a threat to him personally if he doesn't go along with some things.

Like, dude got mugged (like a push, not robbed) and essentially assaulted by that dude and nobody talks about it, like ever. And the BPD is obviously an organization that has no problem taking people out when needed. Did you catch that Bates said, and still believes, that the Suiter case is straight up murder? And that he had conversations with people close to the case and he believes that it is murder? Scott tries to run roughshod through things and he may end up like Suiter.

Now that said, that's not an excuse to whiff on a good amount of things. I just think he's done a good amount of things in addition to the whiffs.

And a, while we're talking about mayor stuff. This goof is about to rise from the ashes. Lets pray she doesn't.

I'm not expecting radical change at all. In the end, it's still the government and it moves slowly. It's not a corporation. With crime it's like losing weight. You need to implement things that at least slows things down. I just see it getting worse.

Like the American Rescue Plan Act. Who or what has benefited from that outside of handing out millions.

Have things gradually improved in some regard? I'm struggling to find anything positive and I want to. I love Baltimore but it's corrupt all over. It's not just him. He's just the head coach of the team.

...How is getting more funds to be used for public safety (putting aside the efficacy of BPD at stopping crime for a second) not "taking action"?

The violence in Baltimore is a result of decades and decades of systemic disenfranchisment, exploitation, underinvestment, and lack of concern for poor people and Black people. It's baked into our economic system, our infrastructure, our law enforcement and justice systems, and yes, our political system. I'm not saying things couldn't be going faster, but expecting any mayor to in a single term "fix" issues which fundementally stem from generational poverty and systemic racism is pollyanish at best, and results in policy that actively makes those issues worse down the line (see broken widows policing).

Well said.

What's funny is I've been guilty of the very thing I speak out against and that's expecting mayor's to make big changes in short amounts of time. It took decades to mess the city up this bad and for us to expect it to get better in any less time is naive at best.

My biggest complaint is that he doesn't seem to jave any overarching plans. He has done some good things and some bad things but I don't see a vision or plan as much as a guy who just jumps from thing to thing. I had hope when he brought in a city manager that he was on his way to removing himself from day to day minutia for a more comprehensive planning position but that seems to have not worked out.

We don't have that kinda time, lol.

tl:dr - he's pretty much what I thought he'd be from watching him as a councilperson and during his run. Very what you see is what you get. He hasn't done anything transformative but he's started to lay the groundwork for the next person. If you (general you) expected him to come in guns blazing, you were disappointed. He's like the leader of the clean up crew. The place was wrecked and he is coming in trying to get things just running at a minimal level. He affects a lot of people reddit doesn't see or acknowledge. Him just being in a position of leadership affects a lot of people positively but that is invisible to most of reddit. He shows up a lot of places he should, and doesn't show up a lot of places he needs to. He disappoints folks like /u/jabbadarth and me all the time, much like a recent heralded president disappointed folks because he didn't come in swinging his [expletive] and changing every policy around. And then sometimes he's not responsive when he should be, to folks like jabbadarth who are earnest and vital members of the area. He has his reasons I'm sure, but some times it just feels like he chooses to ignore things that shouldn't be ignored. But there's a larger convo to be had around that that we don't have time for today. If I gave him a rating it would be "meets expectations" because I was never detached enough from the crime and violence of this city to expect he could come in and make a dent in three freaking years when hundreds of years of history have got us to where we're at. I listened to leaders at Hopkins, leaders in the community, aspiring political candidates and leaders of organizations like the police, to understand the limits of what he could accomplished. I posted research in here long before he ever ran (search the sub for it) that suggests Mayors basically have next to no impact on things like crime, etc.

and that's the tldr. You're not gonna waltz in and solve something like this, in 3 years.

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I can but wanted to know your thoughts.