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July 10th, 2014

7/10/2014

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IT IS WOMEN AND CHILDREN THAT MAKE UP THE BULK OF FAMILIES FACING THE DISMANTLING OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AND SERVICES.  IT IS NEO-LIBERAL POLITICIANS WORKING WITH NEO-CONS DOING IT!

I want to continue one more day on private non-profits and commissions and health care in Maryland.  Remember, large sectors of Marylanders are not accessing health care----having a longevity 30 years less than affluent communities shows this.  Having the worse VA system in the nation shows this. The clinic care system built to keep Marylanders out of hospitals offer almost no access to basic medical procedures.

IT IS A DISASTER AND IT IS BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVING NO MORALITY OR ETHICS ARE CREATING THESE POLICIES ONLY AIMED AT MAKING A FEW EVER MORE RICH.

The average citizen working for these organizations are not bad people----they just want jobs.  Each time you create a private non-profit or commission for health care you have eliminated the public sector employees that would do that job.  You eliminate the public's ability to see what is happening and the accountability tasked to our government to serve and protect. 

DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLITICIANS SHOUTING THIS?  IF NOT, THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT AND NOT YOU AND I!


Yesterday we saw the commissions filled with the health executives writing the law and regulating themselves.  Let's look at the front lines where the health care is delivered----or, in Maryland, not delivered.  This is where the fraud and corruption fills the system.  Again, it is not the average staff doing this---they are being told to do this.  I spoke at length about the dismantling of the VA to private non-profits and showed they were receiving the money and doing nothing.  Medicaid and Medicare is handled just the same.  Remember, in Maryland Medicaid and Medicare is handled the same as private insurance so none of the requirements of coverage or accountability have occurred for a few decades.  Billions of dollars are lost as fewer Medicare patients enter the hospital but Medicare bills per patient climb.....THAT IS FRAUD CAUSING THOSE BILLS TO CLIMB.


Below you see the private non-profit that took over yet another duty of public health and it has been at it for 15 years---the very years that gave Baltimore the 30 year longevity difference.  If you look today health access has never been worse so we know this organization is not doing its job!  Remember, the people affected are not only black and brown or unemployed and impoverished or working poor.  Middle-class families with expenses that take money that would go for health care are included in these stats. 

DO NOT ALLOW PREJUDICE OF CLASS OR RACE SKEW YOUR THOUGHTS ON HEALTH ACCESS----THIS AFFECTS EVERYONE.


Our Organization Enroll In Benefits

HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM)

is a nonprofit agency that plays a critical role in strengthening Maryland’s health care delivery system. Working with both government and private-sector support, HCAM helps residents enroll in public health care coverage, navigate the complex health care system and connect to educational and other resources.

HCAM was established in 1997 as Baltimore HealthCare Access to initially assist with the Medicaid transition to managed care. What began as a small organization with 40 employees, a $3 million budget and two core grants has grown steadily.

  • Funding has grown to $23 million and the agency has earned more than 30 major grants, including a $7.9 million grant from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) as part of the State’s efforts to implement health care reform in Maryland and help uninsured residents gain access to affordable health care.
  • The number of programs offered has grown from the original two to 19, allowing HCAM’s 200 employees to help connect over 125,000 clients each year to health insurance and care and to vital community resources through a variety of programs serving the uninsured, under-insured and vulnerable populations of the state.
As a 501(C)3 not-for-profit organization, HCAM is overseen by a committed board of directors and supported by public and private sector grants, as well as corporate and individual donations. This unique funding allows us to provide a variety of specialized services for the residents of Maryland in four areas of expertise:

  • Eligibility and enrollment
  • Navigation of the health care system
  • Care coordination
  • Education and advocacy
HCAM’s expertise in these areas led the agency to broaden its reach and help provide services to people throughout the state. To signify this expanded focus, the organization changed its name in 2011 from Baltimore HealthCare Access to HealthCare Access Maryland.

The agency’s ability to help people live healthier lives has been recognized by others in our field. The agency is the proud recipient of Maryland Nonprofits’ Seal of Excellence, a designation that recognizes HCAM’s reputation for delivering high-quality programs and services in a fiscally responsible way.

Although HCAM specializes in health care access, we continue to serve the needs of our clients beyond just helping them obtain an insurance card. We serve children, pregnant women, parents, childless adults and youth in foster care, as well as those with addiction issues, immigrants, individuals recently released from jail and the homeless.

HCAM’s work to implement health care reform in Maryland

Throughout its 15-year history, HCAM has become a critical player in strengthening Maryland’s health care delivery system, earning a spot as a public health leader in the state and working with policymakers, nonprofit organizations and elected officials on innovative approaches to improving the health of all Marylanders.

In the Spring of 2013, HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM) received a $7.9 million grant from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) as part of the State’s consumer assistance program to implement the Affordable Care Act and help uninsured residents learn about, apply for and enroll in health insurance. HCAM was selected as the State’s Central Region Connector, serving Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.

As the Central Region Connector, HCAM will organize services across the region and has partnered with 17 organizations to provide outreach, education and eligibility determinations and to facilitate enrollment of the nearly 217,000 uninsured residents in the region into Medicaid, the Maryland Children’s Health Program (MCHP) and subsidized and non-subsidized qualified health plans.


__________________________________________

Baltimore is ground zero for Medicaid and Medicare spending and as we know the money is not getting to the people.  Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Medical Center are handling many of these groups so that is where you start your search.  Since Johns Hopkins has captured all public policy and creates all the private non-profits that are then funded to work in these low-income communities----that is who is charged with overseeing this distribution only THERE IS NO OVERSIGHT!  THERE IS THE PROBLEM.  If we had a public health department filled with employees whose job it is dispensing money and providing oversight and reporting to the citizens of Baltimore----this would not be happening.

If you have followed me these few years you know I do not like Sharfstein and Barbot.  They were appointed to dismantle all public health and build more of these private non-profits and

THEY HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY!  NO WONDER SHARFSTEIN COULDN'T ROLL OUT THE STATE HEALTH EXCHANGE----HE'S TOO BUSY MAKING SURE MARYLAND HAS NO PUBLIC HEALTH.  Slander you say----no, all you have to do is look at who is doing the work of public health and you see nothing but private non-profits.  The people supposedly served all complaining they cannot access care.
  The money is flowing but not where its supposed to------

DID YOU KNOW THAT JOHNS HOPKINS BUILT A GLOBAL CORPORATE EMPIRE THESE FEW DECADES THAT MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FRAUD WAS THE WORSE-----just saying there's likely a link!


This should anger everyone as this looted Medicare Trust is now being addressed by limiting more access to most people....you and I!



Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Healthy Baltimore 2015 Last month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued the second annual County Health Rankings. As it did last year, Baltimore City ranked last in the state. 

One statistic in particular stuck out: 14,887. That’s the number of years of potential life lost before the age of 75.  Put simply, far too many Baltimore City residents are dying before their time.
Statistics like these give great urgency to the work we do to improve the health of our city, our neighborhoods and our residents.  It also makes clear that traditional medical or public health approaches aren’t working and it’s time to try something different.
That conversation starts today with the release of Healthy Baltimore 2015.
This comprehensive health policy agenda highlights 10 priority areas that account for the greatest morbidity and mortality in Baltimore.  These areas were chosen because there are evidence-based interventions proven to make a difference.  The plan looks at the relevance of where we live, work and play on health outcomes, as oftentimes they play as significant a role in making us sick as they do in keeping us healthy.
The city has set ambitious, yet reachable, improvement goals for the following priority areas:
1. Promote access to quality health care for all. 
2. Be tobacco free. 
3. Redesign Communities to Prevent Obesity.
4. Promote Heart Health.
5. Stop the spread of HIV and other STIs. 
6. Recognize and Treat Mental Health Disorders. 
7. Reduce Drug Use and Alcohol Abuse.
8. Encourage early detection of cancer.
9. Promote Healthy Children and Adolescents.   
10. Create Health Promoting Neighborhoods. 


For more information on the specific indicators we will use to measure progress in these areas, please view the full Healthy Baltimore 2015 report.
As you can see, there is much work to be done. Healthy Baltimore 2015 makes clear that we all play a role in improving the health of our city.
Over the course of the next several weeks to months, we will work with partners throughout the city to flesh out a 3-pronged approach to moving the needle for each of the leading indicators, including policy development; prevention, quality, and access; and community engagement.  Later this spring, senior leaders within the department will visit communities around the city to share this plan and the updated neighborhood health profiles.  We hope communities will put this information to use in designing new strategies and interventions for tackling the top priorities they identify for creating health promoting environments.
Let me be clear: the health department alone cannot successfully execute Healthy Baltimore 2015.  We welcome all motivated neighborhood leaders, individual citizens, aca­demic institutions, community-based organizations, business owners and the media to join us in this effort as partners in health. 
Partners can contribute to the success of Healthy Baltimore 2015 in many ways. These varying levels of engagement include, but are not limited to:
  • Communication – displaying or distributing health information materials within each of the ten priority areas.
  • Facilitation – actively participating in interventions such as incorporating wellness at work programs into the business day.
  • Integration – actively considering the potential health impacts of pending business or policy decisions.
To become a partner, please email me at health.commissioner@baltimorecity.gov. Together, we can reshape the landscape to make Baltimore City a place where all residents realize their full health potential.  Posted by Oxiris Barbot, M.D. at 8:37 AM

_________________________________________

Using Maryland for the divide between wealthier counties and poor counties we need to be clear-----while the poorest were excluded from accessing health in Maryland these last decades it is now coming higher up the economic scale....The Affordable Care Act is designed to make preventative care the only care 80% of Americans can afford and percentage is rising soon to 90%.  We will see with these forced re-negotiations of corporate and public sector health benefits that the middle-class will now be the ones forced out of care because they cannot afford co-pays and deductibles or once they pay the health insurance premiums they have no money for the health care itself.  THAT IS THE GOAL....

IT'S LIKE AUTO INSURANCE....YOU PAY AND PAY FOR COVERAGE AND IF YOU USE IT, THEY HIKE YOUR RATES OR CANCEL YOUR POLICY.

That is what is coming.  Below you see the other factor that will keep most people out of basic medical care----the need for a primary care doctor to access specialists and their care.  Activists have tried for decades to have medical school training be made free.  Get rid of the medical grads high tuition debt and you get lots of people in doctoring less motivated to earn $500,000 or more.  THIS ONE POLICY HAS CREATED THIS SHORTAGE AND AGAIN---IT IS DONE DELIBERATELY.  If corporations and the rich are paying no taxes and receive all revenue that is collected as corporate subsidy----where does all that free money for medical schools come from?  No, say corporations its better to simply exclude most people from health care access to maximize corporate profits.

FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL PAID FOR BY SIMPLY RECOVERING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD AND STOPPING IT IN THE FUTURE FLOODS THE MARKET WITH PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS.


But then say health corporations we cannot pretend to need to bring third world doctors to the US that are used to high levels of fraud and corruption and not bothering with the Hippocratic Oath and HIPAA regulations and who have no rights as citizens so as to be exploited by these growing US  global health systems!

What is being said here is nothing new----we have been shouting it for decades----they simply are pretending they are working on this solution as they dismantle all the avenues to address this.

Primary care access a key to health disparities among counties ■ An annual ranking of counties based on health status found that gaps between the healthiest and unhealthiest regions of states are wide — and getting wider.

By Jennifer Lubell — Posted April 1, 2013 AMED NEWS.com

Washington If you're a resident of Howard County, Md., chances are fairly high that you have insurance, enjoy good health and have relatively easy access to a primary care physician. Take a short car ride to Baltimore, however, and the situation for residents is much more grim.

In Howard County, ranked as Maryland's healthiest in the most recent County Health Rankings and Roadmaps survey, only 9% of residents are uninsured, and just 8% are considered in poor health. There's one primary care physician for every 577 patients. In Baltimore City, the unhealthiest county in the state, the uninsured rate is nearly twice as high, and there's only one primary care doctor for every 985 patients — a combination that means a significant access-to-care problem.

The comparison underscores a key finding in the 2013 survey: Gaps between the healthiest and unhealthiest counties in individual states are large and continue to grow. The survey highlighted the fact that residents in the healthiest counties are 1.4 times more likely to have access to a primary care physician than those in the least healthy counties. Unhealthy areas also had higher rates when it came to a host of other negative indicators of overall health, including child poverty, teen pregnancy and premature death.

This is the fourth year that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health have surveyed the health of every county in the U.S., ranking them on a state-by-state basis to gauge the factors determining the health of residents. All survey measures use figures or percentages that take population into account so that a county such as Howard, with a population of less than 300,000, can be compared with Baltimore City's population of more than 600,000.

The rankings are set up so that every state has a healthiest and unhealthiest county despite the overall health of the state. But health outcomes can vary widely within a state, said Patrick Remington, MD, MPH, professor and associate dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, during a teleconference to discuss the 2013 rankings. Louisiana and Mississippi are two states that often rank last in the nation on overall health. But when researchers dig into each state, they find as much variability among individual counties in Louisiana and Mississippi as they do in Vermont, a state that ranks relatively high nationally on patient health outcomes, he said.

Competition drives improvement Dr. Remington said promoting the results of county rankings has made a difference, “sparking action all over the country as people from all sectors join forces to create new possibilities in health — county by county.”

One of those areas is New Orleans, which has been trying to rebuild its infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, New Orleans health commissioner and senior health policy adviser to the city's mayor. Orleans Parish typically has ranked in the 60-62 range in a state that has 64 counties, Dr. DeSalvo said. “So we've been at the bottom of the pack in one of the more unhealthy states in the country. What we're excited about this year is we've jumped up to number 48, so that's a big leap.”

In addition to overhauling its education system and making improvements to parks and playgrounds, the city has spent seven years on an initiative to develop its primary care infrastructure.

“We had essentially no neighborhood-based primary care before Katrina. People were reliant upon hospital-based services, especially those who were uninsured and underinsured,” Dr. DeSalvo said.

Since then, the city has responded by working with 25 organizations, ranging from small clinics to large hospital systems, to build access to primary care and outpatient mental care, with a particular focus on patient-centered medical homes and health information technology. The initiative has received financial support from philanthropic sources as well as some federal demonstration program funding to expand access to primary care rapidly. “This is a true public-private partnership,” she said.

Dr. DeSalvo said the renewed focus on building strong primary and preventive care at the neighborhood level probably has reduced unnecessary hospitalizations and led to improvements in screening rates for such conditions as diabetes and breast cancer.

Improving patient-reported measures and clinical outcomes is one of the strategic goals recently adopted by the American Medical Association. The AMA is focusing on promoting quality and safety, reducing unwarranted variation in care, and fostering appropriate use of limited health care resources.

Other factors leading to poor health The fact that fewer physicians and dentists practice in certain communities obviously contributes to poorer health in those areas, said Bridget B. Catlin, PhD. She's a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and director of the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps survey. But, as she and other health care observers pointed out, lack of access is just one of many problems that go hand in hand with poor health among residents. In addition to measuring clinical care outcomes, the survey analyzes health behaviors, social and economic statistics, morbidity, and such physical environment elements as air and water quality.

“Other key factors that influence the health of a community are education, employment, income, and whether people smoke or have access to healthy foods and places to exercise. Some of these factors probably also influence physicians' decisions about where to practice,” Catlin said. “In particular, there is a widespread need for health care providers in rural areas.”

At least in Maryland, the health gap between the highest- and lowest-ranking counties largely comes down to socioeconomic conditions, said Brian Avin, MD, a neurologist and the president of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. Howard County, a suburb of Washington, is one of the most affluent areas of the nation, “so whatever social factors you want to create, Howard is going to be the highest and Baltimore City is going to be the lowest,” he said. There's much more poverty and unemployment in Baltimore, as well as more people on Medicaid or going without insurance, generating more uncompensated care cases. “Obesity, smoking, any individual feature you're going to look at is going to be worse when you're not getting basic care.”

Howard County also has been trying to get all of its population insured, whereas no such strategic initiative exists in Baltimore City, Dr. Avin said.
___________________________________________


Baltimore has a policy of replacing school athletic courts and community center athletic courts with 'greening' development moving all of this to private non-profits like YMCA located too far for most to reach.  I literally had to fight for an athletic court for an elementary school of 300 students----Johns Hopkins Homewood wanted to make it a park. Parks and playgrounds across the city have been neglected as the city dismantled its Parks department and handed the funding to a private non-profit.  So school grounds have grass up to your knees, broken glass all because the city does not collect revenue from corporations and the rich and any that is collected go to projects connected to the same.   Baltimore City schools often have no recess and most schools have no athletic teams.  The tiered funding leaving these low-income schools run as businesses make it impossible to address these disparities so NOTHING is being done to actually address health issues ------they simply say they are doing so.

Private wellness non-profits are going into poor neighborhoods telling people to eat better and scolding when people explain that living in poverty places survival over preparing a good meal or even having a living space that allows it.  So, we are seeing these national private non-profits coming in to talk the talk of better health to communities now being kept from accessing any health care but preventative care.


There are some good programs-----Food stamps being used at Farmers Markets is a good thing.  If you are creating an environment of deeper and wider poverty as neo-liberals and neo-cons are doing today----none of this will end in data having better results and THEY KNOW THIS.

EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL SIMPLY ALLOWS EVERYONE TO GET ALL THE CARE THEY NEED AND THAT IS THE BEST PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE AND YOU PAY FOR IT BY ENDING HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD AND PROFITEERING.


Below you see the vestige of a city no caring for families and with that goes health.  Day care is where children receive healthy exposure and access is critical to a family working and having low-incomes.  So, if you do not provide a system of day care-----and you are closing and defunding parks and playgrounds-----YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT WELLNESS.
None of this information is new and Johns Hopkins is behind the redirecting of money and the lack of oversight and accountability and is the one charged now with the most responsibility in these Maryland health care reforms....THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS NEEDED FOR REAL CHANGE.


Below you see middle-class families saying OMG!!!!!  and it is all centered on the corporations/ rich taking all the revenue through fraud and corruption in the City of Baltimore and this expands across the State of Maryland.

Day care shortage frustrates parents in Baltimore.  Costs can top tuition at University of Maryland, College Park

The Children's Choice Learning Center, housed in the… (Karen Jackson, BALTIMORE…)July 14, 2013|By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

In five months, the downtown Baltimore day care attended by Celine Plachez's youngest son is slated to close, yet she's not looking for a backup. She can't stomach it.

She searched before he was born, calling about a dozen places, some of which said they wouldn't have an opening in the foreseeable future. Others were so expensive, they cost more than tuition at the University of Maryland, College Park. And a handful were just plain unacceptable in terms of quality.

So she's devoting her energy to finding a way to keep open the Children's Choice Learning Center, housed in the Social Security Administration building on North Greene Street.

"Call me crazy — I refuse to look. I want to fight," said Plachez, a scientist who lives in Federal Hill. "We can make it happen. It's not impossible, it's not unrealistic."

Plachez's response to the center's planned closure highlights a frustrating reality: At a time when the city is trying to attract and retain families — and more women work than ever before — there's a lack of high-quality, affordable, regulated child care in Baltimore.

The shortage is particularly pronounced for children younger than 2, like Plachez's son, who require a higher, 3-1 ratio of children to staff under state law, making their care cost-prohibitive for many facilities.

For some who live or work in the city, the situation has significant consequences.

Rachel Winer Sticklin of Canton is postponing having a second child until the first is out of day care because her family can't afford to pay for two at once.

Judy O'Brien of Otterbein started looking for a spot two years before her newborn needs it, knowing she faced long waiting lists at many places.

And Jana Gauvey of Federal Hill brings her kids to Baltimore County, where she works in marketing, for their care.

"There weren't that many options close to our home," Gauvey said.

Others, particularly those with low incomes, are putting their kids in informal, unregulated city settings — often in the homes of neighbors operating babysitting businesses — in the hope that the financial savings won't equate to inadequate care.

Not enough spaces

Roughly 13,300 Baltimore children younger than 2 have mothers who work, and many of them need some kind of child care, from relatives, hired sitters or centers, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of state data. Licensed facilities can accommodate at most 20 percent of them.

The surrounding counties face a similar issue, though only Anne Arundel County's case is as severe. In Howard County, for example, licensed facilities can handle up to 35 percent of the children under 2 who might need care; in Baltimore County up to 27 percent can be accommodated.

The quality of care is also thought to be less variable in the counties. A greater percentage of children enter kindergarten fully prepared in the counties than in Baltimore.

"In most cities, there is always a shortage of infant and toddler care, mainly because it's expensive to do it right," and Baltimore is no exception, said David W. Andrews, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. "The ratios of adults to children [here] just don't make it a very profitable scenario unless you're able to charge upward of 17, 18, 19 thousand per kid."

There are also a "number of consequences associated with" doing it wrong, Andrews said.

Studies increasingly show that the early years are crucial to a person's development. Ninety percent of brain growth happens before age 5, and the first three years of life are particularly important. Young children and infants are primed for learning, educators said, and their environment has a lasting impact.

Studies show that while parents have a strong influence on young children, day care effects can linger. Children in the highest-quality programs — where kids feel comfortable, stimulated and cared for by a stable staff — do the best years later in terms of social and academic development, and even health and economic prospects. Those who receive poor care are more likely to wind up in the criminal justice system, act out or drop out of school.

Yet early childhood education in the United States receives the least public investment of any schooling, leaving parents to bear much of the financial burden.

The average cost of full-time infant care at a Baltimore center, as opposed to a home-based site, is about $11,560, according to data from the Maryland Family Network, a private nonprofit that advocates for children and families.

That figure, which factors in the highest- and lowest-quality care options, is 40 percent higher than the average cost of tuition and fees at a state university — $8,220 in 2012. And it's roughly 30 percent of the median household income in the city before taxes.

"It's a real struggle for most parents," said Steve Rohde, the network's deputy director of child care resource and referral services.

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This article shows the mechanism that creates all this disparity and dysfunction.  A Baltimore global corporation headquartered in the Enterprise Zones that allow corporations to pay no taxes starve Baltimore's coffers for a few decades causing all of the crumbling of infrastructure and closing of facilities geared towards keeping citizens healthy.  All money is directed to boosting profits for this global corporation that adds almost nothing to the economy of Baltimore. 

IT IS A HUGE SUCKING MACHINE AND CORPORATE SUBSIDY IS ITS BEST ACHIEVEMENT.

So, here we have our Baltimore media giving this global corporation recognition for 'donating' a playground so it can write the costs of donation from any taxes that might be left to pay again starving government coffers.  Rather than consistently paying taxes so general funds can be distributed equitably across the city-----we have corporation simply selecting where they want their tax deduction to go.


THIS IS JOHNS HOPKINS DRIVING THESE POLICIES AND HOPKINS IS NEO-CONSERVATIVE WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATE WEALTH WITH POLITICIANS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS CREATING ALL THESE POLICIES.

The point is this-----the structures in place that have the public sector dismantled and complete control of policy given to corporations will never end with health policy that does what they say it will do.  They will simply create private non-profits that for the most part pretend to be doing something.  Remember, more and more people are falling into this abyss so we need the middle-class to WAKE UP and care about where these policies lead.

The taxes this corporation should have paid for a decade or so would have built dozens of playgrounds across the city.

If city employees were being paid to build this playground they could afford to live more healthily!

press release

June 10, 2014, 7:13 p.m. EDT

Baltimore-Based Global Education Company Builds New Playground for Local School

BALTIMORE, June 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Laureate Education, Inc., the world's largest higher education network, today built and donated a playground at The Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School in Baltimore. Nearly 300 of Laureate's most senior executives from around the world came to Baltimore to build the playground. Laureate, formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, relocated its global headquarters to Baltimore in 1996, the first company to do so in more than twenty years. Laureate was the first company in the Harbor East neighborhood, a key part of Baltimore's federally designated empowerment zone. In the 18 years since moving to Baltimore, the company has grown from employing 300 people at the headquarters to more than 2,700.

More than 100 local volunteers joined Laureate executives and students to build the playground, in partnership with KaBOOM!. The playground will be accessible to nearby residents.

"It's a great honor to give back to the community that has given me -- and Laureate Education -- so much," said Douglas L. Becker, Laureate's founder, chief executive officer, and a Baltimore native. "We are committed to doing work that is here for good in every community in which we operate."

"The Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School really is the center of this community and this new playground will help foster that sense of community that we cherish," said the school's principal, Dr. Harold A. Barber.

"Congratulations to Baltimore's own Doug Becker and Laureate Education on their 15th anniversary," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "I'm so grateful that this Baltimore-based global company continues to invest in the local community in ways that benefit the people of this great city. The students of the historic Samuel-Coleridge Taylor Elementary School and members of the neighboring community will truly enjoy the new playground more than you will ever know. Thank you."
















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June 24th, 2014

6/24/2014

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VOTE FOR CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND TODAY ALL ACROSS MARYLAND AS THE ONLY CANDIDATE WITH A PUBLIC JUSTICE, OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY PLATFORM THAT WILL HOLD THESE GLOBAL CORPORATIONS AT BAY AND BUILD A DOMESTIC ECONOMY OF SMALL AND REGIONAL BUSINESSES.



As I walked to the polling booth in Maryland to vote I stopped and talked with three people on the way as well.  I listed the platform issues of my campaign without letting them know who I was and we talked for a few minutes----these people saying exactly what I say in my blog every day.  Everyone supports the issues in my platform.  When we finish talking I introduce myself as a candidate for governor and none of them know me but say they will vote for me.  Meanwhile, WYPR, Johns Hopkins' corporate 'public' media has staff who have been involved in all the primary events lamenting the voter turnout----no knowing just what to do to get more people out to the polls.  Remember, it was WYPR that literally said-----

IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE CANDIDATES WE PUT IN FRONT OF YOU----THEN DO NOT VOTE.  THERE'S THE PROBLEM.

This capture of elections in Maryland is what makes these global corporate neo-liberals and neo-cons operate with impunity when it comes to public policy that is killing the citizens of Maryland and is directly behind the rising taxation hitting the middle/working class.  I just want to remind the citizens of Maryland of some of the more well-known corporate give-aways and remember, we do not have to give all of this away to keep large corporations in the state.  In fact, we want them to leave so we can rebuild the small and regional businesses that rely on good service and quality products to win market-share.

I listened this morning about the rising sea levels and how it will affect the US coastline.  Predictions of anywhere from 12-30 inches in sea level rise over just a few decades is not hyperbole----it is scientifically valid.  So, let's look at Maryland to see how the corporate pols operate with total disregard to the citizens of Maryland and the state and local revenue spent on behalf of these corporations.


Below you see the infamous Exelon/Harbor Point debacle that had every sector in the city of Baltimore out and protesting because the level of corruption was breath-taking.  This deal was so openly racketeering by Baltimore City Hall and Mayor Rawlings-Blake and the political pay off of developers and political contributions is astounding.  Baltimore City is indeed third world in its level of fraud, corruption, and lack of transparency.

Just a quick overview of the problems ------Exelon just finished a merger deal with BGE that required the corporation to keep its headquarters in Baltimore so the city did not have to provide this tax break to keep this corporation in the city-----it gave it away for absolutely no reason.  The developer is building on land that is a known toxic waste dump that should be simply made into a green space at best until toxic waste cleanup can be done but the city is allowing a high-rise right on water's edge on this site.  Residents in nearby communities are concerned about the toxic chemical barrier being penetrated as it will compromise the integrity of the seal of toxic chemicals that will leach into the water and be released by air.

Equally as troubling is my reference to the rise in sea level and this development will have the taxpayers paying to build a sea wall around this entire Harbor East development that should never have been allowed to be constructed on water's edge.  It is all public malfeasance and will cost taxpayers countless money to implement and maintain.


THE PUBLIC AND MEDIA OUTCRY WAS IMMENSE AND THESE CORPORATE POLS IGNORED IT BECAUSE THEY WORK FOR THESE CORPORATIONS AND NOT THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND.

Activists plan protest against $107M in city financing for Harbor Point development


Hearing on TIF financing scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall
About 100 protesters object to the $107 million in tax increment… (Baltimore Sun photo by Luke…)July 16, 2013|By Luke Broadwater | The Baltimore Sun


Activists plan to protest the $107 million in city financing requested for the waterfront Harbor Point development.

The Fair Development Campaign will hold a demonstration in front of City Hall at 4 p.m. Wednesday to protest the tax increment financing plan

"Time and again, the city has awarded our resources to wealthy developers at the taxpayers’ expense in the hope that money will trickle down," states a news release from the group. "This model has failed. The Harbor Point TIF deal is more of the same."

The activists said they expect dozens of Baltimore residents to attend the event, including the homeless and unemployed workers. 

Immediately following the rally, the City Council's taxation committee will hear testimony about the request for more than $100 million in city-issued bonds to pay for the project's roads, pipes, public parks, promenade and other infrastructure. The 30-year bonds will accrue millions in interest over time.

Under the deal, the developer Michael S. Beatty is required to pay back both the bonds and interest through his projected tax revenue. If the tax revenue falls short, the project will be assessed a special tax, according to proposed legislation. 

The $1 billion Harbor Point development is the planned home of Exelon's new regional headquarters, a Morgan Stanley facility and other office buildings, residential towers, stores and a hotel.

Currently, the site is assessed at $10 million, but the Baltimore Development Corporation projects it would be valued at $1.8 billion for tax purposes when developer Michael S. Beatty completes it.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has said the Harbor Point project would create thousands of jobs. In addition to the tax increment financing, the development is benefiting from more than $100 million in tax breaks.








O'Malley is king of corporate brown-nosing giving these corporations anything they want no matter the cost.  He has single-handedly mortgaged the future of Baltimore for decades unless Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland takes to court these bogus corporate tax breaks and public private partnership deals that even a third grader would know are against the public interest.

YES, POLITICIANS ARE SWORN TO PROTECT AND SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE-----IN THIS CASE THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND.  IT IS PUBLIC MALFEASANCE WHEN THEY KNOWINGLY THROW THE PUBLIC UNDER A BUS.


Makeover Monday: Hyatt resort spa gets $1 million revamp

USATODAY 6:04 p.m. EDT September 17, 2012(Photo: Hyatt Regency)

The 10-year-old Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa & Marina on Maryland's Eastern Shore today sports a new, $1 million spa and salon.

The waterfront resort, about 90 miles from Washington D.C., spruced up its guest rooms, lobby and dining areas in 2009. But earlier this year, it updated its 18,000-square-foot Sago Spa & Salon.

The 400-room resort's located in Cambridge, Md.

So where did the $1 million go?

The money was spent on everything from the new limestone reception desk to a new design inspired by the Chesapeake Bay in a color palette of golden hues, steel blues and earth tones, says Caroline Gould of the Washington D.C. design firm, RD Jones and Associates, which completed the revamp.


Sago has a renovated steam room and sauna, a larger retail area and a new co-ed relaxation room. Also, its salon was expanded to allow for more stations for manicures and pedicures, hair styling and make-up application.

The redesign is based on an abstract interpretation of its Eastern Shore location, so you'll see nautical-inspired wall sconces and natural textured wallpapers, Gould says. The spa was named after a strong underwater grass in the Chesapeake Bay that provides life and nourishment to the water and inhabitants.


_____________________________________________

Above you see more money spent to make a luxury hotel more luxurious even as it continues to lose money and the state allows bonds.  Raise your hands if you know a massive economic collapse is coming soon that will be broader and deeper than the one in 2008------EVERYONE THAT READS REAL JOURNALISM.  So, will there be an uptick in the near future?

OF COURSE NOT----THERE WILL BE A DEFAULT ON THESE BONDS FOR THE STATE OF MARYLAND AND THE PRIVATE PARTNERS WILL BE INSURED AGAINST ANY LOSSES.


The idea that any region is lucky to have tourism jobs that not only pay poverty wages but the lowest poverty wages around is an insult to the citizens of the Maryland Eastern Shore.  They need good solid manufacturing and small business opportunities that allow them to prosper----not toil as people living in third world countries do with these same resort areas.

Easton is a wealthy enclave that wanted this in their neighborhood and got it.  We are not against people being wealthy------we are against corporate and wealth subsidy at the expense of the greater population.


The reference to Rocky Gap is just a look at the pattern of economic development that makes no sense and is done simply to placate people connected to the politics of Maryland.  We are supposed to be happy with the solution of handing this resort having huge taxpayer investment to private corporation for gambling which is exempted from paying taxes on the gambling proceeds......this is why you do not hear Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland in any media or large 501c3 venue----the corruption is complete.

IT IS LOL IF IT WAS NOT SO PITIFUL.



The Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) functions under the provisions of Title 10, Subtitle 1 of the Economic Development Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.

The legislative purposes of MEDCO are to: relieve unemployment in the State; encourage the increase of business activity and commerce and a balanced economy in the State; help retain and attract business activity and commerce in the State; promote economic development; and promote the health, safety, right of gainful employment and welfare of residents of the State.


We need to look at what MEDCO is backing and as with  MECU ----Maryland Employee Credit Union------it is the public sector paying for what will prove to be public malfeasance on the part of elected officials.  This is not a democrat only issue----the republican party is just as crony and corrupt as republican voters know.

Rocky Gap II?Our view: The state-backed Cambridge Hyatt has been a winner for the Eastern Shore, and its struggles pale next to those of its Western Maryland predecessor


June 12, 2013  Baltimore Sun

Henceforth, let there by a rule that nothing can be compared to Maryland's failed investment at Rocky Gap, located just outside Cumberland in Western Maryland, except for Rocky Gap and perhaps any other $55 million white elephant loss that comes along. We know Rocky Gap. Rocky Gap is an acquaintance of ours. Sorry, Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay resort in Cambridge, but you're no Rocky Gap.

Incidentally, let us insert a reminder here. Even the infamous Rocky Gap hotel and conference center isn't Rocky Gap anymore. The place was turned over to private investors last year and is now the Rocky Gap Casino Resort. With slot machines and table games (along with the lakeside hotel and Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course they picked up for a bargain price), they are unlikely to lose money. The state even lowered its share of slot machine revenue just to be certain.

The Rocky Gap legacy — its star-crossed history and cost to taxpayers — lives on, however, and naturally it came up with news that the state-owned Hyatt, another project financed by the Maryland Economic Development Corp., is having trouble paying the bills. The state recently withdrew $2 million from a reserve fund to meet debt service.

Admittedly, the situation isn't good — not for the 400-bedroom hotel, not for investors and not for Cambridge and Dorchester County. The resort hotel business in general has been on the rocks since the economic downturn and is only now showing signs of life across the country. The Hyatt is meeting its operating costs but operating in the red because of its bond payments. The reserve fund could be depleted later this year, and bond holders are likely taking a hit (but probably won't seek foreclosure).

That's nothing to celebrate. But it's also not something to call a disaster on the scale of Rocky Gap. And it's certainly not time to talk about underwriting the business with slot machines, table games, poker or any other form of expanded gambling. (Seriously, does every economic hardship now require that a casino be authorized in response?)

The fact is, the Hyatt was a success and arguably continues to be one despite the drop in revenue that's been eating away at reserves since 2010. Ask anyone who has been there. It's a first-class facility with a spa, golf course and marina on a gorgeous location convenient to both the Washington-Baltimore area and the Maryland-Delaware beach resorts. But more importantly, its presence has helped transform Dorchester County, not only by creating travel and tourism-related jobs but in changing how visitors perceive a part of the Eastern Shore that was once known as much for racial unrest as anything produced by its native farmers or watermen.

Cambridge in the summer of 1967 was where H. Rap Brown — a militant activist who would surely be seen as a terrorist today (were he not currently in jail serving a life sentence for an unrelated murder) — told his fellow African-Americans to riot and burn the place down. What ensued was four years of racial violence followed by decades of economic hardship and poverty. The county still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state — even slightly higher than Baltimore's.

But the situation has unquestionably improved since the 2002 opening of the Hyatt,
made possible by MEDCO's $120 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds. The Dorchester County of today may still be suffering, but it has potential. Indeed, in the pre-recession years after the hotel opened, county residents' big concern was the fast pace of construction and the volume of new arrivals to their communities. It was not until 2008 that the bottom fell out and bookings dropped by 30 percent. It might even have recovered by now except that sequestration has taken a huge bite out of hotel spending by the federal government and its contractors.

That was never the case in Cumberland, where the isolated Rocky Gap seemed a pie-in-the-sky concept even before it opened in 1998. The Hyatt, now the county's second-largest employer with as many as 700 jobs in the summer peak season, has survived most of its 11 years without teetering on default. That alone sets it apart from its politically motivated Western Maryland counterpart. It's hard to believe there's anything wrong with the Hyatt that can't be cured by an uptick in tourism, in its conference trade and in traffic on U.S. 50. The nonrated bonds aren't even the responsibility of state taxpayers.

Certainly, a case could be made that MEDCO might want to look at resort projects more skeptically in the future. But it would also be a mistake to evaluate the Hyatt in Cambridge solely on the recession-related red ink on its ledger and not on the benefits it has provided to the surrounding community for the past decade.



____________________________________________

Below you see the development plans that everyone knows is bad policy but is it stupidity or is it deliberately calculated to keep the public on tap to make sure a corporation brings in profit and pays no taxes?  Right now any tax base this hotel would have paid----and believe me all the TIFs and breaks given for zoning have those taxes at a minimum are now being used to keep the hotel solvent.  So a large sum of revenue is going to keep a hotel-----in the midst of tons of hotel space that have a crisis in filling rooms----going to Hilton. 

Note when this deal finally started-----2006-2008. This is exactly when all the press was calling the US economy and the stock market a 'HOUSE OF CARDS'. 


Greenspan and Geithner had just refused to acknowledge and prosecute massive subprime mortgage fraud and the fraud exploded and imploded the economy all between 2006-2008 and all politicians knew this was happening.  Remember, I am not a rocket scientist----I simply read the financial news.

So, O'Malley pushes to place this albatross on the neck of the citizens of Baltimore and Maryland knowing the economy was going to crash in a big way and a recession would no doubt be deep and long.  He knew the business would not be there-----he built it because of a Master Plan of Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins that projects 50 years out in development.  They say the loses to the citizens living in Maryland now do not matter----we are building for the 21st century and we are going to do it our way!!!!

What Baltimore's downtown needed was thousands of small businesses supported by people employed and earning a Living Wage.  You cannot do that in Baltimore because the public policy keeps most Baltimore citizens in poverty and unemployed----unable to provide the product consumption to fuel a domestic economy.  THIS IS DELIBERATE.


The Hilton Baltimore is a 757–room hotel located on West Pratt Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Initially proposed in 2003, actual construction of the city-owned venture took place between 2006 and 2008 as part of the Baltimore Convention Center.

Despite Losses Baltimore Won’t Sell Taxpayer Funded Hilton Hotel

Losses mounting for financially troubled hotel

November 1, 2013 by Brian Griffiths Watchdog Wire


The City of Baltimore decided to do an extensive investigation into the city-owned Hilton Hotel. And their decision on this matter
shows exactly why you don’t do stupid stuff like build city-owned hotels in the first place:

There’s too much money tied into the city ownership of the Hilton Hotel to put it on the market, Baltimore City officials said Thursday. 

City officials said the hotel is not for sale and that they would expect to lose tens of millions of dollars by putting it on the market. They said restructuring the debt is not an option, and they believe the hotel will turn a profit in 10 years. 

This study indicates the Hilton is outperforming other hotels in the city and that holding onto it will pay off down the road.

Read the whole thing. The city has lost money on the hotel for years because it could never meet the revenue projections promised by its supporters, which some predicted at the project’s inception given its comparison to similar projects in other cities that had been completed at the time. Since then the hotel hasn’t exactly been swimming in profits; just last year the hotel had to withdraw money from their reserve fund in order to pay their bills after running up over $54 million losses since its opening. Of course, any sale of the hotel would certainly create political headaches for one Governor Martin O’Malley. Remember the city-owned hotel was O’Malley’s brainchild all along. Once created, O’Malley used the construction of the hotel to engage in one of his favorite sports; throwing development dollars to Democratic operatives. The hotel wound up being developed by Ronald Lipscomb, notorious developer, Democratic fundraiser , and boyfriend of disgraced former Mayor Sheila Dixon. Despite his flaws and issues with jurisprudence, O’Malley called Lipscomb “a man of vision, talent, and commitment to the greater good.” And to top it off, O’Malley was able to create the hotel, enrich a crony, lost the new Hilton company headquarters to Virginia despite his support of a public financed hotel, and then attempt to blame former Governor Bob Ehrlich for the failure of the hotel when it was preordained to fail in the first place.Needless to say that selling the hotel would be an admission that Martin O’Malley failed, something that the Governor can ill-afford to have as he embraces on his Titanic-like Presidential campaign. While there are obvious political reasons that would make Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake want to protect O’Malley and her Democratic cronies, there is no legitimate reason to keep the hotel in city-controlled hands. With $54 million in losses and counting, there is no reason to believe that the Hilton is going to turn a profit at any time in the near future. In a city that is in serious financial straits, with crumbling schools, dilapidated infrastructure, and not enough police in order to keep basic order in all parts of the city, something has got to give. If the Baltimore sold the hotel right now and was able to get out from under the cost of operating the hotel and the cost of the debt service of the hotel, it would in a small way reduce the fiscal burden that the city faces, and would cut the city’s losses at around the $54 million mark where it currently sits. Baltimore would then be able to redirect the funds from the occupancy tax (which are partially funding hotel operations right now) back into its general fund so that it can be used for city-related endeavors which are not related to competing with the private sector. Baltimore’s inability to admit defeat and sell the Hilton is just another example of how city elected officials either don’t understand basic economics or don’t take their role as fiscal stewards seriously. It’s time for the city to cut its losses, get out of the hotel business, and try to focus on fixing the myriad of problems facing Baltimore. Brian Griffiths




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May 29th, 2014

5/29/2014

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PRIVATIZING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC IS THE NEXT PHASE OF THE 21ST CENTURY OR NEW ECONOMY------NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS WORKING TO GIVE GLOBAL CORPORATIONS COMPLETE CONTROL OF ALL ASPECTS OF GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMY.  WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THAT?  MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION AND LOSSES TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD AND FLEECING OF GOVERNMENT COFFERS.

Today I want to look at the privatization of the Port of Baltimore and two pay-to-play that will be an environmental nightmare for the citizens of Maryland but moves forward because it earns billions of dollars and advances political careers for corporate pols.  Let's look at why the Port of Baltimore has been given an 'F' in environmental stewardship ------BECAUSE, AS WE KNOW, NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT. 

REMEMBER, TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT (TPP) IS ALL ABOUT ALLOWING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS WORKING IN THE US TO IGNORE ALL ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS IN THE PURSUIT OF PROFIT.  Do you hear your environmental or justice organizations shouting this?

All states have a Port Authority that is controlled by State and Federal governments.  So, when a decision to privatize these ports comes with public private partnerships----IT IS CORPORATE DEMOCRATS MAKING THIS DECISION.  Republican Erhlich and Democrat O'Malley pushed to hand the Port of Baltimore to a private investment firm HighStar-----yes, the same investment firm behind Water, Waste, and Sewage privatization-----behind bringing VEOLA and transportation privatization.  All of this is tied with HighStar shareholder Johns Hopkins earning billions in these privatization deals.  See why O'Malley and neo-liberals are working hard to privatize all that is public?  So, neo-liberals decided that instead of a few billion coming to the State Treasury from state business at the port------it should LEASE the port for a few hundred million and then give the billions of dollars earned from the port to HighStar.  NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS MAKING THE PUBLIC RENTERS IN ALL WAYS!!!!

This is not only a loss for the state financially------it is an environmental disaster for the bay.  Expanding the port to bring global cargo ships brings invasive species that choke native species and fill the bay with species that are generally of no value ----killing the bay.  This does not even take into consideration the level of chemical and waste pollution coming from these ships.  THE PUBLIC LOSES BILLIONS IN STATE AND LOCAL REVENUE AND ITS BAY IS KILLED.....THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU!  Meanwhile, there is no appreciable job creation as the port goes robotic and trains simply pass right through the city ------only the cost of infrastructure development for HighStar's port operations all paid for by taxpayers.  We have communities fighting what will be cargo train terminals that will kill their communities shouting THERE IS NO BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY OF CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE-----AND THEY ARE RIGHT.

REMEMBER, SUSTAINABILITY IS ABOUT GROWING DOMESTIC AND LOCAL ECONOMIES ------FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE.  THIS IS THE OPPOSITE.


Sparrows Mill Steel plant has been slated for closure for decades but recently a pay-to-play sent millions of Federal, State, and local taxes for a deal supposedly to restart this steel mill------and yet, the deal included nothing that required the mill owners to upgrade mill equipment that was a must to make the mill competitive and able to survive.  It handed this mill to corporate players who then took charge of dismantling and deciding who would own this huge and valuable property on the bay.  So, as would be expected, the new mill owners closed this mill two years after receiving all that tax money to open and went into bankruptcy to shed all the costs of labor contracts, pensions, and bills owned to venders and the city.  What the state and Baltimore County could have done is take this property into the hands of the state and dismantle this mill in a way that protected labor contracts and vendors and handed all the profits from salvage to public coffers-----instead, all the profits from salvage went to a Chicago corporation known to be connected to Obama's campaign.  THIS WAS A PAY-TO-PLAY.  Besides having the state and county lose control of valuable waterfront property-----the deals never included that the costs of environmental cleanup from decades of industry and a sewage problem that makes this area an environmental nightmare.  WE HAVE SOME MILLIONS GIVEN TO STUDY THE PROBLEM.  This mill was constructed in a way that Baltimore's waste water drains right into this mill and openly floods the Port of Baltimore. 

THE STATE COULD HAVE USED THE PROCEEDS FROM THE STATE OWNERSHIP OF THIS MILL TO CLEAN UP AND FIX WASTE WATER AND CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION----BUT DID NOT.


Now, guess who will be made to pay for all of this as part of a taxpayer subsidized waste water infrastructure upgrade and development of this former steel mill------TAXPAYERS. 


MORE CORPORATE SUBSIDY AND THE EXECUTIVES BROUGHT IN TO HANDLE THIS MASS MOVEMENT OF ASSETS OUT OF BALTIMORE COUNTY/ THE PORT-----MADE MILLIONS FOR THEIR TROUBLE.  The Steel workers lost pensions and health care as the mill was allowed to go into bankruptcy instead of being taken by the state for assets.

ALL OF THIS LAND NOW IN THE HANDS OF INVESTMENT FIRMS WILL NO DOUBT BE DESIGNATED 'TAX FREE'.


One more quick mention of the next environmental catastrophe for Port of Baltimore-----Harbor Point and the development of a toxic waste landfill right on the water's edge.  Even as the citizens are assured that none of the toxic waste will blow in the air and into people's lives and none of it will seep into the bay-----EVERYONE KNOWS TOXIC WASTE WILL INDEED DO BOTH.  This development is on land that could have simply been left natural as a public green space-----but NO-----we must maximize profits say neo-cons and neo-liberals.  All of this brings hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate tax breaks and the public building SEA WALLS around these Harbor East properties built right on waters edge because everyone knows global warming will have sea level rise 12-20 inches in just 20 years.  THE PUBLIC WILL PAY FOR SEA WALLS TO PROTECT DEVELOPMENT THAT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE THERE.

THIS IS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS MAKING ALL THESE DECISIONS.  THEY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST OR JUSTICE.
 

THIS IS WHAT TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT LOOKS LIKE.

Maryland was once again ranked with an 'F' in environmental stewardship as the Port of Baltimore is filled with trash, sewage, chemicals, and invasive species.....all while O'Malley and the neo-liberals in Maryland Assembly claim to be environmental and a Blue State.  Neo-liberals dismantle all oversight and accountability in government and that includes environment----so as they pass laws that make them look progressive, they then simply ignore these laws.  When O'Malley runs for President he will use all kinds of Maryland media making him sound environmental.

Keep in mind that it was the Maryland Assembly and Governor O'Malley that signed off on this so the idea that the Maryland Department of Environment comes in after all the deals are made to say these things are wrong is ridiculous.  Hilgo is the Chicago-based firm connected to Obama's campaign.

Sparrows Point owners warned on environmental allegationsAsbestos, sludge issues cited by state

March 13, 2014|By Alison Knezevich,

The Baltimore SunState environmental officials and the owners of the Sparrows Point peninsula are moving toward a settlement to correct alleged regulatory violations at the former steelmaking site.

Regulators say an array of problems have occurred over the past year on the 2,300-acre peninsula, including illegal open dumping of industrial sludge, improper handling of hazardous materials and the running of an unlicensed scrap tire operation.


"We are drafting a settlement in the form of a consent order which will provide terms and a schedule for corrective actions — and which will include a financial penalty," Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman Jay Apperson said in a statement. Apperson said the penalty amount has not been determined.

The steel mill at Sparrows Point, which employed tens of thousands in its heyday, closed in 2012. Officials are now eyeing the property, which has a decades-old history of environmental problems, for future economic development.

Baltimore County formed a partnership to explore ways to bring jobs to the peninsula. Last year, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said county officials want to capitalize on the expansion of the port of Baltimore, with hopes of bringing a new marine terminal to the peninsula's Coke Point area. County leaders have said environmental contamination should not deter redevelopment of the land, contending much of the peninsula can be cleaned up in the near future.

In a December letter to owners Sparrows Point LLC and Hilco Industrial and to site contractor MCM Industrial Services LLC, Maryland Secretary of the Environment Robert Summers wrote that over the past year, inspections had revealed "a pattern of significant and ongoing violations of Maryland environmental laws" by the companies.

"Most troubling, however, is that many of these violations have been brought repeatedly to your attention and have been largely unaddressed," he wrote.

Since the letter was sent, representatives of the companies have met with state officials, Apperson said.

Randall Jostes, CEO of ELT, of which Sparrows Point LLC is an affiliate, said the company is working closely with the state agency to address the allegations.

The peninsula is a huge site "that has 100 years of history of steelmaking activity," he said.

"We're in the process of bringing down the legacy to reach the vibrant, redevelopment future," he said. "The process itself uncovers a lot of historical site issues and we are working with MDE on each and every issue discovered."

A spokesman for Hilco declined to comment. A spokeswoman for MCM said officials familiar with the matter were traveling and not available to comment.

Russell Donnelly, an Edgemere resident and environmental activist, said the community has dealt for years with polluted water in the area but has seen improvements in recent years. He said he doesn't want to see that progress reversed.

"I applaud MDE for at least keeping an eye out," Donnelly said. "I'm glad to see they're on the job."

The letter from Summers says the firms could have to pay substantial penalties.

Asbestos violations — which dealt with alleged failure to comply with regulations on packaging and processing asbestos-containing waste material — were initially corrected within 10 days, but then officials found other alleged violations, Apperson said.

The site has sparked environmental concerns for decades. In 1997, a consent decree was issued as part of a settlement between then-owner Bethlehem Steel and state and federal environmental regulators. The decree ordered Bethlehem Steel and any subsequent owner to investigate the existence of contamination and determine how best to remediate it.

Thus far, the current owners have not fully investigated the extent of contamination, said Jon Mueller, vice president for litigation at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Mueller contends the new owners have tried to buy time and spread blame around about environmental problems on the peninsula.

"I think the government agencies are rightly concerned that the new owners are kind of playing the shell game," Mueller said, adding he was pleased that the state appears to be taking action.

The foundation, as well as Blue Water Baltimore and local citizens, sued the then-owner RG Steel in 2010, seeking an investigation and complete cleanup of the site. The lawsuit was dismissed in February through an agreement by all parties after they reached a plan to investigate off-site contamination, Mueller said.


The quick succession of owners has made it difficult to hold someone accountable and has "allowed this contamination to continue for years," Mueller said.

"There've been multiple owners since then, and the full investigation of the property hasn't even occurred, let alone full corrective measures," he said. "With all these different owners, it's made it really hard to pin somebody down to get this work done so these problems have lingered for a decade."

John Long, of the Dundalk-based environmental group, Clean Bread and Cheese Creek, said it's hard for residents to know what's happening on the peninsula.

"Nobody's communicated any type of oversight that's taken place on the dismantling process,"
Long said. "I think everyone would like to see the site become something that's useful and beneficial to the community, that's healthy."

___________________________________________

Below you see what was the biggest Baltimore City racketeering deal done completely out in the open.  If you look at the photos of development plans you see this massive complex built right on the water's edge-----PURE VANITY DEVELOPMENT.....and besides all of the corporate tax breaks they are going to get LEED certification for this building......more tax breaks from a LEED program rife with fraud and corruption.  LEED is about green construction given to this environmental boondoggle.

The racketeering charges come from the fact that Exelon----just handed BGE----was required by this merger to keep its headquarters in Baltimore so, there was no need to give Exelon $100 million tax break to 'keep this business in the city'----IT WAS ALREADY IN THE CITY.  So, this deal involves fraud and public malfeasance galore.  What is worse is the building on a toxic waste dump and the need to build sea walls all distorting all environmental issues in the area. 


THIS WAS OBSCENE DEVELOPMENT AND IT IS DRIVEN BY BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT AND JOHNS HOPKINS------NEO-CONS WHO COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT ENVIRONMENT AND NEO-LIBERAL POLS.


Yet, when election time comes------labor unions and city justice organizations-----church leaders all tell there members to vote for the same neo-liberal pols doing all this damage. 

AS WE CLEAN UP THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY GETTING RID OF NEO-LIBERALS DO THE SAME WITH YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS.  None of this development means good jobs or help for the underserved communities and citizens.
  It is pure profiteering.

How do you mitigate these injustices?  You take away all the tax breaks as illegal and public malfeasance and you slap this corporation with the costs of the environmental damage and cleanup.


Why Exelon chose Harbor Point over downtown – more like suburbia

Baltimore Brew Stirring up News and Views in Baltimore Maryland

Thursday, May, 29th, 2014 29
Fern Shen


Reporters were given a bundle of new details yesterday about the planned $120 million Exelon Corp. building – including the developer’s hope it will be 22 stories high and get a crunchy-green “platinum” LEED certification – but something subtler was being delivered as well.

It was a tutorial on the development realpolitik of Baltimore from the chief emissary of the man who’s mastered the process, bakery magnate John S. Paterakis Sr.

“We are all connected. This project is downtown,” said Michael S. Beatty, president of Paterakis’ Harbor East Development Group.

As he spoke, Beatty gestured to the place where he was standing: the 24th floor of Legg Mason’s headquarters in Harbor East, adjacent to Paterakis’ Harbor Point, the site of the proposed Exelon tower that is about a mile – a very long mile – from the city’s “central business district.”

“Where’s My Office Park?”


In light of the civic fuss that arose because Exelon passed over four sites in the traditional – and ailing – downtown core, Beatty was offering a mollifying message, that Harbor Point is “growing the downtown of Baltimore” and “will help all of Baltimore.”

Calvin Butler, of Exelon, and Michael Beatty, of Harbor East Development Group, speak to reporters about Exelon’s new building. (Photo by Fern Shen).

But his presentation was also a treatise on why Beatty and Paterakis think downtown has been foundering over the last decade, while Harbor East has been booming.

“We’re going to go after those tenants that are leaving downtown Baltimore because they’re looking for this suburban dream of ‘Where’s my office park? Where’s my big floor-plated office building?’” Beatty said, as the panorama of Baltimore’s waterfront sparkled on the other side of floor-to-ceiling windows.

“The reality was, downtown Baltimore didn’t have the large floor-plated building,” he declared. No one piped up to note that there are three or four vacant sites in the “old” downtown where such a building could be constructed.

Branding Safety in the City

A feeling of safety, Beatty said, was another suburban feature they have marketed as part of their “brand.”

“Tenants were looking out to the suburbs and saying it was safer out in the suburbs, and the reality was there was an impression downtown Baltimore wasn’t a safe environment,” Beatty said, as a representative for their latest trophy, the energy giant Exelon, stood by smiling.

Nodding in agreement, Calvin G. Butler Jr., senior vice president for corporate affairs for Exelon, nevertheless insisted that the company’s site selection did represent its commitment to downtown Baltimore.

Artist’s rendering of how the Exelon building at Harbor Point might look. (Credit: Harbor East Development)

But the two downtown finalists – the Baltimore City Community College site on Lombard St. and the former McCormick spice plant site on Light St. – didn’t cut it with the company.

“We wanted to create a presence and make a statement,” Butler said of the Harbor Point site. Exelon is committed to paying $125 million for a 15- to 20-year lease on the building, he said.

Moving to the new building will be the 2,000 employees from Constellation’s current buildings on Pratt Street and Market Place (on the eastern edge of downtown), as well as employees from Exelon’s energy marketing operation in Kennett Square, Pa., and its corporate headquarters in Chicago, Butler said.

Cubicle Workers and a Lacrosse Field

An artist’s rendering of the Exelon building released yesterday shows a glassy tower very similar to the Legg Mason building. Construction is planned to commence upon completion of Exelon’s $7.9 billion acquisition of Constellation, likely to take place at the end of March.

“We are looking at occupancy by the end of 2014,” Butler said.

Also on display behind Beatty and Butler were sketches of the 70,000 square-foot trading floor and schematics of the entire $250-million Harbor Point development.

Harbor Point layout with new streets and waterfront park. (Harbor East Development Group)

The mixed-use project (which already includes Thames Street Wharf and the Morgan Stanley building) is rising from a 27-acre brownfield site where the former Allied Chemical chromium plant once stood.

When fully built out, the developers said, Harbor Point will include a million square feet of office space, 150,000 square feet of retail, 600 residential units, 250 hotel rooms and 3,000 parking spaces.

Double Tax Breaks

The Exelon relocation stirred up another hot-button issue in town along with the fate of the central business district – tax breaks.


A key factor in developing Harbor Point will be the $155-million tax increment financing (TIF) subsidy approved by the City Council in December 2010. Moreover, the site is located in a state enterprise zone, entitling the developer to an 80% cut in property taxes for five years.

Beatty answered some of the criticism by suggesting the subsidy was a good use of public funds in part because some of it was going to be used for open public spaces.

What’s that back behind the Marriott? Oh yes, the Inner Harbor and central business district. (Photo by Fern Shen)

The TIF financing, according to material the company released yesterday, would cover 2/3 of a mile of new roads and one mile of new sidewalks. The TIF also would also help finance 11 acres of open space, including a park and half-mile waterfront promenade, a central plaza, and a lacrosse field associated with a new U.S. Lacrosse complex on the site.

Finally, the TIF would help pay for a new bridge that would connect Central Avenue to Harbor Point. The bridge would run past the west side of a current Living Classrooms building, said Marco E. Greenberg, Harbor East’s vice president for development, standing on an open terrace and pointing the spot out to reporters.

Embry and Others Question Tax Breaks


Harbor Point’s designation as a state enterprise zone would reduce the amount of property taxes going to the city of Baltimore to virtually nothing.

That’s because the state’s partial reimbursement to the city for the enterprise zone break would go to pay off interest on the TIF bonds, not to the city’s coffers.

The prospect of this double tax break at Harbor Point was the subject of some pointed words today at a meeting by a task force on tax breaks appointed by City Councilman Carl Stokes.

Detailed layout of the former site of an Allied chemical plant. (Developer drawing)


Robert C. Embry, a former city housing commissioner and president of the Abell Foundation, expressed surprise that Harbor Point was part of a state enterprise zone.


Wondering how “one of the most affluent areas of the city” got this designation, he speculated that it qualified as a disadvantaged area because it is located near one-time public-housing projects, long since razed, along Lombard Street.

Embry asked “whether the city can get out of the enterprise zone” or when the designation expires. (The zones are enacted for a ten-year period.) Whenever that happens, Embry recommended that the city review the zone’s boundaries and economic justification.

How the Harbor Point site looks now, from Legg Mason’s 24th-floor terrace.
The site is capped over to contain hazardous wastes from the old chemical plant. (Photo by Fern Shen)

City Councilman James B. Kraft, whose 1st District encompasses Harbor Point, also expressed dismay about the tax breaks. He complained that Exelon “does not need to be subsidized by the city of Baltimore.”

Noting that the energy giant reported profits of $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, Kraft said the company “ought to be saying, ‘We don’t need it,’” and should voluntarily agree not to apply for the enterprise tax incentives.

Transit-Friendly or Car-Oriented?

Another question raised about the Harbor Point project is whether it will essentially be a car-oriented development, much like Harbor East.

“Definitely not,” Beatty told reporters yesterday.

He noted that many of the occupants of Harbor East’s residential units don’t commute. He cited city bus service and the Charm City Circulator, and pointed to a stop on the proposed $2.2 billion East-West Red Line light rail as possible mass transit options.

“Here’s the Red Line,” he said, “that’s probably seven years away.” (That’s a prediction that even state transportation officials aren’t comfortable making.)

As for cars, he noted that Central Ave. is due for a $24-million makeover designed to relieve congestion that already plagues the area.

Asked how many parking spaces the two developments will have, Beatty added up Harbor East’s current 4,000 spaces to Harbor Point’s proposed 3,000 and agreed that the development will feature 7,000 spaces.

That makes for a very big office park.


____________________________________________
Keep in mind that it is the same investment firm------HighStar that has been handed the private contract for most of these East Coast ports and is behind all of the global corporate cargo ships killing the environment.  In our case this is Johns Hopkins.  Everyone knew these invasive species would follow this port expansion and everyone knew it would cost the public taxpayers billions of dollars fighting to eradicate these species.  Note, HighStar does not pay to eradicate these invasive species-----the taxpayers do.  So, first you end these public private partnerships and you tax these corporations to pay for the cleanup.  Neo-liberals instead have eliminated all taxes paid by these investment firms and actually give copious amounts of corporate subsidy making profits soar.

NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS KNOW THESE DECISIONS WILL COST TAXPAYERS BILLIONS AND KNOW THE PUBLIC WILL LOSE CONTROL OF ALL PUBLIC POLICY AT THE PORTS.





Friday, May 17, 2013

More invasive species detected at US ports in the Mid Atlantic

               Insect as well as plant and animal species from around the world can hitch a ride in a manner of speaking, on cargo shipments, moving from their native lands to exotic foreign destinations, and sometimes stay and establish a new home. Ports of entry like Baltimore and Norfolk are doorways to establishment of species that may impact livelihoods by altering the characteristic services of ecological systems.
               The front-line of defense is the U. S. CBP, "one of the Department of Homeland Security’s largest and most complex components, with a priority mission of keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. It also has a responsibility for securing the border and facilitating lawful international trade and travel while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws and regulations, including immigration and drug laws. Amopng other tasks," CBP performs two crucial roles in facilitating trade to and from the U.S. and around the globe: securing it from acts of terrorism and assuring that goods arriving in the U.S. are legitimate and that appropriate duties and fees are paid."[1]
Working with USDA ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory and USDA APHIS Plant Inspection Stations, and APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ). the organizations work to protect American jobs, businesses and the ecosystems that support them. Recent interceptions of non-native and potentially harmful insect species provide  highlights of the impossible nature of their underfunded mission. USDA APHIS PPQ reported at the Maryland Invasive Species Council's May 2013 meeting the following interceptions.
Macroglossum stellatarum
tpittaway.tripod.com
               At the port in Norfolk, Virginia CBP intercepted for the first time, Macroglossum stellatarum  Linnaeus (1758), the hummingbird hawk-moth. The moth is found though out most of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. While the species is unable to survive cold winters, the adults are strong enough fliers that they seasonally migrate from the Mediterranean region North to Sweden & Iceland. The Encyclopedia of Life notes that "The hummingbird hawk-moth is named for its long proboscis (straw like mouth) and its hovering behavior, which, accompanied by an audible humming noise, give it remarkable resemblance to a hummingbird as it visits flowers to feed on nectar."[2] Humans see various shades of dull brown or grey in the forewings of the moth. On the other hand, they reveal characteristic fluorescent yellow, violet, purple and green patterns under ultraviolet light . Thus to birds and other insects the moth is most likely brightly patterned.[3]
Coreus marginatus
www.britishbugs.org.uk                The Port of Norfolk also saw for the first time the arrival and discovery of Coreus marginatus Linnaeus (1758). The uninvited accidental visitor was found in a shipment of tile from Italy. This species if found throughout most of Europe where it feeds on plants in the genus Rumex. In addition inspectors also discovered at the Norfolk facility an adult moth hiding out amongst military cargo. The moth was identified as Autophila ligaminosa Eversmann (1851). This is the first time this species found in the sub-alpine region from the Balkans west to Afghanistan has been identified entering the US.   Autophila ligaminosa 
www.ppis.moag.gov.il -

               In the historic rivalry between Virginia and Maryland, the Port of Baltimore was not without its own early detection of non native visitors taking advantage of the enormous flow of global trade. And to make matters even worse one of the interception was yet another stink bug. Baltimore CBP found a moderate sized stinkbug in a shipment of tile that was later identified to be Sciocoris sideritidis Wollaston (1858). This is the first time this species has been identified entering the US. Just wait until an undetected mating pair of this new species to the shores of the United States sets up shop and works with the two existing invasive stink bugs already sucking their way through vegetables, fruits, and soya beans. Reducing USDA funding through political mismanagement and grand standing in Congress is a sure way to encourage this opportunity. 
Sciocoris sideritidis
www.naturedugard.org 

             And last but not least, remembering that airports are ports too, a baggage interception in Baltimore was confirmed to be Tetraleurodes andropogoni Dozier (1934), a type of white fly. This is the first time this species have been intercepted entering the US.  According to CPB "the insects were discovered on fresh leaves being carried by a passenger originating from Nigeria and arriving from the United Kingdom."[4]  


___________________________________________

Below you see an article that has the State of Maryland and O'Malley selling this idea of privatization as a boon for the citizens of Maryland.  More jobs, more businesses connected to the port.  In Red you see what actually happens.  Just as our BWI airport was privatized to great loss -----now the Port of Baltimore is seeing ever greater losses to the citizens of Maryland.  Lease revenue of a few hundred million replaces the few billion the state and local government collected in revenue from the port businesses.  Labor is immediately under attack for wage concessions to maximize profits.....as always.  Federal and state money is dredging in soil known to be filled with toxic waste from chemical plants.  Don't worry they say.  The costs of Homeland Security now worried about dirty bombs coming from world ports-----the costs of invasive species eradication-----

ALL COSTS BORN BY THE TAXPAYERS.  THE NET LOSSES TO MARYLAND AND FEDERAL TAXPAYERS WILL BE BILLIONS AS THE INVESTMENT FIRM HIGHSTAR POCKETS BILLIONS IN PROFIT.


THIS IS PUBLIC MALFEASANCE AND EVERYONE INVOLVES KNOWS IT!


As we see in red......the first thing that happened was a request to lower public lease amounts 'to make the port more competitive'.  So starts the chipping away of the little the state makes in leasing.


'An item before the Oct. 31 state Board of Public Works would give the Port permission to lower rates for “the lease and use of marine terminals or facilities owned by the MPA.”  '
*********************************************************

As we see in red------more and more Federal money coming to open this global port.....remember, the port was earning the state and local economy billions before this all started.  Look below and see rather than create jobs the investment firm is outsourcing jobs, automating much work and as expected----jobs are not created but destroyed.

'Last week, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski announced $21 million in federal Department of Homeland Security funds to support shipbuilding and repair jobs at the U.S. Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay'.

116 Port of Baltimore workers to lose jobs

Wed, 05/12/2010 - 6:16am The Associated Press

Amports Inc. will lay off 116 workers at two auto terminals at the Port of Baltimore this summer.




Longshoreman Strike Shuts Down Port of Baltimore
Port of Baltimore Shutdown: Longshoremen in solidarity with nationwide labor struggle -   October 17, 2013

*****************************************************
Here is an assessment of the Port of Baltimore before all these privatization deals took hold.  The port was healthy-----workers earning good wages, lots of smaller and regional businesses creating a broad economic base.....and now----one great big global corporation starting to strangle-hold the port economy.

NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS----WORKING TO STRANGLE THE LIFE OUT OF THE US ECONOMY!

Because of all this, the Maryland Port Administration says that the Port is a major source of personal and business revenue in the state, shown by these statistics:

  • The Port was responsible for $3.6 billion in personal wage and salary income in 2006.
  • The Port generated $1.9 billion in business revenues in 2006.
  • Local purchases by businesses directly dependent on port activity amounted to $1.3 billion.
  • Activities of the Port generated state, county and municipal taxes of $388 million.
  • The U.S. Customs Service collected $507 million in duties in 2005.

Published: June 2007      
Baltimore switch Ports America Inc, the port operating arm of AIG Global Investment Group, has entered into an agreement with Universal Maritime Services Corporation (UMS) to take over operations at the Dundalk Marine Terminal at the Port of Baltimore.



This is the standard hype given by neo-liberals as they know they are selling the citizens of Maryland to global corporations and profits.


STOP ALLOWING NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS TO PRIVATIZE ALL THAT IS PUBLIC!!

Ports America Chesapeake Successfully Closes 50-Year Lease and Concession Agreement To Operate and Upgrade The Seagirt Marine Terminal In The Port of Baltimore
BALTIMORE, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ --

Ports America Group ("Ports America") today announced that its subsidiary Ports America Chesapeake ("PAC") has successfully closed on a 50-year lease and concession agreement to operate the Seagirt Marine Terminal ("Seagirt") in the Port of Baltimore.  The concession was approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works on December 16, 2009.

The agreement provides more than $1.3 billion in value to the State of Maryland, creates 5,700 jobs, and delivers more than $15 million annually in new tax revenues.  Importantly, PAC will provide 100% of the funding to implement the Maryland Port Administration's ("MPA") long-standing vision and commitment to make Baltimore one of only two eastern ports capable of handling the large "Super Post Panamax" container ships that will begin calling the East Coast upon the completion of the Panama Canal widening project in 2014.  

"I share Governor Martin O'Malley's passion for the Port of Baltimore, and creating high quality jobs so critical to the Port's future and Maryland's competitiveness on the Atlantic seaboard," said Christopher Lee, Founder and Managing Partner of Highstar Capital.

"Baltimore is one of the best, most efficient ports in the country" Lee said. "I'm very proud to be a partner with the State of Maryland and look forward to our long association in making sure Baltimore maintains its great maritime heritage."

Commenting on the Baltimore Concession, Ports America Chesapeake CEO Mark Montgomery said: "We're proud and excited to work with the Maryland Port Administration, the International Longshoremen's Association, and all our ocean carrier customers, including Mediterranean Shipping Company and Evergreen, to help make this historic American port the most competitive facility on the East Coast."

Ports America is the largest independent American terminal operator and stevedore, with operations in 44 ports and 84 terminals. Ports America and its predecessor companies have served in the Port of Baltimore for over 88 years and have operated Seagirt since it was opened in 1990.

Ports America is owned by Highstar Capital, a leading independent operationally focused and value-added infrastructure investor that has directly invested over $5.2 billion of capital in infrastructure investments to date, primarily in the United States.  Ports America Chesapeake is the newly formed affiliate of Ports America that will be the day-to-day operator of Seagirt.

Goldman Sachs and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP served as financial advisor and legal advisor, respectively, to Ports America Chesapeake.  

About Ports America

Ports America, headquartered in Iselin, N.J., is the largest independent port terminal operator in North America, providing terminal management and a full suite of stevedoring and related services.  Ports America, including its predecessor companies, has almost 90 years experience operating American seaports. Its current business includes 44 ports and 84 terminals in North America, handling containers, roll on/roll off cargo, general cargo and cruise ship passengers and luggage.

For more information please visit Ports America's website at www.portsamerica.com

About Highstar Capital

Highstar Capital is an independent, owner-operated infrastructure investment fund manager with an operationally focused, value-added investment strategy.  Since it closed its first fund in 2000, Highstar has directly invested $5.2 billion for its limited partners and co-investors across its core infrastructure sectors of energy, environmental services and transportation.

For more information please visit Highstar Capital's website at www.highstarcapital.com

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May 13th, 2014

5/13/2014

0 Comments

 
PLEASE DO NOT LOOK THE OTHER WAY AT ATTACKS ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE HAPPENING TO THE WORKING CLASS AND POOR-----THE MIDDLE-CLASS KNOWS IT TOO IS VICTIM AND THESE ASSAULTS BELOW WILL COME TO YOU AND I.


As a middle-class professional I try in my blogs to encourage the upper-middle and middle class to not be complacent with the loss of civil rights and liberties of the working class and poor in our country.  Remember, neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism is about making all but a very few impoverished so you and/or your children and grandchildren will be facing this dismantling of public justice and Bill of Rights.  Residents in cities may think its good to push out the poor but let's think how an injustice to one becomes an injustice for all.

There is a social media meme circulating that says----

the richest are telling the richer
to tell the middle-class the problem is the poor.

Well, the problem is that the richest have stolen tens of trillions of dollars from the US economy and off-shored it to overseas accounts and our entire democracy and public justice and public sector works and services are being dismantled.  This is causing poverty to soar and crime and violence with it.  So, the problem is the richest have yet to have Rule of Law brings back the loot THEY STOLE FROM GOVERNMENT COFFERS AND INDIVIDUAL'S POCKETS.

The US is now in a state of propaganda as is found in second and third world countries.  When corporations control data creation-----they will skew it to their benefit and not the public interest.  Whether at the Federal level with Obama or the State level with O'Malley, or the city level with Rawlings-Blake-----ALL DATA BEING PRODUCED IS SKEWED. Below you see how corporate media now simply reports the propaganda as news.  For people liking public radio, NPR in 2009 was doing a fine job holding power accountable.  In 2010 NPR was reorganized to corporate control and the reporters made clear that they were being forced to report 'spin'------propaganda----and not journalism.  This is what you see below.  Maryland is king of spin.....Baltimore is supreme.  The middle-class in Baltimore now have to watch as citizens are completely stripped of all rights as citizens-----they are stripped of any way to earn money and are reduced to crime to survive------and of course it is the small businesses and middle-class who become the targets of desperate attempts to get money.  The violence of poverty is skyrocketing with the huge increase in poverty in Baltimore and will come to all communities as people lose hope and embrace retaliation.  THAT IS WHAT THIRD WORLD SOCIETIES LOOK LIKE.  This is Baltimore City today.

Gentrification is a natural process.  It has happened throughout civilization.  It can be done equitably and within Rule of Law.  The State of Maryland and Baltimore lose billions of dollars each year to fraud and corruption that should be going to these communities to rebuild opportunity. 

STOP THE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION AND SEND MONEY TO DEVELOP THESE UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES FOR THE UNDERSERVED.

That does not mean the poor cannot be moved or ratios of populations cannot change.  It means that development will be fair in making sure people stay in the communities or areas they have lived all their lives.  It means that development funded with Federal, State, and local tax money be held to the laws of equal opportunity and access in housing and education.  You do not use Federal money from HUD to dismantle public housing buildings and then not provide public housing nearby.  It may not need to be public housing if grants allowed low-income and homeless to occupy these thousands of blighted houses all through these neighborhoods.

Instead, public policy written by Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore Development Corporation are set on forcefully removing all working class and poor from city center and downtown and go so far as using city services to bankrupt low-income homeowners with deliberately inflated water bills and tax bill and fines----driving these homeowners into bankruptcy and foreclosure.  As I have said----Johns Hopkins is the most neo-conservative institution in the world having Baltimore democrats pushing these undemocratic policies. 

WE NEED TO REBUILD THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AWAY FROM CORPORATE CONTROL AND BACK TO THAT OF PUBLIC INTEREST AND CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.


When a society allows the deliberate targeting of communities with fraud and corruption in order to advance development----you have an autocratic society.  Using police brutality and misconduct to scare people away and jailing people known not to have committed a crime is all intimidation tactics used in covert warfare folks.  IT IS AUTOCRATIC AND IGNORES ALL RULE OF LAW----IT DOES NOT BELONG IN AMERICA.

If you do not care if the poor lose their rights as citizens think of what is happening to the middle-class with the attack on retirements, home equity, pensions, health care coverage and Medicare, and even our children's students loans----all losing wealth from corporate fraud and government corruption.  So, this is not simply something hitting the lower class-----it pushes all of us into impoverishment and loss of rights as well.

WAKE UP======AN INJUSTICE FOR ONE WILL BECOME INJUSTICE FOR ALL!
Below you see martial law being implemented in Baltimore City because City Hall has defunded communities and community services, have put minority and women contractors and the people they hire out of business......they have eliminated the public sector and cleansed the school system of the city's middle-class killing all of the ability of families to provide support for  extended family.  City Hall allows people's homes to be stolen, police brutality to run wild, fraud and corruption to take a billion and more from city coffers each year -----money of which would help these youth.  They are doing it because the goal is to make it impossible for the working class and poor to survive in the city.  Two decades of these kinds of attacks on the poor with O'Malley and now Rawlings-Blake and the neo-conservative Baltimore City Hall has succeeded in pushing some of the poor out to the counties-----but you know what-----these people simply come back because there is no support mechanism for these families.

THE ENTIRE SOCIAL SERVICES AND SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM IN BALTIMORE IS BROKEN.


Mind you-----these children are living in homes torn with drug abuse and parents incarcerated on and off through life.  This children have parents having to work 3 jobs because Baltimore has a system of enslavement in lieu of wages that allow citizens to actually support themselves-----all driven by Johns Hopkins.  Closing community recreation centers where youth could go for support?  REALLY???????  The use of national corporate/ church non-profits  etc.  to replace these public community centers takes the one avenue for social gathering and organizing, developing of leadership, for political discussion out of the communities
. 

YOU MUST NOT BRING POLITICS INTO THESE NON-PROFITS AND IF WE DO-----WE WILL DECIDE WHO TALKS AND ABOUT WHAT. 


That is what Baltimore City Hall is creating in Baltimore.  It is totalitarian in its exclusion of the public and in enforcement of law.
  Mind you-----Baltimore has some fine private non-profits and community groups doing good work-----they are fighting for funds and support and these connected groups receive the bulk of funding.  The #1 institution receiving and then deciding how public policy as regards the working class and poor unfold-----JOHNS HOPKINS IS BALTIMORE'S PUBLIC SECTOR.

There's no doubt these children need to stay off the streets and especially at night.  If they have no computers, cannot afford phones, have no real parks and amusement facilities.....and now, no rec centers-----WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THESE YOUTH TO DO?

An autocratic society crushes these families with more fines, penalties, and exposure to police action.


Council approves tough new curfew for city youths Some kids would be required to be inside by 9 p.m.




By Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun 8:24 p.m. EDT, May 12, 2014

A tough new curfew forcing kids off the streets as early as 9 p.m. was approved Monday by the Baltimore City Council over objections it will place too much stress on the Police Department and lead to conflicts between youths and officers.

The legislation requires one more vote for final passage, which is expected next month. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has said she'll sign it into law.

The bill's sponsor, Councilman Brandon Scott, said it is intended to keep small children from wandering the street, becoming victims of crime or suffering from neglect.

"We have to do something," Scott said. "Young children are out there. ... This bill is not about arresting kids. This bill is not about dropping crime. It's about connecting young people and their families with the services they need."

The legislation, approved 11-2, calls for youngsters under 14 to be indoors year-round by 9 p.m. Youths ages 14 through 16 could stay out until 10 on school nights and 11 on other nights.

Currently, all children and teens younger than 17 can stay out until 11 on weeknights and until midnight on weekends. Parents can be fined up to $300 if their children are caught outside after curfew.

TALK ABOUT IT: Should Baltimore enact an earlier curfew for city youths?

The legislation increases penalties to $500, though they could be waived if parents and children attend counseling sessions provided by the city.

"We all know that when children are on the streets late at night without proper supervision, they are more likely to either become the perpetrators or the victims of violent crime," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. "I believe this legislation will be another much needed tool to help reduce the number of juveniles on the streets at night, while furthering a commitment my administration has made to provide more services for young people we know are vulnerable."

The bill was opposed the American Civil Liberties Union and criticized by the head of the city's police union. City Councilmen Carl Stokes and Warren Branch voted against it.

Branch, the chair of the council's public safety committee, said he worried the legislation would force yet another responsibility on police.

"There should be more agencies involved instead of putting the stress and pressure on our Police Department," he said.

Sonia Kumar, an attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, sent a letter to council members expressing concern about the "constitutionality and policy implications" of the curfew.

"The bill is a very significant expansion of Baltimore's curfew laws," she said. "Whatever the intention of the bill, there's no evidence that the bill will accomplish those goals. There are really significant reasons for not entangling young people and their families in the criminal justice system."

Kumar said she saw difficulties in enforcing the legislation fairly without police stopping kids and demanding they produce an ID card.

"The breadth of what is proposed is deeply troubling and a poor use of city resources," she said.

Rawlings-Blake has announced plans to expand the city's curfew center to become two year-round Youth Connection Centers for kids and teens who violate the curfew.

"We continue to invest in programs such as basketball leagues, jobs programs and rec center improvements that provide constructive alternatives for our young people," she said. "We need an all-hands-on-deck approach."

The legislation continues current exemptions from the curfew, including a provision for youths to be out late if they're with a parent, or going to or from a job, religious event, or school or recreational activity. The legislation eliminates an exception that has permitted young people to run errands for their parents.

Scott said those opposed to the bill have an outdated view of the curfew center.



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The City of Baltimore loses a billion dollars and more to fraud and corruption, gives a billion more to subsidize global corporate wealth in development, and loses hundreds of millions more in waste and mismanagement of Federal and State funds----this is why it just cannot seem to find a million to fund strong public recreation centers for the citizens of all communities.

REMEMBER, THE GOAL IS TO PRIVATIZE ALL THAT IS PUBLIC INTO THE HANDS OF GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.

Keep in mind that these rec centers being closed are run by the communities themselves.  The goal of tying the new recreation centers to charter schools-----which will be the new school buildings identified as where these new rec centers will be built----is that charter schools will be taken private and run by corporations----yet another end of public gatherings and freedom to discuss, organize, and implement policy as the community sees fit.

Lack of funding could close Baltimore City rec centers
11:26 PM, Oct 24, 2011 5:31 AM, Oct 25, 2011 BALTIMORE -

Advocates say the 55 recreation centers around Baltimore City give kids a safe place to play and learn after school. But now there's a controversial plan that could result in the closing of many of those rec centers.

The Cecil Kirk Recreation Center doesn't look like much from the outside. In fact, the sign on the wall is missing some letters. But "The neighborhood kids come here. We're packed all the time in there," said parent Russell Smith, who also coaches basketball at Cecil Kirk.


It's packed, he says, day after day -- with kids from this neighborhood near North Avenue. "If I wasn't here I would probably be at home, but being at home wouldn't be as much fun as being at the rec," said Alanna Jones, who visits the center every day after school.

They come after school to find a safe place to play, meet friends, and get help with homework.


"There are some of us who are still barely making it and we need places like Cecil Kirk," said Angelique Jones, Alanna's mother.


A plan proposed by City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake would shift the funding and operation of many of the city's 55 rec centers to private companies, or charities.

But a call for bids on running them brought only six viable entries. A spokesman for the mayor tells ABC-2 news that could mean many of the centers will be forced to close in just a couple months.

"If they're closing the recs where are we going to send our children to? What are we going to do?" Angelique Jones said.


Several members of city council say they have concerns with the mayor's plan.
Monday night, Councilman Bill Henry (D-4th) called for a public hearing on the issue. "This is not something that the city can step away from. We say all the time, the kids are our future. But if we mean that, we would spend money on them," he said.

Ian Brennan, a spokesman for Mayor Rawlings-Blake, said "The (privatization) plan is part of a larger effort to revitalize the rec center system. We need to stop doing things because that's the way we've always done things."


But parents outside Cecil Kirk say the old way, still works for them. "They're still serving their purpose because kids still come here," Smith said. "I could see if the kids weren't coming. That's a different story if the kids are not showing up. But the kids are here, and what are you going to do with them?"
The mayor's spokesman says they are looking for more companies and organizations to bid on running those rec centers.

The councilman's hearing, in which the head of the Rec and Parks Department is expected to come before council and explain how the plan would work, is expected to be on November 2nd.
_____________________

This is just one example of the largesse sent to national corporations for no reason at all----this case was actually racketeering.  Downtown has mortgaged tax collection for the richest of corporations and developments while the city residents send their tax revenue to maintain and build this infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, the citizens of Baltimore simply want small and small and regional businesses in their communities.....not corporations that are ground zero for massive fraud and corruption.

City Council votes on controversial Harbor Point tax plan $100M tax break is on the line for developer


UPDATED 7:07 AM EDT Aug 13, 2013
A $100 million tax break from Baltimore City is on the line for a developer who wants to rebuild a piece of land between Harbor East and Fells Point.

The most controversial part of the measure is the tax break. The city wants to use tax dollars to help finance the Harbor Point project.

The City Council took a preliminary vote on that strategy Monday night and passed it.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called this a once in a generation project that she and supporters said will eventually mean thousands of jobs and a much bigger tax base for the city.

Plans call for Harbor Point to house the new regional corporate headquarters for Exelon and other businesses. There's also supposed to be high-end living space and retail, along with a hotel.

The tax break from the city is supposed to help pay for infrastructure and other improvements to the site of the project.


But opponents of the tax break deal are skeptical about it and who it will actually benefit. Some said the developer, William Beatty, should give a portion of his tax break to the surrounding impoverished neighborhoods and city schools.

"It really doesn't contribute to uplifting the people who live in that community. This seems to be an intentional, direct benefit to a developer and all of the hangers-on of this developer, and I don't see that the residents or the surrounding community are going to benefit," concerned citizen Kim Trueheart said.

A final vote on the whole project is expected to happen Sept. 9.

_________________
The idea that we want Baltimore's youth coming into contact with a police force known nationally as being one of the most brutal in the country----the idea we want these working class and poor families ticketed and fined right into jail===where by the way they will find a job as private prison and jail contractors now work the incarcerated for $2 an hour doing formerly public sector work-----a middle-class job.

From stop and frisk to high speed police chases ending with citizens shown to have nothing but maybe a previous arrest record----to police deliberately planting drugs and guns to create the reason for apprehension.....we all know this is happening and using yet another assault on public justice and rights on youth----is a disgrace.  It is a policy written by Johns Hopkins----the City Hall are neo-conservatives running as democrats!

Baltimore City Officer Suspended On Allegations Of Excessive Force

July 30, 2013 5:52 PM

Christie Ileto Christie Ileto joined WJZ's News Team in the fall of 2012.

BALTIMORE (WJZ)– A city police officer is suspended for allegedly using excessive force on a suspect in their custody.

Christie Ileto has more on the incident being investigated by top brass.

Sky Eye Chopper 13 caught the aftermath of a car crash Baltimore City police say started as a pursuit on Belair Road on Monday evening.

“During the course, the vehicle went off the road and collided,” said Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez.

Members of the regional auto theft task force were trying to stop a car they believed to be stolen.

“By the time I got the corner, a little young dude, a teenager, was laying on the ground,” said a witness.

Baltimore City police say it wasn’t the pursuit of the young driver, but what happened after he crashed into an auto car lot that had top brass concerned.

“They threw him on the ground, and it looked like the other police smacked him,” a witness said.

“The message is clear. We will not tolerate officers breaking the law in order to enforce the law,” Rodriguez said.

Police brass say the alleged assault occurred after the juvenile was on the ground.

And rather than a citizen filing a complaint, Rodriguez says police initiated the investigation themselves.

“While the age of the individual certainly gives us concern, we want everyone to be treated fairly and professionally,” Rodriguez said.

City police have policies that allow them to use force and instruct them when it’s appropriate to initiate a pursuit. But Rodriguez couldn’t tell us at this point if any rules had been broken.

This case is under investigation.

Police have not been able to confirm the age of the driver or his name.

The department says not only will they investigate the officer allegedly involved, but his supervisor’s actions as well.



__________________

Congress included in the Affordable Care Act that authorities can now sedate a citizen without their consent -----setting the stage for the kinds of imprisonment of political dissidents in third world countries.  More importantly, our children are being subjected to high levels of drugging all in an effort to control behavior.  Behavior problems in city youth often come from chemical exposures like lead----from parents with drug addiction and abuse at home.  All of this is tied with poverty.  So, to reverse these problems you end poverty......NOT SUPERSIZE IT. Are these youth reacting to dosing with anti-psychotics and hyperactivity drugs in a negative way-----?   Wealth inequity is a myth.  The rich at the top simply stole tens of trillions of dollars and left massive amounts of impoverishment at the lower levels. 

SIMPLY REINSTATING RULE OF LAW AND RECOVERING THOSE FRAUDS WILL BRING RELIEF FROM POVERTY AND MANY OF THE SYMPTOMS.


If the middle-class cannot see how these policies will come to your neck of the woods----WAKE UP!!!!
Dosing children with drugs known to have serious side-effects and physical reactions is unethical and immoral.  It is policy you would find in China and Soviet Russia to control citizens.  We do not do this in America. 

THINK WHO YOU ELECTED TO OFFICE IN BALTIMORE CITY HALL AND MARYLAND ASSEMBLY TO SEE WHO IS ALLOWING THESE POLICIES TO ADVANCE.  THEY ARE NOT DEMOCRATS.


Antipsychotic Use Skyrockets in America's Poorest Children


Fran Lowry

March 12, 2013

Investigators from the University of Maryland in Baltimore found that from 1997 to 2006, use of antipsychotic medications in this population increased 7- to 12-fold, with most of the increased use associated with treatment for behavioral problems.


"Awareness of the expanding use of antipsychotic medications in the emotional and behavioral treatment of children has been noted in several studies of community-based pediatric populations," lead author Julie Magno Zito, PhD, from the University of Maryland, told Medscape Medical News.

"But," she added, "additional information is needed on trends in our neediest youth, namely according to how antipsychotic users differ in terms of their eligibility for Medicaid insurance coverage and the reasons for use. Such information would help to characterize the 'who' and 'why' of expanded antipsychotic use."

The study is published in the March issue of Psychiatric Services.

Call to Action

In the current observational, cross-sectional study, Dr. Zito and colleagues analyzed claims data for 456,315 youths aged 2 to 17 years who were continuously enrolled in Medicaid in a mid-Atlantic state from 1997 to 2006.

They focused on the use of antipsychotic drugs in the following Medicaid-eligibility categories: foster care; State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), currently known as the Children's Health Insurance Program; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), for children whose family income was at or below the federal poverty level; and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

The researchers found that the prevalence of use of antipsychotic medications almost tripled, from 1.2% in 1997 to 3.2% in 2006.

This growth was greatest in youth enrolled in SCHIP (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 5.9), followed by those in foster care (AOR, 4.1) and TANF (AOR, 3.6), and least among children with SSI (AOR, 2.8).

"The children on SSI are the ones we would presume to be the sickest," Dr. Zito noted. "This 6-fold increase for near-poor or SCHIP children and the 3.6-fold increase among poor or TANF children in a decade means that there was increasing use among the vast majority of enrollees and not, as one would expect, among the small minority, approximately 10%, on SSI, who qualify as the most vulnerable."

During this decade, 9320 children received a prescription for an antipsychotic. The growth in prescribing was most pronounced for pediatric bipolar disorder (AOR, 3.77) and behavioral conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (AOR, 3.48).

The researchers also found that the proportion of children using antipsychotics from 1997 to 2006 increased significantly more among African Americans and Hispanics than among whites.


"These data support a call to action for outcomes research to better establish clinical appropriateness and to encourage system-wide oversight for quality assurance," Dr. Zito said.

Postmarketing surveillance studies are also needed to assess the outcomes of community-based psychiatric treatment, she added.

"This is particularly true when medications are used for off-label conditions that have minimal or no evidence of benefit relative to medications with FDA labeling for a particular diagnosis," she said.

Psychotherapy Undervalued

"This is a continuation of the important work by Dr. Zito and her group," R. Scott Benson, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in private practice in Pensacola, Florida, told Medscape Medical News.

In this article, the researchers acknowledge that there are many factors involved in the increased rate of prescriptions for antipsychotics in children, Dr. Benson pointed out.

"There is always the suggestion that these children are given a diagnosis without the benefit of the comprehensive assessment that these psychiatric conditions demand. And there is the suggestion that the reimbursement system undervalues effective psychotherapy interventions and overvalues prescribing medication," he said.

He added that the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have developed guidelines for the evaluation of children and the use of evidence-based treatment.

"Florida and other states have developed consultation services for physicians who are providing care to these children, and we have seen a reduction in the prescription of these medications. Also, when they are prescribed, there is closer monitoring for safety and effectiveness," Dr. Benson said.

_____________________

SPEAKING OUT:

Baltimore’s Poverty Cleansing Program


by Brendan Walsh      

REMEMBER the game of musical chairs? Players circle around assembled chairs until the music stops. Then everyone rushes for a chair. There are never enough chairs for each player. The object of the game is to gradually eliminate the players until one player grabs the last chair. During the game, stronger players often knock weaker ones off the chairs. It can be a fierce game if you want to win. And you can always assure victory if you control the music and own the chairs.
      We are playing this game in Baltimore. It’s a “poverty-cleansing” game, and the poorest of the poor are gradually being eliminated. No one is assessing the ramifications of the policies that are causing people to lose life’s necessities--a home, a just living wage, a real chance at an education, and even basic food stamps.
      According to “Plan Baltimore,” more than 156,000 Baltimoreans live in poverty. That’s 24% of the city’s population struggling to hold on to the “chairs” that sustain life.
      To live a human life, to raise a family, to build a community, you need housing. You need meaningful work that pays a living wage. You need food, a sense of dignity, human recognition and respect, and hope in large doses. Poor people are being denied each of these necessities.
      Keep a close eye on our housing programs, our jobs and wages, our incarceration rates, and our educational disasters. We are developing a “zero tolerance” for poor people. We are, intentionally or through neglect, cleansing Baltimore of poor people.
      On July 3rd, when the Murphy Homes were demolished, there was rejoicing. Buildings designed to “teach the poor a lesson” were leveled in a controlled implosion. Bleak, sterile, cheap places of confinement were removed from the landscape. It also means the loss of 658 units, housing for 1,500 to 1,700 people.
      One decade ago there were 18,162 public housing units, 18,526 “other subsidized” units, and 53,002 families “still in need” in Baltimore City. These numbers represent at least 90,000 families--more than 200,000 Baltimoreans, some of the poorest of the poor--all of them desperate for housing.
      But, as we enter the new millennium, we learn that the federal government is getting out of the housing business. When they level places like the Murphy Homes, they do not build new units for the majority of those displaced. The major fact in Baltimore is demolition. Houses are bulldozed without rhyme or reason. There is no comprehensive plan. Of the 66,000 rowhouses in center city, the plan is to demolish 20% by the year 2004. Virtually all of these houses are in the poorest neighborhoods.
      Think about it. We have a poverty rate of 24%. We are in the process of tearing down all public housing and 20% of the existing affordable rowhouses. So where will the poor go?
      We are told that the private sector, through programs like Section 8, will take up the slack. It is suggested that the poor should just get themselves to the five surrounding counties and “things” will work out. The unbinding of Baltimore will save us all. Does anyone believe there is a welcome mat in Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, Anne Arundel and Harford counties?
      The reality is that the poorest of the poor will just go wandering--a forced march to nowhere. Or they will “double up” with a relative or friend, or simply hide out in whatever abandoned building is still standing.
      If you are one of our 50,000 addicts, you will not be considered “housing-ready.” Thus, you will not be eligible for any subsidized housing. If you have been arrested for some drug-related offense, you too will not be eligible for subsidized housing. The number of people not “housing-ready” grows daily.
      Look at jobs and wages in the Baltimore metropolitan area. According to the recent report of the Job Opportunity Task Force, 62% of all jobs in the region are “low skill” jobs, and two out of three of these jobs are located outside the city. A “low-skill” job means a “low-wage” job--a poverty wage. The economic boom of the ’90’s has clearly created a sharp division between “high-skilled,” well-paid workers and “low-skilled” underpaid workers, and more and more unemployed. For every “low-skill” job, there are three “low-skill” job seekers.
      Our response to this crisis is abominable. We continue to remove the necessary chairs. There are more cries for “quality of life” arrests and we build more and more prisons. We lock people up and add fuel to the fire. People get out of jail fully enraged and then return to poor neighborhoods with no skills, no hope.
      One big result of our “welfare to work” program is that young children often have no adult parent or guardian at home when they return from school, or during the summer months. At our soup kitchen, more and more children are coming without an accompanying adult.
      When we began Viva House 30 years ago, we only saw single men over the age of 50. Now women and children are 70% of our guests. By the year 2004, will it be only children coming to soup kitchens?
      We are going in exactly the wrong direction.
      It is time to end the game of musical chairs. We can’t eliminate poverty by eliminating the poor. The federal government can’t drop out of the housing business at precisely the moment people are in dire need of housing. We can’t permit 62% of our labor force to work “low-skill,” “low-wage” jobs, while a few people pile wealth on top of wealth. We need to invest in the poor. In their lives. In their schools. In their neighborhoods.
      We can either change priorities, or that big bulldozer will level all of us.
      Everyone is entitled to a chair at the table.
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The same people creating the subprime fraud are now receiving all the foreclosures and state funding for affluent development using the subprime mortgage fraud while victims remain homeless.  This article shows the plan to corner people forced into renting in a captured real estate market that will be predatory and criminal. 

This is what Baltimore City Hall thinks is great!  This is what has Baltimore youth disconnected and disenfranchised.
  These residents are what is replacing public housing and section 8-----


Last Updated: March 31, 2014

Delancey Closes on 3rd Baltimore Multifamily

By Erika Morphy | Baltimore

BALTIMORE—"We feel that Class B multifamily is the right place to invest due to the opportunity to buy properties below replacement cost that generate significant yield, and have a captive renter base," says CEO Daniel M. Kline.


___________________
WPC is a market-based policy group pushing privatization of public education.  Baltimore is ground zero for ending public education and handing all education to corporations, creating schools as businesses and vocational tracking from K-college.  Underserved children and schools are taken first because they have no advocates protecting public education.  Once established in Baltimore---this privatized system will expand across Maryland.

Underserved schools are subjected to tiered funding---principles literally cannot afford toilet paper.  Students are placed in front of computer terminals and online lessons that do not engage and have the students feeling negatively about education.  This is what youth in Baltimore have to face as the one community source that should be positive.  Making these youth travel by buses to reach schools that offer enriched programs means students will drop out or be truant more times than necessary.  These are the public policies that create negative youth behavior.  If you do not respect a person----that person will not respect the system.


As you see below, Baltimore is one of a few that subject its schools to tiered funding -----deliberately defunding schools for underserved and special needs creating a warehousing that ends democratic public education.  These schools will simply become Wall Street charter chains---and this will expand to middle-class public schools as well.

Alonzo is a Bloomberg---Wall Street ax-man willing to dismantle American public education for corporate control and profit.
  Students drop out rates and truancy are soaring in Baltimore with Alonzo's and Wall Street's reforms.  Remember, this is Johns Hopkins policy pushed by Baltimore City Hall and Maryland Governor O'Malley---formerly of Baltimore's neo-conservative pols running as democrats in Baltimore.  Anyone in Baltimore can tell you this article below is pure propaganda.....schools are not doing well, the curricula is hated, the students are falling in performance and leaving school----ergo, the problems that extend to the streets.

What We Can Learn from Baltimore City Public Schools


By Liv Finne, Director, WPC’s Center for Education

, October, 2010 Forward-thinking school superintendents, like C.E.O. Andres A. Alonso of Baltimore City Public Schools, are reorganizing the way they run their schools, and achieving dramatic gains for students. They are implementing Fair Student Funding. This reform shifts control over school spending from central districts to individual school principals. Under Fair Student Funding, school principals are able to control the actual dollars in their school budgets, instead of having to manage a building already staffed by the district. Principals with budget power are then able to customize their programs to meet the individualized educational needs of their students. In return for this new flexibility and control, school principals are held accountable for student performance.

Thirteen other school districts across the nation have adopted Fair Student Funding, also known as Student-Centered Funding, student “backpacking,” or Weighted Student Formula.
The idea is the same. Instead of providing funding based on staffing ratios or categorical program, the money follows and funds the child, weighted according to his educational needs. The districts employing this strategy for funding schools include the following: Belmont Pilot Schools in Los Angeles, Boston’s Pilot Schools, Renaissance 2010 Schools in Chicago, Cincinnati, Clark County (which includes Las Vegas), Denver, Hartford, State of Hawaii, Houston Independent School District, New York City, Oakland, Poudre School District in Colorado, St. Paul, and San Francisco.

The story of how Baltimore City Public Schools achieved this reform is well worth telling. It started with a visionary leader: Andrés A. Alonso. He was selected as Chief Executive Officer of Baltimore City Public Schools in the summer of 2007.

Elements of Fair Student Funding

  1. Create a system of great schools led by great principals who have the authority, resources and responsibility to teach all students well.
  2. Engage those closest to the students in making key decisions that impact them.
  3. Empower schools, then hold them accountable for results.
  4. Ensure fair and transparent funding that schools can count on annually.
  5. Size the district appropriately -- schools and central office -- to address the realities of revenues and expenditures.
  6. Allow dollars to follow each student.
  7. Put the resources in the schools.
Read the full Policy Note here








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April 16th, 2014

4/16/2014

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Today I would like to look at not only the new approach the American people must take to elections in America but to look at how the global corporations have prepared to squelch any avenue the American people have to organize.....and that is the SYSTEM OF PRIVATE NON-PROFITS......

MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE IS GROUND ZERO FOR CAPTURE BY CORPORATE NON-PROFIT.



AS WE ORGANIZE WE WILL BE CIRCUMVENTING ALL OF THE CORPORATE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS AND IN BALTIMORE THIS MEANS THOSE CREATED BY JOHNS HOPKINS TO CONTROL ALL PUBLIC POLICY AND ORGANIZING.


If you look at the establishment of Maryland's system of private non-profits it coincides with the Reagan/Clinton agenda of moving to neo-liberalism and global corporate empire.  This of course meant that the rich would not be citizens or taxpayers but patrons just as Medici's time.  So, these two decades have seen corporate and wealth taxation erode in Maryland as these private non-profits grew in number.  Today, corporations not only do not pay taxes in Maryland, they are given our tax revenue as corporate welfare to augment profits even further. 

MARYLAND IS ONE GREAT, BIG THIRD WORLD COLONY RUN BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGO'S).


In Baltimore the head honcho of private non-profits is Baltimore Development Corporation run by Johns Hopkins and the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG) is the mechanism for Baltimore Development Corporation to control all public policy and public organization.

THIS IS THE SAME AMERICAN NGO SYSTEM YOU HEAR ABOUT IN DEVELOPING WORLDS AND NOW HERE IN AMERICA WE SEE WHY THESE NATIONS HATE AMERICA.  THESE NGOs ARE ALL ABOUT BUILDING STRUCTURES TO CONTROL A REGION AND FUNNEL ALL MONEY INTO THEIR POCKETS.

So, two decades after starting to build this patronage structure preparing for the great economic collapse of 2008 as the excuse of government debt handing all control of funding to these private non-profits------in Baltimore and Maryland they are in full swing and control everything.

So, why is this important to elections?  As I have said, removing the public sector and replacing with private non-profits removes the ability to meet and discuss policy and promote agendas.  With these non-profits headed by directors working for corporations, these non-profits will not allow any policy or discussion other than what the corporation funding the non-profit wants.  I've spoken at length about how Johns Hopkins does this in Baltimore.  What is equally important is that these private non-profits control communications and mailing lists as well.  So, all communications for a group of thousands of people wanting to support a certain issue is made confidential.  In the end, this private non-profit then will promote the issue of the corporation no matter what the group as a whole felt was the mission.  SEE HOW THIS CAPTURES THE ENTIRE PUBLIC SPACE?  I have given examples with Maryland Health Care for All capturing the universal care issue by promoting Affordable Care Act knowing the ACA would kill Medicare and Medicaid.  Then there is the Baltimore Education Coalition BEC that is the Michelle Rhee/Bill Gates education privatization group that is the only voice of education in Baltimore and they are an extension of Johns Hopkins.


THE POINT IS THIS:  CITIZENS OF MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE MUST STOP ALLOWING THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS CONTROL YOUR COMMUNITIES.  YOU MUST BECOME ACTIVISTS AND ADVOCATES AND MAKE TIME TO BUILD YOUR OWN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS.


An organization that makes its email lists private or that restricts its membership to invitation only-------as the ABAG does, is not working for the people.


About The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG)

ABAG's mission is to maximize the impact of philanthropic giving on community life through a growing network of diverse, informed and effective grantmakers.

The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is the region’s premier resource on philanthropy, dedicated to informing grantmakers and improving our community. ABAG was founded in 1983 to provide a forum in which colleagues could address common problems, approaches and interests.

Our members include more than 145 private and community foundations, donor advised funds, and corporations with strategic grantmaking programs - representing the vast majority of institutional giving in our area.

ABAG is …

  • The Resource on Grantmaking
ABAG provides critical information and services to the philanthropic and nonprofit communities.

  • The Network for Givers
ABAG convenes grantmakers and others to address issues and create lasting solutions.

  • The Voice for Philanthropy
ABAG represents the philanthropic sector to key audiences, including the media, legislators, and national organizations, raising public awareness and understanding about the role and impact of philanthropy on our society.

Knowledge. Connections. Leadership.

ABAG's Core Values Are:

  • Generosity: We believe generosity is one of the most important values. It is essential to communal welfare and something everyone should practice in some form.
  • Inclusive and Respectful: We value the perspectives and contributions of all people, and incorporate the viewpoints of diverse communities in our work.
  • Diversity: We are committed to supporting a funding community that encompasses differences in the attributes of both individuals (such as race, ethnicity, age, socio-economic status, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, and religion) and organizations (foundations and giving programs of differing sizes, missions, geographic locations, and approaches to grantmaking).
  • Welcoming: We create an open, compassionate and trusting environment that facilitates learning, dialogue and healthy debate to inform and strengthen philanthropy.
  • Forward-Thinking: We seek strategic opportunities to meet new and existing needs in new ways.
  • Forthright Stewards: We conduct our business with honesty and integrity and utilize best practices in the stewardship of our resources and accountability for our results.




History The Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations

("Maryland Nonprofits") was established in 1992 as a result of a comprehensive statewide organizing effort in the nonprofit and philanthropic community involving hundreds of nonprofit executives and volunteer leaders.  Today, we are one of the largest and most successful nonprofit associations in the United States with more than 1,400 nonprofit organization members, 300 associate members, and 23 staff to serve them from two locations (Baltimore and Silver Spring). 

Maryland Nonprofits is statewide and sector-wide. Our members hail from every county of Maryland and from all sub-sectors of the nonprofit community, including human services, health, educational, cultural, environmental, religious, and other charitable organizations and foundations. The size of these organizations is also diverse, ranging from all volunteer organizations to major institutions. The association truly represents the diversity of Maryland's nonprofit community.


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Neo-liberalism with Reagan/Clinton started this privatization of all that is public.  This was sold to republican voters as small government but as we see today it is the Tea Party and its true conservatism that now sees how this drive to the bottom in small government has created a systemically criminal and corrupt corporate and government structure.  Tea Party want free markets and they are assaulted by naked capitalism full of cronyism and corporate welfare.  Labor and justice of course are completely demolished by neo-liberalism.

Here in Maryland we have Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur all shouting to further push public private partnerships as all of the public sector must fall to this neo-liberal drive to hand all to the few at the top.  University of Maryland Medical Center for example has a long-established quasi-governmental designation and acts as a corporation, not a state university and hospital and of course we have Baltimore Development Corporation controlling all development with absolute authority with City Hall in its pocket.  Lastly, we see the public private status of corporations like the Hilton and Hyatt that subsidize all the operational costs of those corporations to the public and makes City Hall in the business of profiting off of impoverishing its own citizens.
  Right now the City of Baltimore has structures that prey of the residents of the city in order to gather revenue in lieu of collecting taxes from corporations and the wealthy.

THIS IS COLONIALISM PEOPLE!!!!!!!

WHEN WE ALLOW OUR GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS TO CREATE STRUCTURES THAT THRIVE FROM PROFITING OFF OF THE PUBLIC-----WE DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY.



The Quasi Government: Hybrid Organizations with Both Government and Private Sector Legal Characteristics

This report provides an overview of federally related entities that possess legal characteristics of both the governmental and private sectors. These hybrid organizations (e.g., Fannie Mae, National Park Foundation, In-Q-Tel), collectively referred to in this report as the “quasi government,” have grown in number, size, and importance in recent decades.A brief review of executive branch organizational history is followed by a description of entities with ties to the executive branch, although they are not “agencies” of the United States as defined in Title 5 of the U.S.Code. Several categories of quasi governmental entities are defined and discussed: (1) quasi official agencies,(2) government-sponsored enterprises (GSE), (3) federally funded research and development corporations,(4) agency-related nonprofit organizations, (5) venture capital funds, (6) congressionally chartered nonprofit organizations, and (7) instrumentalities of indeterminate character.The quasi government, not surprisingly, is a controversial subject. To supporters of this trend toward greater reliance upon hybrid organizations, the proper objective of governmental management is to maximize performance and results, however defined. In their view, the private and governmental sectors are alike in their essentials, and thus subject to the same economically derived behavioral norms.They tend to welcome this trend toward greater use of quasi governmental entities.Critics of the quasi government, on the other hand, tend to view hybrid organizations as contributing to a weakened capacity of government to perform its fundamental constitutional duties, and to an erosion in political accountability, a crucial element in democratic governance. They tend to consider the governmental and private sectors as being legally distinct, with relatively little overlap in behavioral norms.Congress is increasingly engaged with the quasi government. The issues run the gamut from enacting legislation to encourage the creation of nonprofit organizations to promote individual national parks, to proposals to strengthen regulation of government- sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae, to oversight hearings respecting national security issues at Los Alamos Laboratory. There is nothing modest about the size,scope, and impact of the quasi government.Time will tell whether the emergence of the quasi government is to be viewed as a symptom of decline in our democratic government, or a harbinger of a new, creative management era where the purportedly artificial barriers between the governmental and private sectors are breached as a matter of principle.This report will be updated at the beginning of each Congress


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In Baltimore we have a system of community organizations created by O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake headed by directors that will move forward all policy put forward by Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins.  You might think a community organization for a community would be good, but if you look closely what happens is that these organizations are filled with VISTAS brought from all over the country taking leading roles in these communities they know nothing about and often in which they have no intention of staying.  Our schools are filled with the same set of private non-profit entities from Teach for America to the private Parent Teacher Organization.

Now, you may think that underserved communities need help getting on their feet but in Baltimore the entire city has its community voice supplanted by this occupation by PRIVATE NON-PROFIT.  Johns Hopkins has been allowed to consume so much of the taxpayer's revenue it is a global corporation built in a matter of the few decades from Reagan/Clinton and now.  It owns the City of Baltimore and runs it with these private non-profits.

In each case, every time a citizen in Baltimore wants to get involved in their community the only way to get government funding for a program goes through these private non-profits who, of course, will not fund a group working against this occupation.


FOLKS, YOU ARE ALLOWING EVERY AVENUE FOR PUBLIC ORGANIZING AND SPACE FOR PUBLIC POLICY-MAKING BE TAKEN.



Community centres
generally perform many (though rarely all) the following functions in its community (Note this list is intended to define which meaning of the phrase community centre is covered by this article rather than being facts about what some other sources associate with that phrases, though adding source confirming that other sources use the phrase in a similar way would be nice).

  • As the place for all-community celebrations at various occasions and traditions.
  • As the place for public meetings of the citizens on various issues.
  • As the place where politicians or other official leaders come to meet the citizens and ask for their opinions, support or votes ("election campaigning" in democracies, other kinds of requests in non-democracies).
  • As a place where community members meet each other socially.
  • As a place housing local clubs and volunteer activities.
  • As a place that community members (and sometimes others), can rent cheaply when a private family function or party is too big for their own home. For instance the non-church parts of weddings, funerals etc.
  • As a place that passes on and retells local history.

Below we see a community organization that is working to provide for low-income employment and services that was required by the Enterprise Zone give-away to Johns Hopkins in its East Baltimore Development.  Hopkins received a billion in taxpayer money and did not meet any of its obligations to help the residents surrounding the area.  I know this organization does some good although I do not support some of its advocacy.  This point here is that a gathering of local citizens are having to vie for city funds at a time when billions are being given to national private non-profits who the mayor is saying offer better value.  Only, when you actually look at what these private non-profits accomplish-----they almost always fail in their 'mission'.

The problem in Baltimore is that organizations like BUILD placate Johns Hopkins which is of course the source of all the mayor's policies.  So, rather than expose Hopkins as the source of the problem, BUILD takes the stance against the mayor.  Now, don't get me wrong....I'm glad at least they are shouting against the mayor, but it is the entire system that is corrupt.  Remember, we do not want all the money to go to private non-profits----we want a strong public sector.  If BUILD would advocate for public employees to do the work of Baltimore City Parks rather than allow a private prison contractor to work prisoners for next to nothing.....you would hire thousands to do city-wide public service jobs.

WHY IS BUILD NOT SHOUTING TO HIRE PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES TO DO THE JOB OF PUBLIC WORKS, ENDING THE OUTSOURCING OF STRONG, MIDDLE-CLASS JOBS IN THE CITY?

At election time, organizations like BUILD will support the pols we all know are working for Johns Hopkins.


Mayor says she won't fund job-training program, sparking debateRawlings-Blake declines to provide $594,000 for plan to employ 50 East Baltimore residents

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is shown in this… (Kim Hairston / Baltimore…)April 08, 2014|By Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has declined to fund a proposed East Baltimore job-training program backed by an influential community group, sparking a war of words over whether City Hall is doing enough to help the unemployed.

The interfaith coalition Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development says its leaders have a proposal to provide 50 members of the Oliver neighborhood with jobs and want $594,000 in funding over three years from the Rawlings-Blake administration. The program would target ex-offenders and others chronically unemployed.

The mayor rejected the proposal, telling the organization in a letter Monday that the city "is not in a position to provide funding for the program at this time."

About 200 people packed Memorial Baptist Church in Oliver Tuesday evening to protest the decision, at times booing a photograph of Rawlings-Blake.

"We raised $1.2 million ourselves," said Melvin Wilson, leader of the BUILD Citywide Jobs Team, who said the group's request to the mayor would only amount to $200,000 per year. "She said no."

On Tuesday, Rawlings-Blake called BUILD a "trusted partner" but said she can't simply cut checks to every well-meaning organization that asks for money and can only provide small reimbursements to job-training organizations approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

She encouraged BUILD to apply for grants from charitable organizations.

"They have a proposal that just doesn't work," Rawlings-Blake said. "I have continuously supported efforts to connect previously incarcerated people with jobs. I don't take this lightly. I understand there are barriers to employment."

BUILD proposed that the 50 workers — deemed some of the hardest to employ — would be trained on construction job sites in East Baltimore while making $10.69 an hour. After a one-year training program, the workers would begin apprenticeships with the International Painters Union.

Community leaders noted that the city government has a $2.5 billion operating budget and has funded millions of dollars for development subsidies.

"We are angry with this mayor. We are tired of what this mayor is not doing," said the Rev. Marshall Prentice, pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Oliver. "If she doesn't like our plan, then what's her plan? We've got to get Baltimore working, and we want a meeting about it."

Rawlings-Blake called a news conference Tuesday to highlight some of her administration's efforts to employ local residents. She's signed an executive order called "Employ Baltimore" to assist companies in applications for city work if they have hired city residents.

She said BUILD is welcome to work with the Mayor's Office of Employment Development to reach a resolution of the dispute.

"I don't think it would be the most effective and efficient use of more than $500,000," she said of the BUILD plan. "I get frustrated because their response is, 'We're angry and we're not going to take it anymore.' Anger doesn't make progress. Sitting down at the table and doing the hard work, that's how you make progress."




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Cities all across America are now filling with private corporate non-profits wanting to help the unfortunate now that these hedge funds sucked all of the wealth of the country through massive corporate fraud and left 70% of families in America is poverty.  Baltimore is ground zero for these national private non-profits that are being allowed to become our public sector.....from mental health to wellness, from prison labor to youth employment......all of these involve those gracious hedge funds wanting to do good in our communities.  The only thing we need to do in return------is let them write all the policy, operate with impunity, control all property and institutions, and fleece WE THE PEOPLE at every turn.  Then, they will go to Associated Grantmakers of Baltimore to 'donate' to a program to help those they keep impoverished as with all third world societies.

Baltimore has such a level of corruption that corporate tax breaks and designation of corporations as non-profits allow corporations to not only operate with no cost, but now has a system where in lieu of taxes corporations 'donate' to these private non-profits for more tax write-offs and then direct that non-profit in a way that sends more money to their corporations.  So, donate to a youth employment program in Baltimore and you get matching funds from the city and a youth to work for free. 


THAT IS WHAT THIS NETWORK OF PRIVATE NON-PROFITS DOES.....IT ALLOWS CORPORATIONS THE ABILITY TO CIRCUMVENT ALL REVENUE EXPENDITURES AND ACTUALLY GIVES THEM A CHANNEL TO BRING EVEN MORE MONEY THEIR WAY.


Global Corporate PatronSponsorship

Global Corporate Patrons support global operations and the infrastructure that enables Hedge Funds Care to award grants in 11 cities throughout the United States, Canada, the Cayman Islands, and the United Kingdom.Becoming a Global Corporate Patron is an excellent way to increase your firm’s visibility in the hedge fund community while simultaneously demonstrating a strong commitment to corporate responsibility and our mission to prevent and treat child abuse in our communities. Marketing BenefitsYear-round logo recognition on HFC website with link to sponsor’s websiteAnnual e-mail to HFC database of +18,000 financial professionals recognizing corporate sponsors Inclusion in Sponsor recognition PowerPoint at most events or applicable signageRecognition in Annual Report 4 Full Page Journal Ads in event program journal of sponsor’s choice (Events include New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Toronto, Cayman Islands, Atlanta, and Denver.)Rights to host 1 Cocktails & Commentary event annually with Hedge Funds Care $7,500Annual Contribution To become a Corporate Patron, please contact Sarah Blaker, Development Director atSBlaker@HedgeFundsCare.orgor 212-991-9600 ext. 342


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Baltimore is losing every public space in the city.  Here we have a private corporation overseeing our public markets and it outsources what used to be public sector jobs that employed many in the city.  Now, the people working are impoverished and the communities around these markets have no control over development.


Those familiar with the Baltimore Washington International Airport owned by the Maryland State Authority know about AIRMALL -----the private contractors handed control of what used to be public sector employment and now the worst of impoverishment for citizens of Maryland.  As a state agency the people should be protected and have a strong voice over how this airport operates and it has none.

The same conditions occur below.  Again, the community has no voice because a public space has been handed to private non-profit oversight.


Baltimore Public Markets Corporation
( BPMC) was established in 1995 as a non-profit
organization, to operate the public markets in a manner beneficial to the City of Baltimore
and it's citizens. We are proud to be part of Baltimore's many hard working agencies,
associations and organizations that are largely responsible for making Baltimore the
extraordinary city it is today.

In March 2005, BPMC and Lexington Market Inc. entered into a co-teaming agreement. Mr.
Casper Genco was appointed as the Executive Director of Lexington Market Inc. and BPMC.
The teaming agreement is not a merger and the two entities are separate and distinct.

BPMC operates five of the city's old fashioned markets. Come and experience the
personality of unique boutiques, eateries and fresh food, produce and bakery shops, all in
the heart of Baltimore's neighborhoods.

Our office handles all matters pertaining to the operation of the markets. This includes
issues such as leasing, vendor concerns, etc. For further information,
contact us.

Our Goal
At Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, we pride ourselves in knowing that Baltimore has
the oldest continually operating public market system in the nation. It is our goal and desire
to maintain the markets as a part of the City's heritage. We strive to provide you with
buildings that are safe and clean. We will continue the tradition of providing the patrons of
our markets with food and service that is of high quality and standards that you deserve. So
come on by, for a little personal service and be pampered at our markets in Baltimore City's
most historic neighborhoods.

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April 01st, 2014

4/1/2014

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MARYLAND IS HANDING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC TO PRIVATE HANDS AS ALL PUBLIC SECTOR OVERSIGHT AND REGULATIONS AND ALL PUBLIC JUSTICE IS ELIMINATED.  AFTER ALL----TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT---TPP ----IS ALL ABOUT ENDING US SOVEREIGNTY AND HAVING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS WRITE LAWS AND PROVIDE THE OVERSIGHT THEY WANT.

THIS IS MUNICIPAL DEBT FRAUD AS ALL INVOLVED KNOW THE US ECONOMY IS READY TO IMPLODE FROM MUNICIPAL AND SOVEREIGN DEBT EXTREME LEVERAGING.

Public private partnerships are the neo-liberal way of privatizing all that is public while making the public pay for all the cost of corporate operation.  While republicans call it socialist to hide the fact that it is naked capitalism, neo-liberal pols like O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake pretend its all about job creation and development.  From waterfront property to public parks, to school playgrounds and public community centers and health care----all of it is disappearing under the auspices of public-private partnership.

I asked a minister who attended a protest in Annapolis where the nearest public library was......we were at the State Capital.  She had to take a minute to think about where the nearest public space in Annapolis not a government building would be-----ALL THE WAY OUT WEST STREET AT THE CITY'S BORDER.

People need to WAKE UP because neo-liberals and neo-cons are working together to end all existence of public space.  As when the USSR was taken private during PERESTROIKA with all of its publicly owned spaces and businesses handed to a few private Oligarchs in this new Russia-----

THIS PRIVATIZATION OF ALL THAT IS PUBLIC BY NEO-LIBERALS IN THE MARYLAND ASSEMBLY AND CITY HALL IS THE SAME AS THIS RUSSIAN PERESTROIKA.

They are taking public land and setting private businesses on this land all so these businesses will not pay property tax.  That private business sitting on that land will control that property.  Baltimore and Maryland is ground zero for this PERESTROIKA of the 1% as fraud and corruption goes wild and a free-for-all with public assets has Wall Street investment firms already owing the citizens of Maryland hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud-----taking all of our wealth a second time around.

Heather Mizeur said in an forum for Governor of Maryland that in order to create jobs trades-people should give up some of their pensions in order to fund school building.  This is the same labor/union busting in these deals.  CAN YOU IMAGINE A CANDIDATE RUNNING AS A PROGRESSIVE WANTING A WORKING CLASS PERSON TO GIVE UP PENSION MONEY TO BUILD AND BE SILENT ON CORPORATE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION?  That is because Heather Mizeur is not a progressive ------she is a corporate poser who will do the same as O'Malley, Brown, and Gansler in handing all wealth to the top!


STOP ELECTING THESE SAME NEO-LIBERALS WHO ARE KILLING OUR DEMOCRACY!

Below you see articles showing this growing wealth divide as all costs of doing business for global corporations are now being thrust on the public.  We start with Dan Rodricks who works for these developers but does make a good point every now and then.

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Dan makes a good point in shouting that the Trusts meant to build MD's environmental strengths are gutted and underfunded seeming more of a shell operation than money designated for a specific use. Think Transportation/Innovation Trusts. What we don't hear from MD media enough is the outing of O'Malley and MD pols for progressive posing; pretending to support issues that are environmental or labor and justice and then ignoring them if they are passed. MD media has given the world's worst environmentalist headlines for his national campaign meant to sell him as an environmentalist and none of it is true as this one example shows.

US media was free press until a decade or so and had as a mission to hold power accountable and now they work hard providing the headlines and the campaign snippets to hide the facts. The truth with open space is that in Baltimore all public property is being handed to private developers right and left and all areas designated as public are really private campuses built with public money. The entire Inner Harbor is now privately owned with the public designated for costs.

Then take the scam of preserving farms with estate tax reduction where the rich pretend to have a working farm to have huge estates that could be 10 real working farms. MD is far from sustainable or environmental because it has no democratic party.



Marylanders need to speak up for open space A program designed to save trees and farms under constant legislative attack


Gunpowder Falls State Park (Sun photo by Dan Rodricks / April 1, 2014)

Dan Rodricks 5:00 a.m. EDT, April 1, 2014  Baltimore Sun

When I have a hard time understanding government spending — the construction and tinkering that goes into, say, Maryland's multibillion-dollar annual budget — I just imagine the whole thing as a kitchen-table conversation with members of a household declaring and negotiating priorities. (Pardon the time-worn metaphor, but it works for me.)

After we cover the big-ticket items (health, education, roads, public safety, the mandatory areas of spending), we get around to the other pieces of the budget that need to be maintained — public employee pensions, for instance — and arguments break out about obligations, fiscal discipline and not "kicking the can down the road." It can get rough, even ugly.

But after the dust settles and everyone's exhausted, someone at the far end of the table, who has waited her turn to speak, reminds us about a certain obligation: One half of one percent of all transfer taxes paid at real estate closings must be set aside for protection of land against future development; that's state law.

In Maryland, it's called Program Open Space. It was established in 1969 with bipartisan support, and for good reason: The legislators of that time saw massive development coming to the state's suburbs, and they wanted to preserve farms and acquire land for public parks and playgrounds to keep things in balance — Maryland as "the land of pleasant living" even as it became a huge bedroom for Washington and Baltimore.

With white flight from the cities, the construction of the interstate highway system and two beltways, environmentalists and lawmakers saw Maryland's potential to become an utter mess as population grew and development spread.

Forty-five years along, we pride ourselves on being a state that still boasts postcard vistas from the Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake to the mountains of Garrett County, with a lot of nice spots in between.

The $2 billion that went into Program Open Space has a lot to do with that. It's a smart program, a legacy of Maryland's progressive approach to conservation, built on a simple idea:

Take a tiny piece of the revenue from each real estate transaction and fund a program to save open space — buy development rights from Maryland's family farmers so they can keep farming, acquire land for state parks, and send money to Baltimore and our smaller cities and the counties so they can build playgrounds, bike trails and lacrosse and soccer fields.

The logic is beautiful.

Because Program Open Space is tied to real estate transactions — only 0.5 percent of transfer taxes go into the fund — it tracks with the economy. If development and house sales slow, so does Program Open Space. In better times, when there's more action in commercial and residential real estate, more money goes into land preservation.

But the wise lawmakers who established the program are gone, and their political descendants have raided the fund countless times — to the tune of about $1.5 billion, according to calculations by the nonprofit Partners for Open Space — and they did this most famously during the savings-and-loan mess of the mid-1980s.

Annapolis has scoffed repeatedly at the spirit of the law that established Program Open Space with little worry about political fallout.

That last part is what gets me. That's why I'm writing about this today. The muldoons in Annapolis are messing with Program Open Space again. In his new budget, Gov. Martin O'Malley designates no cash for the program, using instead a more complicated system of bonds to finance specific projects, while some in the General Assembly want to cap the fund at $100 million. (Yeah, baby, time to rein in all that wild spending going on for open space!)

In the program's original form, there was never supposed to be a cap; Porogram Open Space was supposed to try and balance land gobbled up for development with land conserved for farms, forests and local parks and playing fields, all through a tiny fraction of the revenue from each real estate transaction.

Partners for Open Space says there are 150 Maryland farm families lined up for the state's agricultural preservation program, but not enough money to handle the demand because of Annapolis's constant raiding of Program Open Space.

Doing a budget — in a household or for the entire state — requires many skills, discipline and adherence to principles, including respect for an established rule.

In this case, here's the rule: We will devote 0.5 percent to a fund to acquire land, and it will be tied to income from a specific source; we won't be obligated to put any additional money into that fund but, at the same time, we won't raid it for the general budget, either.

In violating the spirit of Program Open Space, Annapolis counts on Marylanders not caring enough about grass and trees to bother them with phone calls and emails. And if that happens, then in time maybe they'll think it's OK to just end the program altogether.

We can't let that happen. We need to take a stand for open space, and now.


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In Baltimore, city buses and fire department engines are being covered with corporate advertisement because when corporations pay no taxes the public coffers are empty.  So, all across the city public parks and athletic courts are left in disrepair or closed because UnderArmour is allowed to get tax breaks.  Yet, public work is outsourced to allow UnderArmour to 'donate' money to repair a park for 'free' courtesy permanent corporate advertising.

So, no public employees maintaining parks and recreation and the city's public spaces littered with corporate tags all paying for corporate operations with a dash of tax relief to maximize profits------


THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL/NEO CON FOR YOU----ALWAYS WORKING TO HAVE THE PUBLIC PAY TO MAXIMIZE PROFIT!

Jul 13, 2011, 2:33pm EDT Updated: Jul 28, 2011, 7:08am EDT

Under Armour to renovate Federal Hill court


 Scott Dance, Staff Baltimore has hired Under Armour Inc. to renovate a basketball court at Federal Hill Park at no cost — other than some brand advertising.

The Tide Point-based sportswear maker has agreed to replace the chain-link fence around the court and install a new playing surface, goals and goal posts. The city is not paying Under Armour for the work, but is allowing it to include its logo on the court surface. The city Board of Estimates approved the deal Wednesday morning.

It’s not the first time Under Armor has emblazoned its logo on city property. The city and company caught flak from residents in April 2010 for an Under Armour ad painted on the grass of Federal Hill Park, facing the Inner Harbor with the company’s logo and slogan “Protect this house”. Under Armour also has its logo on a baseball field in Locust Point, near its headquarters. That field is not city-owned, according to City Councilman Bill Cole.


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O'Malley and neo-liberals and neo-cons are working hard to hand all of Maryland's public land to private gain and as we see below, a great big State Center complex is now giving businesses an opportunity to operate without paying property tax because after all its public land.  So, instead of rehabbing this building for the much needed rebuilding of public oversight and regulation and hiring thousands of public employees to do this, O'Malley is taking this public space private subsidizing costs of taxes and maintenance for what is almost always global corporate chain stores.

The jobs created are poverty while the state public jobs that are middle-class are slowly eliminated because after all-----Trans Pacific Trade Pact gives Global Corporate Tribunals and legal teams all the functions of today's public sector.
  Keep in mind that another public-private partnership with O'Malley is the Hilton Hotel now having the public subsidize corporate loses, no tax revenue coming in, and employees fleeced of money and paid poverty wages.  City Hall sold that project just as they are selling this State Center project that will end up the same.  This State Center has been left to deteriorate and the thousands of state employees earning strong wages have be culled as all oversight and regulation has been eliminated in Maryland.

IT IS ALL PUBLIC MALFEASANCE AS IT HAS NO INTENT TO OPERATE IN THE PUBLIC GOOD.


GET RID OF ALL PUBLIC SPACE BY HANDING THEM TO PRIVATE CORPORATIONS SAY NEO-LIBERALS LIKE O'MALLEY!  PUBLIC HOUSING REAL ESTATE BECOMING A PUBLIC PARK OR PUBLIC COMMUNITY CENTER?  NOT ON MY WATCH----IT WILL BE PUBLIC LAND USED FOR AN AFFLUENT PRIVATE HIGH-RISE!


THIS IS THE UGLIEST, BRUTAL, MOST OBSCENE ABUSE OF PUBLIC TRUST I HAVE EVER SEEN.

Governor O'Malley Unveils Plans for First Phase of State Center Redevelopment Phase One of redevelopment to create new office and retail near transit hub and support 1,200 construction jobs and attract another 800 permanent jobs in the heart of Baltimore City


BALTIMORE, MD (July 27, 2010) –

Joined by local officials, construction workers, community leaders and others today, Governor Martin O’Malley announced plans for the first phase of the landmark State Center redevelopment project in the heart of Baltimore City.  Pending Board of Public Works approval tomorrow, the State will lease 500,000 square feet of newly developed office space in the first of two new buildings to be built on the 28-acre site by a state-selected private development team.  The five-phase, 15-year redevelopment is the culmination of six years of planning, and is expected to bring nearly 10,000 jobs during the construction phase and more than 5,400 permanent, private-sector jobs to the heart of Baltimore City when the project is complete, in addition to more than 4,800 indirect and induced jobs upon the project’s completion.

“This is the beginning of an ambitious public-private partnership that will transform a stagnant, government office complex into a vibrant, walkable, ‘green space’ that will link nine surrounding communities, revitalize a key part of Baltimore City, and bring thousands of private-sector jobs to the heart of Baltimore,” said Governor O’Malley.  “The state commitment to lease office space opens the door for the development team to seek the private funding necessary to build the project, a project that will assist Maryland’s economic recovery by supporting jobs and attracting new business to the area with work beginning this fall.”

The entire State Center redevelopment, a five-phase, 15-year plan, will create 9,403 jobs during construction and 5,439 permanent, private-sector jobs when the project is complete.  An additional 4,862 indirect and induced jobs will be added upon the project’s completion.

“The O’Malley-Brown administration has been focused like a laser on job creation in Baltimore and throughout Maryland,” Mayor Rawlings-Blake said. “The State Center redevelopment is a tremendous opportunity for Baltimore, providing more job opportunities and new investment.  The City of Baltimore will continue to work in strong partnership with the State to move this exciting project forward.”

The State Center redevelopment transforms an out-dated, 28-acre concrete complex valued at $1.8 million into multi-million dollar retail, commercial and residential transportation oriented development where the State is projected to be $144 million in the black by year 20.  This is made possible by the use of the public private partnership which includes a projected $28 million in parking revenue, $30 million in ground rents and shared profits, and $160 million in new state taxes over the first 20 years of the project.

Phase One of State Center Redevelopment

The $215 million Phase One development at State Center will include two new office buildings and a parking garage.  In addition to the 500,000 square feet of office space, the two buildings combined will include 70,000 square feet of street-level retail space, including a grocery store that the has been a priority for the surrounding communities for years.  In addition to the 1,200 jobs supported by construction of Phase One, the project, when complete, will attract another 800 permanent jobs to the State Center site. 


Over the next 20 years the first phase of the State Center redevelopment will generate more than $200 million in state and city taxes and another $30 million in lease payments to the State of Maryland.  Phase One will Support 1,200 construction jobs and attract 800 permanent, private-sector direct jobs. 


Phase One will construction two office buildings and a parking garage where a parking lot currently sits, creating 500,000 square feet of office space and 70,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store.

“This milestone follows three years of intensive planning, research and community involvement,” said Caroline Moore, Chief Executive Officer of Ekistics, LLC and the managing member of the private development team.  “We have worked hand-in-hand with citizens and both state and city government to develop a concept that meets the various needs of the community and we have done it in award-winning fashion.”

Currently, State Center is home to four state government office buildings and 3,500 state employees, the largest concentration of state employees in Maryland.  However, the layout of the existing complex hinders the ability of residents to move between the nine surrounding communities.  The redevelopment of State Center will create a more pedestrian friendly environment, consolidating 14 state agencies and more than 3,500 state employees, in addition to employees and customers of added retail and commercial space, in a complex sits at the intersection of six different public transportation systems.

In May 2010, the overall $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment project received a Charter Award from the Congress on New Urbanism as one of the seven best urban smart growth projects in the world.  The 28-acre State Center site will be redeveloped in five phases over fifteen years converting the property from an underutilized government owned and operated office campus into a mix of privately owned and operated office, retail and mixed income residential units, forming a green, walkable community adjacent to Metro, Light Rail and MARC transit stations.

The State Center redevelopment project is a transit oriented development that reflects the goals of Governor O’Malley’s Smart, Green and Growing initiative.  Introduced in October 2008, the Smart, Green & Growing initiative was created to strengthen the state’s leadership role in fostering smarter, more sustainable growth and inspire action among all Marylanders to achieve a more sustainable future. The initiative brings together state agencies, local governments, businesses and citizens to create more livable communities, improve transportation options, reduce the state’s carbon footprint, support resource based industry, invest in green technologies, preserve valuable resource lands and restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

State Center is the second major public-private partnership to move forward under Governor O’Malley in the past year.  In November 2009, the State agreed to lease operation of Seagirt Marine terminal at the Port of Baltimore to Ports America Chesapeake.  The State maintains ownership of Seagirt while day to day operations and capital investments are now the responsibility of Ports America Chesapeake.  As part of the agreement, Ports America Chesapeake is now constructing a new 50-foot berth at Seagirt using private funds.  The new berth is critical to the future success of the Port of Baltimore as an expansion of the Panama Canal will bring larger ships to the US East Coast when completed in 2014.  In total, the Seagirt agreement will support 5,700 jobs.




________________________________________
Baltimore is a city of crumbling infrastructure and schools closing because of decades of neglect in maintenance but we do have a Wall Street copy at Harbor East complete with plated sidewalk fixtures and a billion-dollar East Baltimore Hopkins Corporation campus all heavily funded with public money.

Public docks, public Port of Baltimore, and public land surrounding the harbor are all falling to public private partnerships that have the public paying for and maintaining infrastructure built for these corporate office campuses.  As this article shows, the money put forward in these developments offer little value to the city and as has happened in other cities-----like Detroit-----these development schemes based on global corporate businesses fall flat in all ways.

  • The mayor is quoted below promoting what everyone knows is not true about these developments---new jobs, new tax revenue---new amenities.

The entire development process is designed so that little tax revenue is paid and if it is the tax stays right around this development.  The jobs are abusive and poverty with government watchdogs saying that the Inner Harbor has lost over 100,000 jobs in these few decades along with all small business vendors pushed out of business to make way for global corporations that make all American cities look the same.  Tourists come to Baltimore to see the same businesses they have in their cities?  I THINK NOT. 

The comparison of Baltimore to Detroit is valid.  Building debt until the city goes bankrupt is a business model for Wall Street.


Harbor Point: Do we really need $80 million in bells and whistles? Opinion: The East Baltimore project is front-loaded with city-funded projects that needn't be started now.

Gerald Neily June 7, 2013 at 10:20 am

Artist’s rendering of Harbor Point, a $1 billion project that’s due to receive a hefty city subsidy.

Photo by: City of Baltimore


The press release issued this week by the Rawlings-Blake administration to justify its $107 million financing plan for Harbor Point presses all the usual buttons: “Like the Inner Harbor revitalization effort of 30 years ago, the Harbor Point project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to grow Baltimore by attracting new jobs, new residents, new tax revenue, and new public amenities.”

But Harbor Point is nothing like the Inner Harbor. The latter was a gaping hole of abandoned piers and obsolete factories that needed to be filled, while Harbor Point is extraordinarily isolated from the rest of the city.

The press release promises “blight elimination.” But there is no blight to eliminate at this former site of a chromium-processing factory.

Harbor Point is literally a blank canvas, covered by an asphalt cap to contain buried factory wastes. Unlike most of Baltimore, everything at this 28-acre site is under control – and unoccupied by people or roadways or infrastructure that need to be cleared away.

Which means we don’t have to spend public money on its redevelopment until we’re good and ready.


Direct Public Money to Real Needs

Let me explain: only a relatively small amount of the proposed public financing is going for traditional infrastructure.


The mayor proposes just $23 million in TIF (tax increment) bonds for sidewalks, utilities and a bridge connecting Harbor Point with Harbor East, but well over half ($59 million) for five parks.

Parks are nice (though one wonders how many non-Harbor Point residents and office workers will use them). Let’s, though, build them when development justifies them.

Another $21 million is for the waterfront promenade. The press release misstates that the “promenade will connect Fells Point with Harbor East.” Wrong. The best pedestrian connection between those places already exists along Lancaster and/or Caroline Street.

Michael Beatty (left) listens to Mayor Rawlings-Blake extol his project at press conference yesterday. The conference was held on the cleared site, with the Harbor East skylight as a backdrop. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

The Harbor Point promenade will be a free-standing amenity that should be built when conditions warrant – not to fulfill some kind of perceived pedestrian demand or to add value for high-rent private office buildings.


Let’s Not Get Ahead of Development

So $80 million of the $107 million spending can be triggered by real-time reality, starting with the completion of the Exelon Tower, which the energy giant has committed itself to leasing regardless of what the city spends on parks and promenades.

The developer, Michael Beatty and his longtime financial benefactor, John Paterakis, are gambling on public subsidies to fill the gap between their ambitions and market reality.

Another rendering of the proposed development, biggest in Baltimore history. (Harbor Point Development)


The same game was played at their previous project, Harbor East, when the city allowed itself to pay for public improvements far ahead of  development (as well as subsidize with tax breaks the development itself).

The Harbor East promenade was torn up for the Four Seasons complex, and the walkway still hasn’t been rebuilt right.

On the other hand,  Morgan Stanley is currently occupying the Thames Street Wharf building – the only part of Harbor Point that’s been completed – without any public complaints about the lack of surrounding amenities.


Grand Plans Foiled Before


The city’s experience with the Harbor View development in South Baltimore is a perfect illustration of the problem of “front-loading” public assets onto private projects.

Back in the 1980s, Richard Swirnow planned a whole wall of high-rise residential buildings along Key Highway, which was approved by the city over the objections of a mostly enraged community.

Only one was actually built. The high-end waterfront residential market became oversaturated and the rest of the site was slowly built-out as townhouses.


With Harbor Point, the stakes would be much higher. The mayor’s press release summarizes a jigsaw puzzle of financial considerations with a bottom line of dubious accounting legitimacy: “average new City revenue per year (30 years), $19,623,928.”

This metric sweeps away the city’s recent history of development projects that have failed to meet their hype with a single word: “average.”

Another Detroit?

Perhaps the most comparable development plan to Harbor Point is Renaissance Center in Detroit. It, too, was hyped as Detroit’s savior, but was really just a massive isolated urban ego-trip that sapped all the city’s high-end development demand.

Detroit’s showcase Renaissance Center has unintended consequences for Motor City’s old downtown.

RenCen’s chronic vacancy eventually compelled General Motors to move its corporate headquarters there on its road to eventual bankruptcy and government bailout.

Harbor Point is better designed but equally isolated, with far poorer access and a far greater infrastructure budget.

RenCen took advantage of Detroit’s once powerful corporate sector – and then helped destroy that sector.

Aren’t There Higher Priorities?


Baltimore should be in no hurry to complete the promenade or stamp out alleged Harbor Point “blight.”

Instead, the mainstream development market should be encouraged to build up the Central Avenue corridor to Old Town, or to fill up vacant and underutilized downtown office buildings, or to turn around areas that are truly blighted like Westport and Poppleton.

There are plenty of needy neighborhoods and stalled projects that the mayor should address before throwing public money at what she described yesterday as one of the best real estate locations on the East Coast.

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March 08th, 2014

3/8/2014

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IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY CRIME AND VIOLENCE IS SO HIGH IN BALTIMORE-----LOOK BELOW AT HOW BAD PUBLIC POLICY IMPOVERISHES JUST TO ENRICH A FEW!

ALL OF OUR PUBLIC ASSETS ARE BEING HANDED TO RICH DEVELOPERS FOR NEXT TO NOTHING IN AREAS SLATED TO HAVE HIGH PROPERTY VALUE.  IF KEPT PUBLIC PROPERTY------THAT WOULD BE PUBLIC WEALTH.  EVERYONE SHOULD BE CONCERNED BECAUSE THIS IS NOT ONLY ABOUT GETTING THE WORKING CLASS OUT OF CITY CENTERS....

WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE THE VICTIMS.

IT IS ABOUT TAKING PUBLIC LAND AND ASSETS THAT MIDDLE-CLASS TAXPAYERS BUILT.


The Obama Administration is privatizing all that is public faster than Bush and that includes the Housing Urban Development agency  HUD.  Federal policy sends all kinds of taxpayer money to dismantle public housing and projects with the idea that these are bad for the poor and communities.  This is likely true------concentrated poverty in these projects is not a good idea.  The problem is that there is no intention of providing any other opportunity and in fact, the policies are leaving even more people homeless and impoverished AND THE MONEY IS BEING FUNNELED INTO THESE CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.

Below is a good article giving a long view of public housing policy. I include just the Obama years because we need to look at again, a neo-liberal saying they are going to do something progressive and not doing it.  So, with public housing like with fraud,......supposedly we cannot easily seek justice because the definitions are left vague.  OBAMA HAS LEFT PUBLIC HOUSING DISCRIMINATION VAGUE AS HE HAS IGNORED FRAUD. 

What I want to emphasize is that tons of Federal money is coming for public housing and being funneled into projects that are making the rich richer and doing nothing for the people paying the taxes.  Here in Baltimore, consolidation of real estate into the hands of a few is indeed aided by these funds and it is all illegal.  So, the low-income lose and the taxpayers lose. 

ALL GOES TO THE PEOPLE AT THE TOP.  WE NEED THAT MONEY BACK.  IT IS THE PUBLIC'S MONEY.

Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a
Landmark Civil Rights Law

 
 
by
Nikole Hannah-Jones
ProPublica,  Oct. 28,
2012, 11 p.m.




A 2009 internal HUD study found that many communities were not even bothering to complete the required fair housing paperwork when they applied for block grants.
In a sample of 70 applicants, 35 had not provided an "analysis of impediments" to fair housing, prompting HUD to conclude that they were "apparently not performed at all." Nearly all of the reports received were considered substandard, the review found.  A year later, investigators from the Government Accountability Office confirmed what civil rights advocates had long known:
HUD's system for ensuring compliance with the fair housing law was a sham.
GAO officials reviewed documents filed by 441 recipients of
block grants, a step HUD officials do not routinely take.


They found that about one-third of the fair housing materials were out of date. More than one in 10 hadn't been updated since the '90s. Communities in the Midwest and Northeast — the most-segregated regions of the country — performed
the worst.

The GAO dismissed the analyses of impediments to fair housing that some communities provided as worthless because of their "brevity and lack of content." Most did not offer time frames for when the communities would
eliminate barriers to integration or include the required signatures of the relevant elected officials.



Investigators noted that 25 recipients of block grants had filed no analysis, "raising questions about whether some jurisdictions may be receiving federal funds without preparing the documents required to demonstrate that they have taken steps to affirmatively further fair housing."


According to the GAO, HUD staffers in seven regions had read the key documents for just 17 of 275 block grant recipients. Efforts to ensure "the integrity of the AI process...were not common," the report said.

The GAO made a number of recommendations. But HUD didn't even adopt the simplest one: to require that grantees submit their analysis of impediments for HUD to review.
In interviews, many HUD officials acknowledged they have no idea how to enforce the provision for affirmatively furthering fair housing. Already overstretched, they focus on what is clear: the disability accommodations provision of the Fair Housing Act. It's simple, they say, to check off whether
an apartment door is wide enough for a wheelchair or if a parking lot has enough handicapped spots.


But compliance officers stumble when it comes to race and segregation.  One said she received little training on how to apply the 1968 act to block grant recipients. "The one week of training I was sent to, you focus on the civil rights law as a whole," she said. "You're not focused per se on
segregation." The official said she did not review broader issues such as the impact of discriminatory zoning "because I don't even know what they are."


Rolando Alvarado supervised fair housing enforcement for HUD in New Jersey for more than a decade. When asked to define "affirmatively furthering fair housing," he exhaled and then paused. Ten seconds passed.  "That is tricky. There is no exact regulation, it's a gray area," said Alvarado, who retired in 2009. "I've never seen anything that clearly defines
that in my time at HUD."


Alvarado said he relied on his staff to ensure enforcement of the mandate. But how could his subordinates enforce something he himself could not explain?
"You are right. I don't know," he said. "It was reliance on if staff had conducted enough investigations and compliance reviews they would have an inkling of what to look for."


Alvarado said he could not recall a single instance in which he challenged a community's assertions about its efforts to further fair housing. When it comes to these issues, he said, "You are basically taking them at their word."  After the Westchester settlement, in which the judge criticized the
department for failing to enforce the law, the word came down from HUD leaders that there should not be a recurrence. Officials say that directive was not accompanied by any training, additional staff or instructions on what practices
should be examined.


"The message is that we need to be more aggressive but absent the new rule, there is very little guidance as to what would constitute a failure to affirmatively further fair housing," said a senior fair housing official. "There's a car here and nobody knows how to drive it."



Trasvina promised Congress in January 2010 that by the end of the year the agency would release a rule requiring communities that receive money from the
agency to "promote integration." More than two years later, those regulations have not been issued. HUD has declined to say when they might appear or give a reason for the delay.



The focus of HUD's civil rights work appears to have veered away from race.  In March, the department issued a rule banning discrimination against gay and transgender people in HUD-assisted housing and by lenders receiving guarantees
from the Federal Housing Authority.

Asked what they are doing to fulfill the Fair Housing Act's mandates, HUD officials pointed to Joliet, Ill., where HUD has withheld block grant funds over the city's attempt to demolish a mostly black federally subsidized apartment complex. HUD also has withheld block grant money from Westchester County, which the Justice Department says has failed to live up to the terms of its settlement agreement.


Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the housing agency, said in an email that HUD "very nearly" cut off block grant money for Galveston, Texas, and threatened to do so in Delaware's Sussex County.  But other communities with serious questions about fair housing continue to receive federal housing dollars, and fair housing officials say the agency still
brushes civil rights concerns aside. One senior housing official pointed to New Orleans, which hasn't lost its block grant despite the Department of Justice lawsuit. "If that's not enough to reject a grantees' funding," he said. "Any finding from the fair housing office will not ever be sufficient."


Another example is Waukesha County, Wisc. HUD launched an investigation of the 90 percent-white county last year following a complaint from a fair housing group. The group accused the county of allowing its nearly all-white communities to block rental housing to keep out African Americans and Latinos from neighboring Milwaukee. African Americans and Latinos account for 57 percent of
the city's population.  Yet the agency treats Waukesha County no differently from racially integrated Montgomery County, which has a 30-year track record of placing affordable
housing in its most prosperous neighborhoods. Waukesha still receives its automatic influx of HUD dollars.


"It is fair to say, it is accurate to say, that the only situation in which HUD is doing anything effectively to affirmatively further fair housing are situations where there has been litigation," said Florence Wagman Roisman, a law professor at Indiana University. "Then it does as little as possible, as
grudgingly as possible."

Prospects for substantial change appear dim.



Obama administration officials say that if the president is re-elected, they will complete work on the long-delayed rules defining what it means to "affirmatively further fair housing."


At a private fundraising event in Florida in April, Mitt Romney said he would consider closing down HUD if he wins the election."I'm going to take a lot of departments in Washington, and agencies, and combine them," he said. "Things like Housing and Urban Development, which my dad
was head of, that might not be around later."


Have you experienced discrimination under the Fair Housing Act?
Share your story with us.



ProPublica's Kirsten Berg contributed to this story.



_________________________________________-

NEO-LIBERALS HATE ALL WAR ON POVERTY AND NEW DEAL POLICY AS MUCH AS REPUBLICANS.  SO LABOR AND JUSTICE ARE BEING ATTACKED BY NEO-LIBERALS.  DO NOT BELIEVE THE TOKEN PROGRESSIVE BONES BEING THROWN.

What to do with public housing and the people they support.  Well, logic has it that you can demolish the high-rises with the Federal money and invest in low-income housing within all Enterprise Zones.  That is what should be happening.  All of those public housing are on property in the city centers that will become valuable as development continues so keeping them public.......a park, public community/recreation centers, etc are what public interest requires.  Yet, in Baltimore, all of this public land is going to developers.....again in large parcels to control all of how the community will be developed. MARKET-RATE IS THE THEME!!!


Below you see exactly what they intend to do in Baltimore and Maryland-----what this does is eliminate any future use of that property for the public AND IT KEEPS THE PRIVATE CORPORATION FROM PAYING PROPERTY TAXES ON THIS DEVELOPMENT.  In Baltimore, they will even get deferment on all other taxes and they will get tax breaks for remodeling the building.  It's like placing public garages under private buildings to have public subsidized private parking.  Remember, all of this public housing property will become high-end as development continues saving tons of money in property taxes.

EVEN IF YOU WANT TO BE RID OF LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING....THINK OF THE PUBLIC LAND INVESTMENT AND WHERE THESE PEOPLE GO----IT ALL CREATES THE ENVIRONMENT OF CRIME AND VIOLENCE AS PEOPLE LOSE JOBS AND HOMES.



New York Public Housing Land To Be Leased For Pricey Apartments

By MEGHAN BARR and JENNIFER PELTZ 
03/08/13 03:17 AM ET EST                                        
 
NEW YORK -- New Yorkers pay dearly for the privilege of living in one of the world's great cities. But would they shell out top dollar for an apartment on the grounds of a public housing project?


That scenario could play out across Manhattan under an unprecedented proposal by the city housing authority to lease out public housing land and allow developers to build market-rate apartment buildings – intended for much wealthier residents – on areas currently occupied by basketball courts, parking lots and outdoor plazas.



City Council Moves to Stall Land Leases at Public Housing
By 
MIREYA
NAVARRO

Published: October 10, 2013    
 
    
The New York City Council and a group of tenants sued
the
Bloomberg administration on Thursday over plans
to lease land in public housing developments for the creation of market-rate apartments.
  
   
 
The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in
Manhattan, stems from a long-running controversy over the
New York City Housing Authority’s proposal to
raise revenue for repairs and capital projects by allowing private developers to build on the grounds of eight public housing projects in Manhattan.
     
  


Housing officials have given developers a Nov. 18
deadline for proposing ideas — so-called expressions of interest — but it was unclear whether they would be able to select construction projects before the change in administration that will follow the November mayoral election.        

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the lawsuit is intended
to forestall any deals with developers before Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s term is over. “The city has the ability to designate a developer and tie the hands of the incoming administration,” said Steven Banks, attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society, which is representing the tenants. “The new administration would be without remedy.”       


Democrat Bill de Blasio, the leading candidate for
mayor, has not ruled out developing land owned by the housing authority, but he has said he favors building affordable housing, not market-rate units. The public housing system has more than 400,000 residents and $6 billion in unmet capital needs.       


The Council objected to being left out of the
decision-making regarding the plan to build on public housing grounds. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs seek to have the city rescind the request for expressions of interest. They argue that under state law, housing officials have no authority to lease public housing land for high-income residents and that
they must submit their plan to the Council for approval
.       

“There’s still a need for more low- and middle-income
housing, and that should be the city’s priority,” said Rosie Mendez, who heads the Council’s committee on public housing.
       


In response to the lawsuit, the housing authority
issued a statement saying that it “has heard significant interest from developers and looks forward to receiving their proposals next month.”        

“It’s unfortunate that the City Council is attempting
to block a proposal that would generate significant revenue for the New York City Housing Authority — money that would go directly into developments and repairs for residents,” the statement said.




FEDERAL MONEY YET AGAIN FUNNELED TO THE SAME INVESTMENT FIRMS/DEVELOPERS GETTING TAX BREAKS FOR DEVELOPING IN UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES AND ALL THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THESE COMMUNITIES WILL BE DISPLACED.


What Rawlings-Blake and O'Malley with City Hall
are doing is privatizing all that is public.  Public employee unions are busted and pay is lowered to poverty.  This is what happened as MTA is privatized with VEOLA and it is what is being tried with longshoreman unions at the Port of Baltimore.  It is all union-busting and impoverishing of labor.  So, why are unions backing all of Maryland's neo-liberals every election rather than running labor and justice?



 The US Constitution protects equal opportunity and access in housing and education.  What Baltimore is doing is illegal because they not only ignore equal access, they try to pass laws that say 'we will accept Federal funding for development but not honor equal access and opportunity laws'.  They pretend they can do this and they cannot.  It is public malfeasance.

Below is  a good analysis of Baltimore's situation.  It is too long to copy but check it out.  I would just like to emphasize throughout is the disregard of real data and deliberate disregard to Rule of Law and adherence to Federal requirements.  This is important in getting the public's wealth back and hopefully helping those displaced with justice.  Breaking these laws is not only public malfeasance but fraud on the part of the developers knowingly failing to meet terms of Federal and State contracts.


September
2007
Volume 20, Number 4


What we think about, and what we’d like you to think
about

THE ABELL REPORT
Published as a community service by The Abell Foundation


Erroneous reporting leads to a
lack of public concern



“Baltimore Housing currently serves
over 40,000 residents in more than
14,000 housing units.” This statement
appears (as this study is being written) on
the city’s public housing website. HUD
also reports a similar number — 14,446.
But the true numbers of public housing
units being used in Baltimore are far
lower and can be found in the Housing
Authority’s most recent annual plan, as well
as City Hall’s Citistat Reports.
Nevertheless, the Housing Authority and
HUD continued to use these outdated
numbers in 2007. The HUD official
who oversees Baltimore’s housing
authority appeared unaware that as of
spring 2007, Baltimore only had 10,748
available units in its inventory (with
1,123 of them vacant).
The absence of accurate and consistent
reporting and the lack of analysis of
the loss of public housing has served as
a convenience in a political climate
where even a suggestion of building a
small number of public housing units
can cause a neighborhood uproar.

A lack of public
participation



Housing advocates have complained
of a lack of public input in the demolition
plans, despite federal law requiring
a housing authority to “conduct reasonable
outreach activities to encourage
broad public participation” in its annual
public housing plan.  At a sparsely
attended April 17, 2007 hearing on the
future of Baltimore’s public housing,
several advocates protested that they
found no public notice of the event, and
questioned why it wasn’t posted on the
agency’s website.

Housing officials said sufficient
notice was given when they advertised
in The Baltimore Sun and the Afro-
American in March and at the Enoch
Pratt Free Library. The Baltimore Sun
notice, however, was a tiny, one inch by
three- and three-quarter-inch ad buried
in the classified ads that ran for three
days, a month before the hearing.  During
the hearing, no copies of the 100-
page plan were available (though an
electronic copy was on HABC’s website),
and housing officials gave no
overview or public explanation for their
decision to demolish projects.  One
advocate accused housing officials of
trying to “circle its wagons” against
public participation and called the plan
“a roadmap for the continued decline of
public housing.”  Each of the eight
people testifying was given two minutes to speak. The hearing was over in a half hour.


__________________________________________



 Equally important for citizens of Baltimore is the
fact that Baltimore HUD is probably the most corrupt of all corrupt agencies in Baltimore and as such all kinds of red flags will go up with these public properties.  Keeping this property in city central that will become valuable as
development occurs is the only thing to do in public interest.  We could build multi-income housing, parks, public community centers with this public
land.  Since Baltimore HUD is corrupt, they will hand it off undeveloped for cheap to a connected investor who will make tons of money on this property when development of this area is finished.  See why it is public malfeasance.

The second part to this is the workers who represent a
dying middle-class in Baltimore with the attack of middle-class jobs and leaving Baltimore families desperate and poor.  Extended families depend on these strong
jobs and it is this policy of killing Living Wage jobs that give us Baltimore's high crime and violence culture as people turn to drug dealing et al to survive. All for no good reason.

The City of Baltimore loses billions of dollars
to fraud and corruption and rebuilding public justice in the city would fill the  city's coffers and allow for a healthy public sector.  Handing all that is public to private ownership or public private partnerships is what fuels all the fraud and corruption.  We will need to investigate these sales to assure this is not yet another example of public malfeasance.  You see, these residents know the history of these promises to the underserved....the Federal money is used but none of the requirements to help the low-income are carried through.

Workers nervous about layoffs as Baltimore Housing Authority sells off  buildings Residents say they want protections from private developers in writing

Below you see the other side of what this privatization brings-----more public sector jobs
lost with the prospect of private jobs paying nothing.


The Lakeview Towers
  on Druid Park Lake Drive are among the first of 22 housing complexes to be 
offered for sale under a plan by the housing authority.
   

 
                      
(Kim  Hairston, Baltimore Sun / August 10, 2005)            
                                                               
 
Union officials warned Thursday that as many as 200 maintenance workers and  building monitors at Baltimore's public housing properties could lose  their jobs under a plan intended to infuse the buildings with private money.


Employees such as maintenance mechanic Lucky Crosby Sr., who has worked for  the
Housing  Authority of Baltimore City for a decade, say they took the jobs with the  understanding that the pay was relatively low, but the work was secure.


"By working for the Housing Authority, we joined the credit union so we could buy homes that we have to finance," said Crosby, 46, of Sandtown-Winchester.  "We  bought cars that we have to finance."


Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano acknowledged that some jobs might be  lost as 22 of the agency's 28 properties are sold to developers over the next 
two years. He said the Housing Authority is keeping some positions vacant and  filling others with temporary workers to reduce the potential number of 
layoffs.  Graziano said the agency is encouraging the developers to hire some of the  workers, and to keep them apprised of the latest information as soon as it's 
available.


"This is a very large change, a massive change in the way we're doing  business, and I understand change does create anxiety," Graziano said. "We're  trying to provide whatever assurances we can." 
The Housing Authority has identified 11 developers to buy the buildings.  Several of them declined to comment Thursday.


The federal government is offering tax credits to developers who buy and renovate public housing.
Officials say the effort is intended to improve the lives of low-income  Americans. But in the case of the maintenance workers, Anthony Coates said, it's 
doing just the opposite.


Coates, president of AFSCME Local  647, said members who lose their jobs could lose their homes.


"We're the working poor," he said. The maintenance workers, who earn between about $15 and $20 an hour under  their most recent contract, want the Housing Authority to tell them how many  workers face layoffs, Coates said.

He said knowing the scope of the layoffs is especially important for the  older maintenance workers on staff, who may find it harder to get new jobs.

Coates accused the agency of stalling contract negotiations. Senior housing 
officials rejected the accusation, and said a meeting is scheduled for next  week. They said inclement weather forced them to postpone some meetings.


Anthony Scott, executive director of the Housing Authority, said the federal 
program has unfolded rapidly. The Housing Authority began preparing its 
application to the
U.S.  Department of Housing and Urban Development over the summer, submitted it in  October and found out it had been approved in
December.

"We informed our employees as quickly as we could," Scott said. Graziano said the agency already has a "significant number of vacancies," but declined to say how many.

It's "a moving target," he said.

On top of that, he said, at least 10 percent turnover is expected each  year.  He said Housing Authority workers would be attractive employees for the 
developers

______________________________________________
 Neo-liberals are working for control of all real estate by a few.  The good news is that most of the wealth lost to the middle-class is through fraud and needs to come back.  Think of the tens of millions of homes caught in the subprime loan fraud and foreclosed....many families need these homes replaced.  So, the middle-class is still the middle-class.....just waiting for justice!

If you notice the list below include the same financial and investment firms that created and profited from the massive subprime mortgage frauds and indeed, they all still owe trillions in total fraud.  We can rebuild all public housing by simply recovering the fraud.  Yet, the plan was to steal the homes through fraud and then hand all the city center property to those same people and that is what these Enterprise Zone and Public Housing deals do......with taxpayer subsidy as the cherry on top!

THE LOW-INCOME LOSE, THE TAXPAYERS LOSE, AND THE MIDDLE/WORKING CLASS LOSE ALL TO NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.



10 Largest Private Equity Real Estate Firms               
         by
Andy
Macalaster
 • February
21, 2010    
 

The PERE 30 (from Private Equity Real Estate Magazine) revealed that the top 30 real estate private equity firms raised $211.9 billion over the past five years, up from $190 billion as calculated by last year’s ranking. Listed are the
top 10 largest real estate private equity firms.


As a note: the top two largest firms raised $25.6 billion and $20.15 billion respectively in dedicated real estate funds between January 2004 and April,
2009. Together the pair raised a fifth of all the direct-investment capital secured by the world’s 30 largest real estate private equity firms.



10. Westbrook Capital Partners
Westbrook has raised and invested $10 billion of equity in over $35 billion of real estate transactions in major markets throughout the world. Westbrook’s investment equity is
committed by a broad base of institutional investors, which includes public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions.


9. The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with more than $87.9 billion under management with funds across four investment disciplines (buyouts, growth
capital, real estate and leveraged finance). Carlyle has committed more than $3.6 billion of its own capital to its funds.

8. Tishman Speyer
Tishman Speyer has acquired, developed and operated over 325 projects totaling over approximately 116 million square feet and more than 92,000 residential units,
and a property portfolio of US$50.2 billion internationally.


7. LaSalle Investment Management
LaSalle Investment manages approximately $39.9 billion (as at Q3 2009) of private and public property equity investments. Their client base includes public and private
pension funds, insurance companies, governments, endowments and private individuals from across the globe.


6. Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners
Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners has raised over $10 billion in capital over the last five years with a total of $44 billion in transactions among 1,150 properties.


5. Beacon Capital Partners
Since its inception in 1998, Beacon Capital Partners has sponsored six investment vehicles representing over
$8.5 billion aggregate equity capital from various endowments, foundations and pension funds. Beacon Capital Partners was established after the predecessor public company, Beacon Properties Corporation (a New York Stock Exchange listed
company), merged with Equity Office Properties Trust in a transaction valued at $4 billion.


4. Colony Capital
Colony Capital is a private, international investment firm based in Los Angeles, California. The company focuses on real estate opportunities around the world either on its own, through funds run by the company, or in joint ventures. The company is run by billionaire Tom Barrack.


3. Goldman Sachs Real Estate Principal Investment Area

The Real Estate Principal Investment Area (REPIA) manages a series of global opportunistic real estate funds, known as the Whitehall Funds, and other niche products. REPIA, through the Whitehall Funds, offers Goldman clients the opportunity to co-invest in real estate and real estate related assets
worldwide.


2. Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing
Morgan Stanley Real Estate has the longest uninterrupted real estate industry presence of any Wall Street firm. MSREI has raised over $20 billion in capital in the last five years and has completed over $58 billion in transactions.



1. The Blackstone Group
Blackstone’s real estate fee earning assets under management totaled $23.7 billion as of September 30, 2009.
Assets include office, hotel, healthcare, retail and multi-family properties around the world.  Blackstone has the world’s leading hotel portfolio, as well as one of the largest portfolios of office buildings in the United States.
Blackstone’s real estate group currently has over $12 billion of equity capital available for investment, the largest pool of capital for real estate investments available today.


For a full list of the top 30 real estate private equity firms with an executive summary click
here.

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Below you see reverse mortgages as a tool to make sure homeownership does not go beyond this generation for most of the middle/working class.  Land ownership is for the gentry you know!  Reverse mortgages are not always bad.  We had our mother's retirement supplemented by reverse mortgage.  The problem these least several years is that people are not having the money for retirement because it was stolen and not because they did not save.  These are the people being forced into reverse mortgage now. 

THESE HOMES SHOULD NOT BE LOST TO FAMILIES AS FRAUD AND DAMAGES HAVE NOT BEEN RECOVERED TO THE PUBLIC. 

Remember as well, Obama's Administration is deliberately allowing a manipulated inflation rate of near zero lower all of the public's COLAs by hundreds of dollars.  So seniors and vets owning homes are losing hundreds of dollars in monthly payments because of what is a 'manipulated' inflation rate.  Never in the history of public programs has the COLAs not been 3-5% as inflation never has been lower.  Please look at my blogs on faulty inflation data if you cannot see that what you are buying at the store is costing much more.

Low-income people are being hit from every direction in fraud and corruption making sure they do not have what they need for retirement and neo-liberals are in office to see this happens.  It is not only republicans.....it is neo-liberals running as democrats!


Sun Aug 18, 2013 at 06:45 PM PDT


Reverse mortgages: The final blow killing middle class
wealth

byEgberto WilliesFollow forDaily Kos


 Many fellow Americans that have worked their entire lives, weathered several
recessions and depressions, put their children through school, helped many in
need, and faithfully paid their mortgages for decades are now being taken advantage of once again. Most have followed all the rules necessary to be considered fiscally responsible, yet because of "legal fraud" by the financial sector and policies effected by purchased politicians, their years in retirement
will be compromised.


The Plutocracy, the one percent has walked away with a large percentage of their 401Ks, their SEPs, and to some extent their financial security. Because of stagnant or falling real wages, much of the working middle class
have maxed out on their credit in the attempt to maintain their standard of living. For a Plutocracy that feeds on perpetual growth, from where will it feed now? An old and well-crafted financial instrument known as the reverse mortgage is being marketed on steroids to a baby boomer population.


Before any reader of this article that may have already taken out a reverse mortgage gets upset, please note that it is understood that for many this is the
only option left. That said, every American should be fighting for a system that allows all the ability to build a nest egg that can be transferred to the next generation.

 Back in 2010, Sen. Fred Thompson was a spokesman for AAG and was pushing their government back reverse mortgages. I was writing
my book when the
commercial came on and I wrote the following in a chapter right then.
While taking a short coffee break from writing this book I saw former Republican Senator Fred Thompson, an AAG spokesman hawking reverse mortgages. He
says:
“Hi folks, I am Fred Thompson. Now like me you probably heard a lot about
reverse mortgages but weren’t quite sure how they worked or whether they would
be the right financial solution for you. Well take my word for it and hundreds
of thousands of other Americans who have used the Government Insured reverse
mortgage as a safe effective financial tool. If you are 62 year or older and own
your own home, give AAG a call and find out how a reverse mortgage can help you.
I am extremely proud to be associated with AAG, a national reverse mortgage
lender that is helping seniors overcome their financial worries and live the
lives they’ve dreamed. Why don’t you find out more by calling AAG today? Find
out how much call you may qualify for today.”



My first thought was how could a former Senator, a senior, a person who likes to tout morality be so callous to entice the elderly to splurge their wealth away. Most Americans have a large portion of their wealth in their homes. Having
some wealth to transfer to one’s offspring helps the next generation to the next financial level.


Unfortunately, yet another financial instrument designed to use the ignorance of the average American citizen’s knowledge of our economic system to donate
their money up the wealth tree to the rich. At the end of the reverse mortgage’s term, the elderly is left without an asset to transfer to their offspring at the time of their death.


Ironically as this piece is being written Fred Thompson is back on with the 2013 version of his "working middle class pilfering" commercial.  The most deceptive part of the ad is stating that the owner of the house retains ownership of the home. You cannot own something that you cannot give to
someone free and clear. Even more ironic is that Thompson, a professed small government conservative, is pushing a product that depends on the good faith and
capital of the United States government.


Most Americans amass most of their wealth within their homes. Each generation in a responsible family is better off when the previous generation wills their assets forward. Reverse mortgages are yet another financial instrument that
stunts the growth of the middle class by encouraging home owners to extract the capital out of their homes and use it as a supplement to their retirement or to simply splurge. Inasmuch as most reverse mortgages are federally regulated,
their upfront costs are very high. These costs amount to free cash for the bank and mortgage insurance companies, your money transferred to them for a marginal service.


The big dirty secret is that reverse mortgages, like student loans pre-Obama, are nothing but a no-risk gift to the bankers, a wealth transfer engine from the masses to a select few. When the "owner" of the home dies, the government pays
the bank any difference between the amount owed (interest plus principal) less the sale price of the home. If the heirs want to keep the home, they must pay the loan off in full. If the amount owed is more than the value of the home, the
heirs must pay 95 percent of what is owed to the bank with the government paying
the rest. What is the reason for the bank being in the transaction? It is there simply to extract from the government and the homeowner. They have absolutely nothing at risk for the profits they make.

Reverse mortgages mask a systemic problem that affects the American worker, a backward and inhumane retirement system. Every American worker makes a vibrant
economy possible by providing 40, 50 or more years of work, taxes, and spending. It is appalling that a worker is incapable of having Social Security capable of providing a decent living. No one should have to deplete all of their assets to
survive.


The trajectory in this country has been that the wealth and income of the very few at the top grows faster than the growth of the economy as a whole. This means that some of that growth is directly coming out of the pockets of the
working middle class in the form of lower wages, extractions from the government (tax dollars, interest payments, etc.), reverse mortgages, higher tuitions as states lower taxes, commercial student loans, etc.
This is an unsustainable path
and it is leading to a country where the vast majority of citizens will have no assets.
They will be functionally indentured servants. They will be nothing but a commodity, a unit of work and service.


Wake up America. Taking this country back from the Plutocracy will require education, resolve and action.
Taking this country back will entail taking back what was stolen through well designed redistribution mechanism that foments a vibrant working middle class.



0 Comments

February 28th, 2014

2/28/2014

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FOLKS, WHAT IS HAPPENING BELOW WILL NOT STOP....IT WILL GET WORSE.  AS ALL GOVERNMENT REVENUE IS LOST MORE AND MORE PUBLIC ASSETS WILL GO.  I SPOKE OF WATER AND SEWAGE BEING NEXT....TRANSPORTATION IS GOING AND THE VERY PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS ARE BEING PLACED IN WALL STREET INSTRUMENTS.  THESE POLS INTEND ALL OF THESE PARTNERSHIPS TO TRANSFER TO PRIVATE HANDS AS THE NEXT ECONOMIC CRASH COMES!!!!

STOP ELECTING THE SAME CRONY POLS....RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES TO RETAKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!!!




Regarding Baltimore Development Corporation vs citizens of Baltimore:

THE MAYOR AND GOVERNOR ARE PUBLIC SERVANTS.....THEY WORK FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST. DEALS MADE WITH CORPORATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT THAT ARE NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ARE ILLEGAL.....PUBLIC MALFEASANCE AND OFTEN INCLUDE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION. WE CAN REVERSE THESE CONTRACTS THAT MORTGAGE OUR FUTURE TO SHIELDING CORPORATIONS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS.

Let's begin by reminding ourselves, the reason Federal, state, and local coffers are empty is massive corporate fraud of tens of trillions of dollars...hundreds of billions here in MD. So, there is not shortage of funding for development, we simply need to recover fraud. Last decade was all about creating public debt so corporations could come in to capture all that is public. Now, they are using the money stolen from government coffers to build as they want and hold the public captive with development schemes. The same politicians helping to allow this massive fraud to occur are now in office to see that those enriched get what they want.

THIS IS HAPPENING IN CITIES ACROSS AMERICA. IN BALTIMORE, IT IS ON STEROIDS JUST AS DETROIT....ALL PUBLIC COFFERS ARE BEING STARVED OF REVENUE BY DEALS NOT IN THE PUBLIC'S INTEREST.

We can see what led to Detroit's bankrupcty is indeed what is happening in Baltimore and Maryland today. Loaded with credit bond debt and all corporate and wealth revenues mortgaged....long-term public debt makes for corporate control.

Let's look at some development issues in Baltimore....


Detroit’s bankruptcy, the tip of the iceberg

States, cities hand out billions in tax abatements


By Nancy Hanover
27 January 2014

To some, it may come as a surprise that the bankrupt City of Detroit and the hard-hit State of Michigan are subsidizing the Big Three automakers, the pharmaceutical industry, energy companies and virtually every large Michigan business. But a massive giveaway—“corporate welfare,” both locally and nationally—is bankrupting municipalities everywhere as shown by reports from Demos (“The Detroit Bankruptcy”), the New York Times (“United States of Subsidies”) and Good Jobs First (“Megadeals”).

While making the political decision to use the bankruptcy court to destroy pensions, jobs, city services and public institutions like the Detroit Institute of Arts, the government has been nothing but generous to Fortune 500 CEOs asking for a handout.

In a city where citizens routinely wait for up to three hours for public transportation and tens of thousands suffer from utility shutoffs in the dead of winter, more than $20 million a year has been awarded to companies including Comerica Bank, Rock Ventures/Garbsman, the Farbman Group, Quicken Loans, the Detroit Medical Center and multibillion-dollar conglomerate DTE Energy.

Wallace C. Turbeville’s report on the bankruptcy for Demos calls these “extensive subsidies” and suggests the emergency manager “reclaim tax subsidies and other expenditures to incentivize investment in the downtown area” and treat them similarly to the rest of the city’s debt. Of course Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, a Democrat, has been placed into his dictatorial position not to penalize his corporate masters but to ensure their interests and lay the basis for their dramatic increase in profit-taking.

Tax boondoggles in the city include a whopping $285 million to billionaire Mike Ilitch for a 45-block entertainment district and $100 million in tax abatements for Compuware, also a billion-dollar company.

Smaller gifts were available as well, including $27 million in tax incentives awarded to the Meridian Health Plan building to be built in the central business district. Owners David, Sherry, Jon, Sean and Michael Cotton are real estate developers whose core business is a series of health care businesses in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and several other states. The Cottons believe they can boost that number to $35 million in public financing through additional credits, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.

Another recipient of the city’s munificence is Whole Foods Market, a wildly profitable firm paying out $500 million last year in stock dividends, which is receiving $4.2 million, but hopes to get more from so-called brownfield (“blighted” areas requiring “revitalization”) incentives.


Detroit has been saddled with 16 “renaissance zones” that were virtually tax-free for business and forgave millions of dollars in taxes. At the same time, Detroit homeowners have the highest property taxes among the nation’s 50 largest cities, and paid twice the national average in tax.

Last September, a frenzy of downtown Detroit developers spurred the first-ever Novogradac Historic Tax Credit Conference. It brought them together with hundreds of assorted accountants and tax attorneys looking to parlay the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive program into millions of dollars. The possibility of funding 20 percent of rehabilitation costs with federal dollars has whetted the appetites of the gentrifiers/developers who are in the process of evicting hundreds of elderly and disabled Section 8 renters living in downtown buildings.

But it was not just Detroit and federal agencies that contributed to the corporate coffers. The role of the State of Michigan was pivotal to the Detroit bankruptcy on multiple levels. It was Governor Rick Snyder who conspired with law firm Jones Day and Kevyn Orr to declare the city in “financial emergency” and appoint Orr with the prearranged plan to impose bankruptcy, void contracts and loot the city’s assets.

Not as well publicized was the fact that the “tipping point” in Detroit’s cash flow crisis was reached when Michigan’s annual state revenue sharing was cut by $67 million per year. Author of the Demos report, Walter Turbeville, explains the mechanics in “The Detroit Bankruptcy.” It was in two stages, and part of the cut followed declining populations, but “$42.8 millions (64 percent of the total state cuts) were at the discretion of the state legislature.

“By cutting revenue-sharing with the city, the state effectively reduced its own budget challenges on the backs of the taxpayers of Detroit (and other cities). These cuts account for nearly a third of the city’s revenue losses between FY 2011 and FY 2012.” Turbeville, a former Goldman Sachs accountant, concludes, “Thus, the state was an active player in the events leading to the cash flow crisis.”

Put more bluntly, Governor Rick Snyder and the state legislature—with the full support of both Republicans and Democrats—pulled the plug on Detroit, suffering in the aftershock of the Great Recession of 2008.

Yet while depriving Detroit, as well as other Michigan municipalities, of desperately needed revenues, the State of Michigan was spending—as it has done annually—a staggering $6.65 billion on business incentives.
Michigan: More megadeals than any other state


According to the Good Jobs First report, Michigan—possibly the hardest hit state of the “Rust Belt”—has offered more large government-funded subsidies to corporations than any other in the nation. It identifies 29 megadeals involving awards higher than $75 million.

The New York Times series “United States of Subsidies” by Louise Story points out that 30 cents out of every dollar in Michigan’s budget goes to this type of “corporate welfare” at the direct expense of support to education, infrastructure and municipalities.

The lion’s share of these gifts went to the Big Three automakers, now expecting to post all-time record profits in 2013, above the already banner year of 2012 at $12.3 billion. General Motors (whose government bailout is now estimated to have cost taxpayers $10 billion) was the top beneficiary receiving $3.3 billion in aid, according to the Center for Automotive Research. The New York Times puts Ford at $1.58 billion and Chrysler at $1.4 billion. Overall national incentives for automakers since 1985 are pegged at an astronomical $13.9 billion. It should be noted that whether Democrats or Republicans were in power, the process escalated.

Among others, Story conducted more than two dozen in-depth interviews with former GM officials and tax consultants to prepare “United States of Subsidies.” She pointed to the role of Argonaut Realty, the automaker’s real estate division, in conducting the shakedown of local governments across the US. GM enlisted their tax managers, charities’ accountants and union representatives alongside plant managers and executives in a combination of threats and negotiations to rein in the biggest tax boondoggles. “For towns, it became a game of survival,” notes Story.

The procedure is classic: cities and states are pitted against each other in a reverse auction. Often even the scenario presented was a fraud, perpetrated by the transnational company seeking higher profits. One example in the GM saga was the company’s demand for tax cuts in Moraine, Ohio. GM told the city that Moraine was competing with Shreveport, Louisiana and Linden, New Jersey to maintain an auto plant. After the Moraine school board caved and accepted the property tax cuts to education funding, it was discovered that the other towns had not been in discussion with GM.

This is a national scourge. As the stakes for jobs has intensified, states are creating more and more incentives. In 2010 alone, 40 new types of tax credits were created or expanded. Oklahoma and West Virginia give up amounts equal to about one-third of their budgets, Maine about one-fifth. Texas awards $19 billion a year and Alaska, West Virginia and Nebraska give up the most per resident, according to the Times.

Because no national database of corporate incentives exists, Story and Good Jobs First had to conduct months-long investigations to uncover the myriad layers of giveaways by thousands of government agencies and officials.
$80 billion annually funneled to big business

The Times uncovered a staggering $80 billion annually donated by states, counties and cities to business. And it cautioned that the actual cost of awards is certainly far higher. The report points to the wide range of corporate entities receiving money, including many among the world’s most profitable firms: Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Boeing, Airbus, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Walt Disney, ESPN, Sears, General Electric, Dow Chemical, Amazon, Apple, Intel and Samsung. Sixteen of the Fortune 50 are represented.

Dozens of officials at large corporations who were questioned by Louise Story justified the whipsawing of communities as “owing it to the shareholders to maximize profits,” she reported. Hallmark CEO Donald Hall Jr. said, “this use of incentives is really transferring money from education to businesses.”


It is also no accident how difficult it was assembling these statistics; the government accounting standards board has failed to regulate the accounting of tax-based economic development expenditures. There is, furthermore, very little oversight once grants are issued. For the most part, no one tracks the “effectiveness” of job retention as a result of giveaways.

A poignant Metro Detroit example is the famed Ford Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, designed by Albert Kahn and used to build bombers in World War II. After the war, it became Kaiser Motors and then was taken over by General Motors, which expanded the facility into a complex. Over the years, the small outlying town of Ypsilanti granted more than $200 million in incentives to the facility.

Doug Winters, the city’s attorney, explained to the Times reporter, “They had put basically a stranglehold on the entire state of Michigan and other places across the country by just grabbing these tax abatements by the billions. They were doing it with a very thinly disguised threat that if you don’t give us these tax abatements, then we’ll have to go somewhere else.”

After the company closed the first plant, the city sued, but was unsuccessful. The judge said that a company’s job assurances “cannot be evidence of a promise.” In 2010 the company closed the remaining factory and Winters sued again. The claim has now been relegated to the corporate books of the defunct “bad GM.”

Referring to General Motors, Winters told Story, “We’re their own private ATM. When they need money, they come begging, but when they don’t want oversight, they say ‘get out of the way.’”

Like payoffs to the Mafia consigliere, there is no respite for states, counties, school districts or municipalities. Ford and GM are now slated to receive federal tax credits for making more fuel-efficient vehicles… worth $50 million, an event celebrated by Michigan Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. Republican Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder recently announced a state grant of $2.5 million for infrastructure improvements for Hyundai’s Superior Township technical center in Metro Detroit. The GM plant in the small enclave of Detroit, Hamtramck, is asking for $1.8 million in order to make critical investments in their operations.

It goes on and on. The substantial New York Times exposé demonstrates the proliferation of this “beggar-thy-neighbor” policy in the false hope of local officials maintaining economically viable communities. As a result, hundreds of school districts are in financial emergency, teachers and staffs are subjected to pay cuts and layoffs, recreation centers are closed and city infrastructure is allowed to rot.
Municipalities are systematically being bankrupted as a greater and greater portion of social wealth is diverted to the profits of their resident corporations.

The extent of corporate blackmail nationally demonstrates that the looting of Detroit is just the beginning. Here is a glimpse of the national picture:

*Walmart, the world’s most profitable corporation, receives $1.2 billion in taxpayer assistance.

*Alcoa receives a 30-year discounted electricity deal worth $5.6 billion.

*Sasol natural gas could receive as much as $21 billion on investment subsidies.

*Boeing’s tax breaks and subsidies are estimated at $3.2 billion.

*Nike’s 30-year single sales factor tax commitment nets it $2.02 billion.

*Intel’s property tax abatement for a computer chip plant means $2 billion in benefits.

*Cheniere Energy of Louisiana will retain $1.69 billion in earnings due to subsidies for the Sabine Pass natural gas liquefaction plant.

*Google’s North Carolina deal received $254,700,000 (for 210 jobs).

*Apple’s North Carolina negotiations yielded $320,700,000 (for 50 jobs).

*Goldman Sachs moved operations from Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey and netted $164 million in tax incentives.

What was once considered extortion or bribery has become a normal business model. The blood and sweat of the working class demands nationalization of the ill-gotten gains of the parasitic financial elite and the establishment of a society where jobs, housing, education, pensions, and culture are considered basic rights for all of society.

To counter the government/corporate conspiracy being prepared and to fight back, the Socialist Equality Party has organized a Workers Inquiry into the Bankruptcy of Detroit. We call on all workers, pensioners, students and youth to attend this important event February 15.


________________________________________

Let's look at what the citizens have working against them on this issue. First, we have an EPA under Obama that is worse than Bush in working for corporations and profit and against actual science and public interest. Across the country Obama's EPA is granting passes on projects with the worst of records. So, getting EPA approval under Obama is a joke.

Then, let's look at the fact that citizens in Baltimore found that the monitoring of toxic exposure by the developer was faulty....it was not operating correctly from the start. WHAT KIND OF RED FLAG IS THAT? We already know we cannot trust the data being given us on the safety of this project. Next, we look at the fact that sea level is going to rise over 12 inches in 20 years and we see that sea walls will be needed and even that will not guarantee wash of contaminents into surrounding water.

MD has some of the worst environmental conditions from neglected oversight of former corporate tenents and we are now being told----relax, we will have the best oversight-----OH, REALLY?

Lastly, we have yet to go to court over racketeering charges on the tax break for Exelon. Since this is indeed illegal and should stop that anchor business....why would any other actions in the project be legally done?


**********

Harbor Point a model for brownfield revitalization [Commentary]
Despite community concerns, the approach to the Baltimore site has been among the best in the nation


By Evans Paull

3:28 p.m. EST, February 27, 2014 Baltimore Sun

Cities around the world are working to revitalize brownfield sites — areas where redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by some kind of contaminant — particularly in former waterfront industrial zones, where there is often the greatest opportunity to remake the city's image. Just as Baltimore has succeeded in redeveloping industrial sites from Canton to the Inner Harbor to Locust Point, decades of experience across America have created a base of knowledge that is allowing many such projects to move ahead safely, attracting residents and business back to our urban core.

Those of us who have been in the brownfields trenches for 15 or more years see the Harbor Point redevelopment as an example of the best brownfields and smart growth practices, developed through the carefully prescribed progression of site assessments, cleanup and redevelopment construction methods that eliminate exposure pathways. The cleanup objective was always to get beyond a fenced­off lot and redevelop the site as a prominent and extraordinary asset to the city and the neighborhood.

The community will gain many advantages from redevelopment, but one worth emphasizing in the context of protecting public health is "site cap redundancy." The current cap is fully protective to residents, business occupants and neighbors; the new buildings and garages will be added over the top of the cap, in effect, providing an extra layer of protection.

As to the other benefits of redevelopment, let us recount: a mixed-use walkable community, reinforcing state and regional smart growth objectives; 9.5 acres of public open space including a new 5-acre waterfront park; continuation of Baltimore's No. 1 amenity, its waterfront promenade; and a jewel of a site to market to out-of-town businesses that might be looking for that one site that combines water views, a cool creative community, and walking distance to the East Coast's most complete set of urban amenities. With Exelon, a leading national energy company, as its core tenant, Harbor Point will undoubtedly gain national recognition as a model for redevelopment and reuse.

For perspective, many urban waterfronts are impacted by more heavily-contaminated sites than the former Allied site. Waterfronts and ports in Portland, Tacoma, Glen Cove (New York), Brooklyn, Queens, Seattle, Buffalo, Toledo and right here in Maryland on the Anacostia, are all dealing with Superfund sites that need to be remediated. Impacted sites often sit idle for decades while EPA battles multiple responsible parties and tries to come up with acceptable cleanup and funding plans.

Many of these other cities have long-term visions that have yet to be realized. In Tacoma, Wash., cleaning up the Thea Foss Waterway was such an important objective that the city participated in a $106 million cleanup agreement that included a $56 million contribution from the city's Surface Water Tax. By comparison, the cleanup of the Honeywell site in Baltimore was much more cooperative, straightforward, and certain. Throughout the process, Allied and then Honeywell cooperated with regulators as the sole responsible party; there have been no lawsuits holding up cleanup and no public funding.

Finally, the questions that have been raised in relation to protection of public health boil down to this: is there any reason to believe that the regulators are not doing their jobs? Certainly, most people who attended Baltimore City Councilman James Kraft's public meeting last fall came away with a favorable impression that the regulators are fully in charge and acting in the best interest of the public. They have every motivation to get this right: They are bound by law to protect public health and the environment. Their worst mistake would be to ignore a public health risk that might come back to haunt them, especially on a site with this kind of prominence.

Regulators tend to practice the brownfields version of defensive medicine — let's order one more test, just to make sure. This is an extra expense to developers but one they willingly accept because they, too, do not want to cut any corners in an environment where successful marketing of the property depends on complete confidence in the measures taken to protect public health.

Harbor Point is on the verge of completing the long process needed to move forward and transform this barren former manufacturing facility into Baltimore's newest live-work-play waterfront gem.

___________________________________________________

Do you know that property tax is about the only tax left corporations pay and that MD has a structural budget deficit created from all of these corporate tax breaks and corporate tax evasion? MD and Baltimore especially has mortgaged the future of the public for decades all under the guise of development when all that is public is given for global corporations moving into the city.

We do not want an economy driven by global corporations! They take control of all that is public policy----SOUND FAMILIAR?----they suck all public revenue to their own profits-----SOUND FAMILIAR?-----and they seek to impoverish and eliminate all labor and justice law on the books. STOP THE JOBS MANTRA WHEN JOBS DO NOT APPEAR AND WHEN THE WORK IS IMPOVERISHING.

The question is why did the companies creating the environmental damage not pay for the cleanup? Who did that and let's go after them now to do it. We saw a deal with Sparrow's Point Steel Mill that shows just that same thing....tons of environmental damage and a bankruptcy that will let the damage stay with the public. THIS IS PUBLIC POLICY BACKED BY NEO-LIBERALS. DEMOCRATS WOULD NOT DO THIS.

As Rawlings-Blake knows the Amazon Warehouse will become one of the most highly automated warehouses in the country. The number of jobs will fall dramatically in just years. So, we will have a huge business paying almost no taxes using tons of city services.

I am not against the Amazon warehouse coming to Baltimore. I am against making yet another corporate welfare case.....and all involved with O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake are corporate welfare. THIS IS WHY BALTIMORE/MARYLAND CITIZENS ARE SOAKED IN TAXES, FEES, AND FINED UP THE YING-YANG!


IF YOU WANT TO GIVE PEOPLE JOBS O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE.......REBUILD PUBLIC JUSTICE AND OVERSIGHT AGENCIES AND DECLARE A WAR ON CORPORATE FRAUD AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION.


**********

Bigger tax breaks sought for industrial sites in Southeast Baltimore
Rawlings-Blake administration to propose legislation Monday

By Natalie Sherman and Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun

11:30 p.m. EST, February 27, 2014

The Rawlings-Blake administration plans to propose bigger property tax breaks for industrial properties in Southeast Baltimore — including the site of a new Amazon warehouse — to bring more jobs to the area.

A new "focus area," which must be approved by the state, would give property owners a 10-year 80 percent property tax credit on value added by physical improvements. It also boosts the credits granted for wages paid to new employees and offers breaks for investments in "personal property," such as machinery.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the legislation is intended to spur development of the "many industrial properties that continue to remain underdeveloped and underutilized."

"I don't think a week goes by where someone doesn't say to us, 'I need help with getting a job,'" Rawlings-Blake said. "We're using economic development tools when we need them to get the results we need."

The proposed focus area contains properties already located in the city's 14,000-acre Enterprise Zone, where they are eligible for some degree of tax relief. The city already operates three focus areas, including properties in Station North and the site of the new Horseshoe Baltimore Casino.

The properties in the new targeted area include the location of the future Amazon warehouse and two operations that are set to close: the Sun Products plant and Mars distribution center.

The resolution to create the new area will be introduced at Monday's City Council meeting, officials said. The city must submit its application to the state by April 15. Baltimore Development Corp. President Brenda McKenzie said the city does not have an estimate for what the program could cost the city in lost tax revenue.

"We won't know until the investment has been done," she said.

The new credits are designed to enhance what is offered in Enterprise Zones. Under that program, the property tax credit phases out over 10 years, falling from 80 percent in the first five years to 30 percent in the last year. The Enterprise Zone also includes one or three-year credits for wages paid to new employees, usually a one-time credit of $1,000 per worker that would jump to $1,500 in the focus area.

Jon Laria, a managing partner at the Baltimore office of law firm Ballard Spahr who chairs the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission, said creating "creative and aggressive" tax incentive programs are essential to helping Baltimore attract business, given the city's high property tax rate.

"Credits that lower the tax burden for a period of time really make a difference in terms of our ability to attract business and compete," he said. "Everybody wins when these things happen. We bring residents or we bring businesses or we bring economic investment."

Amazon, which was already due to receive more than $43 million in state and city incentives for its new distribution center, did not respond to requests for comment.

Gregory Hummel, a Chicago-based partner at the Bryan Cave law firm who spoke in November at a session on tax incentives organized by the Baltimore Efficiency and Economy Foundation, said creating a focus area around the Amazon site could be an effort to jump-start creation of a "supplier campus" that would feed off the new center.

"I've seen that work," he said. "It's rarely city-wide because in order to achieve clustering you need some density of development."

Greg LeRoy of the Washington-based research center Good Jobs First, said property taxes can often be a company's largest tax.

"If the city feels like that's the meaningful variable and those reductions would improve the [return on investment] and reduce the risk perception of an investor, it could be meaningful," he said. "The tension there obviously is: Are you paying a company to do something they would have done otherwise?"

Many of the properties have been underutilized for years. In 2011, the Pulaski Limited Partnership, of which Willard Hackerman was the principal, proposed a big-box store, warehouses or a combination of the two for the Pulaski Incinerator site. The BDC sought development for the former Ainsworth paint plant at 3200 E. Biddle St. before demolishing the plant in 2012.

City Councilman Brandon Scott, whose district encompasses much of the proposed new focus area, said he believes the incentives are needed.

"This is great because this is an example of focusing on old-school Baltimore, old-school industrial areas. It's focusing on the areas that have blue-collar jobs," he said. "It's supporting industries that typically don't get that kind of support."

The properties involved, many of them clustered around rail lines rather than highways, have been tough to develop, with obstacles that in some cases go beyond high property taxes, said Chris Ryer, director of the Southeast Community Development Corp.

Still, he said, it could help.

"These are very difficult sites," he said. "It couldn't hurt."


________________________________

Below you see a community that has been the strongest activist group for their community yet. We thank these committed community activists for shouting out against what will be a horrible corporate big box blow to the community. This group has been after this for years and each time City Hall moves with WalMart in making this development work.

Small businesses will be killed and choice gone with these development decisions. Baltimore development is completely geared to big business and they write the public policy. WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO BE SURE THAT THE NEXT ELECTION FOR MAYOR AND CITY HALL IS ABOUT RUNNING AND VOTING FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE AND SHAKE THESE NEO-LIBERALS OUT OF THE RUG!


After developer fails to post notice, 25th St. Station meeting rescheduled

Wal-Mart-anchored project runs into timeline trouble

Fern Shen February 19, 2014 at 10:29 pm Story Link 12

The Board of Municipal Zoning Appeals had been scheduled Tuesday to consider a request by the developer of 25th Street Station for an extension of the deadline for submitting a detailed time schedule for the project.

But during the past few days, residents who live near the proposed North Baltimore shopping center peppered BMZA executive director David C. Tanner with emails asking why notice of the meeting had not been posted at the site, as required by city charter, 21 days before the meeting.

Today, Tanner told The Brew that the matter will now be heard a month later – at the March 25th meeting – and that the proper notice will be posted.

“We are not in agreement that it is necessary for this on-going matter, but the developer has agreed voluntarily to comply and to post this,” Tanner told The Brew by phone.

Some matters to be discussed on Mar. 11

Attorney Jon M. Laria, who represents the development team, had been furious at the November Planning Commission meeting, when a lawyer representing the Remington Neighborhood Alliance rose to say the developers had missed the deadline in 2012.

If that were the case, attorney J. Carroll Holzer had argued, the Planning Commission’s approval at that meeting of the Planned Unit Development for the project would be invalid.

Laria had disagreed about having missed the deadline, but since then has submitted a written request to the Board to grant an extension.

Tanner said the BMZA had also been scheduled on Tuesday to discuss other matters involving the 25th St. Station project.

Residents have appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to approve design revisions to the project’s Planned Unit Development as a “minor amendment.” They have also objected to the Planning Department’s handling of subdivision plan filings.

“The Board has to determine whether or not it has jurisdiction over these actions,” Tanner said, noting that the question now will be taken up at the BMZA’s Mar. 11 meeting.

UPDATED with this from Jon Laria:

“We were really disappointed by the mischaracterizations in your 2/19 piece. It’s just factually wrong to say “After developer fails to post…”. We were never advised of a February 25 hearing date so there was no “failure” to do anything. While we don’t agree that posting is required under the law for this type of BMZA action, we nonetheless volunteered to post the property because we have come to expect the ultra-litigious in the community to raise this and any other issue they can think of to obstruct progress without regard to merits. So, we pre-emptively agreed to post 21 days in advance of the Board’s hearing, as if this were a conventional zoning appeal, and that necessarily takes us to the March 25 hearing.

Perhaps those who have filed a negative appeal to the BMZA should be required to post the property at their expense, so the hundreds of community members who support the project and greater City shopping options would have adequate notice of these ongoing obstructionist actions by their neighbors?”


__________________________________________________

Below you see that development from the wealthy business parks in Enterprise Zones to all of what Baltimore HUD is doing all works against the people it pretends to help. The middle/working class are being shafted by having to be the source of all revenue as corporations pay nothing.....the same group are having to fight to have their communities developed as they want and ignored, and as this article shows.....the poor are getting the biggest shaft of all. The working class and poor are being zoned right out of the city.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley plans to run for President in 2016 with a history of building this system of fraud and corruption.

The problem is systemic collapse of all oversight and accountability not only in Baltimore, but in Maryland. This fraud and corruption is state-wide and it happens because public justice has been dismantled and regulatory and oversight agencies are packed with people told to look the other way.

We have organizations and people dedicated to helping people and using funds wisely, but we know that much of the money funneled through these programs are lost to fraud and corruption and that places the good guys in unwanted spotlight. We can be sure given the number of times fraud and corruption has been exposed in Baltimore that this case will prove more of the same.

Maryland is one of the richest states in the country so this is not a problem with funding....it is a problem of Rule of Law and holding government and corporations accountable.....something the rich do not want. WE CAN CHANGE THIS BUT WE HAVE TO STOP ALLOWING CRONY POLITICAL MACHINES SEND IN THE SAME KINDS OF PEOPLE. RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES.....REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT!


Cindy Walsh is running as the labor and justice candidate for Governor of Maryland.....see my website Citizens Oversight Maryland.com




Baltimore BrewBaltimore Brew - News and Views in Baltimore

Mayor and homeless providers praise grants faulted by HUD
Rawlings-Blake mounts defense of city's use of federal homeless funds, saying no fraud or abuse was uncovered


Mark Reutter February 26, 2014 at 8:53 pm Story Link 5
cicely franklin

“I’m proud of the work that we’ve accomplished with these funds,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said today, introducing three homeless providers and two formerly homeless people who praised the embattled city program required to return nearly $4 million in federal funds.

At a City Hall press conference, the mayor framed the issue as a matter of not having “proper documentation” for $9.5 million in federal stimulus grants awarded to the city in 2009 to help the homeless.

Yesterday, it was disclosed by The Sun and The Brew that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is requiring the city to reimburse $3.76 million in grant money.

The Brew has obtained a copy of HUD’s order. So far, neither HUD nor the mayor’s office has released the document, which details the city’s failure to keep track of expenses by homeless providers and to vouch for the eligibility of clients.

“HUD is not alleging any fraud or abuse,” the mayor said at the media event. “Nor are they questioning our commitment for serving our homeless individuals.”

The mayor insisted that the city “did spend these funds helping the homeless,” but “we found it difficult to provide the proper guidance to our allies,” meaning the groups who handed out the funds.

The HUD investigation reported a complete absence of documentation of $393,000 by the now-defunct Prisoner’s Aid Association and $336,000 by the Public Justice Center.
Mayor Rawlings-Blake said she was proud of the work accomplished with the federal stimulus funds. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

Mayor Rawlings-Blake said she was proud of the work accomplished with the stimulus funds. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

The agency faulted eight other providers with deficiencies in record-keeping, which the providers argued resulted from the city’s failure to tell them what documentation was needed.

The mayor today conceded that point by saying, “We found it difficult to provide the proper guidance to our allies [the providers].”

She went on to criticize the federal government for dispensing the stimulus funds far too quickly, calling the process “like building an airplane while you were flying.”

Grantees Praise Their Work

Three homeless providers said the program was of great help to the homeless. John Schiavone, president and CEO of St. Vincent de Paul, said the federal funds helped his group find housing for over 115 families.

Cecily Franklin was presented as one of the recipients. “Programs like this take place and really help you,” she said. “I had to come to the shelter to stay for six months. I wasn’t working. Thankfully, I have since attained employment and am still at that same job and it’s been two years.

“My children are fine and in school. They helped me pay for my home for six months, which was great and it helped me to get on my feet.”

Of the $980,409 in stimulus funds awarded to St. Vincent de Paul, the HUD report says it will require repayment of $466,912 for undocumented financial assistance to homeless clients, $33,242 for an ineligible cost billed under “services,” and $23,075 for not properly documented administrative costs.

Spokesmen for two other homeless providers spoke of the benefits of the program today – Adam Schneider of Health Care for the Homeless and Bill McCarthy, executive director of Associated Catholic Charities.

Both groups were reviewed by HUD and were given a clean bill of health.

Asking for Repayment is “Atrocious”

Without his organization’s stimulus grant of $1,042,000, McCarthy said that some 116 homeless families would probably not have been housed during the Great Recession.

“Remember that we were in crisis – a crisis in humanity and a crisis in our economy at the time these dollars were issued to be deployed,” he said.

“The fact that in hindsight, through an audit, that documentation wasn’t in place for some of the families and individuals that were housed really misses the point. And the fact that the city would be asked to repay $3.7 million of funds that were properly deployed to house homeless people is just atrocious.

“This money,” McCarthy continued, “could be used to continue the great work that the mayor and my colleagues and partners are doing in order to end homelessness in Baltimore.”
0 Comments

February 27th, 2014

2/27/2014

0 Comments

 
I LISTENED AS CORPORATE NPR/APM SHOUTED A WIN FOR MANUFACTURING BRINGING MIDDLE-CLASS JOBS BACK TO THE US......BUT, I KNOW AS NEO-LIBERALS SHOUT THIS AS A WIN.....THEY ARE READY TO PASS TPP WHICH WILL NEGATE ALL ENVIRONMENTAL AND LABOR LAWS!  WIN-WIN FOR US GLOBAL CORPORATE PROFITS!


Regarding public private partnerships in building US manufacturing infrastructure:

Imagine a billion dollar US global corporation needing Federal tax money to partner in building manufacturing plants in America. Neo-liberals laud this as a great day for US citizens and building the middle-class with strong manufacturing jobs. I spoke of Obama's sending of hundreds of billions of dollars to build corporate university research facilities like those attached to Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland.....both operating as private corporations and much of the labor outsourced to Right to Work corporations and states. Earlier we saw tens of billions of dollars sent under the guise of green industry with so little oversight or forethought that many of those startups are now out of business and in some cases firms built with taxpayer money sold for profit for those receiving these grants. We hear all the time that these businesses were connected to Obama and neo-liberal campaign donations. It's not a bad deal to donate a few million and come away with billions in taxpayer money! The Green Industry buildup could have would have worked if the US was not competing in global markets but simply rebuilding its own domestic economy. THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU!!!

As I have shown, public-private partnerships are only about having the public pay for infrastructure and operations making corporate profits soar. NO DEMOCRAT WOULD PUSH THESE POLICIES AS THEY HAND OUR TAX MONEY RIGHT INTO THE POCKETS OF THESE CORPORATIONS. We do not need to be held hostage for job creation and we have reached the bottom in this hostage-taking policy.

As we see in this article below, Illinois, as with Maryland, is home of the biggest of neo-liberals. Obama and Rahm Emanuel are Wall Street through and through. Dick Durbin was the original BREAK THE GLASS STEAGALL WALL crew with Clinton wanting these global corporations and corporate rule. Democrats had no choice in the 2008 election as Hillary would be doing the same as Obama had she been elected. WE NEED TO SHOUT FOR BERNIE SANDERS AS ALL CANDIDATES FOR NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ARE AGAIN....NEO-LIBERALS.

Let's look at where we are with this return of US global corporations and rebuilding manufacturing in America. Remember, TPP is all about removing all US law that diminishes corporation's ability to profit!



REMEMBER, BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND HAVE THEIR MANUFACTURING INSTITUTES----BIOTECH INDUSTRY. SO, ALL OF WHAT I AM BLOGGING TODAY DEALS WITH MARYLAND AS WELL.



Pollution Treatment Medical Materials
A Lastest News about Pharmaceuticals in China


Pollution Treatment Medical Materials Mfg. Industry in China

Jiangsu province has most leading pollution treatment medical materials mfg. enterprises, and among all top 100 large pollution treatment medical materials mfg. enterprises across China, 16 are located in Jiangsu. According to China Pollution Treatment Medical Materials Mfg. Industry Profile - the industry research report issued by Zeefer Consulting, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shandong are the major production bases for pollution treatment medical materials mfg. industry in China. Beijing, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Liaoning, Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi are the secondary distribution areas for this industry.

In terms of market size, in 2009, pollution treatment medical materials mfg. enterprises above designated size achieved a sales revenue of more than USD 950 million. Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong ranked top 3 in terms of sales revenue, enterprises in these regions engaged in pollution treatment medical materials mfg. production achieved a sales revenue of more than USD 400 million. in all, taking a share of more than 45% of the gross sales revenue from above designated size pollution treatment medical materials mfg. enterprises across China. The total number of enterprises above designated size in pollution treatment medical materials mfg. industry was more than 150, a rise of more than 45% on a year-on-year basis. On an annual average, total employees in pollution treatment medical materials mfg. industry exceeded 8,500, an increase of more than 3% on a year-on-year basis.

In terms of industry-wide profit, in 2009, profits of enterprises above designated size in pollution treatment medical materials mfg. industry added up to more than USD 55 million, a decline of more than 25% on a year-on-year basis. A total of more than 20 enterprises suffered a loss, and the total loss of these enterprises amounted to more than USD 4 million. On average, the ratio of return on assets in pollution treatment medical materials mfg. industry was higher than 7%.

In terms of market position of foreign enterprises in China, in 2009, sales revenue from foreign enterprises engaged in pollution treatment medical materials mfg. production in China added up to more than USD 300 million, taking a share of more than 30% of the gross sales revenue from pollution treatment medical materials mfg. enterprises across China. Foreign enterprises in China pollution treatment medical materials mfg. industry achieved a ratio of return on sales of more than 3%, lower than the industry average.



____________________________________

A 'manufacturing institute'------sounds like a manufacturing corporate university. Let's think about the digital manufacturing industries now. China is now an environmental basket case because US manufacturers of Apple, Microsoft, and all cellular devices use very damaging elements in these product manufacturing and did nothing to make sure the environment was safe. So, huge Super Fund worthy waste dumps across China are leeching into soil and water surrounding these US manufacturing factories. TPP specifically allows corporations to ignore US environmental laws because the costs would take away profit. What corporations will take over these manufacturing institutes?

In China, US corporations would build factories and then surround these factories with workers living quarters. So, these workers were tied to hazardous working conditions and then exposed to the environmental waste surrounding their living conditions. SOUND FAMILIAR? That is of course what we already see in US manufacturing/mining right now as Obama has continued Bush's total disregard to environmental oversight.

SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN AT THESE MANUFACTURING INSTITUTES HANDLING DIGITAL MANUFACTURING? US workers will be made into Chinese workers with no workplace safety and forced to live around areas due to be contaminated.


THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU!!!!! RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES TO SHAKE THE NEO-LIBERAL BUGS FROM THE RUG!



US Sen. Durbin lauds federal manufacturing grants
US Sen. Durbin, Chicago mayor laud federal grants for manufacturing labs in Ill., Mich.


Associated Press
February 23, 2014 2:03 PM

CHICAGO (AP) -- Top Illinois politicians say a multimillion-dollar institute bound for Chicago will be the nation's flagship research site for digital manufacturing.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday publicly heralded Chicago's selection by the Defense Department as the site of one of two manufacturing institutes.

President Barack Obama is to announce the initiative Tuesday. The Detroit area landed the second institute, which will focus on lightweight metals.

The institutes are being seeded by $70 million each from the Defense Department and millions more from outside sources under a public-private partnership.

Emanuel says the landing the lab "solidifies Chicago's place as the epicenter of the digital manufacturing revolution." Durbin says the initiative's goal is to make factories smarter, faster and more efficient.

______________________________________________


TPP allows for the US to become just as polluted and it will be the taxpayer that pays to mitigate the damage. Whether PHARMA, textiles, or software industries----

THESE ARE THE FACES OF CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER AND THEY ARE COMING BACK TO US WITH NEO-LIBERALS WORKING HARD TO MAKE SURE NO US LAWS WILL HURT PROFITS!




The price of success: China blighted by industrial pollution – in pictures


A Greenpeace report has called on the Chinese textile industry to clean up its processes after finding high levels of pollution in the southern industrial towns of Xintang – the "jeans capital of the world" – and Gurao, a manufacturing town 80% of whose economy is devoted to bras, underwear, and other clothing articles.

The report said the pollution is emblematic of textile manufacturing in China and the industry must review its practices

theguardian.com, Wednesday 9 February 2011 08.12 EST

Apple criticized for China supply chain pollution

By Michael Martina

BEIJING Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:07pm EDT


(Reuters) - Chinese environmental groups accused Apple Inc of turning a blind eye as its suppliers pollute the country, the latest criticism of the technology company's environmental record.

Toxic discharges from "suspected Apple suppliers" have been encroaching on local communities and environments, a coalition of environmental organizations said on Wednesday in a 46-page report alleging efforts to conceal pollution.

Widespread environmental degradation has accompanied China's breakneck economic growth, and the government has been criticized for failing to take steps to curb pollution.

"The large volume of discharge in Apple's supply chain greatly endangers the public's health and safety," said the report, issued on the website of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (www.ipe.org.cn).

The report alleges that 27 suspected Apple suppliers had severe pollution problems, from toxic gases to heavy metal sludge. In one case, the report said, a nearby village experienced a "phenomenal rise in cases of cancer."

Apple has decided to "take advantage of loopholes" in developing countries' environmental management systems to "grab super profits," it said.

Apple does not disclose who its suppliers are. The environmental groups said public documents and five months of research and field investigation led to the findings in the report.

"A large number of IT supplier violation records have already been publicized; however, Apple chooses not to face such information and continues to use these companies as suppliers. This can only be seen as a deliberate refusal of responsibility," the report said.

This is not the first time Apple has been targeted for environmental infractions and its secretive supply chain management in Chinese factories, where it assembles most of its products.

In January, several of the same non-governmental organizations issued a report alleging woeful environmental records for the iPad and iPhone maker's China-based contract manufacturers.

In February, workers at a Taiwanese-owned factory in eastern China making touch screens on contract for Apple aired their grievances over a chemical poisoning after using N-Hexane, a toxic solvent.

Apple says it maintains a rigorous auditing regime and all its suppliers are monitored and investigated regularly.

"Apple is committed to driving the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base," Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu told Reuters.

"We require that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made," she said.

Apple is not alone in drawing criticism from environmental groups. Some of the world's leading brands rely on Chinese suppliers that pollute the country's environment with chemicals banned in Europe and elsewhere.

Many Western multinationals -- including toymaker Mattel Inc, which suffered a toxic lead paint scandal in 2007 -- have struggled to regulate product quality across scores of suppliers in knotted Chinese supply chains.

Environmental degradation has emerged as one of the most potent fault lines in Chinese society.

Beijing has repeatedly promised to clean up its stressed environment. But it often fails to match that rhetoric with the resources and political will to enforce its mandates, as local officials put growth, revenue and jobs ahead of environmental protection.

___________________________________________


Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when US manufacturing left the US to work in developing countries, they took the pollution with them and sadly, made those developing countries into environmental basket cases. 58% of air pollution abatement would mirror toxic land and water pollution as well. Imagine if all of that manufacturing comes back to the US -----supersized-----AND WITH NO US ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS TO HINDER PROFIT. THAT IS WHAT TPP DOES UNDER THAT GUISE OF BRINGING US MANUFACTURING AND JOBS BACK TO AMERICA. Neo-liberals are trying to create the same working conditions for these overseas US manufacturers as they had in China because WE WOULDN'T WANT TO HINDER US GLOBAL CORPORATE COMPETITION AND ALL THOSE JOBS!

REMEMBER, US MANUFACTURING IS COMING HOME BECAUSE IT WAS FORCED OUT BY DEVELOPING NATIONS BUILDING THEIR OWN ECONOMIES AND MAKING IT TOO HARD FOR US CORPORATIONS TO DO BUSINESS IN THESE COUNTRIES. THEY ARE NOT COMING HOME TO HELP YOU AND I WITH STRONG MIDDLE-CLASS JOBS!


'Since the 1970s, US manufacturing output has risen by 70% but air pollution has fallen by 58%. Was this due to improved abatement technology or shifting dirty production abroad'?


US Manufacturing and Pollution: Abatement or Displacement

Arik Levinson has written a good summary piece on the clean-up of US manufacturinga nd the relationship between trade and technology on the reduction in pollution experienced in the US.

Matt Cole and I have done some work in this area and Matt even manages to sneaks in with a citation in the Levinson article.

This paper of ours covers a similar topic:

Why the Grass is Not Always Greener: The Competing Effects of Environmental Regulations and Factor Intensities on US Specialization

Abstract
The global decline in trade barriers means that environmental regulations now potentially play an increasingly important role in shaping a country’s comparative advantage. This raises the possibility that pollution intensive industries will relocate from high regulation countries to developing regions where environmental regulations may be less stringent. We assess the evidence for this possibility by examining the USA’s revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and other measures of specialization. We demonstrate that US specialization in pollution intensive sectors is neither lower, nor falling more rapidly (or rising more slowly) than in any other manufacturing sector. We offer an explanation for this finding. Our analysis suggests that pollution intensive industries have certain characteristics - specifically they are intensive in the use of physical and human capital - that makes developing countries less attractive as a target for relocation. We demonstrate econometrically the economic and statistical significance of these factors and illustrate how they appear to oppose the effects of environmental regulations as determinants of US specialization.

Suggested Citation

Matthew A. Cole, Robert J.R. Elliott, and Kenichi Shimamoto. "Why the Grass is Not Always Greener: The Competing Effects of Environmental Regulations and Factor Intensities on US Specialization" Ecological Economics 54.1 (2005): 95-109.

Here is the link to the Levinson article. It is worth reading in full. His findings fit well within the literature and his results are intuitive and most importantly plausible (which always helps).

What accounts for the clean-up of US manufacturing: technology or international trade? [Vox]

Since the 1970s, US manufacturing output has risen by 70% but air pollution has fallen by 58%. Was this due to improved abatement technology or shifting dirty production abroad?

Antiglobalisation protesters display signs denouncing international trade's role in polluting the environment.1 Pundits write Op-Ed pieces cautioning that increased trade has environmental costs.2 And a majority of Americans agree that "freer trade puts the United States at a disadvantage because of our high ... environmental standards".3

Are they correct? Over the past thirty years, while the real value of US manufacturing output has increased by more than 70 percent, the total annual air pollution emitted by US manufacturers declined substantially, by 58 percent for the sum of four common air pollutants.4

One explanation for the clean-up of US manufacturing is that the protesters are correct, and that thanks to freer trade, the US now imports polluting goods it once produced domestically, and concentrates domestic manufacturing on goods less likely to incur environmental regulatory costs. Of course, there is an alternative explanation: thanks to improved technology (cleaner fuels, end-of-pipe abatement, process changes, etc.) US manufacturers may now be able to produce more output using less pollution. Which of these explanations, trade or technology, accounts for the dramatic clean-up of US manufacturing pollution?



Conclusion:


What is the bottom line? Increased net imports of polluting goods account for about 70 percent of the composition-related decline in US manufacturing pollution. The composition effect in turn explains about 40 percent of the overall decline in pollution from US manufacturing. Putting these two findings together, international trade can explain at most 28 percent of the clean-up of US manufacturing.

Why should we care?

If the 75% reduction in pollution from US manufacturing resulted from increased international trade, the pundits and protestors might have a case. Environmental improvements might be said to have imposed large, unmeasured environmental costs on the countries from which those goods are imported. And more importantly, the improvements in the US would not be replicable by all countries indefinitely, because the poorest countries in the world will never have even poorer countries from which to import their pollution-intensive goods. The US clean-up would simply have been the result of the US coming out ahead in an environmental zero-sum game, merely shifting pollution to different locations. However, if the US pollution reductions come from technology, nothing suggests those improvements cannot continue indefinitely and be repeated around the world. The analyses here suggest that most the pollution reductions have come from improved technology, that the environmental concerns of antiglobalization protesters have been overblown, and that the pollution reduction achieved by US manufacturing will replicable by other countries in the future.

_______________________________________________


MAKING THE WAY FOR RETURN OF US MANUFACTURING! IT'S ALL ABOUT JOB CREATION AND NOT THAT THEY WERE FORCED OUT OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND HAD TO COME BACK TO US.

The first thing a super-majority of neo-liberals did in 2009 was pass law that made cost of business even cheaper for mainly global corporations since it is expanding global corporate assets that has been the focus of the years since the economic collapse. Let's look at the targeted areas....and we see ENTERPRISE ZONE BUSINESSES, WATER UTILITY, AND SOFTWARE. Just in Maryland that would be all of Baltimore Development Corporation areas and the HighStar VEOLA Environment privatization of Maryland and Baltimore water utilities!


So, at a time of financial crisis the first thing neo-liberals did was pass law that allowed almost immediate depreciation tax write-offs that are huge revenue from corporations.

THIS IS TIED WITH THE MOVEMENT OF MANUFACTURING BACK TO THE US AND WILL BE ANOTHER HUGE DROP IN CORPORATE TAX REVENUE COMING IN OVER TIME.

Below you see the jump from 200 -2013 in how much of a deduction corporations are taking. Even if you support businesses getting more money back.....you can see this will mostly effect large corporations who place a great strain on public infrastructure. Again, the burden falls on local and state citizens to fill this revenue loss and is why Maryland is socking it to middle/working class citizens with taxes and fees and preying on us with fines.



50 and 100 Percent Bonus Depreciation

For the years 2008 through 2013 the law provides for 50% or 100% extra depreciation in the first year qualifying property is placed in service. See Note 5, above for qualifying dates. In order for property to qualify for the additional first-year depreciation deduction it must meet all of the following requirements. First, the property must be (1) property to which MACRS applies with an applicable recovery period of 20 years or less, (2) water utility property (as defined in Section 168(e)(5)), (3) computer software other than computer software covered by Section 197, or (4) qualified leasehold improvement property (as defined in Section 168(k)(3)). Second, the original use of the property must commence with the taxpayer (that is, the property must be new). Third, the taxpayer must purchase the property within the applicable time period. Fourth, for listed property business use must exceed 50%.


Maximum Section 179 Expense Deduction

Tax Year Amount Phaseout Begins

2013 $500,000 $2,000,000
2012 500,000 2,000,000
2011 500,000 2,000,000
2010 500,000 2,000,000
2009 250,000 800,000
2008 250,000 800,000
2007 125,000 500,000
2006 108,000 430,000
2005 105,000 420,000
2004 102,000 410,000
2003 100,000 400,000
2001 or 2002 24,000 200,000
2000 20,000 200,000


Note. The Sec. 179 deduction reverts by law to a maximum of $25,000 for taxable years beginning after 2013. (That's calendar year 2014 and subsequent years for most taxpayers.) The phaseout drops to $200,000. It's expected that the deduction and phaseout will be increased substantially with any tax law changes or an extender package.

Note. An increased Sec. 179 deduction is available to enterprise zone businesses and renewal community business in certain situations. In addition, an increased Sec. 179 deduction is available for certain Sec. 179 Disaster Assistance property. Check the rules in place at the time the property is placed in service. Finally, the maximum deduction for heavy sport utility vehicles and certain other vehicles is restricted to $25,000.


____________________________________________________

Below you see two articles addressing TPP and environment. Let's be clear.....Obama and neo-liberals never had any intentions of including environmental protections in TPP. Environmental laws are the driver of a lot of manufacturing costs after all. So, what these areas slated as 'manufacturing institutes' have to look forward to is Chinese-level of pollution. Mountaintop removal will look environmentally friendly when neo-liberals are done with these manufacturing plans.

So, what happens in Maryland as the Biotech manufacturing industry hub?  
Look at China's PHARMA pollution for the answer.





Published on Wednesday, January 15, 2014
by Common CommonDreams.org

Leaked TPP 'Environment Chapter' Shows 'Corporate Agenda Wins'


US called main 'outlier' when it comes to strong protections; Leak comes as Obama tries to ram trade deal through Congress
- Jon Queally, staff writer

Confirming the suspicions and fears of environmental campaigners and concerned individuals across the globe, Wikileaks on Wednesday released a draft version of the 'Environment Chapter' from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), exposing most of the so-called "environmental protections" as toothless policies that serve to protect corporate profit not Mother Earth.

In its review of the chapter—which covers environmental issues related to trade, including climate change, biodiversity and fishing stocks; and trade and investment in 'environmental' goods and services—Wikileaks described the chapter as functioning like "a public relations exercise" and saying the text is most notable "for its absence of mandated clauses or meaningful enforcement measures."

"Today's WikiLeaks release shows that the public sweetner in the TPP is just media sugar water," said Wikileaks' publisher Julian Assange in a statement. "The fabled TPP environmental chapter turns out to be a toothless public relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism."

The draft chapter, which was presented at the Salt Lake City, Utah round of negotiations that took places in November, contains language from the participating nations describing their positions on environmental protections that would be included in the final deal.

According to Jane Kelsey, a professor of environmental law at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the leaked text of the agreement shows no balance between commercial interests and those of the environment.

"Instead of a 21st century standard of protection, the leaked text shows that the obligations are weak and compliance with them is unenforceable... The corporate agenda wins both ways." --Jane Kelsey, Univ. of Auckland

"Instead of a 21st century standard of protection, the leaked text shows that the obligations are weak and compliance with them is unenforceable," she writes in a public statement (pdf) Wednesday. "Contrast that to other chapters that subordinate the environment, natural resources and indigenous rights to commercial objectives and business interests. The corporate agenda wins both ways."

Kelsey's review of the draft also points out that the main outlier on environmental protections is the United States. She also notes that because the protections included in the draft fall short even of those contained in previous trade agreements backed by the US, passage of the deal will create a "particular political dilemma" for President Obama and other backers. She writes:

The text falls far below the standards it has insisted are included in all US free trade agreements since May 2007, which resulted from a deal reached between the Democrat-­‐controlled Congress and President George W Bush.

The most fundamental problem for the US is the refusal of all the other countries to agree that the chapter should be subject to the same dispute settlement mechanism as the rest of the agreement. It provides for consultation at officials and ministerial levels, leading to arbitration and agreement to a plan of action, but there are no penalties if the state does not implement the plan.

Obama is going to find this a very hard sell to domestic constituencies. The timing of the leak could hardly be worse. On 9 January 2014 a Bill seeking fast track authority was presented to the Congress. The controversial fast track process requires the Congress to accept or reject the deal as a whole and imposes a strict time limit on debate. The numbers were already stacking up against the Bill, with Democrats especially critical of the erosion of their powers and the secrecy of the negotiations, as well as the reported content. This leaked environment chapter will further erode support among Democratic members of the House of Representatives who are up for re-election later this year.

Obama is going to have to rely heavily on unfriendly Republicans.

Read Wikileaks' full press statement here and view the complete draft version here (pdf).

The secretive TPP trade deal between the United States and 11 other Pacific rim nations that has been negotiated with the backing of corporate interests but kept secret from the general public and even most lawmakers from the participating countries.

Ilana Solomon, the director of the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program, responded to the leaked draft by telling the New York Times on Wednesday that the language in the deal omits crucial protections against increased environmental destruction caused by globalized trade practices.

“It rolls back key standards set by Congress to ensure that the environment chapters are legally enforceable, in the same way the commercial parts of free-trade agreements are,” Ms. Solomon said.


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Saturday, 18 January 2014 16:30
Leaked TPP Environment Chapter Shows Obama Betrayal of Greens

Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.


Leaked TPP Environment Chapter Shows Obama Betrayal of Greens





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August 16th, 2013

8/16/2013

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It is absurd to watch as a whole class of citizens in America become so impoverished by public policy that we watch the US fall into a third world society of crime and corruption.  People at the top committing Visigoth levels are corporate fraud on government coffers and individuals leading to starving social programs and stagnant economies with no job growth forcing those in the lower class to turn to crime to support themselves.   That is what we are watching each day in the news and we watch as our fellow citizens are deliberately left with no other choice then to become criminal just like those at the top of the income ladder creating this mess.

Simple return to Rule of Law would have our public justice system at the Federal, STate, and local level bringing back tens of trillions of dollars to government coffers and individuals rebuilding social society and correcting wealth inequity brought by this massive corporate fraud.  The voters in Maryland must get rid of these crony and corrupt politicians....neo-liberals and republicans....and run and voter for labor and justice candidates.  It is not a democrat vs republican problem.....it is a corporate politician problem at all levels of government that if left unchanged will have this crime and violence excel and these corporate pols have only policing and incarceration as the solution!



Thieves nab copper wire, equipment from Verizon; reward offered Thieves cut holes in fences to gain access

By Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun 8:34 p.m. EDT, August 15, 2013

After a recent spree of thefts targeting $300,000 worth of copper wire and equipment from its facilities throughout the state, Verizon is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the thieves.

Thieves have taken copper wire and laptops from Verizon work centers in Bel Air; Brooklyn; Churchville; Edgewood; Fork; Hampstead; Jarrettsville; North East; Owings Mills; Parkton; Randallstown; Sparks; and Taneytown from May through August, Verizon officials said Thursday.

In the early hours of July 23, thieves cut a hole in the fence at Verizon's facility at 1820 Forest Drive in Annapolis and drove a white van in through the hole, filling it with stolen drills, test meters, miscellaneous testing equipment and splicing machines, Verizon officials said. Equipment including hand tools and fiber installation was also stolen from thieves at facilities in Rockville and Lanham.

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Roland Park Shooting Linked to Robbery Spree Maj. Kimberly Burrus believes Wednesday's shooting is linked to a spate of recent robberies in North Baltimore.

Posted by Adam Bednar (Editor) , August 15, 2013 at 11:30 AM


Sharon Guida, of Charles Village, speaks with Maj. Kimberly Burrus, commander of the Northern District, during a National Night Out event. 28102The shooting of a 36-year-old man in Roland Park happened during a robbery, and police believe it’s part of a larger crime spree in North Baltimore.

According to Baltimore police, at 1:42 a.m. Wednesday, in the 4000 block of Roland Avenue the man was shot twice in the upper torso after two to three juveniles attempted to rob him.

"We also experienced two additional robberies after the shooting which suggest to me that these guys lack remorse, so someone else could get hurt until capture," Northern District commander Maj. Kimberly Burrus wrote in an email to community members.

Burrus, in her message to residents, said she believes the latest incident is connected to a spate of robberies where between two and four juveniles have used different stolen cars to target people walking or jogging in the early morning hours in North Baltimore.

A handful of similar robberies have been reported by police in the last few weeks. 

Robbers using a car to find targets and getaway robbed two men in Charles Village. According to Baltimore police, on Aug. 6, at 2 a.m., the robbers approached the men after getting out of a vehicle in the 2900 block of St. Paul Street, and pulled out a black handgun.

On Aug. 2, at 7:30 a.m., in the 3400 block of Beech Avenue, the robbers approached a man after getting out of a car and took his iPhone.

That same day, about a half hour before, a woman was jogging in the 5500 block of North Charles Street when robbers got out of a car, stole her pepper spray, pointed it at her, and took her iPhone. 

At about 6:15 a.m. that day, a woman was attacked in the 4800 block of Roland Avenue, and had her cellphone stolen. She told police that she believed one of the robbers, who got out of a car, was holding what she thought was a Taser.  
 
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People already under the strain of poverty are having yet more community assets/support taken and this gives us the crime and violence that is growing all around the country.

Remember, this sequestration was not necessary.....tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud and tax evasion would pay all the government debt and fund recovery. Obama and neo-liberals want to starve government instead.


Sequestration damages our community

Monday, 10 June 2013 10:52 By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent 0 Comments Almeta Keys

WASHINGTON (NNPA) –The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that nearly 140,000 low-income families could lose rental assistance and "thousands of other low-income families using vouchers could face sharp rent increases because of sequestration."

Sequestration, the automatic federal budget cuts, was implemented on March 1.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, sequestration will slash $2 billion from housing assistance and community development programs funded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Blacks received 43 percent of housing vouchers to supplement housing costs. Whites received 36 percent of housing vouchers. Without the vouchers, these families would see those costs skyrocket. Other families will lose counseling services that help distressed homeowners navigate foreclosure proceedings.

"Due to sequestration, 337,000 victims of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, and other crimes will lose critical support and services they receive through the Crime Victims Fund to help them recover from the heinous crimes committed against them," wrote Eric Stegman, the manager of the Half in Ten initiative at the Center of American Progress, a non-partisan education and research group.

The Victims of Crime Act, shelters victims from prohibitive costs associated with seeking justice, including sexual assault services, crisis intervention and investigation and prosecuting of child and elder abuse.

States could lose more than $37 million to fund these services and victims could lose their right to justice.

After reauthorizing the hotly contested Violence Against Women Act, legislation that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, Congress left the funding of the programs to the mercy of the sequester. More than 100,000 may be turned away.

Black women account for a disproportionate number of domestic violence victims.

According to a report by the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community at the University of Minnesota: "Black women comprise 8 percent of the U.S. population but in 2005 accounted for 22 percent of the intimate partner homicide victims and 29 percent of all female victims of intimate partner homicide."

The institute also found that intimate partner violence among African Americans is related to economic factors.

"Intimate partner violence among Blacks occurs more frequently among couples with low incomes, those in which the male partner is underemployed or unemployed, particularly when he is not seeking work, and among couples residing in very poor neighborhoods, regardless of the couple's income," stated the report.

Programs that benefit children are also reeling as a result of sequestration. Head Start, a government funded program that promotes school readiness for poor children, lost an average of 5 percent at each of its local affiliates. Twenty-eight percent of Head Start enrollees are Black and 41 percent are White.

"Sequestration cuts are forcing Head Start programs across the country to drop children from their ranks, despite research showing that every $1 invested in Head Start brings $9 in benefits to society," wrote Sally Steenland, director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress.

Experts estimate that 70,000 children will be forced out of those programs.

Some programs are holding lotteries for available slots, juggling budgets and wait listing families. Others have proposed the elimination of transportation to the programs.

"Head Start is a safe haven for parents," said Almeta Keys, executive director of the Edward C. Mazique Parent Child Center, Inc. in Washington, D.C. "The best that we can do is give our parents referrals to possible programs that they can go to and in some cases, it's going to mean them being out of childcare. That's the rude awakening."

Children will not only loss educational services provided through Head Start, but also nutritional and social programs and comprehensive health services.

"The parents are going to be left to fend for themselves, said Keys. "A lot of our parents are young parents and they need that extra guidance that we are giving them in Head Start."

Families that depend on neighborhood food pantries for groceries every month may have to fend for themselves, as well. Because of the downturn in the economy, food banks that supply neighborhood food pantries, have also suffered a decrease in donations.

According to Feeding America, a domestic hunger-relief charity, 25.1 percent of Black households live with hunger compared to 11.4 percent of White households that are also food insecure.

"Food banks are struggling across the nation, because we're not receiving the donations from the community," said Brian Banks, director of public policy and community outreach for the Capital Area Food Bank. "Many food banks have to go into their operating budgets to purchase food to put on their shelves to get food out into the community."

Banks said that hurts their bottom line. The more money food banks spend on food, the less they can spend on other services like nutritional programs, community outreach, and advocating for better safety net programs.

"If there's less funding to support the staff in doing that work, it's going to make it more difficult for us to put a dent in this problem and end hunger in this country," said Banks.

In April, the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill drew the ire of non-profits that service low-income populations, when they stepped in to help airports and air travelers inconvenienced by the sequester, but not others.

In April, Congress acted to help air travelers, that were experiencing flight delays because of the sequester, by passing the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013. The bill allowed the Federal Aviation Administration to shift money in its current budget to pay air-traffic controllers that were forced to take unpaid leave, because of sequestration.

Keys and others challenged Congress to act just as quickly for those that don't have the support of well-financed lobbyists to stand up for them.

"The same vigorous movement that we saw when the air traffic controllers went back to work, that's what Congress needs to be doing when it comes down to cuts that the Head Start program has received," said Keys. "Congress needs to be focusing on our future and our children are our future."

Amelia Kegan, senior policy analyst at Bread for the World, agreed.

"Low-income families who are really struggling in this economy don't have the resources to mount a huge campaign to bombard Capitol Hill," said Kegan. "They are most likely to be left out of any legislative attempts to mitigate the impact of sequestration. Congress needs to replace sequestration and deal with the entire thing and take a much more balance approach."

Kegan added: "We don't want to see a situation where those who are the most vulnerable are the ones left bearing the brunt of deficit reduction."



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In Baltimore there is an open policy of reducing and almost eliminating low-income housing from Enterprise Zones pushing ever more people with poverty concerns into surrounding neighborhoods rather than addressing the problems head on.  So, instead of solving housing and poverty, in Baltimore more and more neighborhoods are now being engulfed in crime and violence.

To make matters worse, a deliberate attempt to deny employment to poor city residents no doubt trying to force them to leave has created such a level of homelessness and desperation that people's anger and outrage will not be contained. 



THESE POLICIES NOT ONLY ENDANGER COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.....IT WILL AND IS OVERFLOWING INTO ALL NEIGHBORHOODS AND ALL OF THIS IS BECAUSE OF BAD PUBLIC POLICY!


Dispersing Poor People in Cities Doesn't Disperse Crime
Shutterstock
Emily Badger, The Atlantic Cities
Aug 5, 2013

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the federal government shifted the way it subsidizes housing for the low-income. Out were mega-public housing projects like St. Louis' Pruitt-Igoe and Chicago's Cabrini-Green. In were housing vouchers and tax credits designed to disperse people in need of housing help out of these infamous pockets of poverty.

Crime rates in cities across the country happened to be falling around this same time. But many communities far from places like Cabrini-Green feared that a program designed to disperse the poor would also disperse crime associated with them – and straight into more pristine neighborhoods. This idea has persisted for nearly 20 years. And it's prominent among the objections often raised to adding subsidized housing into new neighborhoods and suburbs (see also: the schools will get overcrowded! The traffic will get worse! Everyone's property value will fall!).

"Crime and violence-based fear is something that’s certainly been used very, very effectively for decades in this country," says Michael Lens, an assistant professor of urban planning at UCLA. "And many of our cities are certainly the worse for it in terms of land use and equitable neighborhood opportunity."

In theory, there are two logical outcomes to this change in housing policy. One suggests that traditional public housing concentrates crime "hot spots," enabling police to more effectively monitor them. Scatter the people and you not only scatter the criminals; you also make it harder for law enforcement to keep track of them, driving citywide crime rates up. A widely read 2008 story in The Atlantic by Hanna Rosin argued this hypothesis in the city of Memphis.

The second narrative proposes instead that traditional public housing concentrates poverty, creating the environments – places without opportunity, good schools, employment – that drive crime. Disperse the people, and you break up that concentration, theoretically reducing crime.

A growing stack of research now supports the second hypothesis that housing vouchers do not in fact lead to crime. Lens has just added another study to that literature, published in the journal Urban Studies. He looked at crime and housing data in 215 cities between 1997 and 2008 – controlling for national and regional crime trends, demographic and income variables, employment rates and more – and found "virtually no relationship" between the prevalence of Housing Choice Voucher Program households and higher crime at the city level or in the suburbs. In previous research, Lens and colleagues had investigated the same question at the neighborhood level.

"Although communities with a higher prevalence of voucher households appear to be higher in crime," Lens writes, "there is no evidence that this is due to voucher households increasing crime."

Lens adds, over the phone, that he was hardly surprised by that result.

"There has never really been a lot of empirical evidence for the idea that people that live in subsidized housing commit a fantastically higher amount of crime," he says. "Nor is there really much evidence that there’s this crime spillover into surrounding neighborhoods."

As the voucher program has expanded, however, with a corresponding decrease in public housing units, more communities are encountering the prospect of these households in their midst. Today, about 50 percent of voucher households are in the suburbs.


The decline in national crime, as seen alongside the rise in housing vouchers and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. From "The Impact of Housing Vouchers on Crime in US Cities and Suburbs" by M. Lens in Urban Studies.

It's probably overly optimistic to think that this evidence will disarm bitter local controversies over the need for subsidized housing. But Lens puts it like this: "The main thing is that a very small percentage of poor people commit any sort of crimes at all. So the idea that the random five or 10 low-income households that might move into your large neighborhood are going to impact your life in a negative way is fairly unlikely."

"But I understand that cities have been grappling with this for years, decades," he says. "That’s how we came to be a country of very segregated land use when it comes to economics and income."



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Besides massive corporate fraud raiding our Treasury it is the failure to pay Living Wages that are tearing our working-class and poor communities apart!

Case for $15 and a Union for Low Wage Workers

Carl Gibson Reader Supported News / News Analysis Published: Thursday 15 August 2013

These fast-food joints like to argue that if they were to pay everyone a living wage and give them the right to collectively bargain with their bosses on an even playing field, they would go out of business. Post a Comment Resize Text + | - | R Plain Text Print SHARE Email Pete is a Domino’s driver in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who makes $4 an hour. Even with tips, he still averages about minimum wage at the end of the day. Giovanni, a Pizza Hut worker in Milwaukee, makes minimum wage while living with his mother to help pay rent. He says a roughly $300 paycheck per week is not even enough for a month’s rent on top of all the other costs of living. Pete, Giovanni, and roughly 1,000 other fast-food and low wage workers recently staged a one-day strike in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, protesting poverty wages while working for companies raking in billions in profits.

“I’m not just doing this for myself, I'm doing it for my mom, too,” Giovanni says. “It’s impossible to make it just on $7.25.”

McDonald's makes $27 billion in annual revenue, which makes them the 90th largest economy in the world. Their CEO, who made $8.75 million last year and pays their US employees right around the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, recently made a budgeting guide showing McDonald's hourly employees how they can survive on the poverty wages their company pays them. The sample budget included income from a second job (because there are so many out there) and budgeted just $600 for rent, $20 for healthcare, $250 for car payments and insurance combined, and $0 for heating costs. Even McDonald's, one of the most profitable food service companies in the history of the world, acknowledges that the workers who make their skyrocketing profits possible can't survive solely on the income McDonald's pays them. The gap between salaries of McDonald's workers and the CEO is fairly typical. The incomes of the bottom 90% of Americans grew by roughly $59 in the last 40 years, while the incomes of the top 10% rose by an average of $116,071.

These fast-food joints like to argue that if they were to pay everyone a living wage and give them the right to collectively bargain with their bosses on an even playing field, they would go out of business. However, Australia's minimum wage is twice as high as ours, yet a Big Mac costs roughly the same. Australia's economy, unlike ours, weathered the last financial crisis and survived a meltdown due to their strong, well-paid consumer base, which has enough pocket money to spend and keep businesses open. Minimum wage workers in Canada also make $3 to $4 more an hour compared to their American counterparts. And McDonald's is still far from going out of business. Unlike what detractors say about the movement of one-day strikes from Seattle to Milwaukee to New York, paying low wage and fast-food workers more money doesn't kill jobs. Rather, more people with more money in their pocket greatly boosts the economy over the long term.

This story by CNN Money demonstrated how even just a $9 minimum wage would affect consumer demand and job growth. Without demand, businesses can't make enough to pay employees, and layoffs are inevitable. A lack of demand is the natural result of austerity economics, which are aimed at firing public workers and privatizing public assets to further enrich those who are already far wealthier than a vast majority of the population. The workers aren't endangering the economy by asking for a fair wage and a union – their employers are, by denying it to them.

Some critics of the Fight for 15 campaign are the same ones who see employees as a cost, rather than an investment. McDonald's franchises, which have to pay royalties to the corporate parent for use of the golden arches and Ronald McDonald, say "labor costs" are roughly one-third of current revenue intake, even at the present poverty wages those employees are paid.

These arguments entirely miss the point and purpose of having a labor force to make sure the company's profits are stable. If all the workers choose to strike because of poverty wages, the restaurant has to shut down, and that franchisee's earnings are affected as well as the corporate parent's profits. Also, the corporate profits of McDonald's would only be mildly affected by doubling workers' wages. A Big Mac would only cost $0.68 more, or McD's corporate HQ could allow franchisees to keep more of the royalties they have to pay to the corporate parent.

Also, a union for employees is as "free market" as any ideal espoused by executives. Ensuring there's an even playing field for the employees and bosses to freely negotiate as equals is the definition of a free market, in which no one entity has an inherent advantage over any other party. A boss who says he believes in "free markets" but not unions doesn't know the definition of a free market. A workplace where one boss has more of a say than all of the workers combined is a monopoly on workers' rights. But in a truly free market setting, employees could voice their concerns about their pay to their boss without fear of retaliation, and without the restaurant losing out on valuable revenue due to a worker strike, since the restaurant's profits aren't possible without the effort from workers. A union works out better for both the employees and the company. A free market is simply an agreement that all involved parties freely enter.

Some detractors argue that fast-food and low wage workers are all young, or lack the appropriate education level for other jobs, which is patently false. This NBC story cites numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing not only that fast-food workers older than normal, but that 42% of employees over age 25 have some college education. One McDonald's in Massachusetts even required a college degree for a cashier job. The job market is very unstable for recent college grads, many of whom end up moving back home with their parents and working fast-food jobs despite having a 4-year or even a post-graduate degree. Besides, even if they are of a certain age bracket or educational level, that doesn't mean they should be denied a share in the profits they make possible for their employer. It's immoral for an executive to make more in an hour than an hourly employee makes in a month. Workers deserve a living wage, and their work is valuable. Without these fast-food workers, who would provide Americans with their morning coffee or bagel, or their midday snack, or serve you food when you have a car full of hungry kids and no time to cook them a homemade meal?

Yet another argument is that $15 an hour is too high a demand. But the costs of food, healthcare, housing, and other basic living expenses are going up while wages are stagnating. If the minimum wage had the same buying power today as it did when it was first enacted, it would be roughly $11 an hour. Senator Elizabeth Warren has pointed out that if the minimum wage had kept up with worker productivity, it would now be $22 an hour. CEOs aren't working 380 times harder than their hourly employees; they're just taking in way more pay than they should for the work they do. $15 an hour is a great starting point. If their employer agrees to unionize employees but raise wages from $7.25 an hour to $12.50 an hour, that's still a vast improvement from the status quo. And a union ensures that employees will be able to negotiate for more in the future, and do so on an even playing field.

In fact, it would even be a good business decision for McDonald's and all the other leading fast-food chains to announce that they're doubling workers' pay, because those workers make it possible for such restaurants to remain profitable and successful. If McDonald's poured some of their millions dedicated to advertising to make this point clear, I think most Americans would pay another dollar or two for a Big Mac, knowing the person making it was being paid enough to feed her children and keep her lights on. Workers would regain their dignity and be proud of their job, and be more productive at work as a result. And those fast-food employees would have more money to cycle back into their local economies, keeping demand up and other businesses open. $15 an hour and a union isn't just best for these hard workers who deserve it, but best for all of us.



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PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO VOICE WILL GET HEARD ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!

We know what is happening to cause these problems....globalization allowed US corporations to leave.....global corporations became too powerful to hold accountable.....people were impoverished as safety nets were defunded....and Hispanic families fleeing from drug violence in Latin America found gangs creating the same mess in their new homes.


Large Cities All Over America Are Degenerating Into Gang-Infested War Zones

By Michael Snyder, on January 6th, 2013

       Large U.S. cities that the rest of the world used to look at in envy are now being transformed into gang-infested hellholes with skyrocketing crime rates.  Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Camden, East St. Louis, New Orleans and Oakland were once bustling with economic activity, but as industry has fled those communities poverty has exploded and so has criminal activity.  Meanwhile, financial problems have caused all of those cities to significantly reduce their police forces.  Sadly, this same pattern is being repeated in hundreds of communities all over the nation.  The mainstream media loves to focus on mass shooters such as Adam Lanza, but the reality is that gang violence is a far greater problem in the United States than mass shooters ever will be.  There are approximately 1.4 million gang members living in America today according to the FBI.  That number has shot up by a whopping 40 percent just since 2009.  There are several factors fueling this trend.  Unemployment among our young people is at an epidemic level, about one out of every three U.S. children lives in a home without a father, and there are millions of young men who have come into this country illegally and have no way to legally support themselves once they arrive in our cities.  Gangs provide a support system, a feeling of "community", and a sense of purpose for many young people.  Unfortunately, most of these gangs use violence and crime to achieve their goals, and they are taking over communities all over America.  If your community is not a gang-infested war zone yet, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate.  If nothing is done about this, the violence and the crime that is fueled by these gangs will continue to spread, and eventually nearly every single community in the United States will be affected by it.


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This is why our communities are starved for money.....the complete suspension of Rule of Law..and excuses no one believes!


FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS PAY FOR THEMSELVES....AS THE FBI AND AG HOLDER KNOW THE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS IN POSTAGE STAMP SETTLEMENTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN USED TO REBUILD THE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL AGENCIES AND PUSH A WAR ON FRAUD.  JUST RECOVERING TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN FRAUD PAYS FOR ITSELF!


FBI Warns Sequestration Will Hamper All Their Hard-Hitting Wall Street Investigations

Posted: 03/04/2013 4:40 pm EST  |  Updated: 03/05/2013 12:14 am EST HUFFINGTON POST


WASHINGTON -- More than four years after the financial crisis, not a single Wall Street executive has been jailed for playing a role in the creation of the toxic financial products that fueled the real-estate bubble, which were in some cases designed simply to fail.

That track record may make it difficult for the Department of Justice to earn the sympathy of the public as it warns that spending cuts will hamper its ability to investigate Wall Street fraud. The Federal Bureau of Investigations told lawmakers in a recent letter that across-the-board cuts resulting from sequestration "will cause current financial crimes investigations to slow as workload is spread among a reduced workforce. In some instances, such delays could affect the timely interviews of witnesses and collection of evidence."

Investigations yet unseen may also be harmed. "In some instances, such delays could affect the timely interviews of witnesses and collection of evidence. The capacity to undertake new major investigations will be constrained," FBI Director Robert Mueller III wrote in the letter, addressed to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The warning closed with the type of reasoning that critics of the lack of investigations would readily support. "Left unchecked, fraud and malfeasance in the financial, securities, and related industries could hurt the integrity of U.S. markets," Mueller offered. That boat has sailed..."In addition, the public will perceive the FBI as less capable of aggressively and actively investigating financial fraud and public corruption, which would undercut the deterrence that comes from strong enforcement." Are these people real?  How much do all of America have to shout that no investigations/justice are happening

During President Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, he announced the formation of a task force to investigate Wall Street in a meaningful way. He decided not to mention the unit, which had little to show for itself, in his address a year later.


Former Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), a Wall Street critic who was passed over to lead that unit, was unpersuaded by the DOJ complaint. "Are they worried that because of sequestration the FBI will interview critical witnesses three years after the statute of limitations has expired instead of just one year? Financial fraud investigations were already under a 'do not resuscitate' order and unresponsive to deep stimulation," Miller told HuffPost. "It's hard for me to worry that DOJ will now be less 'aggressive.'"



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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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