Will City Hall keep pushing for a "cleaner, greener" and more sustainable Baltimore now that Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is mayor?
Those had been priorities for the departed Sheila Dixon, who among other things pushed through one-and-one recycling, expanded bicycle lanes and shepherded the development of a sustainability plan for the city.
Rawlings-Blake already has signaled that she's got different watchwords for the city under her mayoralty - "better, safer, stronger." And she's indicated she plans to focus on public safety, education and economic development.
In a recent wide-ranging interview with the editorial board of The Baltimore Sun before becoming mayor, Rawlings-Blake didn't seem inclined to make a wholesale departure from the policies and initiatives of her disgraced predecessor, but indicated she might put her own emphasis and stamp on them.
When asked if she might be planning to change any of Dixon's policies, particularly the "cleaner and greener" initiative, Rawlings-Blake replied; "These are values that you know most Baltimoreans share. You can package it differently ... but we care about crime, we care about grime, we care about jobs, we care about educating our kids. And that's my focus."
Specifically, on the controversial shift to one-and-one recycling in the city, Rawlings-Blake pledged to review it to improve it and fix any problems that have cropped up. But she said she didn't plan to halt it. "I know there's an increase in recycling," she said. " and that is very encouraging to me. I'm certainly committed to making this work. We certainly can't go backwards. You know, we just don't have the money, and it doesn't make sense to go backwards.."