Stop scheduling fundraising events and benefits on Saturday night.

Especially stop scheduling food-focused fundraising events that require the presence of restaurant staff and chefs on a Saturday night. But I want the symphony, the museums and the theaters to stop scheduling Saturday night openings, parties and galas, too.

This is something New York City does much better. Baltimore could learn from it, and it's about time we did. Something like 95% of Manhattan's charitable evenings are scheduled for Sunday or Monday evenings, sometimes Tuesday or Wednesday, and never, never, never on a Saturday -- not the Metropolitan Opera Gala (always on Monday), not the Carnegie Hall gala (Wednesday), not nothing. I was once told once that Baltimore was too conservative to ever get in the swing of weeknight fundraisers. If that's the case, it's an attitude that's cripples the restaurant business.

From now on, here's the plan: Weeknights for benefits, weekends for going out and spending money in restaurants.

If you already have an event scheduled for a Saturday night, I guess you can keep it. If you're in the planning stages, strongly consider moving it. You're part of the city's problem.

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