Crippled city
The residential and office explosions of growth in the counties around Baltimore have crippled this city terribly. Small and large businesses are flocking to the county at an alarming rate.
Why? Cheaper space in the counties.
Loose zoning policies still make it a lot cheaper to cut up a farm and build an office building than to renovate an old building downtown.
Maybe the city of Baltimore should get more active in the zoning issues of the counties?
The more restrictive the county zoning is, the more economic pressure there will be for builders to follow the lead of companies like Struever Bros., which concentrates on renovating projects in areas that need a boost.
Residential developers would also be forced to look inside the beltway to clean up and rebuild established residential areas rather than paving over existing farms and open space which make our state a world-class attraction.
Hopefully our new governor, the mayor and county executives will consider working together to implement tighter residential and commercial zoning restrictions in the counties, which will make it an economic necessity for business to build and renovate in the city.
In the long term this could save our city and allow the surrounding counties to grow in a more moderate and planned direction.
Joe Gillet
Baltimore
Foolish filibusters
Here we go again. Just when Congress begins to demonstrate its effectiveness in serving the citizens of America, someone slams the vehicle into park.
I'm referring to members of the U.S. Senate who hinder democracy by using the senseless, time wasting, childish act of filibustering.
Recently Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., seized the floor and spoke at great length about his dog. Now, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., promises a filibuster when Republicans attempt to repeal the ban on assault weapons.
To think that they get paid for such deliberate waste of time really irritates me.
You cannot employ obstructionist tactics, such as prolonged, senseless speechmaking, in a court of law. Why then can it be done in Congress, where the laws are written?
Of course, any attempt to eliminate filibusters from Congress would probably be blocked by a filibuster.
Try standing before a community council and rambling on about your dog for an hour simply to delay the meeting and you'll be told to sit down.
If "we the people" benefit from filibusters in any way, please excuse my ignorance and educate me.
As I see it, filibustering is nothing more than a disguised temper tantrum by someone who can't have their way.
Gordon J. Johannes
Dundalk
O. J. overkill
I'm sick and tired of the media coverage of the O. J. Simpson trial. With all the murders occurring in our country, if O. J. Simpson were Joe Bloke from Podunk the murder would have been reported in a two-inch space on an inside page of the local newspaper, with barely a mention on radio or TV.
Instead, the public is being bombarded with "special news reports" interrupting scheduled programs. It would be bad enough if just one network carried the trial, but it is ridiculous for it to be on all three major networks and radio.
There are many more important things going on in the country and the world. I don't understand why the news media -- be it press, radio or TV -- think the American people are interested, but we've reached the saturation point.
Television cameras have no place in the courtroom. And many people, including O. J., are making millions of dollars on this whole episode.
Margaret E. Beatty
Baltimore
Game of clout
If Baltimore City truly opposes baseball games played by replacement players but is prohibited by federal law from intervening in a labor dispute, it could counter with the offer of Memorial Stadium as a site for games played by members of the Orioles and other striking players.
These would be the true "replacement games" and would leave major league baseball an empty sack with no fans, no TV or radio sponsors and no revenue.
The players are the franchise -- not the front office, not even great Camden Yards.
The logistical challenges of staging games could be solved by a volunteer corps that could gradually evolve into a professional organization, in which players would receive a predetermined share of revenues and the books would remain open.
Short of this charming but unlikely fantasy, the specter of the season opening without Cal Ripken Jr. hovers two months away.
If on opening day it appears that a game will be played with replacement players, fans demonstrating their displeasure would send a badly needed wake-up call to the few arrogant small-market owners who hold us all hostage to their union-busting ambitions.
If we can put 48,000 people into the park, we can alternatively be a formidable presence outside it.
David Kirby
Baltimore
Rite Aid revival
Thank you, Rite Aid! For years I wondered why, once it became apparent that commercial enterprises weren't interested, the city or state didn't renovate and use some of the vacant office buildings in Lexington Mall.
After investing so much time and money in redeveloping the area, no one seemed concerned about the empty, boarded-up buildings. Downtown workers watched as the property and the area deteriorated.
I hope Rite Aid's plans will encourage other businesses to open offices in the mall area.
More people patronizing the restaurant and retail establishments and using Light Rail and Metro are the answer to recharging the area.
Williams
Randallstown
Emissions test program was ill-conceived
The present controversy over the vehicular emissions testing system in this state is a perfect example of what happens when government bureaucrats are asked to "solve" a technical problem that they typically do not understand.
What you always get is a bureaucracy run amok.
In the case at hand, an overbearing state agency would have us believe that the large and growing nuisance, runaway expense and aggressively intrusive operation of their ill-conceived emissions testing program is essential to purify the air.
Not so. In fact, such reduction in vehicular emissions as has so far occurred is almost entirely due to improvements in engine performance.
Engines manufactured and type-certified to meet any given emission standard simply do not require redundant and repeated testing of built-in emission control systems that car owners cannot alter in any case.
Further reductions in air pollution can likewise be accomplished through the introduction of newer generations of automobile engines designed, built and type-certified to meet even more stringent emission regulations.
Sure, there will be complaints from Detroit about impossible standards (no doubt justified if grand-standing politicians allow Ralph Nader types to define permissible levels); and true, additional emission controls will certainly add something to the first cost of a new vehicle; and, yes, it will take some time for new engines to supplant the old.
In the end, however, any technically practicable emissions level can be so attained without forcing Maryland motorists to keep jumping through purely administrative hoops that serve little purpose other than to satisfy officious bureaucrats.
In lieu of the available measures of limiting engine emissions at the source and from their beginning, we are instead confronted with an autocratic scheme for dictating the behavior of car owners.
Small wonder that unelected administrators took little trouble to make their edicts user-friendly, given their as yet unrestrained license to demand obedience.
But if the last election has taught politicians nothing else, they ought at least to have learned that free citizens are fast running out of patience with imperious commands, whether issued from Annapolis or Washington.
That growing exasperation with government bullying needs to be taken into account.
The only sustainable route to cleaner air in a democracy, after all, is through compliance measures that are not only effective but also agreeable.
E. Ulric Buddemeyer
Glen Arm