Expanded hall brings revenue to Baltimore

While we applaud The Sun for consistently covering the tourism industry, it is important to take this opportunity to clear up a few misconceptions and highlight some significant points overlooked in the article "Baltimore built it; they didn't come" (June 2).

The total number of events and attendance at the Baltimore Convention Center are not the only measures of its success. By far, the most important measures of success are the tax revenues generated and jobs created as a result of the expansion. By these measures, the 1997 expansion has been a tremendous success.

For example, between fiscal 1997 and fiscal 2001, the Convention Center has attracted 187 conventions to Baltimore that would not have been able to convene here without the expansion. These 187 groups represent 781,500 out-of-town attendees who generated $877 million in direct spending and $1.7 billion in economic impact to the Baltimore region.

These groups represent meetings that required more than 115,000 square feet of exhibit space (the size of the original facility) and, therefore, would have been too large for Baltimore and passed us by.

And the expanded Convention Center has, in fact, met and exceeded the projections of the Economics Research Associates (ERA) study in a most important area -- the generation of tax revenue. The ERA study projected that in 2000 the expanded center would begin to generate $30.1 million annually in state and local taxes. In fact, in 2000 and 2001, the expanded center generated state and local taxes of $36.2 million and $32.9 million.

Indeed, at the current pace, the city and state will recoup in tax revenue alone their entire $151 million investment in the Convention Center expansion by 2005. And this doesn't take into consideration the real reason the center was expanded -- the 8,600 jobs created and the millions conventioneers spend in area restaurants, hotels, shops, attractions and other area businesses.

And indeed, the Convention Center is on track to meet its booking goals for the year 2007. While The Sun was correct to report that six conventions are confirmed for 2007, it failed to report that deals with another 12 groups are pending.

This will bring a potential 92,700 delegates to Baltimore and generate a potential 173,368 room nights (when people are actually in town and "heads are on beds").

And the business already generated for 2007 is normal, considering that business for Baltimore is generally booked three to four years ahead.

The formula for estimating the economic impact of Baltimore's expanded Convention Center is the same formula most major cities use to measure the success of their centers. The formula was developed by a very reputable source and is the most accurate measure of economic impact. And it allows us to compare our return on investment on an "apples to apples" basis with other destinations.

The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association's convention bookings have grown consistently each year, from 485,000 room nights in 1996 -- then an all-time high -- to more than 620,000 in 2001. Over the same period, hotel room occupancy rates have increased from 71.3 percent to 75.5 percent.

Finally, the question should be asked: Is the glass two-thirds full or one-third empty?

The chart with The Sun's article showed that by 2000 the center was projected to host 70 events, attracting 330,000 attendees. Even without the headquarters hotel, the expanded center produced 62 events and 55 events in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Attendance for these years captured approximately two-thirds of the projections -- again without a headquarters hotel.

So, is the glass one-third empty or two-thirds full?

Carroll R. Armstrong

Baltimore

The writer is president and CEO of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association.

Ridicule won't help city's failing students

I found Gregory Kane's column "Summer school should have stigma" (June 5) interesting but offensive, as I think Mr. Kane failed to consider the much bigger picture.

Yes, the practice of social promotion has certainly proved to be a great disservice to the children and the taxpayers. Yes, there are students who are unwilling to take advantage of the education opportunities offered them.

However, look at the numbers -- 46,000 city children might have to attend summer school. Doesn't that number alone point to a much bigger problem? Does Mr. Kane honestly think that 46,000 children are "goof-offs" who deserve to be snickered at?

What about the vast number of children who have been "taught" by underqualified teachers in poorly run schools? And the children with learning disabilities or the thousands of children with medical, emotional and family problems that affect their ability to perform in the classroom?

There are many reasons children do not succeed in school. But becoming successful is an ongoing, multifaceted project. One key element in this process is developing students' self-esteem and confidence in their abilities.

Instead of humiliating these children, let's focus on the real, day-to-day issues of encouraging and educating them.

If summer school instruction is necessary, let's make sure the curriculum is comprehensive and the teachers are qualified to instruct students who obviously need help.

Now is not the time for taunts and ridicule. Now is the time to support and encourage our children to strive for academic achievement and personal success.

Mary Beauchamp

Perry Hall

Mikulski's vote costs security and safety

I expected nothing more from the manager of the GM plant in Baltimore than the letter "Mikulski's vote shows she cares about workers" (June 5). After all, he knows which side of his bread is buttered. But I did expect more from our senator.

It is unfortunate that Sen. Barbara Mikulski sided with big oil and big business by voting against a bill that would have mandated a 50 percent increase in passenger-vehicle gas mileage.

It is unfortunate because this decision will do nothing to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, much of which comes from unstable areas, including the Middle East.

This dependency undermines our very security. We already fought one war (Desert Storm) because of oil. And now I don't want any member of my family, or anyone else's family, to die on the sands of the Mideast because of someone's foolish desire to drive a truck or SUV.

It is unfortunate because her decision will only allow more pollutants to be discharged into the atmosphere.

SUVs and light trucks are allowed to discharge up to four times the emissions of a passenger vehicle. And Ms. Mikulski also voted against legislation that would have required SUVs and light trucks to meet the same emission standard as passenger cars.

It is unfortunate because of the dangers posed by massive SUVs in collisions with normal-size cars.

I drive a compact car, and find myself increasingly put into unsafe conditions because of the many SUVs on the road today. Just pulling out of a parking space is dangerous at times when the roof of my car ends at the window of the SUV in the next space.

It is unfortunate because large SUVs and trucks create additional hazards. In Catonsville, which was established in the early 1800s, many of the roads are narrow. SUVs (or their drivers) cannot make some of the turns without straying into the oncoming lane of traffic and their bulk creates hazards for pedestrians.

And it is unfortunate because her decision will only hasten the day when there is no more oil.

We are rapidly depleting this limited resource -- and no more oil is being created.

Steve Shimko

Catonsville

Character counts in education, too

On May 27, an editorial regarding character education ("First, the basics") and a news article on Dontay Jackson's academic success ("After years of fighting odds, payoff for west-side student") were reminders that education should be focused on the basics, but that its success requires more than bigger budgets, administrative restructuring, quality teachers, better materials and uniform testing -- all of which have received deserved attention from The Sun.

A good learning environment in school and supportive adults in the lives of students also matter. Teachers tell us parental involvement is crucial and that where there are no effective parents, mentors can partially fulfill that role.

They also report, and this has been corroborated by an independent study and by a 1997 survey of many city schools, that character education has a positive impact on the climate of the school, allowing teachers to teach and students to learn unmolested by classroom disruptions.

It is not surprising, therefore, that every school system in Maryland, public and private, includes character education in some form.

Indeed, I have had many opportunities to witness character education in the classroom. And each time I have come away more convinced that it plays a constructive role in achieving the education goals so well and frequently advanced by The Sun.

Thus it is to the advantage of every student and parent in Maryland that all our political leaders and our local and state education leaders understand the importance of character education in preparing children for the future.

John Carroll Byrnes

Baltimore

The writer is chairman of the Maryland Center for Character Education.

Defense Department derelict in its duty

It's high time the U.S. intelligence agencies -- especially that sacred cow, the FBI -- had their untouchability punctured. But the failures and abuses of the FBI are small potatoes compared with the abysmal Sept. 11 failure of that most colossal of sacred cows, the Department of Defense.

Its failure was such a no-brainer that even President George W. Bush got it: He created a brand-new agency, the Office of Homeland Security, whose mission is (apparently) something that would have seemed completely redundant -- protecting American lives and property.

Wouldn't you think that, with its bloated budget of more than $300 billion, the Department of Defense would have the responsibility and capability to protect Americans?

While ignoring the vital function of protecting this nation, the Defense Department has for decades spread its tentacles over all continents, under the oceans from pole to pole and now even into space.

This has helped to foster the understandable resentment -- in some cases, ferocious hatred -- of people all over the Earth who do not want their resources exploited and their lives controlled by the world's self-appointed policeman.

As a green recruit in the U.S. Army in the 1950s, I learned quickly that the most serious offense a soldier could commit was to leave his buddies unprotected. A guard who leaves his post or renders himself incapable of performing his duty is subject to harsh punishment -- in wartime, to execution.

What is one to say of the Defense Department now that it has shown itself delinquent in carrying out the sacred trust of protecting this nation?

Is that abrogation or dereliction of duty? Or treason? If it isn't criminal, it certainly ought to be.

Joe Morton

Baltimore

The writer is a professor emeritus of philosophy at Goucher College.

O'Malley's words don't match deeds

C. Fraser Smith focused attention on Mayor Martin O'Malley's commencement address at the mayor's alma mater, Gonzaga High School in Washington ("Mayor O'Malley and the Gonzaga test," Opinion*Commentary, June 9).

The mayor told graduates that one of the important lessons he received at Gonzaga was taught by an exemplary priest, the late Rev. Horace McKenna.

Mr. O'Malley told students that Father McKenna taught him to "search for Christ in the faces of others, including, and especially, the faces of the poor, the faces of the homeless men who lined up for a meal every morning alongside the foundations of this church as we filed by to class."

Father McKenna was simply teaching what he learned from Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Ms. Day taught that it was extremely important that the poor be visible each day, because "people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of the poor" and of the conditions forcing them to the streets.

But if Father McKenna's example made such a lasting impression on the mayor, why did he order police to drive away the poor and homeless from the plaza in front of City Hall during his first year in office? They were merely lined up for a meal.

And why has Mr. O'Malley set up a miserable homeless person's trailer directly across the street from the city jail and a stone's throw from the state's execution chamber?

Father McKenna intended that Gonzaga students see the ragtag world and its suffering each and every day, right next to their high school. Now that is teaching. And that is where hope springs eternal.

Brendan Walsh

Baltimore

The writer is a member of Baltimore Catholic Worker.

Seeking new paths for public art

Crispin Sartwell argues two unrelated points in his commentary on public art, but misses what I would have identified as the key issue ("A new direction for public art," Opinion*Commentary, June 7).

His first point is that since the 1960s, public art typically has been a "huge steel object plunked down amid the concrete."

His second is that Nathan Danilowicz's porch installed on the median strip of Mount Royal Avenue makes us think about "poverty and affluence, about art and real life, about the rural and the urban."

Apart from the fact that I dislike it when anybody tells me a work of art will make me think something in particular - just because it makes the writer think that - what I find objectionable here is Mr. Sartwell's straw-man argument.

Mr. Sartwell asserts that because public art takes only the form he has described, and represents "intellectual, spiritual and emotional emptiness ... humorlessness and uselessness," Mr. Danilowicz's installation proves art can be found in the low as well as the high, in teapots and hip-hop and on front porches, as well as in museums and plazas.

Anyone familiar with the history of public art in America knows that the period to which Mr. Sartwell refers has seen widespread interest in public art that engages the viewer through sound as well as sight; that incorporates organic materials as well as inorganic and demonstrates wit and a probing intelligence about the void it purports to fill.

The issue that I think Mr. Danilowicz's work raises is that of public space in the urban environment. What might the role of artistic intelligence be in improving and enlivening the plaza? Can art humanize the concrete jungle?

Or, to paraphrase Mr. Sartwell, can and should public art create the opportunity for people to feel something, see something or do something?

I am charmed by the idea of Mr. Danilowicz's project, and applaud his imagination, intelligence and ambition. I would even venture to say that I wish all public art were as engaging.

But this is not uncharted territory young Mr. Danilowicz has ventured into. So why not offer us all a more thoughtful and, dare I say, useful exegesis of the object and its artistic antecedents?

Ellen B. Cutler

Aberdeen

The writer is an art historian and a free-lance writer.

The headline on Crispin Sartwell's article championed Nathan Danilowicz's front porch as "A new direction for public art."

I would suggest that the direction is not new at all.

The real porch was always there in its original context of rural Pennsylvania - and in its new context, the porch has become an abstract, contrived icon - just as an abstract sculpture in the form of a twisted girder at a contrived arts festival becomes an icon of its former context at a construction site.

Indeed, as a formally instructed artist working through a process of curatorial selection, Mr. Danilowicz is right in the middle of the old, worn path of public art.

And, deep in its foundation, all art in America is public art - art created by some segment of the public or on behalf of some segment of the public.

There are many different colors in the spectrum of public art -or, one might say, many flavors of ice cream.

The trouble is that all the flavors don't make it onto the ice cream truck and the truck is driven and managed by two select groups - artists and art curators - not the public at large.

Mr. Danilowicz has created an abstract icon - an icon of the rural. And, like artists who came before him, he is a specialist (an artist) whose work has won the approval of another specialized group - the curators. And that is why his artwork is on the truck.

If this is not a new direction in public art, where might one be found? I would suggest the solution is not to create public art but to instill art into the public. All of the public.

This means that artists could discover new roles. They could teach the public skills and techniques to do art but trust ordinary folk with the execution and composition.

The curators also might adapt to this new direction. This would mean trusting ordinary citizens, rather than just the "artists," and putting any flavor on the truck.

Mr. Sartwell does raise an interesting concern: Why is it that public art follows trends? Because those consulted in its production are a narrow segment of the population, and trends within groups are a human trait.

To truly change the system and blaze a new direction, we must begin to trust the public at large with decisions about public art.

Maybe the ice cream truck can start letting us do the scooping, without the dominance of the artist or critic.

Conrad Bladey

Linthicum

The writer is a visionary artist.