I take great exception to the very public extortion of Kevin Plank in the advertisement placed by Andrew Vincent of AHC Greater Baltimore.
There used to be a race track in Cherry Hill New Jersey called Garden State Park which was located fairly close to Philadelphia. Back when horse racing was a seasonal sport and horse racing was illegal in Pennsylvania, this New Jersey track was quite popular. Philadelphia legalized racing and the sport expanded to year round. The old structure in New Jersey was all wooden and went up like a tinder box in a horrible fire. Along came another rich man, Robert Brennan, who thought he could rebuild this once great track and compete at the highest level even with competition right up the block.
As a result, a state of the art racing facility was built and to justify it, purses commensurate to those at major tracks were offered. Since there simply weren't enough good class horses in existence to fill the new positions, cheap horses got to run for big purses. From a horse owners point of view, this was a great opportunity, but from a sports fan point of view, this was a very lackluster product and as such eventually it died on the vine from lack of support.
I have a friend in another state with a 450-unit garden apartment complex. He tries to run a tight ship in screening out people who will detract from his product. He is not a racist — he has people of every color and origin living in his development. Every time the government forces a Section 8 upon him, it results in trouble as people who don't sign the rent check do not appreciate the value of what they have. They bring with them troubles and bad habits — like public drinking, drugs, litter, roaches and bed bugs, blaring boom boxes and crime.
This creates a situation where the paying tenants who don't want to put up with this low-life situation move to another area. This is all well and good for them but my friend with his entire livelihood tied to this development gets left with empty apartments and no money to pay his creditors.
My suggestion to Mr. Plank is to stand up to this extortionist and if Councilman Carl Stokes, Mr. Vincent's ally, won't allow Port Covington to move forward, he should take his development to a city that appreciates such a gift.
Steven Davidson, New Windsor