- Anna Sowers has announced that the fundraiser to be held at Pazo on Sunday has sold out. It's to benefit the Johns Hopkins brain trauma research center, and to help folks like her husband Zach who was beaten unconscious and died of his injuries several months later during a robbery in "Patterson Park". See www.zachsowers.com. {No visible thongs, please!}
- Interestingly, the woman who had her house foreclosed on and became a "poster gal" for Acorn lived very close to where the Sowers bought their house during their years of hope in Baltimore after getting married and deciding to settle down here.
- It's Buz's sense that the area just north of the Creative Alliance (the old Patterson movie theater) is struggling to hold on. The criminal activity is splashing down from Baltimore street towards the south and Canton. Of course, the collapse of the economy and the housing market have not helped. A friend at the gym told me that his brother bought a house a couple of years ago in "Patterson Park", "near Canton" , but got transferred to Atlanta. Alas, he didn't get rid of it fast enough: now "bad people" have moved in and around the area, and he can't sell it or even rent it. He had one tenant for a while, but after they left, no one has even looked at it in 6 months.
- The lack of desirability for young professionals for living in Baltimore strikes us as somewhat alarming. In my little relocation consulting business, none of my last 5 clients rented in the city. And all were folks who the city desperately needs: fairly young, professional, and well-paid. We looked at a couple of city places on our tours, but they eventually all rented in Howard, Baltimore, or Anne Arundel counties. Now, full disclosure, it wasn't all because of concern for security or crime, but they loomed as large factors--as well as the schools.
- John Bergbower, a retired Baltimore Police major, and his crew at John Hopkins Medical Institutions are owed a debt of gratitude from all of us for coordinating the arrest of the Hopkins' Patient Services Clerk who stole the identity of a patient suffering from kidney failure, and might possibly be in danger of dying. Guantanamo Bay should be kept open to house persons like her, along with John Thain and Bernie Madoff. They should be made to listen to Andy Harris/Frank Kratovil ads for 23 hours a day til they confess and are reformed, and declared "rehabilitated". Sorta like Patuxent used to be. (Re: Defective Delinquents)
- Can you imagine how much identity theft goes on at other places, especially hospitals, that don't have dedicated investigative units, like Hopkins does? And, most of it is never detected as to the source. It's these clowns who have good jobs (that many people would die for), get greedy, and think that they can go on a spending spree. Oh, and think they're never going to get caught. We celebrate when one does get caught! [By the way, does anyone else notice that thieves and criminals always use their stolen money for goodies, like flat screen TVs, fancy cars, jewelry, and such---not to pay the BGE bill or put food on the table?]
- We see the president of the FOP is still pursuing the Commissioner on getting cops in uniform to work at bars and nightclubs. Wonder what's up with that? Are our police having trouble putting food on the table? Are they missing the pretty women that much? They are really pissed at him about this. Maybe this is why he acceded to their desires to keep them secret when they shoot and kill. Just to placate them a bit.
- Buz has noticed the Mad River Grille in Federal Hill had a "cattle call", oops, open house for their search for new bouncers at their fine establishment. Hmmm. Wonder why they've had turnover. Could it be getting too rough there without the Off-Duty Cops right outside the door at 2am? (by the way, Buz thinks they're security was pretty good, even without the cops).
- And all the bars at Cordish's Power Plant Live are looking fro security too (along with a bunch of other positions).
- And Buz is still reeling at David Simon's blast at the city police in the current issue of city paper for not revealing the names of officers who kill people. But, David, they're still reporting on city cops who get arrested for stealing stuff, and get fired for beating people up and stuff.
- Wow! That woman police officer opened up on that guy who had her in a headlock after a sergeant shot the guy; she shot him 10-15 times; I'll betcha she was pissed! I guess it's a good thing he was already dead: can you imagine A. Dwight Petit getting hold of her in a legal headlock concerning excessive use of force? It's a strange case on a number of different levels.
Whew! there's so much going on, there isn't time to write about it all! Comments, please ! ?!
