Interesting comment. Why do you hate Philly and what do you think Balto offers that Philly doesn't? Asking because I've also lived in both places.

Yeah...heard this before, as well as Baltimore being DC's most "Charming suburb." We honestly should have never reached a point where these sayings could exist given the 200+ years of history where Baltimore was ALWAYS a bigger city than DC---that streak came to an end with the 2020 Census. Baltimore really needs to invest in infrastructure to rebuild and regrow.

>Pittsburgh is the Wes Moore we just elected. Baltimore is the other Wes Moore.

🤣🤣🤣

This part. Baltimore is a city running significantly under capacity, and a city that for a number of reasons, has not been able to make the public investments in infrastructure needed to re-densify and grow---this is particularly true in the housing and transportation/transit sectors. A focus on upgrading housing stock and expanding mass transit infrastructure is an economic development and population growth strategy in itself. Given Baltimore's history as a major industrial hub and much larger city, the "Smalltimore" term actually bothers me a bit. For reference, as of the 2020 Census, Baltimore is smaller than Boston, DC, and Seattle for the first time in US history---if we had serious leadership around here, they would take note and be thinking in terms of what moves do we need to make to catch up and compete with these formerly "little sister" cities.

This is absolutely a vote of no confidence in the mayor and it's plain to see. The reality of the matter is this: take a look at Shorter's resume---the guy is highly educated, well-credentialed, with a career that has spanned across multiple higher-performing and more functionally governed municipalities than Baltimore. As intelligent as he is, he's assessed the trajectory/competency/quality of city government and decided that, with him being here for less than 2 years, it is no longer worth his professional time and efforts to support the Scott Administration, regardless of Shorter being the city's first administrator and believing that he is doing transformational work. So Shorter's departure is very telling.

On top of that, the spin job by Mayor Scott's Senior Communications Director, Monica Lewis, is nothing short of incredible.

>“I’m sure people will begin to wonder about turnover but it’s very clear that Mayor Scott and this administration view it as an honor when other municipalities tap talent that is here,” Lewis said. “We firmly believe that it’s a testament to the strides that are being taken in the administration. People are not picked for opportunities like this unless they are doing great work.”

No Monica; we aren't stupid. Shorter was talented when he got here, not because working for Baltimore City government suddenly fostered development of his talents, sufficient to bring Prince William County knocking at our door to tap him as a new hire with them. Shorter doesn't believe in the vision and went looking for something else; his departure is NOT a testament to the strides being taken in the Scott Administration. It's more than slightly condescending on Lewis' part to think that anyone would go for this line of reasoning.

>Also, when a certain party finally realizes that its shrinking demographic of voters needs to be more diverse and they stop being so blatantly anti-immigrant and racist, most immigrants will switch parties because most are religious and socially conservative, which will severely hurt the other party in many states and cities.

This part. Well-stated and very insightful.

The former Cinebistro is re-opening under new management and branding in the near future. See here.