A Saturday Night Stroll Through The Neighborhood

It was a hot day today, the 4th Saturday of July, and I waited until the evening to get outside of my central Towson apartment. A walk around the neighborhood yielded some rather interesting observations about Baltimore's economy. I noticed that the restaurants within walking distance of my apartment in on Allegheny Avenue in central Towson were nearly empty, leading me to believe that people in Baltimore still don't have money to spend.

Then I went for a walk in Towsontowne Mall and made a rather interesting discovery. This is the premier shopping destination in the Baltimore area north of downtown. The Martin & Osa store inside the mall was to close the following day, despite being open for less than two years. What this says is that Baltimoreans do not want to spend a lot of money on clothing since this is definitely an upscale store with very high prices.

Later on, I noticed that The Cheesecake Factory and Stoney River Legendary Steak restaurants were filled nearly to capacity with customers. These restaurants are visible from Dulaney Valley Road, a major thoroughfare leading to the mall, and near new parking garages. What this says is that Baltimoreans are car-oriented, generally notice restaurants within walking distance of a parking spot, and usually prefer well-known places to eat.

I conclude my evening by researching The Elkhart Project on MSNBC's web site (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29976394/ns/business-stocks_and_economy). The most recent data compares May 2010 wit May 2009. The most striking information is that housing starts are almost 60% higher in Baltimore and Towson, but employment is down 0.65% for the same period. Housing starts in the Washington D.C. area are up between 30 and 40%. Employment in this area is up anywhere between 0.08% and 0.13%. This suggests that some people are choosing to live in Baltimore for its cheaper real estate prices, but work in Washington, D.C., which has higher wages. Martin O'Malley may want to increase the frequency of MARC trains as a result.

Don Blankenship Speech and Aftermath

In an incredible display of arrogance in July, Blankenship talked about America's $13 trillion debt and how Americans are losing their jobs. He said business always looks for low-cost labor and Americans need low-cost electricity. "Green jobs" have trumped "American jobs". I watched one of my friends, along with two others from the Rainforest Action Network, hold signs saying "Massey Coal - Not Clean, Safe, or Forever," when someone asked Blankenship a question about mountaintop removal coal mining.

Since this speech at the National Press Club, Blankenship has even tried buying off the families of the victims of the Upper Big Branch Disaster, reaching settlements with four of them, possibly between $3-5 million each.(http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4437998)

I find these settlements to be laughably low. They likely included provisions that these families could no longer pursue any additional litigation, including criminal indictments of executives, against Massey. It is now seven months since the Upper Big Branch explosion took the lives of 29 miners. But, the one slightly positive thing is that the people of West Virginia did not buy into Tea Party type candidate John Raese for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Robert Byrd. Based on his history as an executive, Raese likely would have loosened mine safety regulations if elected. The winner of the election, Joe Manchin, certainly got some votes because he will likely push for tougher mine safety laws. Manchin's problem is that he still supports mountaintop removal coal mining.

Don Blankenship Speech at National Press Club

Don Blankenship, guilty of running his mines in an unsafe manner to maximize profits, is speaking today to members of the National Press Club. On April 5th, 29 of his miners died in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, WV. There will be numerous environmental activists attending this luncheon. There have been 52 mining deaths over the past 10 years. This is all in addition to the damage caused by mountaintop removal coal mining. If I were in attendance, would ask him these questions:

1) Do you understand how many lives you have endangered by subjecting your miners to unsafe, deadly working conditions?

2) Do you understand that the 29 lives lost on April 5th meant dozens more lives wrecked?

3) Do you understand that thousands of people in Appalachia have dirty drinking water, due to the explosives used by your company to flatten mountains?