I know Baltimore. O'Malley was mayor. I know of no information suggesting he was corrupt or violence prone. The dismaying level of Baltimore violence was, in its excess, largely drug related, protracted, difficult to stop, and manifestation of an East Coast problem using abandoned neighborhoods in a city of declining population as its warzone. The worst of the phenomenon mostly occurred in the 1990s. Mayor Schmoke, the citys mayor at the time could hardly be blamed; perhaps he might have done better to end it.
One unheralded impact upon Baltimore that has done and continues to do some good is the Federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and its multiple amendments. The banking industry's red-lining practices turned large areas of Baltimore abandonable [were such a word to exist]. Red-lining seeps; its contagious. Neighborhoods adjacent to red-lined neighborhoods, get red-lined. It wasnt only that poor people couldnt get mortgages, rehabbers, risk takers, entrepreneurs, speculators, all of those actors the good, bad, or ugly could not move in to turn around this once valuable real estate; even if they personally had funds, they would not because others couldnt and wouldnt give them the profit theyd pursue.
By the 1990s, Baltimore began changing. It was awash with development. Its taken a long time. We now see a difference. That murder rate is halved. Abandoned war-zoned neighborhoods are shrinking. A succession of mayors made some difference, Im sure. I had great hopes in Mayor Schmoke; he was erudite, committed, and promising. I dont think he accomplished much but cant rule out his having laid foundation. Concurrent with OMalleys administration we witnessed lots of change; Im cant remember scandal. When elected Governor, O'Malley was succeeded by Mayor Dixon, sister of basketball star Juan Dixon; she become a subject of scandal and was removed from office to be replaced by the current Mayor Rawlings Blake.
Incidentally, I for one think the Dixon scandal was comparatively minor. As City Council President she had accepted gifts from her boyfriend without reporting them as required by law. We dont think she was hiding graft, we think she was hiding the extent of her involvement with a married man; when that failed she got nailed on evidence she had used gift cards donated to her as mayor for the benefit of needy people for personal use. She plea-bargained. I believe she did it. I believe it is wrong. She should have known better and known to be fastidious and scrupulous about such things, but it is hardly evidence of a scandal-ridden and corrupt city.
Baltimore is, however, home to lots of entertaining TV cop series about corruption, murder and drug violence. These TV episodes show something which is real, no denying; they just don't show 100 times as much as equally real which is not corrupt or violent.
