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January 31, 2000

The Honorable Martin O’Malley
City Hall
Room 250
100 North Holliday Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

Dear Mayor O’Malley,

As a coalition of organizations concerned about transportation decisions, curbing sprawl, and revitalizing Baltimore City and its inner suburbs, we would like to congratulate you on assuming the office of Mayor and express our interest in working with you and your administration on transportation-related issues in the Baltimore region. As you may know, the Baltimore Regional Partnership is a collaboration of civic organizations such as the Citizens Planning and Housing Association and the Baltimore Urban League, environmental organizations like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Environmental Defense (formerly the Environmental Defense Fund), and the new anti-sprawl organization, 1000 Friends of Maryland.

We share your concern about retaining businesses in downtown Baltimore, and we would be glad to work with you and your administration toward that goal. Ultimately we would like to see a Baltimore region where tax incentives are not necessary to retain downtown businesses. Given the current regional reality, however, we believe the form of those incentives has important consequences for shaping downtown Baltimore for the future.

We hope that your recent successful effort to retain CareFirst's offices downtown provides an opportunity for us to begin a dialogue with you and your staff on downtown transportation issues and potential City incentives to employers. We understand CareFirst's parking and public safety concerns as related in the Baltimore Sun, but we are concerned that the continued use of subsidized parking as a currency for incentives could adversely affect the future of downtown. We are concerned, for example, that an emphasis on subsidized parking could undermine efforts to bolster transit service, hurt parking availability for tourists, aggravate rush-hour traffic congestion, and detract from the vibrant pedestrian nature of downtown, which we see as a crucial element in ensuring downtown public safety.

We believe that Baltimore City is currently in an ideal situation to take advantage of exciting opportunities to promote downtown to various employers while ensuring that available parking space is used as efficiently as possible and that alternatives to driving are as attractive as possible. We have a number of ideas that we would be glad to share with you and your staff, and we would welcome the opportunity for a small group of us to meet with you at your earliest convenience. Our director, Dan Pontious, and other members of the Partnership are currently in contact with Lisa Raimundo of the Downtown Partnership, who we know is working closely with your administration. We will be sharing our ideas with her as well.

Again, congratulations on your recent election as Mayor of Baltimore and on the launching of your administration. We hope to work with you to enhance downtown Baltimore and will contact your staff to explore a meeting. Feel free to have your office contact our director Dan Pontious at (410) 385-2910 or at danp@friendsofmd.org if you have any questions in the meantime.

Sincerely,

Andrew D. Sawyers
Director, Environment Program
Baltimore Urban League
512 Orchard Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

Cc: Lisa Raimundo, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore

Baltimore Regional Partnership · 512 Orchard Street  · Baltimore, MD 21201-1947
 phone: (410) 523-8150  x249 · fax: (410) 523-4022