This is the last weekend for the Zoo

The Zoo now closes every winter for the months of January and February, and this gives you only a few more days to enjoy it before it goes into hibernation.

As many of you know, I have been working on the committee that is dealing with the new Northwest Baltimore Park, formerly known as the UB Fields. Part of what I am hearing is the people value undeveloped parkland where they can walk and enjoy the day. I also hear that people want playgrounds. So far, nobody has asked for Giraffes.

My point here is that the Baltimore Zoo (I am still in denial about the name change to "The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore") offers a lot of what people tell me they want. The Zoo has wonderful vistas, hilly terrain, tall trees, and grassy open areas. It also has a great new playground. And giraffes.

What is amazing to me, though, is that the zoo is mostly empty. Nearly any weekend you will find fewer than two dozen cars in the parking lot. I visited in the rain a few years ago (the animals don't seem to care about getting wet) and ours was the ONLY car in the parking lot. We had the entire place to ourselves.

So why aren't people visiting? The Sun reported this week that the Zoo is asking the state to double the funding level and cites poor attendance as one of their biggest challenges. To me, this is just nuts. Think about it. You love it. Your kids love it. It's beautiful, and you can practically roam the place in solitude.

So get there while you can. Hours are Sunday through Thursday 10-4, Friday and Saturday 10-4:30. More information HERE.

This weekend is it. You won't get another chance until March. Enjoy.

Upcoming Community Meetings

Next Western Run Greenway Meeting

The Rescheduled 2nd western Run Input meeting is Tuesday, 1/16/2007 at 7pm at Cross Country Elementary. This is the meeting at which the city will present it's final proposals for the Greenway.

Next MWIA Open Meeting

Our open meeting of the MWIA will be held on Tuesday, December 19, 7:30pm at the Wesley Home. Delegate Sandy Rosenberg and Senator Lisa Gladden will join us to discuss the legislative agenda for the upcoming session. Please try to attend.

School Transportation Meeting

There is another meeting at 5:30pm the same night at the Elementary School to discuss the bus routes in Mt. Washington with officials from the Department of Transportaion. We will focus specifically on the need for a bus to connect our neighborhood with the Roland Park Middle School. Currently, kids assigned to this school may need to transfer buses as many as 4 times to get to school. Thanks to Stephanie Regenold for spearheading this issue.

Sun Editorial on City Video Poker Bill

The Sun editorialized on this horrible "amusement device" bill today. It sums it up nicely and it's worth taking a moment to read. Click HERE.


I spoke with Mary Pat Clark this morning on this bill, and we quickly agreed: this bill makes no sense for Baltimore. Here is the email I sent to the City Council:

Dear Madam President and Members of the Baltimore City Council-

My name is Aaron Meisner. I am a resident of Mt. Washington and have for the last three years served as the Chairman of StopSlotsMaryland, the state-wide coalition that successfully fought Governor Ehrlich's ill-advised attempts to bring massive gambling expansion to Maryland. My opposition is not based on religion or some traditionalist view of how people should behave, but is really rooted in the fundamentals of democracy. When government gets in bed with the gambling industry, the result is a regressive tax that preys on the poor and uneducated in an effort to enrich the well-connected.

With this in mind, I write you today to express my alarm over Bill 05-0294 on so-called Amusement Devices.

We all know that when we refer to "amusement devices" we are primarily referring to illegal video poker and slot machines. These devices have proved to be impossible to regulate, and this situation has brought some unwanted publicity to our City from the Abell Foundation, Comptroller-elect Peter Franchot, and now the Baltimore Sun editorial of today. The impression is that we are ignoring, and even encouraging, obviously illegal activities and that we simply don't have the resources or the will to stand up to this industry and protect the people of Baltimore and the financial interests of the City.

As you are probably aware, gambling has been viewed as detrimental to society for thousands of years, and for good reasons. Gambling, especially high-speed electronic gambling like slot machines and video poker, is highly addictive. This addiction leads to bankruptcy, crime, divorce, domestic violence, and embezzlement. Most importantly, gambling always brings with it trail of corruption. We have seen this already with abuses of the campaign finance system and legislators running afoul of conflict of interest guidelines.

Yet many states have made the difficult and sad decision to allow the gambling industry to come in and victimize their citizens and families. The justification for this is always the same: Money. When gambling is legalized it does at least create a stream of tax revenue. While I personally agree with the many economists who see this revenue as inadequate to offset the massive social costs that gambling brings, at least this money can be used by states and municipalities to do some good.

What we have here, though, is a compromise the likes of which the world has never seen. The bill that was passed out of committee this week gives us the worst of both worlds. We get a doubling of the use of highly addictive gambling machines, a massive increase in the number of locations, and NONE of the revenues that would seem logical given such a decision. I find it frankly mind-boggling. While I have seen the gambling industry make some sweet deals, this bill takes the cake.

I urge you to vote against this bill when it comes before you for second reader. If you have questions about this issue, I am available to either meet with you in person or discuss the matter by phone at 410-963-7718.
Thank you for considering this issue with the care that it deserves.

Aaron Meisner

Rikki Spector and City Council Land Use Committee Pass a Slots Bill

While slot machines remain illegal in the state of Maryland, most people don't realize that Baltimore has a huge problem with illegal slot machines at bars and restaurants. Have you ever ducked into a Hampden pizza joint or similar kind of establishment and seen four or five video poker machines lined up against a wall? Technically these machines are "amusement devices" and only take money with no capacity to pay out. However, many of these places make under-the-table cash payouts to in-the-know patrons.

So what's the harm? As it turns out, plenty.

First, this kind of gambling has proved to be addictive, harmful to families, and regressive. Those who use (and lose) most aggressively are almost always those who cannot afford the losses. I had a conversation with a guy who owned a handful of rental houses in Hampden and Remington. He complained that these machines were often cleaning out his tenants who would then fall behind in rent and eventually be evicted. Not pretty if you the child of the addicted gambler.

Many states have acted to decriminalize gambling over the last decade. The taboo has been broken and states have themselves become addicted to gambling revenue in place of more legitimate taxes. But at least there are revenues to be had. With Baltimore's black market slot machines, the gambling revenues are untaxed. This means that the society bears the costs of the devastation while collecting NOTHING to offset those costs.

So who supports this measure? The tavern owners, of course. They are making more money on illegal machines than they are on selling food and drink. In fact, Councilman Ed Reisinger, who pushed the bill and chairs the committee that passed it, himself owns a bar that the Sun found had an illegally large number of machines.

Yesterday, the Council's Land Use and Transportation Committee passed the bill which will now go to the full City Council for an up or down vote. And guess who voted for this ridiculous bill? Your Councilwoman, Rikki Spector. You can email her HERE or you can give her a call at 410-396-4819.

This bill is bad for Baltimore and will cost us. And as with every gambling measure, it benefits only a few special interests who are abusing the political system.