What’s holding Baltimore back? Political leadership, survey respondents say (2013, city hall)

[Infinite_heights77]

http://http://www.baltimorebrew.com/...spondents-say/

What’s holding Baltimore back? Political leadership, survey respondents say

By 10 to 1, we identify our city more with "The Wire" than "The Ravens."

Fern Shen October 14, 2013 at 2:19 pm Story Link 3
In an online survey, City Hall is fingered as the city’s biggest problem.
Photo by: Mark Reutter


Asked what is the single biggest obstacle keeping Baltimore from reaching its potential, respondents to the Warnock Foundation’s online survey has some answers that would surprise few outside Baltimore.
Crime and poverty were high on the list, coming in at 2 and 3.
But the No. 1 “single biggest obstacle” was not one of those familiar urban ills conjuring images of bullet casings or boarded-up houses. It was political leadership – by a wide margin.
That diagnosis was one of several findings reported today by the Baltimore-based foundation after its admittedly non-scientific month-long survey, “Speak up, Baltimore!” (So far, nearly 400 people have participated in the online poll.)
(Source Warnock Foundation survey)

Seeking public input on the state of the city, the foundation has been running ads in local Baltimore-area online publications (including The Brew) and using email and social media, to ask people to answer a series of questions about the city’s strengths, as well as its weaknesses.
While “political leadership” was cited as the biggest obstacle by 23%, the city’s biggest strength was said to be “its people” by 28% of respondents.
David L. Warnock, chairman and founder of the Foundation, said in an email he was struck by “the resourceful, creative people” who expressed gratitude for being simply asked what they thought.
“However, Baltimore is still a city whose residents are more likely to identify with the Wire than the Ravens, at a rate of more than 10 to one,” he said.
One of America’s Greatest Cities?
Warnock, a co-founder of the Camden Partners private equity firm, said the findings in the survey are intended to guide his foundation in future projects.
Among the top problems the city faces: poverty, drugs and education, survey respondents said. Its top three assets, according to respondents: universities, medical community and geography.
Only 16% of respondents said Baltimore is one of America’s greatest cities. But a full 66% think we should aspire to be one. Could we do it within five years? Most were skeptical but almost half said we could.
Demographic differences turned up as well, in the survey answers, the foundation says. African-Americans, for instance, were more likely to name “the gap between rich and poor” as an obstacle. Older respondents ranked tax structure higher and poverty lower than the group of respondents as a whole.
What about those hard-to-quantify characteristics of Charm City? The survey asked people to write an answer to that question and the results became a word cloud.
To see a full description and analysis of the results, go here.

[Infinite_heights77]

Obviously, this is a non-scientific survey, but still funny and insightful.

So, 28% of those polled think that Baltimore's residents (people who live there) are assets to the city. They smoke crack, and probably was smoking crack when they took this survey. Please..give me a break!!??

[Infinite_heights77]

Most of the political leadership comes from the local litany of strange fellows and madams cut from the same provincial mainframe we call Baltimore City. So, how can you separate Baltimore's political leadership with "the people who live there" if they're all from the same area ??!! If the political leadership is the extension of the broader city/county/state population, it's just different sides of the same coin?!

[Woodlands]

These type of surveys are always interesting and often shows the ambivalence of society.. One the one hand "political leadership" is the greatest obstacle.. but the "people who live here" are the greatest asset? Well politicians "live here" and so do the people who put them in office so it would stand to reason that resident should put the politicos out.. though I know its not that simple based on the slate of candidates that usually run in the city.. The other interesting one is Obstacle "Education" Asset "Schools" ? Go Figure.. I guess if you peel that onion.. the Obstacle is probably focusing on K-12 Education and the Asset is Higher Education opportunties given the amount of Colleges/Universities in the area. The final one is "Civic Involvement" and "Neighborhoods" in terms of the Obstacle/ Asset spectrum.. nice neighborhoods would seem like it would coincide with civic involvement most of the time.. The more active or involved residents are the more likely they are to enjoy their neighborhood.. On the other hand I can see people being very active and involved in their neighborhood.. say Harlem Park in West Baltimore.. pretty active community.. but since they are not getting much support from the City and other neighbors and crime/litter etc is still occurring.. their activism seems to be in vain and leads to apathy or for the activists to become antagonistic towards inactive neighbors, the City other neighborhoods in the City that they may feel are getting something that they arent.....