VoB SELECTS: INVESTIGATIVE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB

Hand-lettered ‘Occupy Baltimore’ signs at Mc- Keldin Square, Light St., Inner Harbor, looking south from Pratt St. Protesters in New York City were evicted early Tues. a.m. by police decked out in riot gear. (VoB File Photo/Bill Hughes)

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR, POLICE FORCE
EVICT ZUCCOTTI PARK PROTESTERS
UNDER  COVER  OF  DARKNESS

A nearly two-month-long occupation of a New York City park that spread to similar protests in cities large and small throughout the U. S. came to an abrupt end Tuesday as police in riot gear forcibly evicted protesters from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in an early-morning raid.

The park was reopened later in the day after a judge upheld the city’s clearing of the Lower Manhattan venue and right to bar the protesters from camping out or returning with their tents.

As of late in the day it was unclear if the movement could continue without a place to protest.

Occupy Together demonstrations in other cities, including Baltimore, have come under similar fire from public officials concerned about health hazards and ongoing habitation of parks as well as other public spaces by demonstrators protesting Wall Street greed.

In Baltimore, the city cut off electric power two weeks ago to McKeldin Square, a section of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor at Pratt and Light Streets, where protesters have been encamped since early October, citing safety concerns and fire hazards.

Protesters had been plugging computers, TV sets and kitchen appliances into outlets at the base of lampposts. Streetlights however have remained illuminated.

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Valves controlling steam heat for Zion Lutheran Church, Baltimore City Fire Department Headquarters and the Peale Museum are located beneath Sonar nightclub on East Saratoga St. Along with other officials, the President of the City Council convinced the club's landlord to allow the steam provider access to the valves. (VoB Photos/Anthony C. Hayes)

I got f’sssssteam heat,
I got f’sssssteam heat,
…but I need your love
to keep away the cold.
—‘The Pajama Game’

ICY  IMPASSE  BROKEN
AS PUBLIC OFFICIALS
WARM  THINGS  UP

Council Pres. Young & others
ride to Zion Church’s rescue

By Anthony C. Hayes

An icy impasse in the effort to restore heat to Zion Church of Baltimore was finally broken this week when an access agreement was reached between steam supplier Veolia Energy and JBL Real Estate, owner of the adjacent Sonar nightclub property through which the church’s steam pipes run.

The church had not had heat — specifically steam heat — since mid-October.

Baltimore City’s Fire Department Headquarters, located in the same block of East Lexington Street as the church, had also been without heat for several weeks, as was the Peale Museum, located next door to the church on Holliday Street, less than a block from City Hall.

Parishioners, who sat bundled up for a chilly Reformation Day service just over a week ago, were assisted in getting the heat turned back on by representatives from the Mayor’s Office, the office of the City Council President, and the Downtown Partnership, a quasi-public nonprofit corporation charged with getting “things done” for downtown Baltimore.

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Incumbent 13th District City Councilman Warren Branch turned back determined challenge of former television reporter Shannon Sneed to win by 201 votes.

COUNCIL’S STATUS QUO PREVAILS,
ALL WRITE-IN CANDIDATES FAIL;
NO REPUBLICANS ARE ELECTED

Branch turns back strong challenge
from TV reporter Shannon Sneed
in  13th  Councilmanic  District

Thirteenth District Baltimore City Councilman Warren M. Branch survived a strong write-in challenge Tuesday to retain his seat and serve a second term on the council, edging out challenger Shannon Sneed by just over 200 votes.

With all 290 precincts reporting at 10:55 p.m., unofficial results showed Branch with 1691 votes to Sneed’s 1490.

Libertarian Ronald M. Owens-Bey received 160 votes in the 13th, where there was no Republican candidate.

Although there were write-in candidates in each of the city’s 14 councilmanic districts, as well as for mayor, City Council president and comptroller, other than Sneed none came close to mounting a significant challenge to any of the Democrats listed on the ballot.

Nor did any of the Republicans, in this city that has not elected a member of the GOP to district office since the mid-1930s, and has had only one Republican mayor since that time, in the 1940s and 1960s.

Democrat Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake was reelected mayor overwhelmingly, defeating Republican Alfred V. Griffin, 39,970 to 5,826. There were 1194 write-in votes in the mayor’s race.

Bernard C. “Jack” Young easily defeated Republican David A. Wiggins and Libertarian candidate Lorenzo Gaztanaga, 36,588 to 4,704 and 2,386 respectively.

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13th District write-in candidate Shannon Sneed, right, discusses strategy with volunteers Rodney Burris, left, and Abigail Breiseth, after obtaining promise of a vote from Melvin Davis, who can be seen peering around storm door in East Balto. (VoB Photos/Alan Z. Forman)

SNEED & INCUMBENT CONAWAY
BOTH HOPE TO BEAT THE ODDS
AND  TO  UPSET  THE  SYSTEM

Conventional wisdom:
Write-in candidates
have little chance

By Alan Z. Forman

Two African-American women stand ready to make electoral history in Maryland if either one or both can pull off a major upset Tuesday and do what has never been done before:  Win a write-in election to the Baltimore City Council.

As far as Voice of Baltimore can determine, no City Council member has ever been elected running as a write-in candidate, at least not in recent memory, and few have accomplished the feat anywhere else in the U.S.

Conventional wisdom holds that write-in candidates have little or no chance of winning election.

The women are Shannon Sneed, who lost a squeaker of a primary in September to incumbent Councilman Warren Branch (D-13th) by 43 votes; and incumbent Councilwoman Belinda Conaway (D-7th), who lost to challenger Nick Mosby by 653 votes out of 5,089 cast in her district.

In the 13th, of a total 4,573 votes in a five-candidate Democratic primary field, nearly 2,800 — over 61 percent — went against the incumbent Branch. The election was not decided until days after, when the counting of absentee ballots was completed. Late on election night, Sneed was still maintaining a slight lead.

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Zion Church of Balto., which holds services in German and English, is lo- cated at 400 East Lexington Street. The church had no heat on Sunday.

FIRE DEPT. HDQ.
ALSO AFFECTED

Entry fee demanded
from steam supplier

By Anthony C. Hayes

Services at Zion Church of Baltimore are generally filled with a warm, welcoming air, one befitting the congenial German congregation adjacent to City Hall, on East Lexington Street between Holliday and Gay Streets.

Parishioners attending this past Sunday were certainly greeted warmly, but there was a noticeable chill in the air:  The steam service which the church depends on to heat the 19th Century building was cut off, the casualty of a dispute between supplier Veolia Energy and JBL Real Estate, the owner of an adjacent property which houses Sonar nightclub.

Temperatures over the weekend dipped into the high 30s and low 40s.

From the pulpit, the Rev. Dr. Holger Roggelin, Zion Lutheran’s pastor, explained the situation:

The pipes and control valves that supply steam to Zion Church run through the basement of the Sonar nightclub building at 407 E. Saratoga Street. These same pipes, Dr. Roggelin told parishioners, which once heated Sonar, also supply steam to the city’s Fire Dept. Headquarters, located in the same block of East Lexington Street as the church.

Next door to Zion Lutheran, on Holliday Street, is the Peale Museum.

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