Open Letter To The Rawling's Administration

We submitted a job creation proposal to the City of Baltimore Deputy Mayor for Economic Development on November 19, 2014 (and a few times thereafter). After numerous false starts, the current Rawling’s administration chief of staff finally directed the Deputy Mayor to respond to our proposal. A relatively low level assistant from his office contacted us shortly thereafter asking a series of predictable questions relative to what other organizations we had approached for assistance in Baltimore city.

We declined to answer specifically for obvious reasons but told her generally ‘all the economic development corporations’ encompassing Baltimore. In our experience progressive, fiscally responsible, well managed municipalities practically always entertain and, often, materially assist public-private partnerships that may (but not necessarily) lead to employment opportunities for its residents.

Both the low level functionary as well as the Deputy Mayor stridently insisted on demanding this information before scheduling a meeting as if their time was so invaluable intentionally mischaracterizing our request claiming that it was “extraordinary.” Being in business for well over twenty years, we were stunned because we knew it simply was not true. Cities large and small frequently enter into public-private partnerships to grow jobs. Fast forward, 8 months.

Baltimore erupts into rioting after a young, 25 year old Black man is killed by Baltimore City Police officers who lacked probable cause to stop and arrest him in the first place. An impoverished underclass weary at being victimized by a small violent segment of their community, who the police unfairly generalize to brutalize the remaining law abiding community, had had enough.

The consensus from every segment of the city is that people wanted jobs. Opportunities for upward mobility out of lead ridden, drug and crime drenched, rat, roach and bedbug infested Ghettos that characterize the abysmal mismanagement evident in Baltimore: a major East coast port city that has not been able to monetize that invaluable attribute like its sisters to the north - Philly and NYC - because of corruption, indolence, ineptitude and cronyism. Enter New York City where our home office is located. A city substantially larger than Baltimore with a police force ten (10) times its size as a consequence.

New York City’s Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen for Economic Development is creating a pathway of career success for thousands of local women who come from underserved communities. The new initiative, Women Entrepreneurs NYC, also known as WE NYC, will offer free training and business services to 5,000 female entrepreneurs in the next three years. Offering loan negotiation workshops, connections to capital, pro-bono legal assistance, and navigating government resources, Glen has partnered with the Department of Small Business Services (SBS), Citi and Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Business program to help make this new initiative possible.

Under this new partnership, Citi is providing $425,000 to help New York City Housing Authority Residents launch their own business, while Goldman Sach’s will help to educate the entrepreneurs on how to access capital. Grameen America will provide the women with further business-building services and LaGuardia Community College will offer intensive entrepreneurship classes to help the women successfully navigate their way in the marketplace.

The facts are immutable while the contradictions glaring. We do not do business by intimidation. But we are at a crossroads here with federal, state and local leadership that is utterly failing Baltimore city residents. Beyond being businesspersons, we are also vested in this city, have property here, lost a substantial amount of it, and cannot stand by in good faith and allow this mismanagement to continue unfettered negatively impacting our business, the city’s residents, while wholly unconcerned, inept policymakers and out-of-their-depth stakeholders ignore our pleas, insult our intelligence, and continue dissembling: fiddling while [Baltimore] burns.

We have had it. Perhaps our impatience stems from our New York roots where we do not tolerate fools lightly. But never have we seem such incompetence, inconsideration and shameful disregard for the residents of a city in over twenty (20) years in business in some of the worst areas of NYC. We want an investigation into this administration. How these high level policy makers are vetted, recruited and retained.

Baltimore is not a Boy’s club. It is a major American city. The seventh largest in the country and, as such, demands competent leadership. If we as a mature, seasoned business cannot get an audience with persons charged with the mission of expanding economic opportunity and development in Baltimore, need anyone wonder why the city looks like it does? Has the socio-economic issues it does? And residents feel disillusioned and hopeless as they do?

We will make ourselves available to answer questions from the media relative to these charges, which we bring with extreme regret. But fair is fair. And Baltimore – a city we've grown to love – deserves much better innovative, think outside-of-the-box leadership, not wet-behind-the-ears, in-over-their-head arrogant cronies of the current city administration antagonistically calling young, misguided, disaffected students “thugs” on national television…