Tag: Pimlico

Our living messengers

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“We didn’t lose him, mind you – we gained so much knowledge from this man,” Christopher Johnson said of Congressman Elijah Cummings.

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2019/10/18/baltimore-mourns-its-native-son-and-champion/

Elijah Cummings and I were in the 1982 class of newly elected members of the House of Delegates. We knew each other from high school.

Elijah said, “City College was the first time I was in an integrated environment as an equal.”  He became an effective and passionate leader pursuing equality for all of us. We worked together to protect voting rights.

“Our children are our living messengers to a future we will never see.” I heard Elijah say that many times. Perhaps you did as well.

A quality education for all of our children, regardless of their background, is the goal of the Blueprint For Maryland’s future. It’s the work product of a commission chaired by Brit Kirwan, the highly respected former chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

This is the most important issue before the General Assembly. What standards do we set for our public schools and how do we fund them?

As you know, we’ve taken a big step forward in preserving the Preakness at Pimlico and redeveloping most of that land for commercial, residential, medical, and recreational uses.

What I did to bring this about is at http://www.delsandy.com/key-issues/pimlico-and-the-preakness/

 

Neglect it and they will still come.

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On Friday, Black Eyed Susan Day, the crowd at Pimlico set records for attendance and wagering.

Peter Schmuck, the Baltimore Sun sports columnist, was impressed by the Preakness Day numbers:

The announced attendance of 131,256 should remind everyone just how important the race is to the city of Baltimore and the record handle of $99,852,653 showed that the Derby controversy might have enhanced the attractiveness of the event — at least to the people that bet on the 14 races.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horse-racing/preakness/bs-sp-schmuck-preakness-column-20190518-story.html

People voted with their feet and their wallets to keep the Preakness at Pimlico.

Politicians pay a lot of attention to polls. In this instance, they should.

These new records came about despite the closure of the grandstand, resulting in a loss of 7,000 seats. The engineers’ report that prompted this action is still being kept from the public.

After the turnout this weekend, it will be difficult for the Stronach interests to argue in the legislature or a court room that the dilapidated condition of Pimlico constitutes a disaster or an emergency, what’s required under state law to move the race.

After plumbing failed again in women’s bathrooms on Preakness Day, it will also be difficult for the track owners not to repair that problem before next May.

“I’ve said all along I’d rather see it stay here in Baltimore,” Governor Larry Hogan said on Saturday. “We’re certainly hopeful that cooler heads can prevail.”

He then said he was…hopeful that discussions could move forward despite the lingering legal fight between the two sides.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horse-racing/preakness/bs-md-preakness-mainbar-20190518-story.html

I’m with Governor Hogan.

 

The Most Important Person

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I don’t care why a colleague is voting the right way.  That support helps us get to 71, the number needed to pass a bill.

That was my thinking as we gradually (over seven years) reached  the majority to repeal the death penalty.

Peter Schmuck’s column in yesterday’s Sun makes that point about moving the Preakness to Laurel – in the DC suburbs.

There already is a real question about how much excitement the Preakness — under any circumstances — will generate in the Washington area. Obviously, the hardcore horse racing fans in the Mid-Atlantic region will show up anywhere, but does anyone seriously believe the parochial affinity for the race and infield festival that generates annual six-figure crowds at Pimlico will somehow shift from Baltimore to Laurel?  

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horse-racing/bs-sp-why-moving-preakness-a-bad-idea-20190508-story.html

That’s not one of the arguments we’ve been making, but we will now.

This comes on the heels of the decision by Pimlico’s ownership to close a portion of the facility for safety reasons while refusing to make public the engineer’s study that prompted this action.

I went to Pimlico yesterday, the first day of the abbreviated spring meet.

I ran into a classmate from Pimlico Junior High.  He said that a horse trainer had told him that the racing surfaces at Pimlico – both dirt and grass, were superior to those at Laurel.  I had heard something similar from friends in the industry.

When I went to bet on the favorite in the sixth race, the teller recognized me from the polls for early voting.

It reminded me of Black Eyed Susan Day several years ago.

Waking through the crowd with a friend from college, I spoke with several people I knew from the legislature.

On the parking lot as we were leaving, someone I didn’t recognize thanked me for coming to his community meeting a few weeks earlier.

Afterwards, I turned to my college friend and said, “That’s the most important person I saw today.”

An asset that benefits the community

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Transforming Pimlico Race Course into an asset that benefits the community and region year round  and providing a quality education for all of our children.  These are my priorities – for the past 90 days in Annapolis and for the next four years. We made significant progress on these issues and others during this year’s legislative session.  I welcome your thoughts on what we achieved and what issues matter most to you.

As you know, Speaker Mike Busch passed away just before the session ended.  I was honored to offer a prayer before the House of Delegates in his memory.  I said, in part, “As this House, his team, his state evolved on issues, he did more than adjust to that change, he understood it.”

My full session summary is at http://www.delsandy.com/2019-session-summary/

Discussions

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Whatever happens in the remaining days of the legislative session, discussions about the future of Pimlico and the Preakness must take place afterwards.

That’s what the Maryland Stadium Authority study recommends.

That’s what the bill I testified for, House Bill 1190, would require.

That’s what I wrote a Baltimore Sun reporter this morning after reading this paragraph in an online article this morning.

But in a statement, the company indicated the city’s plan was a non-starter: “We don’t believe that hypothetical scenarios are in the best interest of the City, State or the thoroughbred racing industry as this just perpetuates delaying decisions.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-triple-crown-plan-20190401-story.html

I responded to the reporter:

To the contrary, further discussion of this Triple Crown proposal during the interim is an opportunity to transform the Pimlico property into a major economic, health care, and recreational hub, which would benefit all of the surrounding neighborhoods; keep the Preakness in Baltimore, which bolsters the region’s economy; and enhance Maryland’s racing industry,  which would thrive from public and private investment in Pimlico, Laurel, and Bowie. 

This afternoon, I was asked to participate in a program about the proposed Preakness move to Laurel.

The Stronach group is available for this panel discussion, the email said.

I hope the track owners are also available for discussion with the City and the State.

Too late

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“I’ll get that information to you next week,” the advocate told me.

“Next week will be too late,” I responded. “The session ends on Monday.”

If you don’t get it done by midnight Monday, it’s wait ‘til next year.

Just before the start of the day’s session is the best time to chat with a senator on the Senate floor. As a delegate, I have access to the chamber then.

However, the House and Senate have not begun our sessions at the same time the last two days.

I prefer to lobby people in person, but I do know how to text. That’s what I did this afternoon with a senator on a committee that heard my bill last week.

Regardless of the legislative outcome on the Preakness, the two weeks between the Kentucky Derby and this year’s race will be a good opportunity to make the case for keeping the race at Pimlico.

I already have a list of bills I want to work on for 2020, but they can wait, I remind myself.

Know the answer

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You don’t ask a question to which you don’t know the answer.

I learned that in law school.

Nowadays, you don’t ask a question to which Google doesn’t know the answer.

But you have to ask the right question.

The deplorable conditions of the living quarters for people who work and live on the backstretch of the Maryland race tracks owned by the Stronach Group has come to light recently.

I remembered that Jim Rouse, the developer of Columbia and Harborplace, had been involved in building these living quarters a while ago.

However, I didn’t know the name of the builder for the project. For Google to know the answer, I would need to know the builder’s name.

So I spoke with a housing activist, hoping that his memory would be better than mine.

It was. Jim Ryan was the builder.

Nearly 30 years ago, he was instrumental in building new facilities.

They haven’t received much attention since.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1992/10/21/after-backstretch-charity-ryan-back-in-owners-box/f50e77f0-fd1a-42b5-926d-75b8cc528576/?utm_term=.a3254c4b3921

Reasonable Adult Conversations

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Nothing concentrates the mind like a bill hearing.

Ditto for a lawsuit filed by the City of Baltimore asserting that the bill introduced by the owners of Pimlico Race Track is unconstitutional.

City Solicitor Andre Davis said it more lawyerly: “We are going all the way to the extent we need to in order to have reasonable adult conversations about what is best for Baltimore.”

That would not be the first time such conversations take place.

The owners of Pimlico, the State, and the City of Baltimore paid for and were full participants in the Maryland Stadium Authority’s study of the future of the Pimlico site.

The study concluded that a work group consisting of those three parties should discuss how to finance the redevelopment of the property.

That’s been the City’s position since we introduced House Bill 1090, Maryland Stadium Authority’s Pimlico Race Course Study Workgroup.

A Baltimore Sun editorial also discusses the lawsuit.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0321-pimilico-lawsuit-20190320-story.html

Not thirty miles down the road

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“Listen, they moved Yankee Stadium, the House That Ruth Built.”

An official of the company that owns Pimlico Race Track, Tim Ritvo, said that to the New York Times during Preakness Week of 2016.

I emailed him: “The Yankees moved across the street, not thirty miles down the road.”

I will recount that conversation when I testify tomorrow on House Bill 1190, which would create a work group to study how to finance the redevelopment of the Pimlico Race Track property, as proposed by a study commissioned by the Maryland Stadium Authority.

Racing facilities would be modernized, and commercial, medical, housing, and recreational facilities would be built on the rest of the property.

It was my idea for that study to be undertaken.

I did so after another Pimlico official said, “Right now, I’d say Laurel is in the lead [to host the Preakness].”

The owners of Pimlico are no longer masking the fact that they want to move the Preakness thirty miles down the road – to Laurel.

Track officials met with neighborhood leaders last weekend.

Their pitch: we will help you redevelop the property after we close the race track.

The community’s response: a unanimous no. We want to implement the Stadium Authority plan.

I will let the committee know of that statement as well.

A Pimlico bill

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Nothing concentrates the mind in Annapolis like a bill hearing.

We now have a Pimlico bill. In a few weeks, we’ll have a hearing.

Senate Bill 800 has been introduced by Senator Antonio Hayes. I will be introducing an identical bill in the House.

Our legislation would finish the work of the study undertaken by the Maryland Stadium Authority.

A seven-member panel would propose how this redevelopment project could be funded.

An article in the Baltimore Business Journal quotes me accurately and, if I may say so, effectively.

https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2019/02/06/maryland-bill-backed-by-pugh-would-extend-pimlico.html

 

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning