Goals. Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon has lots of them. And little patience, as she said in her inaugural speech.
She needs fewer of the former and more of the latter to lead Baltimore out of its self-imposed wilderness. The famously buff Her Honor can?t run the city like one of her workouts. Sweating it out for 45 minutes with new programs will not transform drug addicts into model citizens nor incarcerate all of those with illegal guns.
We?ve been there, done that. Her predecessor shed police commissioners ? and crime plans, like a prom dress ? which contributed in no small part to the rise in murders this year.
Making Baltimore the “worst place in America” for those with illegal guns is going to take a long time. So will changing the culture to one that respects families, fatherhood and finishing school. Her vague proposed solutionsto those problems ? a Gun Task Force and GunStat ? to better track felons and a “Family Strengthening Platform” ? either already exist or reveal a need for quick fixes that don?t exist. A successful program for tracking and jailing felony gun offenders right now is Project Exile. Yet another partnership with local, state and federal law officials adds another layer of bureaucracy and line item on the budget.
And what makes her think that those most in need of listening will pay attention to a government program when they do not listen to relatives, friends and pastors?
What?s needed is not more of these “just do something” programs, but strong leadership, especially on the No. 1 goal that would fix many of Baltimore?s other problems: Cut property taxes in half.
True leadership means no more easy contracts for relatives? employers and fat pensions for Marcus Browns who don?t meet the qualifications and no more tolerance for bogus parking tickets and teachers unions that care more about safeguarding their benefits than teaching students.
Standing up against those things takes courage, not policy. City government flaws are not in the grand long-range plans, but in the day to day details of execution.
Mayor Dixon implicitly compared herself and the group of black women at the helm of the city in her inauguration speech by quoting Sojourner Truth, the former slave, turned author and abolitionist, who said, “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side again.”
We believe the quote. But she and her administration have yet to prove it. To do that she must focus on a few key goals and gain the great strengths of patient perseverance.
