mobtown_misanthrope

mobtown_misanthrope t1_jde9qsx wrote

Oh, and Fells Point is cool and all, but definitely get yourself a $20 dat pass on the water taxi and check out some other neighborhoods like Federal Hill and Canton.

In Fells Point, do go by Cat's Eye for live music (365 days per year), Max's for a massive beer selection, Bertha's (if it's still open at that point) to get your sticker and some mussels, Pierpoint for some non-traditional smoked crab cakes, Blue Moon for brunch, Captain James Landing (water side deck, not the big boat building) for steamed crabs. Check out the Broadway market.

Do not go to Choptank.

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mobtown_misanthrope t1_jde7v1z wrote

In descending order of spendiness:

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mobtown_misanthrope t1_j8u1lt2 wrote

Yep!

The free bus (the purple line of the Charm City Circulator [CCC]) that goes from Mt. Vernon to downtown picks up at the Washington Monument (Charles and Monument St.—as does the JHU shuttle, which you can just hop on if it comes first). Southbound CCC picks up at St. Paul and Madison or St. Paul and Centre. So you can easily hop on and save some steps either way if you want. The Circulator runs approximately every 15-20 minutes (supposedly), though it does not run late at night.

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mobtown_misanthrope t1_j8u0jkf wrote

I lived in Mt. Vernon for 11 years without a car, mostly before Uber etc. existed. It's profoundly walkable.

If you walk downtown along Charles, stop into Mick O'Sheas for a pre-game drink/snack!

ETA: You'll also find plenty of scooters, e-bikes, and a N/S free bus route.

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mobtown_misanthrope t1_j8ot4cd wrote

Thirding Revival. Reasonable prices, smack in the middle of interesting architecture/famous shit/decent bars and restaurants/, few tourists vs. downtown, and a good community member that supported displaced businesses and ran food giveaways during the pandemic. Hotel Indigo meets many of those criteria as well, though a bit farther from Ottobar.

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mobtown_misanthrope t1_j8o6gx8 wrote

tl;dr: ask follow up questions!

I feel like this article (like many in the Banner, sadly) could have been much more informative and useful if the reporter had dug a bit deeper in his interviews. In particular, most of the owners interviewed said they would take down their parklets because the $10/sqf fee was prohibitive. OK, ask what fee would be viable for them? Would you be comfortable with $5/sqf? $7? $3? Should there be a low fee to start, with a timed escalation over 2-3 years to give you time to determine the ROI? Would credits/discounts based on quality of facility design, etc. be useful?

Especially when combined with newly-imposed design standards, if you're asking people to pay a (potentially) prohibitive fee and ALSO spend even more on a (non-permanent) redesign/redevelopment of what they have already paid for—all without a strong idea of the revenue that it will generate minus the pandemic influence—we're just going to lose the amenity and the city is going to lose any potential revenue. There needs to be a balance struck between city revenue, aesthetic considerations, and the fact that these business owners really don't know what that ROI is going to be in a changed environment. An article like this could have jumpstarted that conversation, but as is, basically reiterates what we've already heard in other outlets and in the survey.

More broadly, this is an issue I've seen in all the coverage of this issue—the city set an arbitrary $10/sqf rate, and there seems to have been no substantial public discussion at all about whether that's the appropriate rate or not—just a zero sum alternative that there should be no fees. Dig deeper, Banner (or Sun, or Beat, or whatever).

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