The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 10

THE SSlk St IN 10A SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1993 MICHAEL J. DAVIES, Publisher J.R.L. STERNE, Editorial Page Editor JOHN S. CARROLL, Editor BARRY RASCOVAR, Editorial Page Director KATHRYN CHRISTENSEN, Managing Editor Evaluating Baltimore's Government OF COURSEJHATfe Afc Police Commissioner Edward V. Woods, Housing Commissioner Robert W.

Hearn and Mayor Schmoke himself are men with communications problems. They are such decent and well-meaning public servants that they often seem too nice and vacillating for jobs that require occasional displays of ruthlessness and toughness. Not surprisingly, each of them has a problem in being taken seriously by their underlings. The lack of urgency and follow-up in their own offices shows that. Equally unfortunate is that none of them has been successful In communicating any compelling vision to the broader community of city taxpayers and metropolitan inhabitants.

These failures are now catching up with them. Surprisingly, it took the equally mild-mannered Councilman Bell to vocalize the public's disenchantment with the performance and leadership of the Police Department and, by implication, of the entire municipal bureaucracy. Mr. Bell moved to issue his ultimatum because as the chairman of the council's subcommittee on public safety he could not get any cooperation from Commissioner Woods. The councilman did not act hastily.

"I've had this feeling for a long time but I've been kind of biting my tongue," he said. This is the time for evaluating the performance of the whole city government. Councilman Lawrence A. Bell has done the citizens of Baltimore a favor by calling for the police commissioner's firing if the city's crime rate does not abate by summer. It is time the City Council began measuring top municipal leaders' performances by achievement.

The defensive reaction from Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and his minions shows they do not get it. Baltimoreans are sick and tired of witnessing the rapid deterioration and decline of their beloved city. While City Hall bureaucrats offer excuses for passivity, streets are filling with trash, crime is rampant, boarded-up houses multiply. It's time for action.

We hope Mr. Bell's ultimatum brings results and that similar ultimatums are issued to the chiefs of other city fiefdoms. From Mayor Schmoke's office to the cubbyhole of the humblest clerk, this city needs a new sense of urgency. A sense that Baltimore's decline can be turned around if everyone Joins the effort. A sense that the city's streets can be made safe again, its schools returned to learning and teaching.

A sense that Baltimore and Baltimoreans can look forward to the future with hope. This is more than a public relations problem although public relations is a key element in creating a shared feeling of dynamism and achievement. It is a pity that three of the city's key officials Survival of the Fittest on the AM Band Europe's 'Single Market' By ANTERO PIETILA ed to Germany's high interest rates needed to divert capital to rebuilding East Germany. All of which rekindled nationalism in lesser or greater degree in most countries. The Maastricht Treaty to create a single monetary system for the 12 (or however more they become) is stalled short of unanimous ratification.

Realizing that a single red-tape-free market was good for illegal immigrants, money laundering, crime and terrorism as well as business, several countries nullified the date for a passport-free Europe. Several, to bolster their own citizens' businesses, flagrantly violate the agreed rules in such matters as government procurement or banking regulation. Nonetheless, many of the most tedious and least glamorous aspects of Europe '92 are in effect today in '93. It is more and more true that entry to the business of one of the 12 Is entry to all, considerably more true than a year ago. Some nine of the 12 are planning to have a common visa by mid-year, the next-best thing to passport-free travel.

What the world outside Europe is waiting to see is whether the rules of the single market, now adopted and officially implemented, will be enforced in courts. The momentum to a single Europe has slowed down, but it is still momentum, and would be very hard to reverse. Several years ago. "Europe '92" was the hottest topic of economic futurists. What would happen when 12 markets became one.

when an engineering design specification good in one country needed no change for the other 1 1 when a sausage meeting health standards in one met them in all, when people traveled from one to another without bothering to show papers? Would U.S. business be ready for the challenge and the opportunity? The phrase Europe '92, the year in which all the bureaucratic changes would be accomplished, really meant '93. the first day of which all changes would be in effect. The target date had been set by the European Community Commission as a means of forcing the pace. In the interim, distractions loomed.

Eastern Europe broke free of Moscow and wanted to turn the Europe of 12 into 20 or so. The Soviet Union dissolved. Communist power vanished from Europe, leaving regimes claiming to be Communist in their monopoly of power only in China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba, with some concessions to capitalist economics in all save Cuba. Germany unified, at enormous cost, bringing former East Germany quietly Into the 12 though well below its standards. The world economy, and Europe's, slowed down, which was partly attribut WCBM (680).

has become the city's leader in brokered air-time for call-in shows and "infocommerclals" during weekends. No fewer than 25 professionals ranging from estate planners to car mechanics and pet shop owners buy air time to offer their advice or tout their services on WCBM every Saturday and Sunday. Some of them are known to resort to faked listeners' calls. Others such as financial consultant Dottle Schmltt seem to have a genuine following. As stations keep changing hands and shifting formats, original call letters disappear, erasing a broadcaster's connection to its community.

In a few years, only true radio buffs will remember that WEBB was named after the Baltimore-born Jazz musician Chick Webb. Or that WFBR the predecessor of today's WJFK-AM meant the Fifth Baltimore Regiment. That unit started the station and operated In its early years from the armory at Howard and Preston streets. WITH's impending ownership change is likely to stamp out its big-band sound altogether, much to the disappointment of its aging listeners. teen-agers are probably 50-55 years old," quips disc Jockey Ken Jackson, 60).

WITH's disappearance will leave a painful void In the community. In addition to playing standards over the past two decades, the station has co-sponsored countless big-band concerts, cruises and dinners. It will be missed. Antero Pietila writes editorials for The Baltimore Sun. ager of WBAL (1090), one the city's perennial ratings leaders.

"As profit margins narrow, many stations are willing to try almost anything." Trend watchers say listeners haven't seen anything yet. Relaxed federal rules are going to have a profound effect on the radio industry, they predict. Under new regulations, the Federal Communications Commission may allow a single owner to own up to four stations In markets with more than 15 stations. Radio-Industry watchers believe it Is only a question of time before such Joint operating arrangements will be the rage of major markets. By building AM-FM combinations that dominate ratings, an owner may hope to dominate advertising as well.

Meanwhile, simplified FCC rules allow stations to change call letters almost as easily as formats. As the example of Baltimore's WJFK-AM (1300) indicates, a station sharing call letters does not even have to be in the same city. (The station simulcasts WJFK-FM, which is in Washington and In a separate market). These developments are forcing smaller AM stations In particular to find Increasingly specialized audiences. Broadcasters talk about "niche targeting," "continued fragmentation," "more segmentation" and "narrowcastlng." Under a strategic plan Implemented over the past eight years, WBAL, once known for its mixture of news and middle-of-the-road music, has phased out music altogether.

It now emphasizes "news and information" and "talk." Meanwhile, another talk station, As a part of a wider communications revolution touching everything from newspapers and telephones to cable television, America's AM radio Is experiencing an unprecedented upheaval. Unable to match the superior sound quality of FM stereo, AM stations are increasingly becoming the poor cousins of the broadcasting Industry. Their audience totals mostly motorists are sagging and the stations no longer warrant the highly inflated prices they used to fetch Just a few years ago. In August, when New York's legendary WNEW changed hands, Its sellers reportedly took a loss of at least $6 million. When Baltimore's big-band station WITH sold last month for $762,500.

it netted nearly $1 million less than the contract price offered four years ago by an ill-fated acquisition group headed by Alan Christian. Anyone who has been scanning the dial in Baltimore Is aware of how rapidly familiar AM radio formats and call letters have been disappearing In recent months. First. WERQ (1010) quit playing music and began simulcasting the audio portion of CNN cable news. Then WEBB (1360), the city's pioneering black-owned station, was sold.

It changed its call letters to WHLP and now airs nothing but advertising about Job openings. More changes are In the offing. When the sale of WITH (1230) Is completed In March, the station will discard Its big-band format and shift over to children's programming! "It's the survival of the fittest," says Jeff Beauchamp, general man- We Saw Elvis Take Back the Streets A small branch in Harford County, where a clerk painted sideburns on himself, reported it was a little disappointed at the turnout. Most branches reported long lunch-hour lines, but normal lobby trade by 1 p.m. or so.

The greatest Presley surge occurred in the Elvis Belt that hugs the Patapsco River from Curtis Bay to Dundalk. (The Dundalk branch sold 30.000 stamps in an hour, more than some branches' allotments for the entire day.) It's fortunate that the Postal Service Judged demand adequately; it nearly doubled the initial run of Elvis stamps after the ruckus accorded last year's vote over the "thin" versus "fat" portraits of the rock-and-roll singer. The Postal Service Is now cashing in big-time from its embrace of the Elvis craze and the opportunity to sell millions of stamps that will never grace an envelope. In the slim-Elvis chance you don't buy your allotment of stamps soon, you'll get another crack next summer when the Postal Service re-releases the King in a series of stamps of rock-and-roll, country-western and rhythm-and-blues artists. Now that gets us to wondering: Should those stamps portray the thin Hank Williams or the fat Hank Williams? Walk, don't run.

to your nearest post office: The Elvis stamps have not left the building not entirely anyway. Early yesterday morning, one had to wonder whether 500 million stamps of the young Elvis could feed this nation's hunger. One man reportedly began waiting at the main post office downtown at 9 a.m. for a sale that didn't begin until noon. Signs at most postal stations alerted customers to a 400-stamp daily limit ($116 worth); if you wanted to spend $200 for Elvis stamps, you'd have to return another day.

Mail-order brochures advertised the sale of the program from the "first day" ceremony at the Presley mansion, Graceland, for $6, but only If purchased with other Elvis stamp memorabilia, priced at $12 to $20. We hadn't seen anything like this since the Camden Yards Opening Day program riots. As has happened with most things regarding the King, however, the image was skewed from reality. After the initial noontime rush yesterday, one could purchase the Elvis stamp at nearly any postal branch with little trouble. The Baltimore area was allocated 2.5 million Elvises for the first day alone, enough for every man, woman and child.

By GLENN McNATT GALLIMAUFRY RE YOU pleased with your "As president, or chancellor, or Lprlme minister?" asks the There's merit to both ideas, but neither will produce quick results. The state has been cutting the number of drug-treatment slots. It never funded more than a few hundred beds for recovering addicts, yet there are some 30,000 heroin addicts in the Baltimore region alone. No wonder the vaunted "war on drugs" has been such a pathetic failure. The link between drugs and violent crime Isn't in dispute.

Some officials estimate that as much as 80 percent of the serious crime in Baltimore is drug-related. Yet we still seem stuck with a policing model based on the assumption that the problem can be solved simply by "locking 'em up and throwing away the key." The Jails are bursting at the seams and a whole generation of young men have been branded with the stigma of a criminal record, but it hasn't made a dent in the crime problem. What's the solution? Put more cops on the street and speed conversion to community policing. Help the hardest-hit areas beef up security with yellow-hat patrols and block-watch programs: the city should contribute the hats and walkie-talkies. Communities that can afford It should hire private security firms.

And let voters hold elected officials' feet to the fire until they get results. Things have gotten so bad we're going to have to fight like hell to take back our streets and our city. But that means we have to work together, not against each other. Resignation isn't an option. Glenn McNatt writes editorials for The Baltimore Sun.

4, effective deterrent." A couple of years ago, Washington's police chief became so frustrated by the homicide epidemic plaguing his city that he promised to resign If the killings didn't drop within a year. The year came and went and the killings kept climbing. The chief threw in the towel and quit. Unfortunately, his departure didn't make a bit of difference to the homicide rate. Washington recorded slightly fewer killings in 1992 than the year before but people have been moving out of the city so fast that fewer are left to be killed.

No one's claiming the problem Is solved. Similarly, residents of Charles Village are wondering why they should pay an additional 5 percent on their property tax to hire private security guards when they are already paying the highest tax rate in the state. The money would fund six off-duty policeman to patrol a 50-square-block area from 20th Street to 29th Street between Guilford Avenue and Howard Street. "Figure that's two guys every eight hours to cover something like three square miles," one resident complained. "That's not going to make me feel any safer." Yet almost everyone agrees that something must be done.

Unless we're prepared to simply resign ourselves to the relentless killing. Four years ago Mayor Schmoke suggested decriminalizing drugs to take the profit and incentive for violent crime out of the Illegal trade. The Clinton administration says It wants to refocus federal policy away from catching drug traffickers to treating addicts. On the same day residents of Charles Village met to discuss whether to hire private security guards to police their neighborhood, City Councilman Lawrence A. Bell III held oress conference to call for the resignation of Baltimore Police Commissioner Edward V.

Woods In six months If no progress Is made In halting the city's soaring homicide rate. That, the two events occurred almost simultaneously obviously was no coincidence. A note of desperation has entered discussions of what to do about the deteriorating quality of urban life. Last summer the local NAACP director suggested imposing martial law in high-crime neighborhoods. Residents of Guilford now have their own private security force patrolling the neighborhood, and the downtown area may soon adopt a similar plan.

Even public-housing residents have asked the city to hire Nation of Islam security personnel to patrol their buildings. Whole communities are virtually under siege by drug dealers and violent criminals. When the U.S. sent troops to Somalia to guard food shipments from marauding bandits, editorial cartoonists parodied the mission with drawings of hapless Inner-city residents dodging gunfire on the streets right here. So Councilman Bell and the residents of Charles Village are by no means alone in their complaints.

"I fault the department on two counts," Mr. Bell said. "The department has failed to take down the major drug traffickers and it has failed on the street level by not being an vote and only double the vote of an amateur politician. What's wrong? In part, the Economist says, It is the decline of political parties, as voters focus more on single Issues than broad philosophies. And the declining repute of politicians as a breed, encouraged by a prying press and a better educated electorate.

Yet the same voters (and prying press, the Economist falls to add) demand more of their politicians these days. No more communist menace at home or abroad to provide the winning Issues. "Only the arrogant assume the worst of voters, who, despite their lack of love for politicians, are not entirely selfish and unconcerned for their fellow human beings," the Economist concludes. Noting the growth of referenda as a means of making major decisions, it says that "as politics continues to shift away from collectivism and toward individualism, direct democracy's) potency will grow." A comforting thought fpr Europeans but less so for Americans who routinely cast ballots on Issues as mundane as parking garages as well as volatile ones like this. Democratic Mayor Lloyd Helt of Sykesvllle Is stepping down In May.

His wife, Republican Alderman Ruth Gray of Annapolis, is resigning her post. too. No more commuter marriage for them. It was an odd-couple political tie from the start. Note her bridal Invitation: "He was well-mannered.

He was neatly groomed. He was superficially appealing. But I don't know what I could have been thinking when I MARRIED A REPUBLICAN," read the Invitation. "The bone-chllllng fantasy-shocker of a monster whose opinions are as horrifying as Its Idea of a good time!" "it walksl It talksl It puts its foot in Its own mouth!" That was 1990. Now the dual-party combo takes up residence on a new political stage in Westminster.

What will do they for an encfcre? London Economist. "If so, you are probably In a minority, at least If you live In one of the rich democracies." The leaders of the powerful Industrial nations, the Economist continues, are almost without exception In bad stead with their constituents. Fortunately for them, so are their opponents. The German chancellor and French president are as low in popular esteem as they have been since achieving office. The British prime minister barely held onto his Job this year.

In Japan, the hitherto invincible Liberal Democrats are scrambling to stay In power in the face of popular disgust over corruption. Italian politics Is more fragmented than ever which is saying a good deal. Our Canadian neighbors again rejected a constitutional amendment backed by all three national parties. And in the United States we elected a president with less than half the popular.