Comcast has the city government in its clutches and isn’t about to do anything that would require them to actually put forth some effort to improve their service and/or reduce prices.

2. The last time a mayor was elected “normally” was O’Malley in 99-00. I believe council seats are elected by district’s constituents and the president is elected at large. Though I think since SRB is vacating her seat to become mayor the President will be decided via council vote. Turnouts for elections are generally anemic across the board for pretty much any election except presidential.

2. Regarding the democratic deficit in Baltimore, I know Dixon was re-elected, but was originally appointed after O’Malley became governor. Stephanie Rawlings Blake assumed the mayoralty in a similar way. First, how many years has the mayor been appointed, rather than elected (even if they’d been elected previously to the city council). Secondly, are city council seats by district, meaning the “City Council President” was elected by a single district’s voters? Lastly, what are the participation and demographics of the city council elections? Local elections tend to have very poor voter turnout; the city council is surely far lower than a mayoral election.

We tend to think of our political leaders as representing their constituents — usually voters, but sometimes much broader. In Baltimore, assuming my suspicions are correct, we have our leader elected by a small percentage of voters in a single neighborhood. This is a pretty substantial democratic deficit.

3. @slumlord watch: GREEN ZONES! I heard they have ‘em in Australia and in the Northwest to force urban density.