Several state delegates and a group of Italian-American activists demanded Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young and Gov. Larry Hogan protect the city’s statues and monuments erected to honor Christopher Columbus at a press conference Friday in Harbor East.

Last week, an anti-racist protest group known as Baltimore Bloc took to Twitter to publicly warn Young that activists planned to remove the city’s Columbus monuments if he did not.

Baltimore has three monuments dedicated to Columbus. One currently sits in a fenced construction area at Druid Hill Park. A second monument in northeast Baltimore’s Herring Run—believed to be the first erected to the Genoa-born explorer in the U.S.—was severely damaged as an act of protest three years ago. And the most prominent city monument to Columbus is the massive marble statue in Harbor East, which was formally unveiled by President Ronald Reagan and then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1984 and dedicated with the inscription to the “Discoverer of America.”

“The decision to take down statutes on public lands must be made by the public through a thoughtful process,” said Republican Del. Kathy Szeliga, who represents Baltimore and Harford counties and served as one of the organizers of the press conference. “Vigilante groups cannot be permitted to pick and choose what stays and what goes. Any removal of public statues on public lands requires a public process with public input. Until this process can be established, we are asking the Governor and the Mayor to protect these statues and monuments from vandalism, destruction, and removal.”

State Del. Nino Mangione, a Republican from Baltimore County, had a more succinct message for anti-Columbus activists: “If you don’t like or appreciate Christopher Columbus, don’t visit this statue. Stay the hell away from it.”

Mangione said that if “the Mayor does not do his job [protecting the statue], the Governor should immediately step in with the National Guard.” In the meantime, Mangione said, 24-hour private surveillance would begin.

“Italian Americans have rights, too,” he said. “We do not scream the loudest and we do not complain the most, but we still have rights.”

Also on hand supporting the call to protect the city’s Columbus statues were Republican state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, former Baltimore County Republican delegate Pat McDonough, and former Baltimore City Democratic state Sen. John Pica Jr.—who serves as event chairman of Little Italy’s annual Columbus Day commemoration.

The warning from anti-racist protestors to Mayor Young about pulling down the city’s monuments to Columbus comes as more activists—as well as cities, states, and institutions—are pulling down statues of both Columbus and Confederate generals. On the heels of the Charlottesville, Virginia tragedy—in which a protestor was killed by a white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd—then-Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of Baltimore’s four Confederate statues, without any advanced notice, to diffuse any potential conflicts between anti-racist activists, white supremacists, and the city police.

A recent change.org petition was started to replace a statue of Columbus in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood with one honoring Ettore Boiardi, also known as “Chef Boyardee,” who immigrated to the United States in 1914 and opened his first restaurant in Cleveland.

The mayor of Columbus, Ohio, once again under pressure from protesters, has announced the city’s most prominent statue of Christopher Columbus would be taken down “as soon as possible.”

In Saint Paul, Minnesota, demonstrators brought down a Columbus statue that stood in front of the state capitol. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters toppled a Columbus statue in Byrd Park that had been dedicated in 1927, and then set it on fire and threw it into a nearby lake. In Boston, a marble statue of the explorer and colonizer was beheaded. In Chicago this summer, protestors defaced two statues of Columbus and have faced off with Italian Americans determined to protect the monuments, which they say represent their ethnic pride.

Last week, City Councilman Ryan Dorsey introduced a bill that would rededicate the Columbus obelisk at Herring Run to the victims of police brutality.

“You do not heal racial wounds and injustices by targeting another historic minority,” Mangione said. “The statues honoring Christopher Columbus do so much more than honor one man. They recognize the thousands of Italian-Americans and their contributions to this city, our state, and this nation. You cannot use discrimination and prejudice to fight discrimination and prejudice.”

Columbus’s legacy has become more troubled in recent decades as the brutal treatment of the Native Americans he and his men encountered in the Caribbean islands and Central America—including mass slaughter, enslavement, and child rape—has become better and more widely understood. Columbus’s record as a tyrant also includes forcing indigenous people to mine for gold. For Native Americans, Columbus’s arrival highlights the beginning of a centuries-long genocide. For many African Americans, the enslavement of Native Americans, including the 1,500 people Columbus bonded and sent to Spain for sale—presages the start of the Transatlantic slave trade.

Popular myths about Columbus and the nature of his voyages, long taught in U.S. schools, have been increasingly exposed by scholars and presented in the media, changing public perception of him. Columbus did not, for example, prove the “flat Earth” theory wrong. Nor was Columbus the first European to sail to the continent, as Scandinavians sailors had done so centuries earlier. Those beliefs and others took hold in the U.S. only after writer Washington Irving popularized an “Americanized” Columbus in a best-selling fictionalized historical biography in 1828.

Baltimore’s annual October Columbus Day Commemoration and Italian Heritage Festival and parade, approaching 130 years, is also believed to be the longest-running commemoration in the country to honor Columbus in the U.S.

Pica, the former state Senator joining the call for protecting the Columbus monuments, acknowledged the statue likely will be removed at some future date, if not by activists, by the next mayoral administration and city council. But he doesn’t want to see it vandalized or destroyed.

He noted that City Council President Brandon Scott, who won the recent Democratic mayoral primary, introduced a bill in 2016 that would’ve renamed Columbus Day in the city to Indigenous Peoples Day. The intention of the bill, Scott said, was “to honor the many peoples inhabiting North America before its colonization by European settlers.”

“We shouldn’t celebrate terrorists,” Scott said of the bill at the time. “That’s what celebrating Christopher Columbus does. Very rarely do we have a chance to correct the wrongs of history. This is about Christopher Columbus. This is not anything against Italian-Americans.”

Referencing Dorsey’s recent bill to rededicate the Columbus obelisk to the victims of police brutality and Scott’s earlier holiday renaming legislation, Pica said, “We are going to celebrate Columbus Day no matter what.”

One aspect of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul law was a provision designed to create “opportunity zones” in low-income areas around the country. By offering tax breaks to developers for investing in targeted, low-income areas—vetted by each state’s governor—the purpose was to spur economic and commercial activity and revitalization efforts in under-invested neighborhoods.

However, according to a just-released report from ProPublica, an independent, journalism nonprofit focused on government accountability, that new tax law will likely benefit Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, Goldman Sachs, and other Port Covington investors with what could be millions in tax breaks for their ongoing South Baltimore project.

As the selection process for opportunity zone sites was underway, Gov. Larry Hogan’s deputy chief of staff, Sean Powell, noted in an email last year that Port Covington did not qualify for one of the potential 147 low-income tracts in Maryland. That was largely because of the higher household incomes in Federal Hill and Locust Point that are included in the census tract. ProPublica reports that Hogan, also a real estate developer, of course, nonetheless selected Port Covington after his aides met with Plank’s lobbyists.

“This is a classic example of a windfall benefit,” Robert Stoker, a George Washington University professor who has studied Baltimore’s economic development, told ProPublica reporters Jeff Ernsthausen and Justin Elliott. “A major investment was already planned and now is in a zone where they are going to qualify for all kinds of beneficial tax treatment.”

Port Covington, a former railroad terminal and brown field, is Plank’s ambitious effort to build an essentially new waterfront city within Baltimore’s city boundaries. The project is being overseen by Sagamore Development, a privately held company founded by Plank and real estate developer Marc Weller in 2013. Port Covington is already one of the largest development projects in the U.S.—as well as the recipient of $660 million in tax-incremental financing breaks from Baltimore City, and all told, another $1.3 billion in public infrastructure spending. The entire buildout is projected to cost $7.3 billion and take 25 years to finish.

“Port Covington being part of an Opportunity Zone will attract more investors, foster more economic growth in a neglected area of the City, and directly benefit all of the surrounding communities for decades to come,” Weller said in a statement to ProPublica.

“For parts of Port Covington and the six adjacent South Baltimore communities, the Opportunity Zone program provides an incredible opportunity to drive capital, bring outside investment and create jobs in areas that have been left behind for decades,” Weller added in a statement emailed to Baltimore magazine.

Geared toward attracting newer and younger people to Baltimore—the Sagamore Spirit distillery and Rye Street Tavern are already in place—the futuristic vision for Port Covington calls for mixed-use development that will feature high-rise offices, an upscale hotel, apartments for millennials, restaurants, walkable shopping, and Water Taxi travel.

As ProPublica reports, Port Covington is not in an impoverished census tract and nor is it a new investment. Also, according to its investigation, “the census tract only became eligible to be an opportunity zone thanks to a mapping error.”

City Councilman Ryan Dorsey decried the selection of Port Covington (over other areas in Baltimore) for additional tax breaks Wednesday on Twitter following ProPublica’s report, questioning Weller’s statement that Port Covington is a “neglected area” and Hogan’s statement that the project will go “a long way to providing benefits for the whole city.”

Baltimore fair housing lawyer Barbara Samuels asked via a tweet: “Is there a gov’t subsidy that this (misad)venture hasn’t vacuumed up?”

Pro or con, the full story on opportunity zone tax breaks and Port Covington is worth a read.

“The Port Covington tract is just 4 percent black,” the ProPublica pieces highlights in the piece. “For it to be included in the program, another community somewhere in Maryland had to be excluded. The ones that the city suggested that were excluded by the governor, for example, are 68 percent black and have a poverty rate three times higher than Port Covington’s.”

The Baltimore City Council delivered a short, but strongly worded letter to Mayor Catherine Pugh early Monday morning, urging her resignation.

In a response just before noon Monday, Pugh vowed to return to office. In an emailed statement from spokesman James Bentley II, her office said the Mayor “fully intends to resume the duties of her office and continuing her work on behalf of the people and the City of Baltimore” once she has fully regained her health following a bout of pneumonia.

Signed by the entire membership of the City Council and delivered to the Office of the Mayor, as well as City Council President and Ex-Officio Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, City Solicitor Andre M. Davis, and Bruce Williams, the mayor’s chief of staff, the two-sentence letter urges the mayor “to tender your resignation, effective immediately.”

The call for Pugh’s immediate resignation comes as the first-term mayor remains embroiled in a children’s book scandal that is now under investigation by the state prosecutor. In a story first broken by The Baltimore Sun, Pugh received $500,000 from the University of Maryland Medical Center while she sat on UMMS board for 100,000 copies of her self-published Healthy Holly book series. In addition, The Sun has reported, Pugh received another $300,000 allegedly for copies of her book by companies and organizations with business before the City.

Most of the books, the majority of which were said to have been donated to the Baltimore City Public School System, have yet to be located. Currently, Pugh remains on an official leave absence while recovering from pneumonia. City Council President Young has been assuming the official duties of the mayor in her stead.

“It is beyond thinkable that she should ever return to a role in government,” said 3rd District Councilman Ryan Dorsey in a Facebook post while sharing the council’s letter to the Mayor. “If she has any ability whatsoever to put the welfare of the more than 600,000 residents of Baltimore City ahead of her own self-interest, she will not delay in offering her full resignation.”

‪First District City Councilman Zeke Cohen, who along with Dorsey was among the first elected officials to call for Pugh’s resignation last week, said in a post that in addition to “this unprecedented step,” the City Council “is discussing several structural reforms to our city’s code and charter.”

That said, Cohen told Baltimore magazine, with the General Assembly coming to a close Monday there is no time to make a change to the city code and charter this session that would enable the City Council to remove the mayor from office.

As the City Council and Baltimore residents learned during the criminal investigation of former Mayor Sheila Dixon, removing even a mayor convicted of a crime might not be legally possible. In 2010, Dixon resigned as part of a corruption plea deal after she pled guilty to perjury and embezzlement. As part of that deal, Dixon got to keep her $83,000 pension.

Prior to serving as mayor, Pugh served two terms on the City Council and 10 years in the state senate. The book saga has begun receiving national attention in recent days, including a skewering take from HBO’s John Oliver. Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada recently “reviewed” Pugh’s Healthy Holly: Exercising Is Fun!

On Friday, the fundraising consulting arm of Pugh’s 2020 reelection organization, TruBlu Politics, cut ties with the mayor over the ongoing book scandal. “In light of recent events, we decided to end the relationship with Mayor Pugh,” David Goodman, a TruBlu partner told Baltimore. TruBlu, which has worked with a roster of politicians in Maryland and beyond, signed on to Pugh’s election campaign in October 2017.

Also on Friday, Jim Smith, a top Pugh advisor and former Baltimore County executive and former judge, who was cited for an illegal loan to Pugh’s 2016 campaign, resigned from his cabinet post as chief of strategic alliances.

Another source close to the Pugh campaign and familiar with TruBlu Politics told Baltimore that the mayor has decided to suspend her 2020 re-election bid even as she plans to fill out her current term. No formal announcement has yet been made, however, regarding her reelection effort.

According to a January filing with the Maryland State Board of Elections, Pugh’s re-election committee has $968,790 in cash reserves. With more recent fundraising events that have yet to be reported, the number could be above $1 million at the moment. In an off-election year, she will not be required to file another financial report until next year.

Campaign chairman Steve Sibel, a partner with Caves Valley Partners, a Baltimore real estate development company, would not comment when reached Friday and asked if the Pugh had decided to suspend her 2020 campaign.

If Pugh does decide not to run for re-election, she will have several options regarding the money in her campaign coffers. She can return funds to donors. She can also donate the funds to charity, as the widow and sons of former Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz did after he died unexpectedly during his bid for governor.

Pugh may also reimburse herself for any personal loans she gave her campaign. She may also pass funds to other politicians, although who would accept that kind of financial gift from the mayor while she remains under investigation isn’t clear.

“You saw how fast Johnny O [Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski] returned the campaign contribution he’d received once the news broke,” Goucher College political science professor Mileah Kromer notes. “My guess is very few politicians will touch it. It’s tainted money.”

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Monday that she will be taking a leave of absence, citing her health. A number of city and state politicians have expressed growing concern and distrust in her holding the office at all.

According to a press release yesterday afternoon from the mayor’s office, she has been “battling pneumonia for the past few weeks.” Physicians have advised her to take time to recover and focus on her health. According to The Sun, Pugh will continue to be paid her $185,000 salary.

“At this time, with the Mayor’s health deteriorating, she feels as though she is unable to fulfill her obligations as Mayor of Baltimore City,” reads part of the release. “To that end, Mayor Pugh will be taking an indefinite leave of absence to recuperate from this serious illness.”

The Baltimore City Charter states that if the mayor is unable to fulfill her obligations as mayor of Baltimore City, the President of City Council is to step in as ex officio mayor. As such, City Council President Jack Young will take over during the interim of Pugh’s absence. Young has said he has no plans on running for mayor in 2020 and intends to run for City Council President again.

Pugh is currently under fire after revelations of a $500,000 children’s book deal with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). Pugh served on the UMMS board while receiving payments for book orders, tallying a $20,000 net profit from each deal. She has since resigned from the board.

Pugh also recently gave back $100,000 from a 2018 book deal with UMMS. The order for 20,000 copies from the mayor’s Healthy Holly children’s series had not yet been filled due to the illustrator suffering from illness.

The Sun reported that Kaiser Permanente also paid Pugh more than $100,000 to purchase copies of her books from 2015 to 2018. Pugh oversees and controls the city’s spending board, and awarded the health insurer a $48-million contract to provide health insurance to city employees from 2018 through 2020, with options to renew.

The announcement from the mayor’s office came hours after Gov. Larry Hogan asked the office of the state prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation into the allegations against Pugh.

There have also been calls for Mayor Pugh to resign among growing scandal. State Comptroller Peter Franchot, City Councilman Zeke Cohen, and City Councilman Ryan Dorsey have all expressed these sentiments. Congressman Elijah Cummings, who supported Pugh in her election campaign, said he supports the investigation into her book deal with UMMS. As does Baltimore City’s senate delegation in the General Assembly.

“Baltimore City is more than just one person, or one mayor,” the city senate delegation wrote in a statement. “We, as Baltimoreans, first and foremost, must hold our City’s officials to the highest standard. Our state cannot sustain any further erosion of trust in our institutions.”

Pugh was elected mayor in 2016—winning the Democratic primary by securing 37 percent of the vote—and would be up for reelection in a Democratic primary next year.

1st District: Zeke Cohen
A 30-year-old educator with a master’s degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, Cohen founded The Intersection, a nonprofit “dedicated to shifting expectations for Baltimore’s young people,” with two other city social studies teachers in 2011. Cohen is married and lives in Canton.

3rd District: Ryan Dorsey
A 34-year-old arts and community activist, and lifelong resident of the 3rd District resident, Dorsey earned a degree in music composition from the Peabody Conservatory. A Mayfield resident, he has worked full-time as a project manager at Soundscape, a local, third-generation, family-run audio and visual business.

8th District: Kristerfer Burnett
An social justice advocate with community, labor, and affordable housing organizing experience, Burnett is a lifelong Baltimorean with master’s degree in public policy from UMBC. Burnett is married and Edmondson Village resident.

12th District: Robert Stokes Jr.
A 58-year-old with six years of experience as an assistant to former 12th District City Councilman Carl Stokes (no relation), Stokes Jr. received his boss’s endorsement and won a wide-open primary. Stokes has a long history in local politics, working as community representative under former Mayor Kurt Schmoke and assistant to former City Councilman president Lawrence Bell. He studied at Morgan State University and is an Oliver resident.

5th District: Isaac Schleifer
A 27-year-old software entrepreneur, Schleifer won an upset victory in a contentious primary to become the first Orthodox Jewish City Councilman in decades. Schleifer, who goes by “Yitzi,” is a graduate of the University of Baltimore Merrick School for Business and a married father and Cheswolde resident.

7th District: Leon Pinkett III
An assistant pastor and project manager for the City of Baltimore, Pinkett has significant political experience, serving as chief of staff for former City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell Jr., with a background in economic and neighborhood development. He is a married father of two and resident of Reservoir Hill.

9th District: John Bullock
A political science professor at Towson University, Bullock also recently served as executive director of the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance. Previously, he worked as planner in District of Columbia’s city government. A married father of two young sons, Bullock lives in Union Square.

13th District: Shannon Sneed
A recruitment specialist for a mentoring agency, Sneed, who lost a 2011 bid for her district’s City Council seat by 43 votes in 2011, has served as a board member of two local nonprofits, Belair Edison Neighborhoods and Banner Neighborhoods. She is a graduate of Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a new mother, and lives in Ellwood Park with her husband.

Returning City Council Members

President: Bernard “Jack” Young

2nd District: Brandon Scott

4th District: Bill Henry

6th District: Sharon Green Middleton

10th District: Edward Reisinger

11th District: Eric Costello