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CBS News
3 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Neighbors in Little Italy concerned of proposed 12 story high-rise building
A parking lot at the corner of President and Fawn Street in Baltimore's Little Neighborhood is a hot topic once again. Lisa Regnante is the president of the Little Italy Neighborhood Association. She explained that many neighbors have been concerned about a developer's proposed plan to construct a high-rise building at 301 President Street. "That land, as described in the zoning code, is 125 feet max, which is about 12 stories. And why did they zone it that way? It's meant for low-density neighborhoods of historic and traditional character," Regnante explained, "The developer who would like to develop the land wants a rezoning change to a Which is a most intensely developed portion of downtown, with no height restrictions." Baltimore's Planning Commission was scheduled in 2024 to consider legislation to rezone this parcel of land after months of discussion with the developer and the community. But it was taken off the agenda at the last minute. Now, the conversation continues once again as neighbors and the developer work to find common ground. "If you look at a map and you look at zoning, our character is low density. That has been that way for over a hundred years, and this would be a parcel of land that would stick up twice as high as it is zoned for over that land," said Regnante. "The difference is, should it be twice as high? That's all that the disconnect is. How tall should the building be?" Regnante was clear that the neighborhood association is not against the new development; their priority is to protect the historical charm of their neighborhood. "And the majority of Little Italy residents said last year, as we had meeting after meeting, and we did a survey that they would prefer the current zoning," said Regnante. District 12 city councilman Jermaine Jones explained to WJZ that the rezoning process is long and complex. But he wants to see the community on the same page before anything can move forward. "I would like to see a combination of those folks coming together and have a meeting where their larger membership of the neighborhood will have a say in whether they support or oppose the re-zoning to allow the project to happen of the size in which the developer is proposing," said Jermaine Jones, Baltimore City's District 12 councilmember.
AllAfrica
5 days ago
- Politics
- AllAfrica
Modi, media and middle class: the unholy trinity failing India
'The pride of the nation is cheapest pride,' German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said. Indeed, people often attach personal pride to external notions like nation, religion, race or caste in order to feel worthy when in actuality they lack genuine accomplishments or talents. Being born in a group is enough to feel proud, as it requires no effort. For this reason, Schopenhauer considered national pride the cheapest of all pride. False pride blinds people to their own flaws. Fear of questioning their nation, religion or culture replaces genuine self-worth with illusion, weakening them from within. Over time, genuine self-worth is replaced by this false pride. History is littered with examples where borrowed or symbolic pride without real achievements led to decline or crisis. The Ottoman Empire, Soviet Union, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany all fell apart after clinging to past glories, nationalism or ideology while disregarding economic decline, corruption and dissent. Pakistan pursued a similar path, prioritizing religious identity (Islam) over progress. The nation's pride was focused on religious faith rather than on prosperity or progress, and opposition was branded as un-Islamic. Today, it faces economic collapse, IMF dependency and internal unrest, despite claims of moral superiority. India now shows similar warning signs: rising Hindu nationalism, imagined cultural supremacy and RSS dreams of Vishwaguru (global teacher) status driven by Modi, the media and the middle class. Narendra Modi's rise to power in India was not accidental; it was carefully crafted through myth, media and mass psychology. His '56-inch chest' boast was not just a comment on masculinity; it was political theater, a declaration that strength, not substance, would define India's future leadership. But leading a diverse nation of 1.4 billion with multiple ethnicities is the job not of a strongman but of a strategist. Modi's rise marked the decline of institutional credibility. The Planning Commission was scrapped, critics became anti-nationals and the judiciary suffered from increasing executive overreach. Over time, the messiah became the message, overshadowing institutions like Parliament, the judiciary and the press. In the V-Dem Democracy Report 2024, India was ranked as an 'electoral autocracy.' Over 10,000 people were arrested under sedition laws in one district in 2019. Modi, like many charismatic leaders in history, from Mussolini to Peron, found his greatest weapon not in governance but in narrative control. And this is where the second 'M' becomes crucial. Real journalism challenges power; India's news media now promote it. Between 2014 and 2022, Modi's BJP government spent over 6,491 crore ( approximately US$800 million ) on publicity, turning the press into a propaganda tool. Once the conscience of democracy, India's media have become a mouthpiece for state propaganda driven by nationalism and communalism. By 2022, India ranked among the lowest globally in public trust in news. Below is the 2022 world press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders: Today's generation is fed propaganda and lies while real issues like 12,000+ farmer suicides (2021), 7.8% unemployment (2024) and squashed minority rights are ignored or rebranded through the lens of nationalism. In a world ruled by spectacle, substance becomes secondary. The third M, meanwhile, delivers the final blow. Perhaps the most tragic pillar of this triad is the Indian middle class – once the torchbearers of liberal aspiration, now the passive enablers of illiberal regression. They are the beneficiaries of 1990s liberalization that lifted some 270 million Indians out of poverty between 1991 and 2011. No group turned on Manmohan Singh faster than the very class he helped create. It is a cruel irony that a class built on policy turned to populism for deliverance. Members of that class once mocked Singh – the very architect who changed their lives – as the 'accidental prime minister' or the 'silent PM.' Today, the middle class pays the price. From paying the highest effective personal tax rates without enjoying basic public goods to watching institutions crumble while fearing to speak out, the Indian middle class is discovering that you can't eat GDP figures for dinner or buy safety with slogans. Once the face of moral outrage, whether in the 2012 Nirbhaya protests or 2011 anti-corruption marches, today it remains silent as train mishaps, stampedes and airline crashes occur. The hypocrisy is blatant. The Indian middle class, once a force for reform, has grown comfortable in its apathy as members' national pride gets in the way. Their silence is not neutral; it is tacit approval of the status quo. Throughout history a polarizing leader, loyal media and a compliant middle class have often formed an 'unholy trinity' that leads to the downfall or collapse of the nation. In India, this triangle — Modi, media, and the middle class — is not destiny. But, left unchecked on the current trajectory, it could lead to the collapse of the nation. Modi, who personified power; the media, which sold their soul; and the middle class, which traded its principles for comfort. History has seen this triangle before. Germany under Adolf Hitler, Italy under Benito Mussolini and Chile under Augusto Pinochet are prime examples backed by a silent middle class and loud propaganda media. Rome didn't fall because of one emperor; it collapsed because its people stopped defending the Republic.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
The latest negotiation tactic in S.F. housing fights? A coin-operated laundromat
San Francisco developers regularly court neighborhood support by promising popular ground-floor uses for new buildings: a grocery store, a cafe, a day care center. But when residents of the New Rex residential hotel met with developers of a proposed condo building in North Beach, they had an unusual request: a coin-operated laundromat. The Planning Commission recently approved a 75-unit condo development at 425 Broadway, an L-shaped surface parking lot that wraps around the New Rex, a single-room occupancy hotel. The development by Montgomery Place LLC will include two buildings, a seven-story building facing Broadway and an eight-story structure facing Montgomery Street. It is the first project approved under the city's 2022 'Cars to Casas' legislation, which allows increased density for housing developments on auto-related parcels. Rosa Chen, director of planning and policy programs for the Chinatown CDC, which represented tenants in negotiations with the developer, said residents at the New Rex — mostly monolingual immigrants from China — hang their laundry to dry in the window and were concerned that the new buildings would block the fresh air and sunlight. In response, the developer redesigned the buildings to include large lightwells and agreed to put a public laundromat on the ground floor. 'All the tenants were asking, 'How are we going to hang our laundry out,'' Chen said. 'They really liked the idea of the laundromat because they can't always wash everything by hand.' The project approval comes as laundromats have been disappearing in San Francisco, with 41 closing between 2018 and 2021, according to data from the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office. A report by the city's Public Utilities Commission found that 1 in 3 laundromats shuttered between 2011 and 2021. While laundromats are increasingly using phone apps, Chinatown CDC advocates made sure the developer agreed to install coin-operated machines because many of the Rex residents are elderly and not tech-savvy. 'It's interesting to see a laundromat in a condominium building that I'm sure will have laundry machines in the units,' Chen said. While the laundromat helped muster support of its only immediate neighbors, the project was not without opponents. Telegraph Hill Dwellers President Stan Hayes spoke against it, saying that the parking lot — one of the last remaining development sites along Broadway — should be preserved for future affordable housing projects. Hayes also objected to the size of the project — Cars to Casas allowed the unit count to increase from 42 to 75 — and that the developer is paying a $3.8 million affordable housing fee rather than putting the below-market rate units on site. He said the changes to the project since an earlier 2021 iteration — Cars to Casas allowed the developer to nearly double the unit count, eliminate onsite parking and cut 18,000 square feet of office space — all benefit the developer more than the neighborhood. 'For all these additional benefits, what does the developer offer us in return?' Hayes said. 'A coin laundromat? We can do better, and should.' The vote was 5-2, with Commissioners Theresa Imperial and Gilbert Williams voting against it. Williams said the idea that 'luxury condos' will be built next to a building where 68 people live in 39 tiny rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens laid bare the city's extreme income disparities. 'The contrast is worth noting,' he said. 'This is where we are as a city. We are failing dramatically on affordable housing and it's going to continue like that.' But other North Beach residents spoke in support of the project, saying that the parking lot, located in the middle of a stretch of strip clubs and nightclubs, is dangerous at night and the an influx of residents would make it safer. 'Broadway is a tough street at any time of the day, especially in the evenings,' said resident Bailey Douglas. 'I have been chased down the street by people coming there to do various things.' Housing Action Coalition organizer Brianna Morales said she sleeps at friends' small, and expensive, apartments in North Beach, a neighborhood that has seen little new development in recent decades. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in North Beach is around $3,525, while a 2-bedroom apartment averages $5,500, according to Zumper, a digital marketplace for rentals. 'I am one of those people lugging my laundry across the city,' she said.
The Hindu
13-07-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
CPI Thrissur district meet concludes; K.G. Sivanandan new district secretary
A four-day Communist Party of India (CPI) district conference came to a close in Irinjalakuda on Sunday. K.G. Sivanandan has been elected as the new district secretary. The announcement was made by CPI State secretary Binoy Viswam while addressing the elected representatives at the conference. A 57-member district council and 50 representatives to the upcoming CPI State conference were also elected during the meet. The district conference has passed a resolution demanding the reinstatement of the Planning Commission, an institution once crucial to country's balanced development planning, and urged the Centre to uphold its constitutional responsibilities in maintaining healthy Union-State relations. Centre-State relations The resolution alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led administration is deliberately weakening the Centre-State relations and centralising power as part of a larger Sangh Parivar agenda. The discontinuation of the Planning Commission, a body that once played a key advisory role in strategising national development and welfare programmes, was described as a politically motivated move, especially targeted at States where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has little political footing. By replacing the Commission with NITI Aayog and simultaneously denying financial aid to States like Kerala, the Centre is allegedly crippling progressive development models, the party stated. Despite being consistently ranked at the top in indicators like health, education, and social welfare, even in the NITI Aayog's own reports, Kerala is being financially squeezed by the Centre, the resolution claimed. The CPI pointed out that the State has witnessed a shortfall of ₹2,942.29 crore in Central revenue share between 2023 and January 2025 . The 15th Finance Commission's recommendations are being ignored and the ₹12,000 crore annual GST compensation Kerala was entitled to has been discontinued, the conference said. Cultural complex The meet demanded a cultural heritage complex in Thrissur. The resolution pointed out that Thrissur has, for more than half a century, been home to the State's most prestigious official cultural institutions, including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, and Lalithakala Akademi, Kerala Kalamandalam and Unnayi Warrier Smaraka Kalanilayam. The district's contribution extends beyond the arts. It is etched into the social and political fabric of modern Kerala through landmark struggles like the Guruvayur Satyagraha, the Kuttan Kulam protest for social justice, the Veloor Manimalarkavu women's liberation movement, the Pariyaram farmers' agitation, and labour movements in Anthikad and Amballur. Thrissur was also the land of action of visionary leaders like E.M.S. Namboodiripad and C. Achutha Menon. In light of this profound cultural, literary, artistic, political, and social heritage, the CPI district conference has urged the Kerala government to establish a comprehensive cultural heritage complex here.
Business Recorder
12-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
NHP issue: Gandapur seeks PM's backing for ‘innovative' solution
ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur has sought Prime Minister's support in out-of-the-box solution to Net Hydel Profit (NHP) issue pending resolution between Wapda and provinces. In a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he sought his attention to Article 161(2) of the Constitution, which mandates that the net profits earned from a hydroelectric station shall be paid to the entitled province at a rate determined by the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The Kazi Committee Methodology (KCM) was approved by the CCI in January 1991 and to that effect the first payment of Rs. 6 billion was made to the then North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in 1992. The KCM was also endorsed by the National Finance Commission (NFC), upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1997, and repeatedly reaffirmed in CCI meetings held in 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022. NHP methodology, power projects' transfer: Wapda, provinces continue to have serious differences Recognizing the financial challenges faced by the GoKP, the Federal Government introduced an 'interim arrangement,' which was duly endorsed by the CCI in 2016. This arrangement provided for NHP payments at a rate of Rs. 1.10/kWh with a 5% annual indexation, incorporated into Wapda's generation tariff, impacting the consumer tariff by approximately 18 paisa per unit. Accordingly, Wapda began making payments to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; however, these payments have not been made consistently as per the agreed arrangement. This has resulted in an outstanding shortfall of Rs. 75 billion for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Subsequently, in response to a summary moved by the Provincial Government for the full implementation of KCM, the CCI, in its 37th meeting held on April 24, 2018, constituted a committee under the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (DCPC) to deliberate on the determination of net profit rates in light of CCI decisions. This committee presented its report in December 2019, which was endorsed by the CCI. The report confirmed Rs. 128 billion as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's rightful share and Rs. 52 billion for Punjab for FY 2016-17, based on KCM. Subsequently, another committee was constituted to propose an 'Out-of-the-Box' solution for the payment of Net Hydel Profit to the entitled provinces. According to the Chief Minister, the 'Out-of-the-box' committee has held five meetings, wherein it was decided that all stakeholders would submit their proposals. The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already shared its proposal with the Planning Commission. The Chief Minister further stated that given the severe financial constraints facing the province, it is imperative to expedite the resolution of this matter. He urged the Prime Minister Office to direct the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission to convene a meeting of the 'Out-of- the-Box' Committee at the earliest to ensure a just and equitable resolution, hoping that PM's leadership would facilitate this process and be instrumental in securing the rightful share of resources for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in line with constitutional provisions and prior CCI decisions. 'I remain confident that, under your (PM Shehbaz Sharif) leadership, we can navigate these challenges and ensure a fair and transparent resolution that upholds the principles of justice and equity for all stakeholders, 'Gandapur added. The KPK government has proposed a second interim arrangement to settle the outstanding dues by increasing the electricity tariff by Rs.1/kWh. Additionally, the province reiterated its earlier stance of transferring the hydro power stations to the respective provinces. Regarding delay in NHP payments, the GoKP argued that Wapda is no longer revenue collecting agency for the power sector, as CPPA-G is acting as a collecting agency of the Federal Government, therefore, the payment should be made by CPPA-G, under Power Division. The government of KP presented following three proposals: Proposal i: payment of NHP by Federal Govt. as guaranteed under Article 161 (2) of the Constitution, Presidential Order No 3, decisions of CCI from 1993 to 2022 and subsequent calculations made by Jehanzeb Committee in the report approved by CCI December 23, 2019. Federal government may consider financing of power component of a hydro power station from PSDP on the analogy of Dam component. So that the revenues generated may be made available for NHP payments to the entitled provinces: Proposal ii: transfer the existing Hydro Power stations, currently owned by Wapda, to the respective provinces, as was previously proposed by GoPb. The Power Generation Policies of 1995 and 2015 otherwise allow transfer of power stations to the provinces. Federal government may pay the outstanding NHP payments as per KCM to the provinces till the transfer of hydro power stations to the provinces. O&M can be retained by Wapda. Proposal III: Till the finalization options, the Federal Government may announce a 2nd interim arrangement of NHP payment by increasing consumer end tariff by Re1/KWh to generate the requisite funds. Provincial government suggests that Instead of Wapda, CPPA-G may directly pay NHP to the entitled provinces through ESCROW account. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
