March 2009 Archives

It's high noon in Annapolis. Lawmakers must pick between two starkly different economic visions

by Mike Tidwell

The first vision, articulated by mega-insurer Allstate Corp., anticipates a dangerously warmer world where sea-level rise and bigger hurricanes bring potentially huge financial pain to Maryland's already reeling economy.

The second vision, articulated last month by Gov. Martin O'Malley, anticipates something totally different. By fighting global warming with clean, efficient energy, the state will prosper thanks to a $2 billion economic boom in investment and savings, says O'Malley. And this year O'Malley is sponsoring legislation - backed by environmentalists, labor unions, and manufacturers - to get the job done.

Anyone who doubts that global warming is a problem need only remember that Allstate, one of America's biggest insurers, began openly retreating from Maryland's fragile coastline in 2006. After reviewing the latest climate science, the company announced that major Atlantic hurricanes are indeed becoming more frequent and that the ocean itself is rising. These two factors could spawn Katrina-like conditions here. To avoid exposure to a mega disaster, the company stopped issuing new homeowners policies in 2006 in all or part of the state's 11 eastern-most counties.

Watching out for Takoma Park and Silver Spring during the recession

interview with Howard and Diana Kohn
photo by Julie Wiatt

Valerie Ervin did not grow up poor - her dad was an Air Force officer - but, for several years after leaving home, she had to watch her pennies. She lived with her two young sons in subsidized housing and clerked at a Safeway checkout counter.

A quarter-century later those years remain far more than a biographical footnote. Despite the success story she is today, a union organizer who climbed the ranks and moved to politics and won election to the Montgomery County Council in 2006, she says, "I'll always remember what it's like to work very hard and have very little."

Not that she's had a sweet ride for any stage of her life. She organized workers in the catfish factories of Mississippi, the poultry factories of North Carolina, and the ranches of New Mexico where, as a previous Voice feature article about Valerie noted, "an African-American woman in her position was a rare and sometimes unwelcome sight."

Elected to represent Silver Spring and Takoma Park (District Five), Valerie came into office just as the County was about to enter its own era of financial struggle, an experience alien to many who live here. Two years later, she and the rest of the Council are now trying to rein in annual costs that exceed this fiscal year's revenues by $500 million.

One morning a couple weeks ago, over breakfast in a bag, Valerie took stock of the situation.