Coming together after the Key Bridge tragedy

It’s all so raw and so previously unfathomable – the collapse of the Key Bridge in the overnight. Leonard Raskin and Nestor the discuss the emotions, loss and economic impact for the Port of Baltimore and region as our state attempts to heal and rebuild as quickly as possible.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

bridge, talk, baltimore, watching, traffic, opening, day, bill, years, tragedy, raskin, towson, hours, ship, baseball game, costas, orioles, water, give, port

SPEAKERS

Leonard Raskin, Nestor J. Aparicio

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home we are wn St. am 1570, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive I’m positively back from Florida NFL owners meetings where a Steve Shadi and Eric de Costa ran for me. But the Orioles actually I said hello to Mike Elias and Fort Myers is opening day week here. We will be doing the Maryland crab cake tour beginning on April 9, and I’m wearing my Costa shirt here established in 1971. Even before the Key Bridge, I am highly encouraging everyone to give love not only to Costas but to anyone in my Politik Peninsula over in Dundalk in my hometown, who used to use the bridge to come over to support businesses to come through the tunnel. Please support them on the ninth of April we will be doing the Maryland crab cake tour next crab cake tour we’re doing all morning in advance of an Orioles Red Sox game from two of the five and hope you packed place for an afternoon Orioles game. And I’ll be giving away PAC man’s and 10 times the cash and Maryland lottery. So we talking about all of that I was in a Lake Buena Vista Hotel Room mile from Epcot. Waking up for the NFL owners meetings after having been out very very late. on a Monday night. Seeing Chad steel play bodyguard for steep Ashanti at midnight at the Ritz. And four hours later, I was awakened by a text about something that I don’t know You just never think you’re gonna hear that the key branch is falling. So let a Raskin joins us now he is Rascon global. He manages money, people expectations. And Leonard, it’s amazing because I was gone five or six days and that’s five or six day period of time, the amount of things that happen from a historic Baltimore perspective. Peter Angelos died on Saturday afternoon, I don’t know that we’re going to talk much about it with anybody because of the Key Bridge incident. First off, where is he you you were home, you’re in Baltimore on Tuesday.

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Leonard Raskin  01:58

I was here. Yeah, I was here and woke up in the morning to the news and flipped it on and could not believe what I was seeing. I’ll tell you as the day moved on, it just seemed more and more surreal. But I said to Kathy I said as we watched it and they started showing that video. I don’t know where that camera is. But obviously cameras are everywhere. Man. It’s scary. That’s scary. But but there was cameras that filmed the the the liner, you know the ship come and as it was coming in and as it turned and then hit the bridge and things fell and I said to her they’re gonna blow that up. They’re gonna look at that frame by frame like there’s a brooder film, you know, they’re not gonna miss it into that. But I said to her, honey, it it looks like there was nobody on that bridge. Like a couple of cars drove across and then there’s gonna stop out. Yeah, right. I said, I said to her, it looks like they said six people or seven people were missing. I’m thinking, Okay, how do they know that? Because what I know is I didn’t see any cars. I didn’t see a single car. So this is crazy. Later in the day, we heard that there was a mayday call. And they actually somehow got people to the ends of those each side and stopped the traffic which is stunning. It’s just amazing happened.

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:14

So so quick. The lights went on. Yeah, I mean, two minutes,

Leonard Raskin  03:20

yet, somehow somebody got to the end of that bridge and stop traffic on both sides.

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:25

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Arrows.

Leonard Raskin  03:26

How bad could it have been? I mean, I think you know, another 10 cars could have been on it. I mean, it wasn’t middle of the day, but it was still people were could have been on that bridge. I didn’t see a single car. So that’s crazy. But but what’s crazy is watching that thing hit the support. And man it went down like Legos. It went down like Tinker Toys. It was It was unreal. It was like watching a movie to see that thing hit the water and my God. I mean, what that means for a community what that means. So So you got the economic impact of the bridge itself, just the traffic and the people and I know that’s your, your world. I gotta tell you this, this is gonna sound really crazy to you. I know. But I said to Kathy, I said this is gonna sound nuts, but I don’t think I’ve been across that bridge three times in my life. Well, I

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:18

admitted to Bill Cole earlier today that even though I’m from Dundalk. I mean, I’ve been across that bridge more way more times than I could possibly count. But I probably only go over it three to five times a year in any given year. Because I’m even though I’m from Dundalk, I lived at the foot of the McHenry harbor. I use a cane Street and we’re gonna jump right in. Sure. I would tell you that I use the Key Bridge every time I went to Ocean City as a kid, because it was just quicker to write that way. And we never used it to go to the airport or You go to a concert DC or anything DC related, but I will say this and this is where I’m wearing my costume shirt instead of my Raskind global shirt, which I always honor you would try to wear that. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour there next Tuesday, and we were going to be doing it there anyway was the kickoff. If the Orioles game I kind of wanted to do it in conjunction with an afternoon game on the road. So I could sit at the bar, right. Every time I’m in there, people are watching baseball games. Anyway, last year, I did a show in the middle of an Oriole game with Pete Kurinji. I didn’t have Pete cringe. He was just watching a baseball game, because I should have stopped. I said, Pete, if I didn’t know you were that into the game. I would have done the show an hour ago. And we can get a beer and watch the game. So we’re gonna do that. But I can’t think of and this just came to me later because the last time I was at cost, this was two weeks ago. And I went with Ray Bachman Ray Baca, my former executive producer here for a long time. There’s a documentary that Greg Landry is putting together over at Blue Rock productions about my career and 25 years and I hope everybody watches it. I’m extremely proud of how it’s going. It’s beautiful. I let the cat out of the bag. The the narrator’s for the piece are Keith Brewer from the Ravens. Who’s a professional voice man. Yeah. And my one of my dearest friends in life, John Allen Jean Jacques from the Go Go’s, so I got a hall of fame to America. So we’re doing all of this stuff. And Ray is involved in this and I took right to lunch, it cost us and we got to the bar and he’s like, you know, I can’t believe I never came over. You’re only been here handful of times. Now I come back. It’s right across the bridge, man. I live in Pasadena. And I get there. Right?

Leonard Raskin  06:30

That’s right, you Glen Burnie to Dundalk isn’t isn’t everyday tour. And

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Nestor J. Aparicio  06:34

it’s an amazing thing that he said that to me. Like I love meeting you a Costas because it’s right across the bridge, and I could get there. And now the bridge is gone. And I’m thinking so please don’t stop coming. The cost is please don’t go to bigger charters in an edge mirror and in Sparrows Point and in Fort our Yeah, the other

Leonard Raskin  06:54

side, the other side, route two is going to be clogged up. I mean, it’s gonna be nuts, the traffic for a while. I think from a traffic standpoint, people have figured this out pretty quickly, they’ll figure out where their routes are, they’ll get there, and it’ll take a couple of few weeks, but then traffic will be fine. But I don’t know how long it’s gonna take to pull that thing out of the water. Number one, you got to get ships through there. You can’t get ships through there until that thing is out of the water. And I don’t know how long it’s gonna take to get that thing out of the water. It looks like

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:21

and by the way. I mean, this is Chesapeake Bay. So whatever we’re doing there, there’s a whole economic writing going on for all of it. I mean, when they were talking about gas, you know, black plumes of smoke and the smell of gas, which obviously it’s like, but I thought, Oh, my God, that’s a that’s a gigantic ship full of petroleum. That Yeah, well, wherever was headed. So not

Leonard Raskin  07:44

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only that, whatever. Not only that, but you got to get all those, you got to get all those containers off of that ship. You can’t that’s not just going to back up. I don’t know what’s what’s going on with that ship. But it’s got to get to the port, it’s either going to get to the port or be tagged to the port, or be offloaded before it gets to the port. And I’m watching this. And this is how crazy it is. I’m thinking to myself, you just go in and pluck that bridge off of the boat. But what kind of a cat what kind of machinery is it going to take? What kind of grains is it going to take to get in there to get that stuff out of the water?

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:19

Well, Bill core a bill Cole mentioned the Army Corps of Engineers like boom, right away, like buying a boom, you know, like, I’d say this, and Bill spoke to this. And you know, and I don’t want to be I mean, I haven’t cried on the radio. I found myself sobbing alone in a hotel room on Tuesday. Yeah, what am I? Why am I?

Leonard Raskin  08:37

How did he hit because you’re an emotional person and you live in the town and you see the the the child

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:44

called and our 911 and Bill poopoo that I’m like, no, no, no, this is something we saw in the sky. Every day in my life. My first two homes, I could see it from my house every day.

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Leonard Raskin  08:54

It’s not the human tragedy of that although seven, six people are missing and surely gone. So it’s not the human tragedy but is the structural equivalent if you live here and live near there of what that is. And it looks like you could just pluck those pieces right out of the water you can just go grab him and boom but that’s going to be for

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:15

anybody who’s ever been over that bridge and the hell this a bigger bridge. It’s it’s we’re in your Intuit a little bit because we’re like well I think the Bay Bridge which is like I have this just oh my god easy strike right? But it’s still Oh,

Leonard Raskin  09:33

it was granted letter don’t get it. You don’t even think about it. You know, I saw and heard over it. You can even use the bridge a couple a couple of times, few times in my life. I had to hear funny, crazy,

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:45

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complex Phil, who was 30 years old at the time and told me she had only been through the harbor tunnel once in her life and the Camry totaled two or three times and and geographically. It makes all the sense in the world right if you’re from anywhere from Towson to Woodlawn All right, would you That’s it.

Leonard Raskin  10:04

But you just was the reason Yes. So my son, the boy, the Boy Wonder is is in Ohio and you know this is national news this was everywhere national news. So so he got a call. I don’t know how these people find people but some friend is got a got him on a call with the Columbus local news because he’s from Baltimore. He did a stand up he did a spot on Columbus local news about the bridge and kibin across it. He Hey wait, he said on the story with the guy who said I’m going across that bridge a bazillion times. Now I think he was talking about the Bay Bridge. But he knows this is not the Bay Bridge. I think he was doing a fine embellishment for the local news there i i sent him a text

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:57

tell us tell him tell him he went a bridge too far. I said

Leonard Raskin  11:04

I said to him I will not call the producers and rat you out nor nor will this be on air for anyone to see but

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Nestor J. Aparicio  11:11

I feel like Ralph mouth now like even in tragedy still got it you know if he’s been

Leonard Raskin  11:16

if he’s been across that bridge a bazillion times it’s been without his parents I can tell you that now he does have friends and he may very well have been more times than me but a bazillion I said Dude that’s it that’s a little bit of a

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:29

part of it as we talk about the bridge itself by the way let Raskin is our guest Raskin global please support him go out to the website you can learn about your taxes are doing a couple weeks before I came in to talk to you be proud of me. I filled up my coffee, right and the whole roofing mug and I said to my wife I’m going on with Lennar we got to figure our tranches. So I just gave a little update because we got opening day and the bridge and this and that and the weather’s gonna break when

Leonard Raskin  11:50

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is when is the Costas day.

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:52

It’s April the ninth that’s a

Leonard Raskin  11:54

Tuesday it’s Tuesday the Orioles

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:56

two o’clock against the Red Sox.

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Leonard Raskin  11:58

I’m gonna be there.

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:59

I think I’m 11 to two but I’m going to ask Pete Nick if I come a little earlier. So I can do more radio that morning because we have we have things to talk about with the bridge, right? We just we’re gonna have things to talk about. So April 9, we’re going to be doing excuse me doing that. Um, you know, my thoughts on the on the bridge and the unemotional part of how we build it back. I had Bill Cole on earlier and we got through the park we almost cried and like, let all that go. Then there’s the thought of not a lot of cars used it right. Like, like the people use.

Leonard Raskin  12:33

They say 30,000 a day. But he says a lot. But

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:37

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But what I’m saying is it was never crowded. There was never a traffic jam on the Key Bridge. Right?

Leonard Raskin  12:43

So the back chain 530 coming from Annapolis, it was always like, listen,

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:48

I live in Towson, right if I had to get to the airport in an hour, and there was a backup on the way it’s afternoon drive, it’s for three right had to get there. I could guarantee myself that if I make it through to 95 split at Rosedale. Yeah, I could get there quick, because I’m not gonna get backed up in Dundalk. I’m not gonna get backed up in NorthPoint Boulevard. I’m not gonna get backed up in Essex. I’m from there. I’ve done this my whole life, like anybody that’s listening to me has as well. You know, the lonely road in front of Walmart, where the where the boot plan is where I grew up. There. Yeah, that there’s, it’s a race track. There’s no one there. It’s always it’s fast, because it wasn’t as utilized. And let’s be honest, it was built 9077. And I’m going to try to tell the story without crying because I’m actually I got a little motional min. ago, and I’m getting a little messy. But my uncle Norman came to my house when I was nine years old. 1977 he always like taking me for rides. He didn’t have kids of his own. At that point. You end up with lots of kids, but some of them may be listening in Dundalk right now, Jason, but my uncle Norman came and picked me up. We probably went to the white coffee pot Jr. Because that was just thankful for you guys. I’m a little burger. And he took me for a ride across the bridge when I was nine years old.

Leonard Raskin  14:00

That’s it. Yeah. So about that’s what the emotions about because that’s, that’s what it is. And now you look out, you know, imagine all these people that as you said, you could look out your window and see the bridge that was a skyline piece. It’s like the stadium behind you. You know, the could you imagine like all of a sudden the museum, the railroad? The right field is gone. I mean, think

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Nestor J. Aparicio  14:26

about Memorial Stadium, when I told John who he from the why, like, I drive by there for 10 years. I was pissed. You’re like, knock

Leonard Raskin  14:33

that down. There you go. Yeah. Oh, my God, what’s going on here? And and 47 years to the week, to the week and God and what are they going to do? You know, I imagined bridge building is a new art and a new science from well, they

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:51

could do it better. They can make the they can dredge it differently. They get bigger boats

Leonard Raskin  14:55

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and if they build it, they can make it faster. They can build it faster. It’s gonna be more are expensive 100 million dollars in five years, it ain’t gonna be that. It’s gonna be a billion something. Bill Cole

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:06

said to me from an economic standpoint, there were limitations that were there that won’t be there anymore. Bill even already mentioned the maglevs trying to find places to go. Bill actually said something that’s going to be heresy to Johnnie or anybody else’s. Let’s build a tunnel under there. And the idea was to hazmat it’s totally free. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. But this can be rethought from the tunnel

Leonard Raskin  15:31

because of the hazmat stuff. There’s too much too much traffic for them. To do that. I think that’s an economic bang. You know, How about how about the folks right now they’re out on the Carnival out of the cruise? It was supposed to come back to the port this weekend, and not so much. I didn’t think that Virginia, they’re gonna take him to Virginia, and then bus back to Baltimore. I could have done Philly, they could have done Philly, it would have been a little closer. Maybe you go there, right? Yeah, he always gets stuck there. You know, when they’re gonna take you on a bus, they’re gonna get you on a bus, I just want to get back. I mean, if I’m on that cruise ship, I’m freaking out. I’m like, Oh, my God, what’s gonna happen, but the commerce, you want to talk about what really, you know, beyond the traffic, forget the traffic, the impact of ships from from our port, not being able to roll out of here and into here. This is a major, major deal. And here’s the big thing. You weren’t talking about economics. Here’s the big thing that scares me the most about economics, the longer it takes to get that bridge out of the water, the longer it takes to open the port. Some of these ships that are going to be rerouted to Norfolk, might stay there. Now they don’t have as deep of water as we do. So they may come back. But this is business and it’s cutthroat. And if they get settled in somewhere else, Baltimore stands to lose a fortune. Well, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Yeah, not just in the days that this is closed, but in the days after it reopens.

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:08

If I don’t want to say we have to find a way to benefit from a tragedy, but we do have to find

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Leonard Raskin  17:12

a way to get this cleared and back open as soon as possible. And I know, to his credit, Westmore, you know, this is going to be his project. This is going to be his landmark stake in the ground. This is what I did when I was governor. He’s going to be able to plant his flag on this one. And he better do it right. It’s going to mean a big deal for his terms and his future. Again, that this tragedy happened on his watch, he’s going to be able to stake his flag or, or he is going to die on the vine on this one. It’s got to be done right. It’s got to get done. I hate to say it with all the human tragedy and everything else. It’s gotten to get done fast.

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:51

Let Rascon is here rascal. Okay, so I only have a couple of minutes with you today. Yeah, anything you would say about Peter or anything you wanna say about the team and welcome on opening day. I’m gonna let me day whenever I

Leonard Raskin  18:00

tell you this. I’m gonna tell you this. Here. Here’s my only thinking. So I’m the financial guy. I’m always the financial guy. Let’s let’s cut to the chase. George Steinbrenner died in 2010. When the one time in the last 50 plus 100 years, give or take that the estate tax was repealed. His kids paid no transfer tax when they inherited the Yankees. Okay, that’s how we know Hanks name. So here we are Peter Angelos. And we talked about this couple a month or so ago, when I talked about the TV and sold. The kids would have to pay capital gains tax. The difference between 170 million purchase price 1.7 billion sales price, state of Maryland, about a quarter billion and a half. Call it taxed at a third federal and state. That’s cool, clean $500 million. I did the math do the math. 500 million, right. Which when someone dies, and you inherit the asset and sell it, that tax is forgiven. The team was not sold and finalized until Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, right before opening day. Okay. The letter of intent. And all of that does not make a sale for the government. It’s at the time of the settlement, if you will you go to close on your house you settle

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:43

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so you’re saying John Angelo saved himself a lot of money and his brothers saying

Leonard Raskin  19:48

his father saved him 500 That 500 million? No. Yeah. On 1,000,000,005. He saved him $500 million in taxes by dying before the sale. was completed.

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:01

Well, that was a case. Yeah. What do you mean no negotiated that way they know the 40% was always going to stay right. But

Leonard Raskin  20:09

but the point is the beginning half so so 250. So 250 million saved by dying before the transaction settled. Well, that’s, that’s fortuitous. Well, okay. So we’ll leave it at that and then we’ll come back and say the damn thing about it. Other than that, it occurred, it occurred. I don’t think there’s anything nefarious about it. Oh, I don’t mean anything like that at all. I’m just fortuitous. Alright, so this is this is how the rich get richer. Sadly, sadly, he’s gone but I look at the tax and financial of it that was in

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Nestor J. Aparicio  20:47

a room with 30 billionaires 48 hours ago like literally I saw Stephen Jones three feet away from me opening bottles of silver oak. I saw Steve Ashati drinking wine I cannot afford and running for literally he into Costa ran for me. They ran from me. In Florida, they ran from me. I will never forget the look on Eric the cost

Leonard Raskin  21:13

of the image of that taking place ridiculous watching the

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:18

fear of them and then cower behind the closed door so I have that image of Florida but then five hours later the Key Bridge went down. We have more important things to do here than football certainly opening day this week. Transfer the baseball team we’ll be talking about oh, and at some point March Madness will be over and at some point it will be 70 degrees again and you and I will be at a baseball game later. Right Amen. Find one Raskin, Raskin global. He manages money and manages the American dream and manages expectations and gives really solid advice. I am Nesta we are wn st am 1570 towns to Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive