Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry talks about how getting more people downtown helps all things about the future of Charm City with Nestor at Faidley’s in Lexington Market on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by The Maryland Lottery and Window Nation.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
city, people, baltimore, friends, oysters, eagles, years, walked, fells point, community organizers, baseball, mayor, wife, eat, game, night, tour, community, controller, orioles
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Bill Henry
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
What about w n s t Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive you’re positively faintly see for where they steam it oyster clams shrimp most lobster. The world famous likes in the market since 1817 82. So I brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Get some it’s a lottery scratch off tickets at one right here for my friend and controller, and a guy I endorsed when I was a city resident. We welcome Bill Henry back on to the program. Also our friends at window nation, your 8669 nation. I want to make sure I want to put the hat on for some fun a little bit later on here. It’s a rainy day. So it keeps it’s
Bill Henry 00:34
yeah, this is this is my this is my rain hat.
Nestor Aparicio 00:37
We got floppy hat. What do you got? Who are you promoting here? I got building together Baltimore. Okay, well, that’s just as important as when donation is maybe when did Michigan help rebuild Baltimore? How were you I you know, I would say this for the friendships of Baltimore to people we know. My favorite part of Baltimore is I can just be walking around and just run into people I know everywhere who yell at me and I yell back. But opening days that day. I spent three hours in here people were yelling at me I’m giving away lottery tickets. People are winning money. We’re eating fish, rabbit a good time. And then I wandered over to press retail house and one or point seven was over there, my friends at the Bay. And then I wandered off to the stadium by the hilt. And then there you are on opening day with your wife in good spirits, Springsteen, you went to Earth Wind and Fire and I didn’t.
Bill Henry 01:23
I didn’t get to go to Earth. When you had tickets though. I had to give my tickets to my deputy. That’s her job, Erica McLamb, whose job is to be at things when I can’t be at them. And in this case, I couldn’t be at Earth Wind and Fire and she was
Nestor Aparicio 01:37
well, I was upset. Everybody was there. But me but I think it see the Eagles. Look, I just had Ron Legler here from the Hippodrome. And I know you know him and I know you know, damy it and I’ve moved to the county 15 months ago, and I’m in the city. Three, four days a week. I was at capillaries yesterday. So and I’ll be here again this week and concerts coming there things bringing me here. Yeah, like the Orioles are bringing me here. I was in Maui last week. But on Friday night, I would have either been at Chicago, or I would have been at Adam Sandler.
Bill Henry 02:06
If you’d told me you’d come back from Hawaii because he had tickets. I’d been pressed. So I
Nestor Aparicio 02:11
wouldn’t be. But seeing my friends, my acquaintances, my business people all back in the city, whether it’s for an oil game, or whether it’s for Bruce Springsteen, or it’s for Janet Jackson next week, or in my case, Anita Baker, the following
Bill Henry 02:26
baby face?
Nestor Aparicio 02:28
Well, I’ll be there. I’m guessing Yes, I’ll be there for Anita Baker. The city is bringing people back. All of the things we talked about here when we were masked up and you sat here with me personally before when you were a candidate, and running and counsel and all that you’ve worked on. This has been your life project. I said this to my wife after you ran it. I’m like, you know, you’re one of those guys who probably could have done it something else with your gig without being a politician. But you’ve gone this direction. Do you feel it? Did people send you I mean, it’s one thing to throw out plaudits and wishes and hopes and whatever. But it starts to feel like the cities, whatever, bottoming out was during the plague and a lot of places bottomed out there, including Maui, I was over there. And people were like, it was Messier, too. We had no tourists, right? Everybody struggled. But we’re coming out of this thing. And we’re starting to see progress. I see it, I feel it, and I want to champion it. And I know you’re in the middle of it. And it really you talk to me a million times we need a tax base. We need people to spend money in the city. When you come down here you’re given Uncle Bill 10 cents, and we’re going to put toward the next thing, it’s going to make the city better. Kinda sorta right. One of
Bill Henry 03:36
the reasons that I love your show is because I have tried to be positive about Baltimore the whole time. Like there, we’ve we’ve had good days and bad days, we’ve had good years and bad years. But Baltimore is strong, Baltimore is resilient. And even during the bad times, you know, there are good times coming. And, you know, I accept the fact that people see me as a politician, and that I’m an elected official. But what I really think of my profession is I’m a community developer. And I’ve done community development. As a member of a nonprofit staff. I’ve done community development as staff to elected officials, I’ve done community organizing, literally, that was your right I will make the subtle distinction. I say this only because I have friends who are community organizers, who I respect too much to claim their gig. Like there are people who are community organizers, and there are people who work in community development. And
Nestor Aparicio 04:40
community organizers don’t necessarily have political aspirations for themselves. Right. They don’t want to run for office. They just want to make sure that the person that runs for office is doing the right thing.
Bill Henry 04:50
They want to make sure community organizers want to make sure that the community voice is heard. And that is something that I am with 100% I have always been a believer in community empowerment. Whether I was an elected official, or just an angry community person myself,
Nestor Aparicio 05:07
what made you angriest? And what have you done about it?
Bill Henry 05:11
What made me angriest? Wow, what got you involved that? Oh, well, I
Nestor Aparicio 05:16
looked at this issue off to get you involved. And he did me with Baltimore positive. And I told you tonight it was, it was the night when when Cathy’s running the city and about to go to prison, and I didn’t know it. And my wife had just gotten out of the hospital and survived the first time. And we went to Fells Point in a car, which we never did. Because before she had cancer, she’s well, we walked everywhere. We would never get in our car and drive to Fells Point and stupid. But it was a cold night. And we got in the car, my wife was bald, and just alive and hanging on the life and trying to have a dinner. And we went into Fells Point and I got harassed, not held up. Nobody had a gun. Nothing. Just it was more bullshit than I should have had to deal with on a Friday night. And certainly more than Ron Furman, or any of my friends who own businesses, in this case was Sammy strat, I don’t know Sammy, I’ve never met, but it was the end attacker he had built rotos was it’s long gone now. But like, I saw someone like me, a local person putting all my life investment into an Italian restaurant on the strip in Fells Point, and seeing nobody helping the guy, right, you know what I mean? And I’m there and I’m like, this pissed me off. And I, you know, I was gonna run for mayor, I’ve told her and everybody knows that, right? Like, this was a loud, I’m gonna do whatever I can do to raise hell, because I was pissed. So I, I’m with you, you know, that’s what made Baltimore pod and swear to God, Baltimore positive happened that night, because I’m like, I’m done with Angelo’s. And Bashar has now thrown me like, I’m done glorifying these billionaire sports teams, that’s great to come down to do whatever they do. But they’re here. So that damy can sell crabcakes so that we can have a tax base so you can get money and help people that really live here that need help, that we can help schools, all the problems we have here. And here’s a business owner that built a business and I’m sitting in it, and I’m getting harassed on the way in on the way out while sitting at the table. Like it was it wasn’t good. And I felt like I’m pissed. And I want to do something that if you and I get to dinner tonight, good NFL, they won’t happen. It won’t that won’t be the case tonight. So for that, for you brand for all
Bill Henry 07:22
reference has been made. Without question.
Nestor Aparicio 07:26
This is a better city than the city was that night. Now I’m talking riots. 15 1617. Trump, this is the plague. Almost a decade. Yeah.
Bill Henry 07:36
Yesterday was the eighth eighth anniversary of Freddie Gray funeral. Okay, yeah. So we were where we are moving into the eight year anniversary of all the uprising, the curfew every I looked
Nestor Aparicio 07:54
out the window that night bill, I lived on the 23rd floor harbor court. And we my wife had just survived. And we had just she she couldn’t sit in the sun because she had a bone marrow transplant. So we went to the islands and she had to stay kind of on the porch for four days. But she was so happy to we flew home opened our iPad and the city’s on fire. And my wife saw this landing itself. When I landed on an international flight I had, you know, I’m in that holding tank, and my phones blowing up and everybody’s telling me not to go home. You can’t go back into the city. The cities you can’t go home. I’m like, my cats home. I’m going home. And I went home that Monday night and the capitals were playing the Islanders in game seven have a knockout. It was there. It was April’s now right. And I looked out the window on the 23rd floor and I saw the fireball over northeast ball. I mean, I saw a fire that was 10 storeys high. It was the North. On the east side by Harford road. There was a facility Yeah, right. There was a man who built the church right a little bit once. I have video that fireball and I turned to my wife as a first period of hockey game and we barely unpacked we’re just walking in a city where like I said, we’re this is this is not good for this isn’t good for conventions, it’s not good for anything. And then the next week, the baseball I mean, Angelo’s decided to play a baseball game with tanks circling stadium and cow herd wrote that, but to me, I’m still like, eight years later, what happened there? We’re recovering from that night from that fire, but never forget it. I could have said to my wife, we’re in trouble here. You know, I lost quarter million dollars selling my place, right? But I wouldn’t now, the person that bought my place isn’t going to have that problem. I don’t think over the next 10 years because I come in here three, four days a week, and I see things getting better. And I mean it and i i saw it at CFG bank. I sold an opening there. Three weeks later, I’m back down here. What are you seeing because something got you angry to get involved in this say I want something better than than what I had that night and Fells Point.
Bill Henry 09:57
Well, I think I told you the story. I’m back when I first came on the program in 19, when I was running for controller, I told you the story of how I was sitting in a hearing in the in City Hall. And I was listening to the city auditor at the time, explaining that they had completed a series of audits that were critical of some of the performance of city agencies. But that the finance director at the time, had argued that they should be held off from being publicly released. And the former comptroller had decided to agree with the finance director, and overrode her own city auditor. And, and, and did this. And this was at a time when it was publicly known as well, that that she was friends with the mayor, like personal friends with the mayor, they owned a business together. And I remember sitting there thinking, you know, if I was the Comptroller, and I was personal friends with the mayor, I’d be bending over backwards to do what I could to avoid anything that looked like a conflict of interest, like I was trying to do things to protect the mayor. It’s like, we deserve better than that. And that was really when I crystallized the decision that I was going to go from being a council person and taking care of the neighborhood that I lived in, and the neighborhoods right around it, to worrying about the whole city
Nestor Aparicio 11:52
is connected. Yeah, I mean, as a county resident now in a county business owner, I’ve always been a county business owner, 25 years now, right? There’s no wine up there on 83, where that orange sign sits, you know, that says City County, and we’re all in this together. And the people in the county that bag on the city, I won’t have it I’ll put a stop to last night. It’s long before
Bill Henry 12:18
I was elected to anything I used to work with. It was called Citizens planning and Housing Association. I think they’re changing the name to community planning and Housing Association. But they were the organization that was really pushing hard for more regionalism back in the 90s, and the early 2000s, trying to find more ways and more opportunities for Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Arundel County, to all connect. Because like you said, there is no, it’s not like there’s an actual wall. Right, you know, between, like, our problems are their problems, their problems are our problems. You know, I told us stay out here to count you will be fine. And those those friends of mine, and in the county who would say things like that, they’re like, Oh, well, that’s why I moved out here to get away from this in the city or that in the city, I would say, Listen, there’s no wall. If there’s a problem in the city, it’s going to be your problem. You just need to wait a little bit. Because if everybody isn’t pulling together to strengthen the city, and make the city as vibrant and positive as you can, any problems we’re having are gonna inevitably slide and spread out from the city. You know, maybe 695 might be a little bit of a firewall or a fire break or whatever. But
Nestor Aparicio 13:54
you driven on 695 lately? They believe me? I did perring Parkway yesterday. No, I always tweeted, I’m like I I can’t live in a well being 80 miles an hour freeway, they came
Bill Henry 14:06
out and said there’s a problem. Like whatever that accident on. Yeah, bad. Like they’ve they’ve now formally ruled that both of those cars were speeding, of course they were and and as a result, and between the speeding and just absolutely awful luck when it comes to where they’ve set up the barriers. Now we’ve lost,
Nestor Aparicio 14:37
he slow down, you give yourself a chance, you know what I mean? And others and others. Well, give yourself a chance. No, Emery is here he is our controller in Baltimore City. Always of pop culture and sports and you do all of this stuff. But I mean, you gotta get how was the city do when and tell me about revenues with CFG bank any in the stadium and people come in down, there are more people downtown this spring, then there have been in a number of springs that should leave behind some money, it should leave behind some growth. We talked about the Inner Harbor, and whatever’s going to happen there with with new development. And I hope to have David on the program at some point two, how are we doing? Have we picked up from the plague.
Bill Henry 15:22
So as it’s so often the case, we’ve got good news. And we’ve got bad news. We’re just kicking off budget season. Right now the finance department has presented a preliminary budget. But for one thing, but for one thing, it would have been a really good budget year, revenues were up, we would have had a small surplus to apply to all the things that we need to be putting more pie. You could you could you could go with infrastructure, you could go with providing young people more meaningful things to be doing after school and on weekends in the summer. You know, because I I consider providing young people with more things to do. That’s crime prevention, by correct that is real public safety. Investment is when you tell kids, hey, we care about you, we want to help you do good stuff. But instead, what happened was, there was one little aspect of the Kerwin formula for this big new change at the state level, that is providing more money to schools from the state, but at the local cost of encouraging slash requiring the localities to put this money in, and there was something flubbed in the projections and the equations. And we ended up having to put an extra $79 million in the schools from the local government. Now, that’s not 79 total, that’s an extra 79, on top of the almost 400 million we were already putting in. But that extra 79 that we weren’t expecting, ate up all of the surplus revenue, and then some, and we had to dig into our fund balance to keep from having to actually cut services.
Nestor Aparicio 17:40
Well, how is the summer looking on the server ma pools and the things that we talk about for kids? And crime goes up in the summer, right? We all know, we know this, right? And we’ve talked about curfews and your brand and talking about all of that. Where are we with providing a better Summer in the City than maybe it was 10 years ago?
Bill Henry 18:00
Again, good news and bad news. First of all, if you haven’t had a chance to go down to the new Middle Branch, fitness and wellness, I mean, it’s not officially the Cherry Hill rec center. But oh my god, it is a thing of beauty. It is an absolutely gorgeous facility. First time I was in it, my thought was, this could be the Rec Center for a world class, private university. I mean this it’s really nice. And and it’s an incredible new amenity for technically the whole city, but effectively for the for the community around middle brand. That like that. So we’re doing these great new improvements and additions around the city. Downside is in a couple places, the the amenities that we’re trying to improve like the Patterson Park pool springs to mind, but there’s another big pool but I’m blanking on right now. But in order to fix them in order to do the repairs and the improvements that we need to do the construction season for making those repairs, if the exact same time of the year that it needs to be the community would want to be using it. And so that’s going to be a hit over I definitely this summer, and maybe next summer for a couple of our big pools is we’re going to be fixing them and improving them. And that’s a good thing. But it means they’re going to be offline while we do that,
Nestor Aparicio 19:39
though Emery is here where it fails. And at some point I’ll get to sports with you a little bit let you opine on the Lamarca you know,
Bill Henry 19:46
I I’m happy to opine on Lamar but I also want to say so far I’ve only been to two games to Orioles games this season. But we are to for to relish Good luck on each dial.
Nestor Aparicio 20:01
Good luck charm for Rella Shep Oh, Henry, but for sports in the city and I’m a sports guy, right? I mean, I’m here. My last name is Aparicio, you know, I’m here because of baseball. So to have a relevant baseball team and the football team to get Lamar and least, there’s now confidence that there’s going to be
Bill Henry 20:20
an offense,
Nestor Aparicio 20:23
a chance to win a chance to compete, which is something that the Ravens usually have 12 months a year and the Orioles almost never have had right in the last 30 years gonna
Bill Henry 20:32
have an entire nation of Ravens fans who are looking at becoming CIF and going. If we can just keep everybody healthy, we can go all the way.
Nestor Aparicio 20:45
Right. Well, that’s that that’s all you want. Right? You’re in the business of selling Oh,
Bill Henry 20:50
and we definitely and the baseball team as you have that time we have a we definitely have what we need to hope for. On the football side, on the baseball side. I gotta say I felt better this year than I have and a lot like my daughter. My daughter is 17 She’s graduating from high school. She doesn’t have a clear memory of the Orioles being a great team. She has no clear memory of them being a baseball powerhouse. And I’m really looking forward to seeing the kids who are growing up now. Get to have that for their like for their live like like, like when we were kids. Oreos were great. Yeah, like that was
Nestor Aparicio 21:38
awesome. I was I was in why last weekend on Sunday, after the Chicago and Adam Sandler. I mean, I’m I’m still Facebook, and I’m on the beach looking down and everybody I knew. Now I’m 55 I know some people a little younger, and they a lot of my friends had kids later in life, they’re in their 40s. And they didn’t they have kids. You’re a little older for 17 year old as well, you my kids 38. Right. So it’s it is what it is right. But a lot of my friends do have an under 18 years of age. Now I’d say under 14 years of age, running the bases going down, literally. And I said to myself, I don’t have any pictures of me doing that because the rules were so friggin arrogant for So Mike, when my kid was 10 years old is when Angelo’s bought the team early 90s the field all that’s just for people. You can’t you know that that’s not for the for the great unwashed. And there’s, there’s this thing about seeing the kids, they’re having that kind of day and they want their 30,000 people there. It was a real little league day. And I’m thinking, well, that’s a good step for them that these children would want to come back. Because baseball moves at a glacial pace, it’s hard to understand. And you know, especially if you’re not from America,
Bill Henry 22:48
not a glacial pace anymore, right? This this month, that pitch clock
Nestor Aparicio 22:53
that’s changed everything about the experience, even for a guy that loves baseball, that began to not love baseball, and the shift, and for our games and bad baseball and awful ownership. And just all of that makes you not engage with it. But then you come back now where they’re good. And you say this is a good place to get back on the train. Yeah, you can go by and Adley rutschman jerseys still being a real fan. And we’re 35 and but that’s bringing people into the city for your job. And for what we’re trying to do around you’re selling things and making the city better. The Oreos are designed to bring the person from the county who says I’m not coming to the city, that’s going to be an entry point for them. It might be Chicago concert, it might be probably not going to be a meal, it’s gonna be the meal with the event, right? You’re gonna come down and go to the Hippodrome and grab a bite to eat, and you’re going to discover something, but it’s going to be an event and CFG Bank Arena, and the Orioles all and the inner heart. All this is happening at the same time. That’s, you’re in a good seat right now. I think you’re going to look like a good politician from all over. Because I think this city is going to be better. The next time you run, which is soon right.
Bill Henry 23:58
It’s not too soon. We are just about a year year out from the next primary
Nestor Aparicio 24:05
campus. Well, less than that for
Bill Henry 24:06
campaigning. Right. Oh, yeah. campaign. The camp Most campaigns will kick off in the next few months.
Nestor Aparicio 24:12
Right. All right. So we’re at that point, I think you and to some degree, Brandon whenever the time comes there. You mentioned a controller and a mayor being tied to him. Where are you in Brandon and all this? I mean, you guys served. You’ve known when did you must have met him? He was a puppy, right? He was a young, very young. He was a very young person when you met him, right? Literally,
Bill Henry 24:32
I was a young person. I’m pretty sure I met Brandon. Shortly after he started working in the city council president’s office. Back when I was a council person in my first term. And one of my earliest memories of Brandon was walking from the fourth floor up to the fifth floor where my office was, and he came into the stairwell and pay asked me on the stairs, taking the stairs two at a time. And my my my first thought when I saw him do that was Hi, remember what I used to do. When when when I was 23. And I was working in the council president’s office. And I have been happy to watch Brandon, though, like, go that whole route from being staff, the council president’s office to being a council person to being council president has done it the right way. And now being mayor. Yeah, that’s I that’s the way you should do it. I, I appreciate what he’s what he’s done. I appreciate what he’s tried to done. Have we have we what he’s tried to do? What? Have we agreed on everything? No. Like, we’re two different people. Like, we don’t always agree. But the lack of 100% consensus doesn’t stop us from both trying to do everything we can do to make the city better. And working together is a much better way of moving the city forward than constantly fighting
Nestor Aparicio 26:13
biggest issues in the city that you’d like to see. Beyond crime, obviously, but things we that would be benchmarks for, is it getting better as a game because we’re Oh, no, taking the temperatures getting better to get worse, I’m here saying it’s getting better. I see it, I know it, I feel it, I have no reason to say that other than I’m honest. And I come down here and I look around, you know, that’s my reputation over 31 years, calling it the way it is, it’s getting better it is
Bill Henry 26:38
one of the things that gets easier as you get older, is to take a long term perspective on things. And it’s really hard at government at any level, to make real change fast enough for it to be part of a four year electoral cycle. And a lot of elected officials fall into this trap of, I gotta do things that make things look better, quickly, because I gotta be able to point to that, when I’m running for reelection. A year from now two years from
Nestor Aparicio 27:21
it’s a universal issue.
Bill Henry 27:24
That’s just that’s just an issue with having a democratic process and having regular elections to be popular. And, and, and one of the things that a little age gives you perspective on is some of the things we face need long term solutions. That’s that’s why i That’s why I’ve been pushing the idea of increasing the amount of youth development we invest in, you know, when they talk about what’s the song, the children are a future, right? It if you can make sure that today’s kids grow up to be tomorrow’s well supported, high functioning, productive members of society. You won’t have a crime problem in the future, you get a better community, you’ll have a better, easier community. It’ll be easier at that point, to take all the resources that right now we’re putting into a police department to fight crime. And I remember I’m trying to remember his name, Tom, East as Tom is a ton more Tom Murphy. He was the mayor of Pittsburgh. And, and now he’s a consultant for the Urban Land Institute. And he did a workshop for local elected officials couple years ago for a conference here in Baltimore. And he started the con he started the workshop off with how many of you are, you know are from cities where you don’t have enough money? Raise your head here. But I was sitting in front. So he comes, he stands. He looks right down at me. He goes, What’s the annual operating budget for your city? And I realized where he was going, and I, I started to look really sheepish. And it’s like, two and a half billion dollars. And he goes with the microphone every two and a half billion dollars. And he looks out of the room. He goes, How can you say you don’t have any money when you have two and a half billion dollars. And then he looks at all of us. And he says, Your problem isn’t that your cities don’t have any money. Your problem is that you’re not spending it on what you want to spend it on. You’re spending it on what you think you have to spend it on. And there are all these things that we want to be putting more investment into, but we can’t because we’re doing things we have to do and if we it’s, what’s the old expression? You can’t. You’re so busy fighting alligators, you don’t have time to drain the swamp, right? Like, we need to put resources and time and effort into draining the swamp. It doesn’t pay off right away. It doesn’t help you get reelected next year. But a 1216 years down the line, you’ll have fewer alligators. And then you’ll be able to really do what you want to do with your resources. And that’s what I’m pushing for
Nestor Aparicio 30:40
Bill Henry shear. He’s the controller of Baltimore City, a good Baltimorean here, and you can vote for him later. If you live in a city where we’re selling crabcakes here and promoting the Maryland lottery. I have the Maryland crabcake tour. It’s presented by the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends at window nation we’re down at fade Lee’s in the old legs in the market about to be the new legs in the market. You see these things that I keep saying I don’t want to suck up to a politician progress the word progress progress is that there is a new Lexington market 50 feet away this place is going to be there soon. Yeah, I walked through there on opening day. These are the reasons I’m not BS in people. I come down and I walk around and I see things getting better. I see businesses that I love like a meat cheese getting better and people in there and people eating meat cheese Yeah, so but I can mention a dozen different though restaurants and places. Go ahead.
Bill Henry 31:34
The Panay Toronto Ponte returned to earn a return on a return round bracket it used to be like a whole actual bull Yeah, they do they do now they know now they just have like a big round slice of bread with shrimp and scampi files on top. And I’m just saying times change. Oh my
Nestor Aparicio 31:55
god over there. I think they will dispute this over on my street before it’s all over. I will
Bill Henry 32:00
definitely come check.
Nestor Aparicio 32:02
Alright, well you and I can get a meal over to meet crabcakes over there but that doesn’t mean I’m not down there. So what I this is my Ameche saying is what you need to do when you go over there. You order the garlic cheese bread toasts the toast. And then you order the meatball ricotta sigh Oh, yeah. And they cut the meatballs in half and you put them on the bread. And you make little
Bill Henry 32:24
meatball open meatballs out
Nestor Aparicio 32:26
with cheese and garlic. And
Bill Henry 32:29
are you gonna afford this guy you’re gonna force me to talk about
Nestor Aparicio 32:32
right here. No, I get. Oh, hold on. Hold on. We got crab cakes coming.
Bill Henry 32:37
How can we how can we be
Nestor Aparicio 32:38
that’s his crab cake. We got the fried fried oysters. That’s all right. Well, I’ll tell you what we’re except that take a break so he can eat that I can eat this. Peter Jensen’s here from the Baltimore Sun. He’s gonna be joining us. Hey, Peter. He writes things.
Bill Henry 32:52
Yeah, yeah, he’s good at it. I know. Yeah. Those of us who can write we have to talk.
Nestor Aparicio 32:57
We’ve only met on the internet. We’ve never sat next to each other really? So yeah, okay. All right, Amy. This whole face made for radio thing. That’s me. That’s me face made for radio. Peter jets with the Baltimore Sun’s here. It’s all brought to you by winter nation and our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’m going to eat these fried oysters. By the way. The crab cake tour has begun look at that crappy little tomatoes that are delicious. I had never had a fried oyster. Never say never but like it would not nothing I would ever order. And Danny brought these to me about a year ago. And it inspired this summer. My 25th anniversary of NST is August 3. We’re gonna do the third annual tour but we’re gonna add oysters this year. So I’m going to do 25 oysters and 25 days and 25 ways. Okay, beginning September 1 To celebrate 25 years and it’s also to kick off a football season. The Orioles to be in the pennant race kids going back to school and it’s got a month with an R and speaking of oyster festivals, one going on this weekend right here in the city of Fells Point. You didn’t see the sign coming down Bradstreet they the big sides. They have no signs I’m telling you oyster fest 28th to 30th Good weather on Saturday and Sunday. But I love oysters and this is going to be my chance to explore oysters. And Amy has taught me that the oysters and the oxygenation in the bay and the grasses the oysters are wood oxygenates water that keeps crabs alive. So without these you don’t get him be correct. And I’m going to teach people that don’t me learn things here on the program. But I learned things following him on social media, including like things about Duran Duran and all sorts of 80s Pop Culture no does that right? Favorite band? Yeah.
Bill Henry 34:35
Oh my god. I couldn’t do that. You don’t you don’t have I don’t have a favorite bands. I
Nestor Aparicio 34:39
put you on an island. You take five CDs. What do you take? That’s that’s a wide range.
Bill Henry 34:45
Five CDs. Can I take greatest hits album? Sure.
Nestor Aparicio 34:49
Just five bands. I’m just trying to figure out real your real music tastes your real taste. You know, I mean, do I want to steal your cocktail sauce because I’m gonna do
Bill Henry 34:58
I have to I have to Oh yeah, I was fortunate enough to get to go see both Bruce and and the Eagles. And do you know what I found? You love the Eagles more I found I know more songs by the Eagles as a playable Well, that was a big Yeah, like Bruce only played like five songs of the I know a bunch of Seanna Bruce fans might know what the Eagles, the Eagles like they were like going down a list taken off the songs that I know and love. And
Nestor Aparicio 35:28
the eagles were unbelievable. And I’m a Bruce guy with the Eagles. They’re always great. But and you know, that’s the end of the tour. That was the last night of that extended. I mean, they’ve been doing that Hotel California tour since the middle. I didn’t realize they’ve been doing that since before the plague. But I was in New York in 2020. So they’ve been on that tour for almost three and a half, four years. It’s the last night they had the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, doing the last resort
Bill Henry 35:53
work and gospel choir.
Nestor Aparicio 35:54
I mean, the whole deal. And I’m thinking to myself, that might be the last time the band ever does the last resort, because they need an orchestra to do Yeah. And I celebrated the last line of that song. And it’s one of my, one of the greatest songs ever written about America last resort. It’s it’s a homage to manifest destiny, you know, and we can leave it all behind and sail off to La Hi, Tanya, just like the missionaries did so many years ago. They even brought a neon sign and say that Jesus is coming. You know, so I went to Ohio last week and there was a sign there that says Jesus is coming. There literally is right there is a neon sign it says Jesus is coming. So he and it’s obviously been there since 1975. Mick Fleetwood has a place in La Jolla. That’s his place. Yeah, fleet woods, right. Oh, Nick place the drums are twice a month, you can go for under 50 bucks and watch his band and in a little room smaller and fade Lee’s beautiful. So he writes a song. And the end of the song is called some they call it paradise. I don’t know why call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye. And so that that is such a great song. And I thought to myself, my favorite Eagles song and I thought man, the last time they might ever play that is in my old Baltimore Civic Center that’s dressed up look at it. And I went down to the club level. I went to the bathroom during funk 49. So at the end of the sugars, I had to pee and it’s the Eagles and I had to figure I get setlist and I’m like, well funk 49 It’s like a champ thing. I’ll be able to run down and pee and come back. I don’t even know what a bathroom was. And I went down into that club level that used to be function room 102104106 The room that I met every rock star ever in when I was a music critic and all that. And I went down there and it was like a scene from The Shining Phil. I walked in there and was like, was completely empty because the concert was going yeah, it was couple bartenders. And it was like, I’ve been in this space my whole life and they completely pimped it out. There’s Zeplin pester and the Beatles poster. And it’s just this giant beautiful gathering space that you want to be drinking in before the show starts. It’s club level underneath the arena. You haven’t been in a yet. Wait, I’m
Bill Henry 38:11
trying to under under the 246
Nestor Aparicio 38:12
side if
Bill Henry 38:14
it didn’t have the little the video games in the corner are different. That’s a different space. Okay, then no, I wasn’t in that one.
Nestor Aparicio 38:23
It’s got Zeplin if you peed in there, you would walk past the Zeppelin and Beatles giant posters because the men’s and wait ladies rooms are right there. It looks like a beautiful ornate theater like a like a theater lobby. It’s beautiful. And I saw it three quarters way through the show. And I ran down and I just had to pee and I’m like, Oh my god. Oh my god, and I peed and I ran back and I said to my wife. You gotta pee. She’s like, No, I don’t. And I’m like, no, no, no, you gotta pee. And I said, when there’s the Encore when they’re done, and they’re gonna play best in my love and Desperado. You’re gonna go pee. And she’s like, all right. I said, Come with me. And we went down there. She walked. She’s like, wow, oh my God. You know, I’m like, I just went down to pee. And I welled up in a different building than I’ve ever been in in my whole life. And I’m, I haven’t visited it. And Frank Ramesh has invited, but I want to go down there. But it’s a different experience. Even for a guy that’s been in that building my whole life. I went to that Eagles concert. And I felt like, well, you wonder why three weeks later, I would come here and say to you, I think our city is getting better. Yeah. And that’s been that’s that’s a beautiful family. And it will say that much. I really haven’t been a lot of bitch and a lot of complaining. The baseball teams getting better. The football teams trying we fix the arena.
Bill Henry 39:40
And that keeps everybody feeling better. It does. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 39:45
All right. Appreciate you bill Henry. Appreciate it. But for you all over again. I’ll tell my friends in the city to do that. Bill MVC controller Baltimore City, he’s about to eat a world famous delicious. phaleas crabcake all they’re brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery giveaway. The instance scratches we have people coming in right now. You want one? Sir Here we go. That might be bills but I’ll give you that bill you get a different chicken now. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery in a freezer window nation 866 90 nation do you wanna wear the funny hat? Now’s where the funny hat I love the hat. Floppy Hat. I’ll get on that Peter Jensen from the Baltimore Sun is gonna be your next PDF is gonna get his Henry was no chance all right. Don’t tune in come back in half an hour a beach gonna be here. We’re gonna be talking all things Baltimore and see if the curmudgeon agrees that the city is getting better. That’s my favorite curmudgeon. Peter Peter Jensen. On Nesta, we are at fadeless the old family soon to be the new families and we’re in downtown Baltimore. The Charm City back for more on wn st right after this.
