I applaud Anne Arundel County Judge Cathleen Vitale’s decision to invalidate certification of ballot Question F, which asks Baltimore voters to give a thumb’s up or down on “an ambitious proposal from Baltimore developer MCB Real Estate to replace the aging shopping and dining pavilions on the city’s waterfront,” as the Sun reported ( Sept. 16). This is one of the most consequential ballot initiatives ever to come before city voters.
Approving the measure would, in effect, permit public city parkland at the Inner Harbor to be conveyed into private hands for the purpose of building tall, luxury dwellings and other for-profit structures. One would hope, at a minimum, that the wording of a ballot item of this magnitude would be crystal clear, giving voters the opportunity to fairly assess the merits of the proposal. Instead, Question F is deliberately confusing — so much so that Judge Vitale herself admitted that while reading it, she “got a little lost.
” How can an ordinary citizen understand the measure’s convoluted language if a circuit court judge cannot? During one of the most consequential elections of our time, local voters deserve clarity and transparency when asked to decide issues that will affect our downtown for decades to come. — Amy Bernstein, Baltimore.