the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jul 22, 2019
On July 7th, another big water main burst in downtown Baltimore. This time, a large part of downtown was flooded and a couple of people were injured–one almost died and may be permanently disabled. The water and mud caused a freight train to derail in the Howard Street tunnel. The light rail tracks were undermined, causing the shutdown of service from Camden Yards all the way up to North Avenue. The water flowed into the football stadium. It turned the Inner Harbor brown with filthy, contaminated runoff.
City and state officials say the roads around the normally-busy intersection of Pratt and Howard Streets will not be re-opened until at least July 22nd. Nor will downtown light rail service be restored until at least this date. In the meantime, tens of thousands of commuters working downtown, or passing through the area to jobs in other parts of the city, have had their commute times greatly increased.
The water main that broke is decades old and was obviously in need of repairs. It is just one of the many sections of water and sewer lines that have not been properly maintained for decades.
This irresponsibility lies squarely on well-to-do city and state politicians and officials, and their rich supporters–several of whom were recently exposed for their corruption and incompetence.
But no doubt they will try to put the huge clean-up and repair costs of this mini-disaster on us.