Thank You Tom!

Gayle at The Senator put this message up on the marquee today and snapped this photo:



I'd like to add my voice to this. As I said in the town hall meeting last night for anyone who stayed long enough to hear it, Tom Kiefaber is a true hero. Judging by the shouts and cheers of approval I got when I said this, I don't think I'm alone in this view. Without his amazing efforts to do what is nearly impossible day after day, year after year, The Senator would long ago have been just a memory. The fact that we're even able to have a discussion about The Senator's future today is reason to thank him and his incredible staff.

It's not clear who is going to fill the void, now that Tom has expressed a desire to move on and hand The Senator over to another operator. We can only hope his expertise will be consulted going forward, because it was clear last night that without his leadership, there's a difficult and uncertain road ahead.

I hope that Baltimore City realizes before it's too late that we need Tom's expertise in this transition. The meeting last night, which had a much larger turnout than expected with a house that looked pretty full, demonstrated that there is strong public demand to stop the foreclosure auction and give the community more time to find a solution. The public also showed their respect for Tom's work with a lengthy standing ovation at the very beginning of the meeting when he welcomed the community, before turning it over to the Senator Community Trust, which had called the meeting.