A New Leader for a New Baltimore - Otis Rolley
Update: Otis Rolley - We need your contributions by January 13th so we can include them in our January 20th reporting totals! Contribute online – and give whatever a transparent, better Baltimore is worth to you: http://otisrolley.com/
As an outside observer it's hard to state who has done what as City Government is a complex interaction of personalities and interests. But when we were developing the Baltimore Bike Master Plan we got a lot of help from Toole Design Group, which the City paid for under the principle if you are going to do something do it well. Sure there were corners cut to keep the cost down but we did get some critical elements into our plan that I think other cities miss, in short it was done well and without excessive costs.
I mention this as Otis Rolley was in charge of Planning at that time under the O'Malley administration and starting the process of making Baltimore into all that it could be seemed to be a major drive from his office. Baltimore has so much potential to be more then what it is, terms like "New Urbanism" and "Sustainability" are more then buzzwords, they embrace what has shown to work over a long period of time, the concepts are not about other peoples financial gains but your quality of life. They stress a way to look at the system as a whole rather then focus on just small bits and hope the rest will follow.
I should also mention that I have ridden with Otis several times on the rides that start from City Hall. He is aware of the handlebar perspective as well how much of the city you can see by bike and have a fun time doing it.
Dave Troy has great article delving into more detail (but not bike specific) here: http://davetroy.com/posts/a-new-leader-for-a-new-baltimore
And Otis Rolley's TEDx talk: