A white supremacist trying to strike a counterprotestor with a white nationalist flag during clashes at Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017. (Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Baltimore market news, Charlottesville arrests, Nazi-looted painting and more

What’s coming to Cross Street Market?

As we approach the two-year anniversary of the city reaching a deal with Caves Valley Partners to re-do Cross Street Market in Federal Hill, the market announced 10 new and returning vendors on Oct. 2, ranging from longtime tenants to a shiny new coffee shop, plus Korean and Vietnamese options. Those who liked it the old way will be happy to see staples like Steve’s, The Sweet Shoppe and two butchers, Nunnally Bros. Choice Meats and Fenwick’s Choice Meats, on the list. Smoke, the beloved Cockeysville barbecue joint, also kind of fits into this category, as the business had a pop-up stall at the market this past winter. Another former pop-up, Phil Han’s donut maker, Sundays, isn’t in the announced lineup, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. New additions, some of which were revealed more than a year ago, include Annapolis’ Ceremony Coffee, Burger Bar, Vietnamese spot Phubs (which already has a location in Hanover), Korean food stall Rice Crook (located also in Ballston’s Quarter Market Food Hall in Virginia) and Sobeachy Haitian Cuisine, which rebranded from its old name, Green Grass Tall Trees. Little Italy-based Cana Development is handling Cross Street Market’s leasing. The company’s principal, Mike Morris, said Ceremony Coffee will be in a space on the north side of the market at Cross and Light streets. The coffee shop, Fenwick’s Choice Meats and Steve’s have already taken over their stalls and spaces and are set to open within the next two months, he said.

Read more: 10 vendors, including some old favorites, announced for redeveloped Cross Street Market

Lexington Market
Lexington Market (Photo by jpellgen, via Flickr)

Seawall takes over Lexington Market overhaul

The city has scrapped an old plan to redevelop the 236-year-old Lexington Market in favor of a new arrangement with building rehab specialists Seawall Development, which officials say would retain the market’s main building while saving as much $20 million in constructions costs, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. Seawall, best known for its conversion projects in North Baltimore like Union Mill, nearby Union Collective and, perhaps most popularly, Remington’s R. House, has signed on as the developer for Lexington Market’s overhaul, Mayor Catherine Pugh announced at her weekly press briefing Oct. 3. The project under Seawall’s vision will cost $30 to $40 million, the company estimates, down from $50 to $60 million under the old plan. The most recent (and now nixed) plan for Lexington Market, for which Whiting-Turner did pre-development work and Murphy & Dittenhafer served as the architect, entailed building a new multi-level glass structure on an adjacent parking lot and tearing down the existing East Market building, which houses about 60 merchants. But Seawall’s vision would retain the building and repurpose it and add a new, smaller building on the market’s south parking lot. It would also open up the arcade building on W. Lexington Street as a pedestrian thoroughfare, “occasionally with a farmer’s market aspect to it,” said Kirby Fowler, chair of the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation and Lexington Market Inc., and chair of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

Read more: Seawall Development to take over stalled overhaul of Lexington Market

Also see: Building Up Baltimore

President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
President Donald Trump, left, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. (U.S. Embassy Jerusalem/Flickr)

Trump is increasingly unpopular globally — except in Israel

While America’s global image has “plummeted” during Donald Trump’s presidency, Israelis give high marks to his administration and the country as a whole, according to the Pew Research Center. Israelis were often three times more likely to give Trump a positive rating than those surveyed in other allied countries, including Mexico, Germany, Canada and France, according to a Pew poll released Oct. 1. Eight out of 10 Israelis express a favorable opinion of the United States and more than half believe that America is doing more to address global problems than a few years ago. “Israel also tops the list in terms of the share of the public (79 percent) saying that relations with the U.S. have improved in the past year,” Pew reported, citing the longtime tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Barack Obama. Under Trump, the United States moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal that Netanyahu reviled and recently cut off nearly all aid to the Palestinians. In Israel, Trump’s “positive rating jumped to 69 percent, up from 56 percent in 2017” on the heels of his decision to move the U.S. Embassy, according to the report. By contrast, other allies have complained that Trump, who has promoted an “America First” agenda that disdains international institutions and free trade, “doesn’t take into account the interests of countries like theirs when making foreign policy decisions.” Favorable views of the U.S. have fallen by 34 points in Mexico, 27 points in Germany, 26 points in Canada and 25 points in France. America’s global image has “plummeted … amid widespread opposition to his administration’s policies and a widely shared lack of confidence in his leadership,” according to Pew. While 93 percent of Spaniards said they had no confidence in Trump, followed by 91 percent of Mexicans and 90 percent of Frenchmen, only 31 percent of Israelis expressed this sentiment. While Trump has yet to unveil his administration’s much-touted peace plan, he has said that Israel will have to pay a “high price” in peace negotiations with the Palestinians over the embassy move.

Read more: Trump is increasingly unpopular globally — except in Israel

4 white supremacists arrested in Charlottesville violence

Federal prosecutors announced the arrest of four men who took part in last year’s violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., where one counterprotester was killed and dozens injured. Benjamin Daley, Thomas Gillen, Michael Miselis and Cole White were charged last week with conspiracy to incite a riot, ProPublica reported. They are affiliated with the Rise Above Movement, a small white nationalist organization based in Southern California noted for its advocacy and use of violence and promotion of Islamophobic and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Protesters on both sides have been indicted for last summer’s violence, including Alex Fields, who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing anti-racism activist Heather Heyer. The march, originally billed as a demonstration to defend Confederate statues, included chants of “The Jews will not replace us.” A number of protesters passed by a local synagogue screaming anti-Semitic epithets.–JTA

Jason Kander
Jason Kander, shown in July 2017, is one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Candidate drops out of mayoral race due to PTSD

Jason Kander, the Jewish former Democratic Missouri secretary of state who many speculated had presidential aspirations, has dropped out of the race for mayor of Kansas City, citing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. In a letter on Oct. 2 to supporters, Kander said that he contacted the Veterans Administration about four months ago in order to get help. “It had been about 11 years since I left Afghanistan as an Army Intelligence Officer, and my tour over there still impacted me every day,” he wrote, noting that he did not believe he had PTSD because others were in more danger than he was there and “because I didn’t earn it.” He said that he was concerned about going public with his depression and PTSD out of concern for its impact on his future political career. But he decided to be honest about it in order to help him through it and to help veterans and others working through mental health issues realize that they can turn to others for help. Some believed that Kander, 37, may have been thinking about a run for higher office in 2020. Kander served two terms in the Missouri House before serving one term as secretary of state.

Read more: Jason Kander, Dem. with 2020 Presidential Aspirations, Quits K.C. Mayoral Race Citing PTSD

“Picking Peas” by Camille Pissarro
“Picking Peas” by Camille Pissarro was seized in 1943 by the Nazi collaborationist French government. (Wikimedia Commons)

Pissarro painting ordered returned to family of original owners

A French court has ordered that an 1887 Pissarro painting be returned to the heirs of its Jewish owner after rejecting an appeal by an American couple who had sued to retain ownership. The current owners, Bruce and Robbi Toll, had lent the artwork, “La Cueillette des Pois,” or “Picking Peas,” to the Marmottan museum in Paris, where it was discovered by relatives of Simon Bauer, a wealthy businessman whose assets, including 93 paintings, were seized in 1943 by the wartime French government that collaborated with the Nazis. In May, a Paris court granted the Bauer descendants’ request to have the painting impounded while waiting for the court to rule on ownership rights. The Tolls, who are patrons of Holocaust museums in both the United States and Israel, bought the painting at an auction at Christie’s in New York in 1995 for $800,000 and have said they were unaware that it was stolen. “They do not consider that it is up to them to pay for the crimes of the Vichy regime,” their lawyer said last year. Camille Pissarro was a 19th-century Danish-French Impressionist. Approximately 100,000, or less than one-sixth, of the artworks looted by the Nazis have been returned to date.

Read more: French Court Orders Return of Nazi-Looted Painting to Heirs of Jewish Owner

Meet-up, eat-up and drink-up with Jmore at our JBiz networking event on Nov. 7 at Renaissance Fine Arts in Cross Keys. For more information and to get tickets, go to jmoreliving.com/jbizmeetup

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