The inaugural Heart of the 4th Music & Arts Festival, which was scheduled to take place Saturday along York Road, has been called off after a Baltimore City councilman said the mayor retaliated against him for raising issues with the city’s budget and opioid strategy.
Councilman Mark Conway, who represents Baltimore City’s 4th district, said this weekend’s event was postponed after the Mayor’s Office repeatedly imposed “arbitrary or irregular” hurdles on the festival. He believes these “politics of retaliation” were a response to him opposing the reallocation of Baltimore Children and Youth Fund money, as well as his questioning of the city’s opioid strategy as not going far enough.
“It has become painfully clear that it is petty political grudges, rather than practical considerations, that are driving these roadblocks,” Conway said in a statement…