David Rubenstein, majority owner of the Orioles, had just sat down with the head of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore for a signature event at the group’s annual meeting Thursday when climate protesters crashed the stage.
About a dozen people marched across the stage during the cocktail and hors d’oeuvres event at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center downtown, crossing in front of where Rubenstein and Shelonda Stokes, the partnership’s president, faced each other in armchairs.
While a packed audience of elected officials and business and community leaders watched, at first in confusion, several protesters held up a banner and one man yelled Rubenstein’s name before being drowned out by boos. Stokes took to the microphone to ask for respect for the event, as security guards bounded to the stage and dragged away several women who had plopped down in front of the Orioles owner.
Rubenstein, the main speaker at the annual event, barely missed a beat once he and Stokes returned from being ushered backstage and again took their seats, to cheers from the audience. Rubenstein, co-founder of global investment firm Carlyle Group, explained to the gathering that protesters have frequently demonstrated against private equity firms that invest in energy. At Carlyle, he said, the firm invests in renewable energy but also has invested in carbon energy.
“This has happened before, not so much to me, but to other people in my industry,” he said. “It’s not something that I’m worried about. It’s a relatively small group, in my view. They have a view that no carbon energy can ever be invested in. It’s very difficult to live life today without any carbon energy.”
After the meeting at the arts center’s M&T Bank Exchange, Stokes saidshe didn’t know the protesters’ affiliation. She said she told Rubenstein afterward that she at first thought the interruption was a surprise presentation that he had planned.
“It was a total surprise to me,” Stokes said. “When you’re in downtown, part of what you want to do is you do want to give a voice to people of all … to share whatever those things are. Probably not at an event where people paid to come in and you have a set agenda. But we get it.”
Stokes’ chat with Rubenstein capped a night when more than 500 officials and business leaders were gathered to celebrate the momentum of what they see as downtown’s renaissance and rebound from the struggles of the coronavirus pandemic.
Stokes highlighted billions of dollars of investment in big downtown projects that have paved the way for minority business openings, streetscape improvements and safety enhancements. Mayor Brandon Scott touted a decrease in homicides and a decision by the Maryland Supreme Court on Thursday that’s favorable to moving forward with plans he supports to redevelop Harborplace.
Gov. Wes Moore spoke as well, noting that his administration has pledged more than $75 million per year to tackle the city’s vacant homes crisis, with a goal of transitioning at least 5,000 of the city’s 13,000 vacants into homeownership over the next five years.
“We will be on pace of erasing the problem of vacant housing in the city of Baltimore,” Moore said.
During his fireside chat with Stokes, Rubenstein, a Baltimore native, thanked Orioles fans for supporting the ballclub this season and for “making the experience so good for me as I returned to Baltimore and did many things here. The fabric of the city is incredibly strong.”
Responding to a question from Stokes about how to galvanize support for downtown, Rubenstein said the city’s success determines that of the state.
“The core of any state is really the key cities in it, and the key cities survive when the core of the cities survive,” as central to arts, culture and sporting events, he said. “And what you’re working on is the core of the city.”
Stokes praised Rubenstein after the protest disruption, saying he “did an amazing job of explaining, because you can come on and act like nothing happened. Obviously, the room saw it, and the room was so amazingly supportive.”
Downtown Partnership issued a statement late Thursday, saying the protest group was removed by security before the program resumed.
“We did not allow this minor interruption to shift our focus on why we are here — our dedication to the momentum of Downtown Baltimore,” the group’s statement said.
Have a news tip? Contact Lorraine Mirabella at lmirabella@baltsun.com, (410) 332-6672 and @lmirabella on X.