Baltimore faced a major budget crisis earlier this year, leading to dire threats of spending cuts and revenue-raising measures, some of which were eventually implemented. The mayor threatened to close rec centers and fire houses, ground the police helicopter, and reduce other municipal services. Eventually, there were layoffs, pension cuts for police and fire fighters (which have led to federal litigation), and increased taxes.

But more than pension obligations contributed to the city’s money problems, and one contributing factor — maybe small but maybe larger than we’d like to believe — is plain from my story in today’s paper: simple but expensive mistakes.

To cut to the chase, some city employee forgot to punctually withdraw from a bank account more than a million dollars the city was owed by a Fells Point developer, forcing the city to sue the developer, which eventually resulted in a $400,000 settlement.

That’s right, $600,000 of taxpayer money went instead to developer Larry Silverstein because somebody was asleep at the switch. Silverstein, whose Union Wharf LLC was the party in the case, and his Union Box Co. have successfully repurposed several old buildings in the Fells Point area. He’s not the richest Larry Silverstein I know of, but I doubt he needs a windfall, and Baltimore can’t afford to give money away to anyone, much less a wealthy developer. (Note: I’m not alleging corruption here, merely an expensive mistake.)

Silverstein has not returned messages left yesterday and today seeking comment, and the city law department hasn’t been able to tell me who messed up. I also haven’t heard from several members of the City Council I asked about the approval of today’s settlement.

And while police misconduct, which also costs the city millions, is a different matter, the police also make mistakes that end up costing the city a tidy total. One particular example springs to mind.

While a couple hundred thousand dollars here and there doesn’t close a $121 million budget gap, eventually hundreds of thousands become millions, and millions pile up, too.

Allow me one turn at the “what would that money have bought?” game.

Remember when the city almost had to close several public pools in the heat of August because it couldn’t afford to keep them open and were saved at the 11th hour by a flood of private donations?

Yea, much of that grandstanding with city children as the pawns might have been avoided if the city had simply gone to the bank on time to withdraw the $1 million from Union Wharf’s account.

Last week, I read an Above the Law post that really got my blood boiling. A North Carolina man was sentenced to just 120 days in prison after he shot a bicyclist in the head during a roadside confrontation — in front of the rider’s three-year-old daughter.

The ATL blog referred readers to the full Alt Transport article, aptly titled, “Want to Get Away With Murder? Just Run Over A Bicyclist.” Using the North Carolina case, along with a couple unaddressed hit-and-runs, to illustrate his point, the author argued for nationwide laws to command justice for cyclists and other “vulnerable road users” who are injured or killed by motorists.

Fast forward to one week later: A Howard County man who hit and killed a teenage boy last August pled guilty Tuesday to driving while impaired during the incident. Police said he had heroin in his pocket and failed a field sobriety test after he struck the cyclist. The punishment for taking a child from his family? Six months in the clink.

I am sick to death of motorists getting a slap on the wrist when they significantly and fundamentally alter the lives of cyclists — and the lives of their surviving family members. In the Howard County case, their son’s death caused both parents to lose their jobs, leading to foreclosure and, for the mother, a personal bankruptcy filing, according to The Baltimore Sun.

It’s not as if this sort of tragedy is an anomaly. In fact, accidents involving bicycles have become so commonplace that one D.C. website reports the number of cyclists struck each week in the district. There were six — reported — just last week. Anecdotally, having had the conversation with bike commuters in various cities, I have not personally spoken to anyone who rides more than recreationally and has not been hit or at least clipped by a vehicle.

I don’t mean to vilify all drivers. Yes, there are plenty of motorists out there who give cyclists a wide berth on the road, just like there are plenty of bike riders who wait at every stop light and plenty of pedestrians who never jaywalk. But the next time you’re barreling down the street in a two-ton piece of metal and come upon a cyclist, remember that you’re sharing the road with someone who, unlike you, doesn’t have the added protection of a steel exoskeleton.