The unofficial mayor of Hampden is running for higher office.

Will Bauer, far better known by his alias Lou Catelli, announced last week— at a bash celebrating his 10th anniversary of coming to Hampden — that he’ll be running for mayor in 2020.

“Now I’m ready to give back,” Bauer/Catelli (or should that be Catelli/Bauer?) says in a video post to his “Mayor Lou Catelli” Facebook page. “We have to bring Baltimore the love it deserves and keep moving forward. We are the greatest city and the greatest town, the greatest neighborhood on the face of the Earth, ever. We want to bring the joy back.”

Dressed in his trademark shorts (he rarely wears long pants) and sporting a black T-shirt with the Natty Boh logo winking from a Maryland flag, the candidate is greeted by a chant of “Lou! Lou! Lou!” from a crowd of about two dozen well-wishers.

Bauer/Catelli, a native of Highlandtown, says he won’t be filing officially as a Democratic candidate until after this month’s primary election. Although he had speculated before about running for City Council, he says his respect for incumbent Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke made him reconsider.

— Chris Kaltenbach