Baltimore and the Birds: Time to make the noise

Baltimore faces no shortage of challenges. There is too much concentrated poverty and the fallout associated with it — from overdoses and addiction to lack of affordable housing, property crime and gun violence — remains an enormous handicap to progress. Throw in a long history of racism, job losses, the daunting burden placed on single-parent families, schools straining to try to bridge the economic and social disparities, and one might be forgiven for waking up each morning with at least some lingering feelings of despair.