Ahead of a much anticipated match-up next week that both sides were girding for, the Zoning Board hearing on a proposed Royal Farms store and gas station in northeast Baltimore has been postponed. Residents got word today that a lawyer for the convenience store chain asked for the postponement because a sign advertising the time and place of the December 5 hearing was never posted on the property, at 5901-21 Harford Road.

Wexford Science + Technology and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. added the last beam to 4MLK on Friday, an important milestone in the completion of the eight-story tower at the University of Maryland BioPark in West Baltimore. The construction workers who helped build the structure signed the last beam and watched as it went up to the top floor of the 250,000-square-foot building on the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Baltimore Street.

My old friend Calvert Bregel, gone 12 years now, used to treat me to trips on his great boat, the Miss Demeanor, to fish for Chesapeake striped bass — rockfish, as they are known around here — and we had many merry times on the bay. With Bill Burton, who was for decades the outdoors writer of the bygone Evening Sun, we caught lots of fish and released most. Now and then, we took a rockfish home for supper, but the idea was more camaraderie than consumption.

Rodney Williams fondly recalls his days growing up in Northeast Baltimore, when he ran track, acted in drama classes and played high school football. The tech entrepreneur, now 39, also remembers how his mom and other family members struggled to make ends meet. His experiences led him in 2018 to create an online, peer-to-peer lending marketplace that he describes as “democratizing finance.” Earlier this year, SoLo Funds Inc. hit 1 million registered users, becoming, it says, the largest Black-owned consumer fintech — financial technology — company in the U.S.

Nov. 15 marked the second anniversary of the signing into law of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The scale of this infusion of federal funds — $1.2 trillion – brings to mind major historic investments in the nation’s past: the building of the Erie Canal early in the 19th century; the rural electrification program during the Great Depression; the Interstate Highway System initiated in the 1950s.

The Baltimore Planning Commission began the process Thursday of reviewing sweeping land use changes for the Inner Harbor that would allow a mixed-use development, including two tall towers of housing, to replace the aging Harborplace pavilions. The staff of the Baltimore City Planning Department recommended the commission adopt — with some changes — the zoning and other revisions that would pave the way for MCB Real Estate’s project during the commission’s first public hearing on the proposal.

Besieged by rising office vacancy rates, depressed leasing activity and weak sales, a group of office building owners has commissioned a report showing a pending drop in property tax collections. The owners are requesting county assistance and predicting budget headaches if they don’t get it. Here are the problems as they see it. MoCo’s office vacancy rate has risen from 13.1% to 17.7% since 2019, partly because of changing work patterns since the pandemic.

Want more weekend trains? Are you willing to get more rush hour trips if it means fewer trains at other times of day? The Maryland Transit Administration wants to know. Building on its MARC Growth and Transformation Plan, the agency is seeking input from the public to better tailor its regional commuter rail service to the needs of area residents. The public survey, available here, closes Monday.

An outbreak of an unknown respiratory illness is affecting dogs in at least 14 states, including Maryland. Illness has been reported in Oregon, Colorado, California, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Washington, Vermont, Maryland, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The illness has been classified as a canine infectious respiratory disease, or CIRD, which is a general term for known bacterial and viral causes of lung, trachea (throat), and nasal disease.

Ovenbird Bakery plans to open its third and largest location in December, over two years after first announcing the East Baltimore spot. The bakery will debut its Highlandtown shop at 3925 Gough St. during a soft opening this weekend, with regular service to start on Dec. 6. The bakery also has locations in Little Italy and Lexington Market and Ovenbirds’ owners are looking at neighborhoods like Locust Point, Federal Hill and Hampden for future expansion.