Coming out of the pandemic, the county is confronting economic headwinds including inflation and potential recession. It has vulnerable populations with needs, issues with recruiting and retaining employees in a tight labor market, schools requiring more investment and an affordable housing shortage. And it has limited resources to deal with all of those challenges.

Montgomery Parks, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, received $5.495 million in capital funding for 13 projects from the state of Maryland during the 2023 legislative session. The funding will be used towards park projects in six legislative districts in Montgomery County that include trail and bridge projects, playground and athletic field improvements, sports court and skatepark amenities, community garden and picnic facilities, environmental restoration, and ADA enhancements.

Baltimore provides water and wastewater services to approximately 1.8 million people, many of whom are Black and low-income. Unfortunately, aging infrastructure, due to systemic underinvestment, has led to continuing problems with management, water quality and affordability. A new Baltimore Water Regionalization Task Force aims to rectify some of these issues. Yet, serious questions have arisen about the structure of this new task force and what it seeks to achieve.

When Prince George’s County Schools CEO Monica Goldson announced back in January that she was tired of a dysfunctional school board and retiring, it touched off a search process laid out by state law. It includes public input, says Erica Berry Wilson the county executive’s point person on the CEO search. “We’re listening to the public, we’re listening to the community. And we’re hearing what they want,” said Wilson, chief of staff to the County Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Education.

 

 

Growing up in West Baltimore, Lamar Richards remembers childhood summers playing football on the streets of Sandtown-Winchester and using the $5 his parents gave him — while scrounging for some extra change — to buy a chicken box. Life was simple then, he said. He knew he wanted to leave the city as an adult when it felt like crime was everywhere; when people he knew went to jail or got shot and killed; when gunshots became background noise.

Frederick will receive $80,000 from a regional planning organization to help improve interactions between businesses and pedestrians in the city’s East Street corridor as the area redevelops. The money from the Transportation Planning Board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments will fund 30% of the design of plans for new sidewalks, bike lanes, and pedestrian crossing improvements where the city is trying to improve walkability and pedestrian access.

 

Fisheries scientist Allison Colden has been named the new Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, effective immediately. An Annapolis resident, Colden will succeed the foundation’s previous director, Josh Kurtz, whom Gov. Wes Moore appointed to be the secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in January. “It’s my pleasure to announce Allison Colden as the new leader of CBF’s Maryland team,” said Alison Prost, CBF’s Vice President for Environmental Protection and Restoration, in a statement.

On a cloudy Thursday morning in March, state Sen. Paul Pinsky walked out of the Maryland State House for a new life on the cutting edge of climate policy he’s helped hone in the state. Just moments earlier, Pinsky, 73, who spent 36 years representing Prince George’s County in the General Assembly, was presented with the First Citizen Award from Senate President Bill Ferguson in recognition of his long public service.

D.C.-area home prices plunged 33% between 2007 and 2010, according to listing service Bright MLS, but that Great Recession setback has barely put a dent in long-term homes price inflation in the D.C. region. Going back more than two decades shows home values in the D.C. metro have more than tripled. “In 2000, the typical home price in D.C. was $173,207, and now it costs $521,308. Overall inflation since 2000 has increased by 145%, whereas home prices in D.C. have increased by 201%,” said Sam Huisache at homebuyer resource site Clever.

 

 

Casper R. Taylor Jr., a long-serving and powerful member of the House of Delegates who rose to become speaker but was ousted by angry voters after shepherding gun control legislation through the General Assembly, died in his sleep Monday morning at the age of 88. While no cause of death was immediately available, Taylor was known to be suffering from several maladies over the past few years.