Maryland roadways grew more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists in 2023, threatening to undo the state’s progress before the pandemic. Car crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists rose 9% in Maryland last year, the largest year-over-year increase post-pandemic, according to a Banner analysis of preliminary Maryland State Police crash data. By the end of 2023, there were just over 3,600 of these crashes, resulting in 152 deaths and over 3,000 injuries. State police say the data set is subject to change as crash reports are updated.

The new public park at the Baltimore Peninsula, the South Baltimore waterfront redevelopment project, has been renamed Elijah’s Park in honor of the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings on his birthday. Cummings represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District from 1996 until he died in 2019. A Baltimore native, Cummings was also a well-known civil rights leader. In a 2019 Baltimore Sun article about his life, his constituents regarded him as a civil rights icon, ranking him with the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

 

City officials discussed a proposal to help more residents understand the inner workings of their local government. Cumberland Administrator Jeff Silka at a mayor and City Council work session Tuesday proposed development of a Citizen’s Local Government Academy. The six-session learning program would expose participants to the city’s various departments, and could be up and running by fall.

Visit Frederick is expanding funding for its Tourism Reinvestment in Promotion and Products grant program by 67% for Fiscal Year 2025, the nonprofit tourism organization said Wednesday. There is now $500,000 available through the grant program, known as TRIPP, for Frederick County nonprofits and government agencies to apply for, a news release from Visit Frederick said. The funds are intended to help grantees promote attractions and tourism development in Frederick County.

 

The Baltimore Police Department has achieved full and effective compliance with two sections of the city’s policing consent decree with the federal government, city and U.S. Department of Justice attorneys agree. The two filed a joint motion Tuesday asking the federal judge overseeing the city’s progress to agree that the police department is in compliance around transportation of persons in custody and officer assistance and support.

On snowy road surfaces, road salt does the trick to provide better traction. “Road salt is mostly sodium chloride, just like the table salt you put on your food,” said Sujay Kaushal, a professor of geology at University of Maryland. “Ions in the salt — little particles — squeeze themselves in between the water when it’s freezing, so that the water has trouble forming a crystal of ice.” However, Kaushal and fellow researchers from Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences say the influx of salt in freshwater streams and rivers poses an “existential threat” to drinking water if current trends continue.

 

Snow has always been “polar”-izing in Maryland, and that didn’t change Tuesday. “Shoveling snow — that I really don’t like,” Baltimore resident Melvin Hines said. By noon Tuesday, the snowfall was done, freezing rain tapered off and frigid temperatures took hold. Baltimore residents were out and about cleaning off cars, sidewalks and driveways for the first time in years. “There ain’t no strategy. It’s nature. Nature is going to take over this. Just making a little path for people if they want to start moving,” Hines said.

 

 

 

Drivers of electric vehicles in Middletown will have another place to charge up, with the installation of a charging station at the town’s offices. The Level 2 charging station will be unveiled Wednesday in the parking lot at the rear of the town’s Municipal Center at 31 W. Main St., Town Administrator Paul Mantello said Tuesday. The town already has one charging station, in the public parking lot along Elm Street, Planner Cindy Unangst said.

The night Kevin Torres was shot and killed in Highlandtown, his sister-in-law dialed 911 for help. “Hello, I speak Spanish,” she can be heard saying frantically in a recording of the call. Within 25 seconds, the 911 operator looped in an interpreter through Language Line, a telephone interpretation service the city has used for years. The 911 operator told the interpreter, Raúl, to ask for the address of the emergency.

Eric Stephenson remembers the day he had his epiphany about Baltimore. He was here on a work assignment and living in a comfortable apartment not far from North and Pennsylvania avenues. It was April 27, 2015, the day the uprising erupted in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death from injuries suffered in police custody. “I could smell the smoke from the fires and hear the young people walking past my window recounting what they had just witnessed,” Stephenson said.