Around Maryland

Old Town in central Baltimore, one of the three original settlements in the downtown area of the city, has seen better days. The neighborhood has a pedestrian mall that now has decaying buildings, giving it the feel of a ghost town. Yet Erin MacDonald, who works for the Old Town Mall Merchants Association, believes there are a lot of misconceptions about the neighborhood.

Anne Arundel residents voiced concerns Tuesday about plans to construct an office building near Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis. They argued at the first County Council meeting of the year that the Earl Conservation Center, an office space slated to be built for the Chesapeake Conservancy and other environmental groups on a 5-acre parcel abutting the park, will disrupt views of the South River.

The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore held a Mass for Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday to remember his legacy on the church. Though he is known as the first pope in 600 years to resign, Pope Benedict's legacy is larger than that. Sean Caine, former director of communications for the Archdiocese of Baltimore said he remembers Pope Benedict in another way.

Some residents of Columbia, Maryland, rallied to the side of the community’s top leader against what they say is an attempt to fire her after 18 months on the job. Supporters of Lakey Boyd, president and CEO of the Columbia Association, the homeowners association which manages the community of about 105,000, held a rally in Columbia Monday to warn association board members not to oust Boyd. Residents spoke out in favor of Boyd’s leadership. “Lakey embodies what Columbia was built on, future thinking and community focus — live, work and play,” said resident Laura Bacon. She said that since Boyd took leadership of the association in April 2021, she has made every effort to connect with Columbia residents of all backgrounds.

The spread of the mpox virus — which increased rapidly across the country between June and July, only to start dropping later in the summer — has slowed to a sluggish crawl. The World Health Organization renamed the virus to mpox in November to reduce stigma and other problems associated with its former name, monkeypox. Only five new cases of the virus were reported nationwide on Dec. 21, the last day for which data was available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three-fourths of the 738 cases that have been reported in Maryland since the start of the outbreak are from three jurisdictions: Baltimore City, Prince George’s County and Montgomery County. Most counties in the state, including Frederick County, never reported more than 10 cases of the virus.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will hold a Mass on Thursday in honor of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died Saturday. The Mass will take place Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. “Priests throughout the Archdiocese are warmly invited to concelebrate this Mass,” Most Rev. William E. Lori, the archbishop of Baltimore, wrote on the archdiocese’s website. Lori asked the faithful to pray for the repose of the soul of the former pope, who was the first to resign in 600 years. “Pope Benedict was a man of deep faith and keen intellect who placed his considerable gifts at the service of Christ and his bride the Church,” Lori said in the statement on the archdiocese’s website.

Yasmine Young is the historian of her family. As such, she has bought and is in the long process of restoring her family’s big house in Ashburton, built in the 1920s. She’s traced her family’s history back eight generations, including 352 ancestors who came to Baltimore from Virginia and the Eastern Shore. She’s also keeping alive traditions passed down throughout the years. One is Manning’s Hominy at the breakfast table. A corn product first produced in a Canton backyard and one of the last canned goods to leave Baltimore, Manning’s has a more than 100-year legacy in area kitchens. Think of it like Charm City’s answer to grits.

A public argument over the direction of Maryland’s second largest city erupted Monday as a group of residents called for the recall of Columbia Association board members to prevent them from ousting the association’s top paid staff member. The board has not commented on speculation that it is about to remove association president, Lakey Boyd, who believes the heart of the issue is the tension between old and new in a growing community of 104,000 residents. Two board members reached Monday declined to comment.