Commentary

There is legitimate concern about the amount of violence in Baltimore and other parts of Maryland. There is also significant misinformation about that violence. Violent crime increased after the onset of the COVID pandemic across the country, especially in Baltimore. And while the actual increase was bad enough, the fear of violence was exasperated by constant coverage in the traditional press and social media.

For many years, as recently as 2020, this weekend in Ocean City was marred by an outlier group of vehicle enthusiasts intent on wreaking havoc on the roads of Ocean City. Over the last three years, the non-event – called a pop-up rally — has trickled to nothing. We think if another year goes by – and all indications are it will – without a presence of the troublemakers the town should abandon the special enforcement zone next year on this weekend.

It’s easy to be dissatisfied with the actions, or inactions, of government these days. While Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives dithered over a plan to keep the federal government funded in order to avoid a calamitous shutdown — a scenario that has “always been a loser for Republicans politically,” according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — their leaders still found time to schedule a hearing on their ill-advised impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.

I am rarely in Thurmont. I live on the opposite side of the county. But recently, an issue has come up among the powers that be in my county’s far north neighbors. An issue that my own section of the country dealt with years ago, but feels just as fresh and controversial as if it were yesterday. An issue that threatened, and in some ways continues to threaten, the very fabric of what we call community in and around the Brunswick area. Or not.

In the 1980s, when Anthony DuBose set out to become a psychologist, he was told never to work with people with borderline personality disorder because they had high rates of suicide and intense emotional distress. They were considered untreatable. This is no longer the case. Today, an approach called dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can help patients struggling with suicidal ideation, self-harming behavior, addiction and mood disorders. It has become the gold standard for treatment.

After new members were elected to the Prince George’s County Council last fall, the council dubbed itself “The People’s Council.” While this is encouraging to hear, as residents of this county, the actual litmus test for whether this new council is genuinely dedicated to the concerns of the people, and in particular, the needs of residents from less affluent, over-policed communities, is the passage of CB-81-2023, a bill to give the county’s new Police Accountability Board independent investigatory and subpoena powers. In other words, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Baltimoreans can be parochial with the best of them, so it’s hardly surprising that the recent uptick in car thefts within Charm City has quickly driven some to question whether police and local officials have misfired on yet another public safety concern. City Councilman Zeke Cohen’s call for a hearing on the topic by the council subcommittee that oversees public safety, is notable for at least two reasons.

The Washington region is the proud exemplar of transit-oriented development (TOD). Densifying around Metro stations has given us more new homes than other superstar metro regions, keeping our housing prices moderately less inhumane. Building near the train is fantastic, but insufficient to produce all of the housing we need. According to Up For Growth’s Housing Underproduction Report (which might be a low estimate) the Capital region had a shortage of 156,597 homes in 2019, or 6.5% of the housing stock.