Commentary

The horrific event in Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood July 2 caused the tragic loss of two young lives, with many more injured and countless people left traumatized. Among the traumatized members of the community were a small group of remarkable people wearing orange shirts who spend every workday walking trouble spots around Brooklyn and nine other city neighborhoods. These are parts of the city where, sadly, the data tells us shootings are most likely to occur.

I once gave a drug dealer some career advice: Sell cars, not cocaine. The guy seemed open to that idea. He had come to me in the summer of 2005, after reading one of several columns in which we offered advice for “getting out of the game.” He was about 30 years old, dressed in a white shirt, black slacks and two-tone shoes. I found him congenial and confident.

The Frederick city and county governments have ended a long-running dispute over the location of a new library on the city’s west side, with the county essentially conceding to the wishes of the city. Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater and Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor held a joint news conference this week and signed an agreement to build the new library at Hillcrest Park, at McCain Drive and Butterfly Lane in the Hillcrest neighborhood.

Record high temperatures and record low air quality. The summer of 2023 has barely begun, and it already feels oppressive. If it’s not the Canadian wildfire smoke, it’s the heat, humidity and pop-up thunderstorms plaguing the region. The toxic cloud originating from forest fires in eastern Canada is again infiltrating America, with smoke wafting into Maryland through Tuesday, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

During the 2022 legislative session, we were elated by the news that the Maryland General Assembly passed the Healthy Babies Equity Act, which would extend Medicaid coverage to pregnant people who would otherwise be eligible if not for their immigration status. But our moods dampened when we realized it would not be implemented until July of this year. There was already a great need.

Here’s a bold idea. Greenbury Point, 250 acres owned by the Navy that juts into the Chesapeake Bay, should be a centerpiece of a new national park. And more, it should be part of a local network of recreational, environmental and cultural treasures covering more than 1,000 acres from Annapolis to the Bay Bridge. Ridiculous, you say? Hear me out.

The Washington region has three major airports, but only one of them–BWI–is hard to get to by transit from DC. The B30 bus route used to serve BWI, and WMATA’s ongoing Better Bus network update is a great chance to bring it back better than ever. Passengers use all three of our airports at similar rates: each airport serves around 11 million passengers every year, and DCA, BWI, and IAD are the nation’s 23rd, 25th, and 28th-busiest airports in the country, respectively.