Commentary

Gov. Wes Moore is moving forward with his campaign promise to restore the Red Line, the 14-mile east-west transit link from the Centers for Medicaid Services in Woodlawn to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The $2.9 billion project, pursued as a light rail line for a generation, was unceremoniously dumped in 2015 by then-Gov. Larry Hogan, despite the huge sums invested in planning and preparation and a $900 million commitment from the federal government.

Michael Harrison became Baltimore’s police commissioner in March 2019. He landed on his feet, and a good thing that, considering the dung heap he parachuted onto. He had to contend with the lingering community hostility in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s police-involved death, the revolving door of commissioners, the criminal scandal of the mayor who had appointed him, and a federal court consent decree mandating a revamping of the Baltimore Police Department from top to bottom.

Admissions and amusement taxes are so ubiquitous in Maryland these days, most people in Frederick County probably thought they were already paying some kind of small levy on movies, sporting events and other entertainment events or activities here. But they haven’t been.

Stepping into Diaspora Salon, tucked into a cozy corner of Charles Village, is instant sensory time travel, transporting me back to hanging out at the beauty shop with my grandmother on a Saturday morning. It’s in the sound of chatter and easy laughter over soulful music. The feeling of fingers pressed lovingly but firmly into your scalp. The sight of Afrocentric art. The women of all ages and every imaginable warm shade of brown, united in the hopes of transformation.

I call it the “rock of ages” because, when I first came upon it during a float trip on the North Branch of the Potomac River 30 years ago, it resounded silently with the mighty power of time. The massive rock, millions of years old, rose 70 feet above us, just downstream of a bend in the river and upstream of a place called Black Oak, in Western Maryland’s Allegany County.

There was an intriguing poll released recently by Gonzales Research & Media Services, the Anne Arundel County-based polling and data analysis firm. Gonzales pollsters asked Marylanders what they thought of Gov. Wes Moore’s plan to end sales of new gas-powered vehicles in Maryland by 2035 in order to switch to electric — as California has done.

Victor is the kind of student it’s easy to lose track of. Maybe it’s his long, wispy frame. Or his chill, no-drama demeanor. Whatever it is, he has a knack for slipping away, unnoticed. Victor became a 12th grader this year, and he got off to a shaky start. Absent. Late. In. Out. Gone. Other days, he was on it — sharp and task-oriented. When a unit assessment asked students to write about a “contemporary issue” that needs a solution, Victor wrote about Baltimore’s lousy roads.

Lt. Kevin Krauss stood on the other side of the police tape, his black Annapolis Police Department uniform blending into the shadows. “Hi, Rick,” he said, recognizing me before I could pick out his face in the dark. “Hi, LT. Sorry to see you here.” “You, too.” In a small city like Annapolis, homicides can be intimate affairs. The cops know most of the reporters, and journalists like me know a lot of the cops.