Commentary

The Upton neighborhood in West Baltimore is famous for its role as one of the city’s earliest and most vibrant African American neighborhoods. Many of Baltimore’s civil rights and cultural icons — including Thurgood Marshall and Cab Calloway — have lived among its historic row houses. One hundred years ago it was an economic, political and cultural center of the city’s Black community, and its architectural landmarks remain in proximity to jobs, schools, churches, subways and bus lines.

Imagine a nation where more than 10% of its population has no high school diploma, job skills or clear path toward future opportunities. Imagine how that affects those individuals, their families and their communities. Imagine how that hobbles the nation’s economy and makes individual lives more difficult. That nation is the United States of America in 2023, where as many as 40 million people lack a high school diploma and have not been able to acquire skills and knowledge a high school education provides.

When government doesn’t get in the way, small businesses are vibrant engines fueling the American economy. They create good-paying jobs, invest in local communities, and provide innovative products and services that improve our lives. In Maryland, there are more than 600,000 small businesses employing nearly half of the state’s workforce.

Symbols are powerful, but it is flesh, blood and grit that bring them to life. Dating back centuries, Lady Justice symbolizes the ideal of impartiality in our justice system. She is blindfolded and holds a set of scales and a sword. The blindfold signifies that justice should be administered equally (although, to some, it may signify blinders to injustice). The scales represent the balance between competing interests in a dispute, and that the interests of the victim, the defendant and society must all be considered.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a lot to say about Baltimore the other day. During his technologically shaky presidential campaign announcement on Twitter Spaces, DeSantis dismissed the NAACP’s travel advisory for Florida by bringing up us and fellow bogeyman city Chicago as places “kids [are] more likely to get shot than to receive a first-class education.” You know what DeSantis, who was my governor for a year before I left Florida to return to my native Baltimore, hasn’t said anything about?

The lyrics to a song that became popular at the end of World War I chronicled domestic concerns about U.S. soldiers’ reluctance to return to their family farms after experiencing European city life and Parisian culture during the war. Today in the wake of the pandemic, many businesses across the country may be experiencing similar sentiments. Employees who had no choice but to work from home when Covid forced a national shutdown have gotten used to the freedom and flexibility remote work affords.

The most recent weekly report from City Hall shows spikes in the number of squeegee workers at some Baltimore intersections — Light and Lombard, for instance, and along President Street. But the overall trend since January, when Mayor Brandon Scott rolled out his big plan to address the issue, has been fewer reports and complaints about workers with spray bottles and squeegees in city streets.