Commentary

In Maryland, we urgently need a Climate Corps, an ongoing employment program to hire local people to mitigate the effects of climate change on our communities. As a high schooler, I am acutely aware of how climate change will limit my future choices in life. I have been fighting for such a corps, as one of the leaders of Sunrise Movement Baltimore, since it was proposed on a national scale in 2021. In a letter to the editor last year, I wrote about how a Climate Corps program would benefit young people like me.

Zoning reform and building more housing are important strategies for turning around the region’s housing crisis. But while building is necessary for an affordable future, it’s not sufficient. Renter protections also play a key role in halting displacement and fostering housing stability. As Maryland’s General Assembly enters its final 30 days in session for 2022, more than two dozen bills have been proposed that would help renter households. Some of these bills mirror recommendations from the American Bar Association’s recent call for reform of residential eviction procedures.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being described as the end of the post-Cold War era. This isn’t quite accurate. Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, we’ve seen three different eras. Each of them lasted about a decade. There were the End of History years of the 1990s, when Washington thought the main task of foreign policy was to usher the world into a more democratic, free-market, rules-based order.

Sixteen thousand — year after year, for more than two decades, that’s been the official annual count of vacant houses in Baltimore City, give or take a thousand. The figure has held strong through multiple mayoral administrations and tens of millions of dollars spent razing, rehabbing and reselling the unoccupied properties, which lower surrounding property values, attract crime and put lives in danger: Earlier this year, three firefighters were killed, and another seriously injured, when an empty house on South Stricker street caught fire, then collapsed while they were inside.

It is hardly a stretch to say that a person’s finances should not determine whether they remain incarcerated, presumed innocent, while awaiting a criminal trial. This sentiment even rings true to most people completely outside the parameters of the justice system. After years of calls for change from advocates, the public seems to understand bail reform. In 2017, Maryland took the historic step of changing its Rules of Court (essentially laws) to disfavor the use of cash bail and guide judges toward using the “least onerous” conditions of release during bail hearings.

Just 30 miles apart, Annapolis and Washington are different worlds when it comes to judicial nominations. President Donald Trump appointed 57 judges to the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts, but not one of them was Black. Now, as President Biden follows through on his campaign pledge to appoint the Supreme Court’s first Black woman, the backlash is ugly. On Twitter, a Georgetown law lecturer, Ilya Shapiro, praised an Indian American judge as the “objectively best pick for Biden” but said the judge “doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman.” Shapiro apologized for his “inartful” tweet and deleted it.

Baltimore city is now raising concerns about crime after a 70-year-old woman was found shot to death outside of her home early this month. What is wrong with the residents of Baltimore? Who shoots an elderly black woman? It’s cowardly to shoot our seniors, brazen to do it at all. A 49-year-old woman was also killed days ago after she was shot in the chest in West Baltimore.  I ask again:  What is wrong with Baltimore’s residents? I want to scream from the rooftops, THIS IS NOT THE NEW NORMAL!