Commentary

It’s the slow time of year for Chris Avaritt, a union carpenter who sets up trade shows, so he takes a staycation and fishes frequently from a kayak, armed with two or three spinning rods and an assortment of lures. He’s a warrior in the battle of the Chesapeake invasives, targeting the northern snakehead in the marshy areas of the Gunpowder River, where it meets the bay in eastern Baltimore County.

Whoosh! “Eyah!” Two noises. The first sound is an e-bike (electric bicycle) rushing by me at 15 to 18 miles per hour. The second noise is me jumping out of my skin. For those enjoying an idyllic walk in Baker Park, the atmosphere is increasingly punctuated by the whoosh of an e-bike, or a motorized skateboard, or a motorized scooter, racing by at high speed.

Many have struggled with dramatically increasing rents in recent years, and rent stabilization is one way to provide and enforce predictability in the rents that tenants pay. A year ago, I regrettably joined my colleagues on the Rockville City Council in signing a letter against Montgomery County’s implementation of rent stabilization. I signed on despite having been the only council member to recommend a total moratorium on rent increases for the duration of the pandemic.

Between January and June, more Marylanders chose to register as independents than chose to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties. And Republicans outpaced Democrats in registration during the same period, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. The board’s monthly activity reports show 14,668 more voters listed as unaffiliated since the first of the year, and 8,111 more Republicans. At the same time, the number of registered Democrats dropped by 21,259.

If current polls are to be believed, Donald Trump could win this presidential election. But if he does win, it will likely not be with Maryland’s 10 Electoral College votes. In 2020, Trump received just 32 percent of the statewide vote, and in Baltimore, just 11 percent. Even if independent-minded Republican Larry Hogan wins this year’s Senate contest, Maryland will still be as blue as the Chesapeake.

To my fellow skaters in Montgomery County, I recently had the exciting opportunity to identify an issue within my neighborhood and work towards resolving it. And let me tell you, it’s a passion project that hits close to home for me — quite literally. I am a long-time resident of Germantown, Maryland. I have a strong personal connection to the Germantown Town Center area, as I utilize it for both leisure and community activities.

The work of building Frederick County’s future economy is always going on, as it must be. If a business community is not moving forward, it is dying. Resting on laurels is a disaster waiting to happen. The business community in Frederick and the government officials of the city of Frederick and Frederick County all recognize this reality. That is why they are enthusiastic in their support for innovative organizations and leaders.