Commentary

Our Baltimore City Council’s Ways and Means Committee recently engaged in political grandstanding during a fiscal oversight hearing instead of listening when valuable information was presented by the State’s Attorney’s Office. Rather than focusing on the historic charging and conviction data provided by State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates and his team, Councilman Kristerfer Burnett used the budgetary bully pulpit to demonstrate his ire and ignorance of the citation docket.

Is Detective Frank Pembleton close to streaming glory? After months of speculation and decades of frustration, there are signs that “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the critically acclaimed Baltimore-set NBC drama, might be one step closer to being available for streaming platforms. The holdup for the Emmy-winning classic, which followed fictional Baltimore Police Department detectives as they navigated life, death and humanity from their Fells Point headquarters, has been the necessity of securing rights to the music used on the show.

When it comes to gun violence, Baltimore appears like the wild west, except the wild west’s violent reputation was created by Hollywood. Baltimore’s violence is real and although the Mayor claims it is declining, it’s still too high for comfort and safety. In fact, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement calls gun violence the primary barrier to sustainably addressing Baltimore’s most pressing inequities, joblessness, homelessness, poor education and health. No doubt this is correct.

In response to The Baltimore Banner article, “Almost 6,000 dead: How Baltimore became the U.S. overdose capital,” the present is bleak, but the future is bright. Substance use disorder is a preventable and treatable disease. It is a shameful commentary on our society that we have become desensitized to the sight of people overdosing on the streets. We cannot continue to accept this.

“Thanks mom.” Yep, that’s right. Thanks mom. I know it’s Father’s Day, but sorry dads. No matter how many games of catch you played, no matter how many fishing lines you untangled, or how many tears you wiped away with ice cream, when the big moment arrives, the first words out of our sons’ and daughters’ mouths will be, “Thanks mom.”

One of the great obstacles to developing political will for more mass transit is that politicians, particularly those who represent the suburbs and rural areas, never take a bus. They have little personal experience with public transportation and represent people who want nothing to do with it and live happily in places where it does not exist.

We are encouraged that the overdose crisis in Baltimore is receiving national attention through a series of articles published in The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times. The series describes in detail what those who work on overdose prevention in Baltimore have long known: This crisis has escalated locally during the past decade with widespread impact.

There was no public ceremony Monday evening at the spot on the Patapsco River that was formerly occupied by the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Instead, the clearing of Baltimore’s main shipping channel — all 700 feet wide and 50-feet deep of it — a mere 11 weeks after the disastrous collision of the container ship Dali with the Key Bridge was hailed Wednesday by Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg from the comfort of firmer ground at the Port of Baltimore.