Commentary

Baltimore is Smalltimore; you can’t keep a secret in this town. So, in that tradition, I will jump right in and reveal the surprise that awaits those who gather this weekend for the 14th annual Harvest Fest in Reservoir Hill. The main event is the neighborhood’s celebration of the brilliant mural that Shawn James conceived and painted on the side of a rowhouse with the assistance of fellow artist Brian O’Rourke. It’s a real eye-catcher, mixing reality with mildly abstract imagery: Big black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers, and hands holding a clear glass jar with three lightning bugs inside. The jar is ajar, the bugs about to flee.

In 2017, Baltimore saw an uptick in the arrests of juvenile offenders. Newspaper headlines warned of juvenile crime being “out of control.” Incidents in October of that year ranged from police finding a 15-year-old with a loaded pistol around the Inner Harbor to a group of Homeland trick-or-treaters having their candy stolen by teens — who pistol whipped an adult who tried to intervene. Given the city’s homicide woes (and the spike in violence overall since the 2015 Freddie Gray riots), the level of alarm was hardly surprising.

My grandparents Ed and Arnell Streeter were not your typical doomsday preppers clad in camo living in a bunker. They were nice federal government retirees born in rural Arkansas, living for their gardens, grandkids and their daytime stories. They were also survivors of the Great Depression, stocking their Prince George’s County home with nonperishables such as canned soups, sardines and saltine crackers, and two full refrigerators and a giant freezer stocked with enough meat and fresh-caught fish to get through an entire winter. You weren’t gonna catch Granddaddy and Grandma unprepared.

One can scarcely blame Mayor Brandon Scott for having frustrations with the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, the 501(c)3 nonprofit that functions as the city’s arts council, events center and film office. Ever attended Artscape, the Baltimore Book Festival, even the Baltimore Farmers’ Market or experienced the various landmarks, galleries and art installations it underwrites? How about the Inner Harbor New Year’s Eve fireworks?

If there are any readers who were surprised at the news that the Baltimore County Council voted unanimously Monday to condemn the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP), the controversial 70-mile power line connecting northern Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties, we would recommend new prescription lenses.

Most of my childhood was spent in nearby Silver Spring. While there is much about Silver Spring that I remember most fondly, when I was a child, I thought it was a rather bland community. I wished then that I could have lived in someplace interesting, someplace people went to as a destination, not by default. Ah, the ignorance of youth.

I was waiting in a fancy chair in a dark, exquisitely decorated room in Baltimore’s historic Clifton Mansion, taking a last-minute glance at the questions I had prepared for a VIP. I had been going back and forth with press people for months for an interview and credentialing and now it was finally happening. I knew I probably only had 10 minutes or so to talk, a limited time I’d usually protest.