Commentary

It doesn’t take an ancient mariner or even an engineer third class to recognize something is seriously amiss when FBI agents show up at the site of a devastating maritime collision. That’s what happened Monday when federal authorities raided the Dali, the giant container ship that struck and quickly collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month.

It is very welcome news that two of the most intractable issues threatening the continued vitality of the city’s downtown historic district are both moving forward after years of delay and inaction. First, the long-vacant Asiana restaurant, which has sat like a missing tooth in a broad smile on North Market Street, appears to be finally moving toward a solution.

A hot new buzzword among pro-housing advocates is “single-stair point access blocks.” Activists and legislators in several cities and states are advancing legislation that would allow low-rise, small-footprint multifamily buildings to be built with just one staircase shared amongst the units, rather than the two currently required by nearly all building codes in North America.

There is an interesting history between abolitionist Harriet Tubman, organizer of the Underground Railroad, and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. In 1856, Harriet Tubman helped an enslaved black woman named Tilly escape slavery by boarding a steamboat docked near what is known today as Pier 4. The steamboat was en route to Delaware, and scholars describe it as her most complicated and clever escape attempt.

It is fair to question whether any new version of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed March 26 following a collision with a cargo ship, should continue to bear the name of the man who wrote the lyrics of the national anthem but who also enslaved as many as a half dozen people during a time when the shameful practice was flourishing in America.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates held a news conference this month in which he seemed to celebrate the arrest of a group of children allegedly connected to a carjacking ring operated out of a “clubhouse.” Putting aside whether that is something our community should celebrate, Bates had a message for parents: “If you remember one thing from this press conference,” he said, “just remember two words: parental accountability.”

President Biden visited the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which has been called a “mangled mess,” on Friday, mourning the loss of the six workers killed in the accident. The economic impact of this accident is significant and goes far beyond the bridge itself. The disaster should serve as a wake-up call to ensure that all bridges, as well as all marine infrastructure in general, can withstand such a collision.

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued this blistering assessment: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” The report was a wakeup call for El Paso, Texas, which a few years later launched the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence (EPCAE).