Commentary

Deep into a three-hour meeting, the talk of trees was growing wearisome. The Annapolis Historic Preservation Commission was considering whether to approve the city’s massive $78 million public works project to lift part of its downtown waterfront above where cascading floods driven by climate change often rise. But the trees envisioned in sketches were in the way. Of the view. Of the water. Of a decision.

What does it say that Gov. Wes Moore has to hat-in-hand seek Republican support for emergency aid to address last week’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge? And not just help to build a new bridge, but also to simply drag away the remnants of the 47-year-old span so Baltimore’s port can reopen and the nation’s supply chain can be fully restored? When a hurricane hits a Gulf Coast state, do we debate whether the federal government should help affected communities rebuild washed-out roads?

After posting a photo on social media that I’d nervously snagged of me and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott at a KIPP Baltimore school Christmas party in 2022, I casually wrote, “He’s like what Allen Iverson was to basketball.” When the National Basketball Association imposed strict dress code regulations on Basketball players, Iverson donned durags, large chains and baggy clothing now synonymous with late ’90s and early 2000s hip-hop culture.

When President Biden visits the Port of Baltimore on Friday, he and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore should announce that steel from the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge will be recycled into the bones of a replacement span over the Patapsco River. Such a goal would be as practical as it would be symbolic because melting scrap into new steel is, more than ever, a major practice inside U.S. mills.

There is some very good news out of the Frederick County Public Schools’ report on 2023 graduation and dropout rates. For several demographic groups, including students experiencing homelessness and students receiving free and reduced-price meals, the graduation rate increased and the dropout rate decreased, compared to 2022.

Our region woke to a shock on the morning of March 26, 2024, with the news that the Francis Scott Key Bridge over Baltimore’s Patapsco River came tumbling down after being struck by a freighter. While first thoughts naturally went to the eight individuals who were on the bridge at the time and the families of the six whose lives were lost, concern has turned to the businesses and workers on the vast portion of the Baltimore Harbor that has been choked off from the shipping world by the bridge collapse.