Commentary

The announcement by Greater Baltimore Committee CEO Mark Anthony Thomas and representatives of BUILD Baltimore that business and faith leaders will work together to reduce the staggering number of vacant and derelict houses in the city is one all of Baltimore should welcome. But any welcome must come with caveats. The first is that this latest initiative, cheered on by Mayor Brandon Scott to tackle an old problem, does not delay establishment of the Land Bank Authority of Baltimore City as proposed by Baltimore City Council Bill 23-0363. Anything that the coalition of business and faith leaders decides to do must complement the role of the Land Bank because it cannot replace it.

Hooray for President Biden, who has finally set a deadline — next month — for federal workers to return to the office. It has been nearly four months since the president ended the national emergency to combat the coronavirus outbreak. His own staff at the White House has been working in person for two years. The rest of the federal government needs to follow suit. The benefits of bringing workers together in an office abound: easier communication, more ability to brainstorm, better mentorship and a heightened sense of mission, especially for new workers.

“Are you ready to do this?” my friend Chrissy asked me as a guide clipped me onto a zipline high above Panama’s Gatun Lake. Cables, a helmet and the giant version of the carabiner I hook my keys into were the only things protecting me from gravity and hitting every crunchy branch in the tree line below. “Well,” I replied, wondering if Chrissy and our guides could hear my heart pounding like a Questlove beat. “I guess I better be!”

The public has been waiting for Gov. Wes Moore (D) to end the Hogan administration’s ill-conceived toll lane plan and choose better alternatives for the I-495/I-270 corridor. The project’s original private partner, Australian toll giant Transurban, has walked away. A Washington Post poll shows majorities in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties oppose the toll lanes. The inherent inequity of the project conflicts with Governor Moore’s stated values.

It was not surprising that the CEO of the trade association that represents builders and developers in Baltimore County pushed back on my opinion that the county’s ordinance supposedly ensuring that public schools have adequate capacity to accommodate new residential development (APFO) needs revision (”Building association: Development not cause of overcrowded Maryland schools,” July 28). It also was unsurprising that the CEO implied that the current law is responsible for a decline in single-family housing starts in the county, even though the decline is part of a national trend that has nothing to do with the school APFO.

Here’s how Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the state’s lone Republican in Congress, reacted to the latest federal charges against the leader of his party: “Indicting political opponent candidates during a presidential election is what happens in banana republics and Third World countries.”nThis is typical Andy Harris, defending Donald Trump no matter what crimes the former president is alleged to have committed.

In Harford County, home to horse farms and silt-filled waterways, a bit of mudslinging is not unknown. But what appears to have started with tensions between County Councilman Aaron Penman and County Executive Bob Cassilly, two Republicans elected to their positions last November, over funding for the sheriff’s office has escalated into a bitter internecine battle among members of the GOP.