Center Maryland is excited to launch Center Maryland TV on YouTube. Each week we will be bringing you video interviews with leaders from around Maryland. We hope you enjoy today’s episode with Representative Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-02).
For most adults living in Maryland, how to get from one place to another — from home to work, for example, or to the grocery store or a doctor’s appointment — isn’t a major concern. Oh, we’ll gripe about gasoline prices (currently hovering around $3.07 per gallon of unleaded regular, roughly 26 cents from one year ago, according to AAA). But the chances are good that we have access to one of the 5 million vehicles registered in the state.
Developer David Tufaro and other members of the Inner Harbor Coalition hope to place a measure on the November ballot blocking the plan by developer P. David Bramble to build two luxury apartment towers along the water at Harborplace. I’m not surprised that they’re also considering legal action to stop the plan. Last Tuesday, Tufaro told The Brew that “there are a lot of potential legal issues that we’re exploring.”
If you live in Baltimore, nearly one out of every three people around you is affected by a mental health condition. They probably haven’t sought out the support they need, and it isn’t just because that care costs money. Struggle is built into the fabric of Baltimore’s story. Ours is a city where violence and lack of opportunity feed off one another to produce poor mental health.
As we remember and reflect on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there are valuable lessons that should give us hope that we can overcome what we face today in a divided and teetering America. If we, like King, truly believe that the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are meant for all Americans, then zealously embrace them and put them into practice by letting them govern and guide our actions in both our public and private lives.
At my recent birthday party, several of my grandchildren spoke about how I had impacted their lives. One common theme was that they mentioned that I had taught them to ride a bike and, for those old enough, how to drive. Even my own children, now grown up with families of their own, mentioned the bike and driving lessons.\
For the New Year, the first wish must be for peace for all people in all nations. Here at home, my top political wish is for a much better education for our schoolchildren. That’s no surprise to readers of my columns, but here is what may be a shocker: Not only do our schoolchildren need to be better educated: so do the adults, including elected officials and the public, who have the power to make or break the success of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
When a family’s money is tight and it is living close to the edge, pushing that family over the brink doesn’t take much. One seemingly simple legal problem can set off cascading events leading to dire consequences, including homelessness. That happened to a family of six on the Eastern Shore that nearly lost its home when hard times hit, putting the members of that family in danger of eviction.
A helpful scheduler from Riggs Distler, the company installing new high-pressure gas lines in my neighborhood for BGE, came to the house the other day and asked a question: Do I want the new gas service regulator placed on the inside or the outside of my house? While that’s the immediate question for me and my neighbors — and one that thousands of BGE customers will likely face over the next 20 years — there’s a larger question looming over the utility’s big investment in new gas lines and regulators: Shouldn’t we be saying goodbye to all that?
City officials who continue to exhibit a phenomenal lack of imagination, civic courage and respect for taxpayers have done it to us again. The Baltimore City Planning Commission’s pro forma approval of land-use bills that would effectively shift public waterfront land into private hands in perpetuity and remove building height restrictions near the Inner Harbor will be rolled up into a charter amendment and put before voters next year. But as city voters have a reliable history of approving ballot motions, this is virtually a done deal.
We’re staying up to the minute on the issues shaping the future. Join us on the newsletter of choice for Maryland politicos and business leaders. It’s always free to join and never a hassle to leave. See you on the inside.
