Commentary

The decisions we make impact real lives. As I represent Northeast and East Baltimore in the Maryland Senate, my constituents constantly remind me of the consequences of those decisions in social media posts, encounters in public places and through emails or calls to my office. In 2020 and 2021, the General Assembly took a visionary step forward, adopting a resolute One Maryland approach to tackle the challenges of public transportation.

Where’s Larry Hogan? Or maybe the better question is: Where’s the next Larry Hogan? The Maryland Republican Party enters 2024 badly splintered with the biggest plank in its eye named Donald J. Trump. The former president may well win the state’s Republican primary on May 14 when all but a handful of states have already cast their ballots, but whether his name appears on the general election ballot in November is nearly irrelevant. Trump won’t win Maryland.

It appears that the Frederick County Public Schools system has learned the wrong lessons — or nothing at all — from its most recent botched attempt to draw new school boundaries. More than a year ago, the school board launched the Crestwood Area Redistricting Study to determine how to best accommodate a 300-seat addition at Crestwood Middle School.

Next November, Democrat Joe Biden may do what roughly two-thirds of incumbent party presidential nominees who ran for reelection have done: win reelection. In the U.S. House, court rulings in key redistricting cases, coupled with the political fallout from the Republicans’ internal chaos, gives Democrats a fighting chance to recapture the lower chamber. Because Democrats are playing defense in far more U.S. Senate seats, however, the GOP might flip the Senate.

With Mayor Brandon Scott’s announcement of a comprehensive plan to alleviate severe housing vacancies, Baltimore stands at the cusp of transformation with impending multibillion-dollar investments. But the mayor’s announcement might have unintended consequences. Working inside the housing market are a great many speculators who will aim to increase their holdings in neighborhoods with high vacancy levels. The risk from speculation threatens the very communities these investments aim to uplift.

While we fully support calls to prevent Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed cuts to Baltimore’s transit service, stopping these cuts alone will only preserve a dysfunctional system that demoralizes current riders, discourages new ones and continues to damage the Baltimore region. And while we applaud Governor Moore’s efforts to revive the Red Line, Baltimore transit riders also cannot wait until the Red Line is built for long overdue improvements in the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) bus and rail service.