Commentary

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.

Here’s the open secret about the plastic bag ban that took effect New Year’s Day in Anne Arundel County. It’s not a ban. “We actually were trying to get folks to call it the ‘bring your own bag bill’ to focus on the behavioral changes,” said County Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien, author of the measure. “And you know, the focus really is on the behavior change, getting people in the habit of bringing their own bags. … Bag ban rolls off the tongue much easier.

The agreement on a plan to reduce the number of vacant and abandoned properties in Baltimore announced by Mayor Brandon Scott falls far short of the “landmark” status proclaimed in a press release. It includes unrealistic measures for financing the plan and no details on how the partnership to implement the plan — formed by the city, the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) and Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) — will operate.

In this final column on 2023, a look ahead to 17 things I’d like to know, see, do or hear in the coming year, plus one thing I will definitely not be doing: Things I’d like to see: Huge television production vans parked in Camden Yards for the World Series. Continued progress against gun violence in Baltimore. Significantly fewer lives were lost in 2023 after eight dreary years of 300-plus homicides each, and the trend is not merely organic.

They’re everywhere — in our water, farms, food, clothing, cosmetics, and countless everyday products. The per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as “forever chemicals,” are a group of nearly indestructible compounds used in manufacturing that have infiltrated our soil, water and air, presenting a host of health risks for everyone exposed to them.

About a month back, I spotted my neighbor Tim Hamilton working after dark in his yard. He was wearing a headlamp to see, and the sight of a man raking leaves under a powerful spotlight was unusual. Turns out his trees had dropped their cover two weeks ahead of schedule. “The leaves in this area may vary in intensity of autumnal colors, but they fall like clockwork,” said Tim, who keeps a precise garden journal.

The long, good deed is done. The last of the children of Marylanders killed on 9/11, a dozen boys and girls who received financial aid from the Maryland Survivors Scholarship Fund, have graduated from college. Established in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks to help the grief-stricken families of victims, the fund closed shop last week. Mission accomplished. The long, good deed is done.