Commentary

In the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively minor issue, generally more an annoyance than a serious problem facing local government. It is not comparable to the need for good schools with good teachers to educate our children. It is not like the need for a well-trained police force to protect us from crime. But the humble sidewalk — when it is a broken, uneven and dangerous mess in need of repair — can just rankle someone’s soul.

The number three is essential in baseball. You get three strikes and you’re out, and you get three outs each inning. So it’s entirely fitting that the new lease for Oriole Park at Camden Yards required three announced decisions. The first came in September and flashed on the O’s scoreboard, but it turned out to be woefully premature. The second leaked Friday, Dec. 8, only to be nixed by Senate President Bill Ferguson.

People did rotten things, real and mythical, in the vast Leakin woodlands of West Baltimore. It’s an old story, going back decades, and the stuff of local legend: Leakin Park, where killers dump their victims or bury their bodies. It’s by now a municipal cliche. A few years ago, when I heard of a witness in a murder case claiming to have been “taken to Leakin Park” and ordered by the primary suspect’s gun-wielding brothers to change his story or else, the tale struck me as trite. I had heard Leakin Park invoked in a criminal context, or just for laughs, too many times.

As 2023 draws to a close, we look back on some of the year’s biggest headlines, alphabetically: A is for the Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which was released in April and chronicled 80 years of horrific abuse of hundreds of young people. B is for Brooklyn Homes and the tragic mass shooting that took two lives and injured 28 other young people during a block party this summer.

Over the past several weeks, world affairs have moved to the forefront of our national dialogue, and an exchange of viewpoints is underway at colleges across the country, including those in Maryland. Global learning has never been more critical for fostering the mutual understanding and cross-border collaboration essential to addressing our shared existential challenges and to deepening our humanity.

Maryland is on a path to gain control of almost 300 acres on the Chesapeake Bay just outside Annapolis, a potentially huge victory for increasing public access to the bay. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation announced Tuesday that it would turn over Holly Beach Farm to the state Department of Natural Resources roughly 20 years after the state helped pay for the purchase of the one-time horse farm from its private owner.