Politics

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Wednesday he would consider selling the financially beleaguered Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor hotel, a move that past mayors have ruled out in light of the likely financial loss the city would suffer. “We are open to anything,” Scott said during a City Hall news conference. “As we move forward with reimagining downtown and looking at how things operate, I’m quite open to someone coming in to operate the hotel and not having the city operate it.”

Quantaz Smith, a lifelong resident of Southwest Baltimore, is 22 now and well beyond the age of playing on playgrounds. But that hasn’t stopped his efforts to help bring a brand new and much-needed park to his neighborhood in Gwynns Falls. The work paid off. Smith was one of at least two dozen people present Wednesday as Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume announced nearly $1.3 million in congressional funding for the Gwynns Falls Mighty Park project and the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative.

The House Judiciary Committee held its third briefing on juvenile justice reform Tuesday, this time with representatives from a national policy organization, a local judge and six nonprofit organizations that work with troubled youth. The committee organized briefings in the fall to assess juvenile reforms as some lawmakers and community leaders said crime has increased, especially among youth.

For Ben Zaitchik, the moment had arrived. He’d been working at Johns Hopkins University for almost two years on a groundbreaking effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to define what it would take to make Baltimore climate-adaptive, resilient and just. Now, he paced nervously in a spacious corridor at Morgan State University’s Center for Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies, not far from Johns Hopkins’ main campus, making sure that everything was in order for the focus group meeting he had been planning for weeks. The topic: the urban heat island effect, his research specialty.

In the wee hours, after sending out amendments that would drastically limit the powers of Baltimore County’s inspector general, the chair of the County Council, Julian E. Jones Jr., summoned his fellow politicians to a private meeting about the changes. “Please see the attached documents,” Jones wrote in his message, sent after midnight on Sunday (December 3).

A divided County Council on Tuesday voted to approve two water and sewerage plan amendments requested by Avanti Properties Group — a Florida-based company with plans to construct a 923-unit residential development in New Market called Calumet. The planned development has been a point of contention between county officials, the town of New Market and the developer since the Calumet property was annexed into the town in 2014.

The balance of power is shifting on the all-Democratic Prince George’s County Council, which elevated Jolene Ivey, District 5, and Sydney Harrison, District 9, to leadership on Tuesday after a term that saw a more liberal majority pull the body further left. The council voted unanimously to install Ivey as chair in an annual exchange of power, handing her the ability to set the agenda as the council enters a term its members say will be shaped by a tight county budget and increasing needs.

A bill written by the administration of County Executive Steuart Pittman to create a new affordable housing program in Anne Arundel County was narrowed Monday night by the County Council to apply only to those who live and work in the county. Eligibility requirements for affordable housing have been a major sticking point as the council has refined the essential worker housing access bill over the past two months.

The 20th Montgomery County Council began the second year of its four-year term on Tuesday by electing Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) as its president, and Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) as its vice president. Both were 10-0 votes. Councilmember Sidney Katz (D-Dist. 3) was absent. Friedson has served as council vice president since December 2022 and has been on the council since December 2018. He chairs the planning, housing and parks committee and serves on the government operations and fiscal policy committee.