Baltimore Brew

20/11/2025

The taxpayer-funded Baltimore Children & Youth Fund has spent tens of millions of dollars and, in its latest IRS filing, discloses 36% went to administration and staffing costs.

Striking details from an IG report and other sources on an organization that gets little City Hall oversight. https://tinyurl.com/mu4yuvd9 .

Taxpayer-funded BCYF has spent tens of millions of dollars and, in its latest IRS filing, discloses that 36% went to administration and staffing costs. Striking details from an IG report and other sources.

19/11/2025

Supporters and opponents gear up for tomorrow’s hearing on a Baltimore city zoning bill aimed at promoting multi-unit housing and density, Bill 25-0066.

Proponents gathered testimony to submit ahead of the 9 a.m. City Council committee hearing.

Others were scrutinizing a Law Department report that discussed the measure's possible vulnerability to a legal challenge.

Mayor Brandon Scott’s widely debated bill aimed at promoting housing options and density moves to Councilman Ryan Dorsey’s committee.

18/11/2025

By enabling “gentle density,” Mayor Brandon M. Scott 's zoning legislation will support real people with real needs in my neighborhood. (Madison Park in West Baltimore)

Anxieties about it, while sincere, are misplaced. [OP-ED] tinyurl.com/29z4wv3f

17/11/2025

Baltimore residents, including Black residents, favor zoning that promotes home ownership as a way to build wealth and have a good quality of life.

So says this OP-ED writer who asks, why undermine that with the Mayor Brandon M. Scott administration's Bill 25-0066 (which eliminates single-family-housing zones citywide)?

The author notes that Scott himself appears in a Live Baltimore video in front of the house he bought in NE Baltimore two years ago, enthusing about the idea of homeownership.

“I’ve wanted to own a home since I was a little kid, and I always wanted to own that home in Baltimore . . . Owning a home means something that will be part of a legacy and something that helps you accumulate wealth. Something that I can own for myself and my family will have.” https://tinyurl.com/43psx9tb

14/11/2025

PASSING THE BUCK - The Baltimore County Council may have violated the law when it held a closed session on the appointment of a new county executive.

But neither Kelly Madigan, the county's "watchdog" inspector general, nor the county attorney appears ready to call them out.

It's a serious issue that's larger than this one complaint - the council routinely, for years, has gone into these closed sessions despite a provision in the County Charter that says: “All meetings of the county council or any committee thereof shall be open to the public.” https://tinyurl.com/3dwkcuvr [OP-ED]

The County Council may have violated the law when it went into closed session to discuss the appointment of a new county executive. But neither the inspector general nor the county attorney appears ready to call them out. [OP-ED]

13/11/2025

No progress for Baltimore if it allows neighborhoods to cater only to "the people who own."

So said City Councilman Ryan Dorsey at the Planning Commission's Oct. 30 meeting.

As part of our coverage of the pending zoning bill (25-0066), we publish A TRANSCRIPT of extended remarks by the council's primary proponent of Mayor Scott's legislative package that relaxes zoning requirements.

Dorsey challenged "this assertion that this is, like, ‘American Dream’ kind of destiny – that all shall own a home, and all shall want to own a home, and that all do want to own a home, or that renters are merely transient." https://tinyurl.com/yuwennva

13/11/2025

Once again, Baltimore's historically disinvested Black neighborhoods - who have spent decades restoring their dignity and stability - "are being asked to bear the weight of policies written without us."

So says this op-ed writer from Marble Hill, denouncing the Mayor Brandon M. Scott administration's bill 25-0066, which removes single-family zoning in Baltimore residential districts citywide, and permits up to four dwelling units on a single residential lot.

"A green light for absentee landlords and speculative investors to buy cheap, divide historic homes into transient rentals and walk away from the consequences," the author says https://t.co/7ZVkbl0Wyu

12/11/2025

Baltimore's Confederate monuments, taken down one night in 2017, have resurfaced . . . in a museum show in Los Angeles where they’re appearing, on loan, until May 3, 2026.

Some have said these bronze generals and weeping women should have been melted down. The museum's curators are displaying them in their galleries, along with contemporary works, as:

“A crystalline symbol of a white supremacist ideology."

https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2025/11/11/baltimores-confederate-monuments-now-in-an-la-museum-theyre-decidedly-off-their-pedestals/

12/11/2025

Warning from Marble Hill: Mayor Scott's zoning bill will reverse our historic Black neighborhood’s progress.

By stripping away zoning safeguards, Bill 25-0066 encourages speculative buyers to divide up properties and exploit communities, this West Baltimore resident says [OP-ED]

++++ We are not anti-renter. But balance matters. This block already carries its fair share of density as it stands.

Out of twenty-two parcels on the 1200 block of Druid Hill Avenue, only six still function as true single-family residences.

The rest are either vacant, condemned, illegally converted or operating as multi-dwelling, commercial or institutional structures.

That means barely 27% of this block remains stable, family-scale housing, a stunning decline for a community that once defined Black homeownership and civic leadership. ++++

By stripping away zoning safeguards, Bill 25-0066 encourages speculative buyers to divide up properties and exploit communities, this West Baltimore resident says. [OP-ED]

11/11/2025

Those Confederate monuments - long off their granite pedestals in Baltimore - are now in a Los Angeles museum, paint spatters and all.

"They're a crystalline symbol of a white supremacist ideology." the curators say.

Strange to see them in photos for a New York Times Magazine story Sunday, next to pallets and plastic buckets, as the exhibit - MONUMENTS - was being set up at the Museum of Contemporary Art there.

In contrast to the Trump administration, which is trying its best to stamp out the history of slavery at the Smithsonian and national parks, this show puts the racist ideology behind these bronze soldiers and weeping women front and center.

Curators call the four bronze sculptures, still owned by Baltimore City, “a crystalline symbol of a white supremacist ideology.”

10/11/2025

Baltimore sanitation and other municipal workers ratify new contract

Offering a generous wage package, the contract comes in the wake of public pressure regarding hazardous conditions and low wages faced by sanitation workers.

Still unresolved: who will become president of AFSCME Local 44.

https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2025/11/10/baltimore-sanitation-and-other-municipal-workers-ratify-new-contract/

07/11/2025

Baltimore officials came under fire for homeless shelter conditions and adverse impacts on the community at an at-times contentious City Council hearing this week.

Homelessness is on the rise, and federal funds are looking shaky, city officials reported.

But Mayor Scott’s homeless services director isn’t doing enough to protect clients and the community, City Council members and others said.

Homelessness is on the rise but Mayor Scott’s homeless services director isn’t doing enough to protect clients and the community, City Council members and others say.