Baltimore Brew

26/11/2025

Mayor Brandon M. Scott denies trying to influence the hotly-contested Local 44 sanitation workers election.

Today one candidate stood next to the mayor at City Hall while his opponent, the current union president, was out on his trash pickup route. https://tinyurl.com/yfhs57hu

25/11/2025

Baltimore residents rally to say: bills removing zoning guardrails will worsen racial disparities, not heal them.

“We have heard every justification possible, every fallacy used to advance this bill." https://tinyurl.com/yc6vu3ft

25/11/2025

IT'S OUT - The Sisson Street Task force takes the Falls Road site for a trash drop-off center - the one beside the Jones Falls - off the table.

The chair now says the group’s work won’t be done by Mayor Brandon M. Scott's December deadline.

With a location beside the Jones Falls taken off the table, the chair says the group’s work won’t be done by Mayor Scott’s December deadline.

24/11/2025

No official announcement yet, but Local 44 re-vote is reportedly happening on December 6.

Trevor Taylor, the losing candidate who triggered the election re-run, is out campaigning on social media.
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Trevor Taylor, the losing candidate who triggered the election re-run, is out campaigning on social media.

24/11/2025

"Why I lost faith in zoning."

Baltimore’s former zoning board executive director, on why she supports Mayor Brandon M. Scott 's bills to promote more density and multi-family housing in the city. [OP-ED]
https://tinyurl.com/5n8sh428

22/11/2025

Tensions flare as Council VP Middleton denounces Mayor Brandon M. Scott's upzoning bill and supporters push back - chiding her for her language.

Both sides point to issues of race, as a sweeping bill to spur more multi-family housing in Baltimore is debated. https://tinyurl.com/yc3k7d52

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