Baltimore Skyline

Earth Hour happened today, between 7:30-8:30pm, when all are encouraged to turn off their lights and power down their energy-using equipment to support awareness of climate change and energy use. This began in 2004, and has grown world-wide and major cities participate by turning off their iconic landmarks, for at least one hour. So, this got me thinking. Why don't we do this every night? I'm not saying for just one hour, but rather being more conscious of what we have illuminated at night and what really can be turned off. Take for instance some of our landmarks in Baltimore: the domes of City Hall and Johns Hopkins Hospital or the Bromo Seltzer Tower, why are these lit up all night long when most of the city is asleep? Let's not stop with just city landmarks. The city could encourage business leaders and property owners to turn off their illuminations and signs at a given time, especially after the businesses have closed for the evening. How about the 1 South Street or ...

The Daily Record reported  that a city council committee approved the Mayor's plan to incrementally reduce city property taxes by $0.20 per $100 of assessed value over the next eight years. This will drop the rate from the current $2.268 to $2.068 by 2020. The reduction is a part of the Mayor's initiative to get 10,000 more families to move into Baltimore over the next decade. To offset the projected loss of revenue, the new casino in the city (which has yet to be built) will contribute most of its revenue to offset this.The plan still needs to be approved by the entire city council The idea behind lowering the property taxes is to make living in the city more competitive with living in the surrounding counties which currently have a rate more than half that of the city. Even with the reduction to $2.068 in eight years, this would still by nearly twice that of Baltimore County (currently $1.1) Howard County ($1.014) and Anne Arundel ($0.91)  See State Dept of Assessment an...

Baltimore Brew is reporting that the superblock project soon might be finally coming to life. The developers have until the end of next month to reach an agreement with the city on the sale of the property and scope of development. Additionally, the legal suit against the project has a good chance of being dismissed, clearing the last hurtle. The project is expected to add around 300 apartments and 200,000 square feet of retail to Howard St. and Lexington St. Long viewed as a catalyst for change along Howard St, the Superblock will infuse more residents into the westside of downtown. the recent Downtown Partnership report released yesterday details the need for more residential space, especially rentals in downtown. With more life on this stretch of Howard Street, we could finally see a shift in how this corridor will look.

Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone in Baltimore!

The first team to represent the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore in the 2012 NCAA Tournament is, you guessed it, the Loyola Greyhounds...what? In the 2003-2004 season the Greyhounds were 1-27. Then Jimmy Patsos took over, and in the past eight seasons, has made Loyola a competitive team in the MAAC. The Greyhounds had a career best 24 wins this year on their way to their first MAAC championship in 18 years (or the lifespan of a current Loyola freshman). With the win over Fairfield, the Greyhounds advance to the NCAA Tournament...go Hounds.