In wake of Connecticut shooting, 449 firearms surrendered in city today

“This is fantastic and every community should have such a program. Maybe some major retailer will step up and offer a gift card nationally in exchange for guns. Let this idea go viral.”
– Yvette Marie Torell

“Bravo for Baltimore.”
– Deborah Stevenson

“Reading your article has inspired us to take apart a rifle and destroy it. We live in a rural area, so we aren’t aware of a program such as yours. It’d sure be nice if your program could take hold all across the nation. If you have any power to see your program go nationwide, please do.”
– Victoria (editor of Ozarks Crescent Mural in Arkansas)

“a lot of those guns were probably stolen…maybe by the people turning them in to get 100 bucks no question asked about how and where they acquired the weapon…i guess it beats getting 10 years…i wont be turning in my weapons to defend myself against criminals.”
– Brian McClellan

“It’s amazing how easily americans give up their rights and freedoms. If these firearms weren’t stolen they could have sold them to firearms retailers for alot more money than that $100 gift card (like the S&W 357 on top of the pile  has value of about $600). And FFL Dealers check a persons background through the ATF so these firearms wouldn’t have turned up in the wrong hands. . . It’s the lack of knowledge about firearms that causes this unwarranted fear about firearms. Turning in or completely banning firearms will NOT stop crime or shootings because criminals will still have firearms while society would be unarmed and unable to defend it’s self.”
– Moe

“Guns are solely made to kill. Semi’s are made with the sole purpose of killing as many as possible in the shortest time. There is no reason for a wise and civilized society to avail its occupants, citizen and non-citizen alike, of such death weapons. Get rid of them NOW.”
– Solarvoltaic
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Key part of Sparrows Point to be sold and moved

“Well, whats next? I guess the next move would be for the politicians to find a way to regulate Johns Hopkins out of business or force them to move out of the area. Don’t say it cannot happen. Nobody would have thought that Beth Steel and others would ever close as well.”
– My2Cents69

 “Think about this. Since starting to work I and many of you have seen the demise of many local businesses. Bendix, Carling Brewery, Western Electric, Westinghouse, GM, Eastern Stainless, Arco Steel, Martin Marietta, Allied Chemical, FMC, Signode, Thompson, both the Key Highway and Sparrows Point Ship yards, the Can company’s, and many other smaller supporting businesses. And now Sparrows Point! This is why this Country is having to rely on handouts. We are getting to the point where we do not have the ability to support our economy or ourselves.”
– exspworker

“If we can bridge this readjustment period until the Port and the new businesses can get set up our younger workers and kids are going to have a much better work place than we had to endure.”
– IronworkerSP

“The USW worked hard to keep the industrialists who were willing to invest in the Sparrows Point plant out of the plant. There were only a few workers who saw through the Union rhetoric and realized that the  policies and decisions of the USW would send them directly to the unemployment line.”
– FormerBethSteelEmp

“This is a tragedy. I was in San Francisco recently. On the Golden Gate bridge, on an unusually clear day. The bridge glowed red under a clear blue sky and the bay sparkled below. It was magnificent and I walked the length of the bridge. At one place where there was a plaque for the dedication of the bridge, I paused to read its illustrious history and there I saw what broke my heart. Guess where the steel for that bridge came from? From Beth Steel. How the wheels of fortune turn and how the mighty fall!”
– ushanellore
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Steel mill’s fate: sealed in May, delivered this week

“Dr. Boothe, I am sad to say that you and Mark were right after all. Now the tears are flowing down Dundalk Avenue because Fat Lady Singing – and her followers’ desire to turn our Steel Factory into the Cheesecake Factory, Container & Cruise Ship terminal, Casinos, NASCAR venue, Windmill & Solar panel greenie businesses – is more real than what we once had.”
– Walter

“This was Ira Rennert’s plan from the beginning. I would like a list all the companies that were not paid. If anyone has information on how I can obtain this, please let me know. It will not change the fate of Sparrows Point, but hopefully he will never be able to run another business into the ground. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. Our bankruptcy laws need to change. I will only be able to heal if I can help start this change.”
– Closedbusinessowner

“There is much clatter from the union members 9477 Facebook page about filing a lawsuit against the international union. People are upset that our benefits were signed away by a union rep. These benefits alone would have kept Steelworkers with Health Care and a severance package. The union rep who done this makes around $150,000 a year.”
– unioncaught

“Many families were hurt at the Point along with many in the Ohio Valley. Some of the facilities at the Point were quite operable under the right management and it is quite sad that some quality steel company did not bid on these particular facilities at the auction. . . Such are the failures of stupid men with lots of money and no ethics whatsoever.”
– Dr. Raymond B

“There is one person that deserves the blame for the situation that we all find ourselves in today. One man who manipulated 3 independent steel mills and destroyed every one of them. That man is none other than the USW’s man of the year, Dimebag Dave McCall.”
– Hot Metal Guru
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Inside City Hall: Trying once again to create a civil rights historic panel

“This is moronic. We already have too much development paralysis and status-quo inertia. There is no coherent reason for having another historic preservation commission.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“Leaders in Baltimore who fail to learn from the past are doomed to create a commission for it.”
– Dennis the cynic, via Twitter

“I find your aversion to preserving our remaining historic fabric to be downright comical. With the possible exception of Boston (and maybe DC) I can’t think of another city on the East Coast that has wrecked its historic core like Baltimore. And what has this gotten us? Little more than a lot of empty parking lots and numerous failed development schemes… I hope this commission gets off the ground and imposes real limitations on anyone’s ability to trash the remnants of the civil rights years.”
– RickFromBmore

“Try taking a walk through Johnston Square. It had been almost completely rebuilt — every house renovated and repainted — when I volunteered there in 1980. Today, it looks like London after the Blitz. ‘Investment’ implies a return on money spent. Johnston Square today should tell you everything you need to understand about ‘investment outside the Inner Harbor.’ It only works when the neighborhood is committed to making good on that investment.”
– James Hunt

“Your claims are totally unsubstantiated. . . The amount of goodwill energy you and others put into helping out east baltimore 30 years ago is nice but did very little to address the chronic miseducation, underemployment, hunger, and poverty that those communities were beginning to confront under Reagan. The city cut millions from the school budget to float bonds and give tax incentives to developers downtown.”
– ZacharyMurray

“Zach, old chum, l’ve lived in and loved and studied this fair city since the last time a Republican was mayor. . . so I have a pretty fair sense of the boodle that’s been ladled around this town since the advent of the Great Society.”
– James Hunt
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Inside City Hall: Rapprochement

“Just when I thought there was some hope for accountability and transparency, Pratt is apparently looking to sell taxpayers out to gain favor for her interests. I’m moving!”
– AuthorShereeseM

“I look at these three folks and shake my head at how much this city needs new leadership….heck, ANY leadership for that matter.”
– Kris Northrup, via Facebook

“For those who care, I have a great deal of faith that Comptroller Pratt will continue to fight honorably on our behalf.”
– trueheart4life
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Higher costs, fewer stations on proposed Red Line

“Well, this is a bummer. I support the Red Line and don’t understand those naysayers who fail to see how a concept that works well in cities across Europe can’t work in Baltimore. But I do think that this project is veering into a territory where its completion may be in doubt. Besides the higher costs, I’m now more convinced than ever that the Red Line will fail miserably to connect in any meaningful way with the existing light rail and subway lines. I desperately want a new transit line in Baltimore, but I’m wondering if the 12-13 year battle to build the Red Line may end in failure.”
– RickFromBmore

“I was reading about the Charles Street Trolley plans recently, the cost of which is estimated at 200 million. This is 1/12th the cost of the Red Line, which is 2.5billion. Could we have 10 ten trolley lines instead of one Red Line?”
– Aaron Mirenzi

“The Red Line was never demand driven. It was strictly driven by consulting firms seeking contracts and transit devotees in need of a hobby. . . Baltimore could have built the Charles Street trolley for the money that has been spent on planning for the Red Line. Better yet, the money could have created a series of circulator bus lines.”
– Mark Adams
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City dreams and urban legends

“Can we recommend some others too? I think a lot of recent ‘urbanism’ books have tended to either vague metaphysical fashion (Florida), abstract oversimplification (Glaeser), or bombastic hyperbole, so I like to stick to older classics that get into the nitty-gritty of actual urban design: Whyte’s City, Rediscovering the Center is good, but I think his Social Life of Small Urban Spaces is even better. “
– Marc Szarkowski (whose comment includes many other recommendations)

“Anyone who wants to better understand part of what happened to the shipping business should read ‘The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger’ by Marc Levinson.”
– p johnson
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High hopes, tough challenges for struggling Southwest

“Great Article. Sad that @MayorSRB skirted the question about impact of clustered clinics on Store. Dissolves faith in her.”
– CCHollinsMarket via Twitter

“What happened to Southwest Baltimore? Twenty or so years ago this was a up and coming neighborhood. Hollins Market area was hip and vibrant. The Sowebo festival was a annual gathering with a good turnout. I personally spent possibly too much time at The Cultured Pearl. It seems like the area peaked and then went on a gradual downward slide. Nearby Union Square boasted beautiful Bolton Hill size houses. Now Union Square residents are essentially living in a small oasis surrounded by drugs, crime and poverty.”
– discer

“Doesn’t Hollins Market have a produce stand and a butcher? I think repopulating the old city markets would be better than crappy discount supermarket chains. When I lived in Federal Hill I much preferred shopping at Cross Street Market to the Shopper’s in Locust Point.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“Federal Hill and the rest of the South Baltimore peninsula have much more income to support Cross Street Market vendors plus Shoppers Supermarket plus Harris-Teeter than does the Hollins Market area. It’s very telling that they even moved the Charm City Circulator stop away – another big blow against so-called Transit-Oriented Development. Barre Circle, Union Square, Camden Crossing and a few other isolated pods aren’t going to cut it. The area needs income!”
– Gerald Neily
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Lining up for construction work at new casino

“So few locals and fewer minorities even bother to show up, but the complaints that not enough locals or not enough minorities used in construction will be heard for years.”
– Donald Nichols

“It’s hard to feel badly for the plight of minorities in the city when they’re given opportunities and fail to take advantage of them. GOTV organizers we able to help them find their way the voting booth, so I can’t really understand why it’s so difficult to rustle them up for an employment information session. Before I get thrashed, I get it. I’m racist. I don’t understand the situation, blah blah.”
– Brett Stevens, via Facebook

“I believe that the problem is one of scale. Most MBEs are not large enough to provide any meaningful competition with the larger, regional contractors. Perhaps the solution is for the state of MD to provide grants to MBEs so that they match the level of campaign contributions, graft, and outright kickbacks that the larger contractors routinely provide to local politicians. That’s about as level as the playing field is going to get in MD.”
– H S

“All we need is Pless Jones and his bulldozer, and the cycle is complete.”
– Carol Ott
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Bollards beheaded on new bikeway

“The bikeway should be in Mount Vernon, Aaron. Bikes and livable communities should go hand in hand. Get the obnoxious heavy traffic out of the community and onto Fallsway where it belongs.”
– Gerald Neily

“I love this bikeway, and it *is* in my community. I agree that more facilities two or three blocks over in Mt. Vernon proper are needed, but I get a little irked at the suggestion that this particular path is useless for cyclists because it’s not in *that* neighborhood. I ride it almost every day, and I think it’s great.”
– Kate Drabinski

“In a perfect world where Baltimore DOT was willing to take out a lane of parking or traffic on Charles, connecting the Harbor with North Baltimore, I would take that over the Fallsway/Guilford cycletrack. But in the real world that I live in that is not going to happen for decades. In the absence of that wholly unrealistic desire, I commend the DOT for improving a hugely overbuilt and underutilized section of infrastructure to provide a safe route all the way from the Harbor to University Parkway.”
– dukiebiddle

“I’m not against the bollards and for the record, I like separated bike lanes and strongly support biking for all abilities. And I agree with everyone actually – having something is sometimes better than nothing but the best way would be to have the same type of bike facility take lane space where its easier to get to. BUT either the traffic is hitting the bollards or they are good income.”
– bmorepanic

“Most European cities keep bikes and pedestrians off roads. I was just in Germany and different kinds of traffic are very separated there.”
– GXWalsh

“Out where I live I have been watching cars hit the same brick wall for 20 years. I would guess that the same thing will happen here. I don’t see any need for bollards that will have to be continually replaced.”
– Gordon Steen
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Wild, down in the dirt and delicious

“Digging up plants from public parks is not a good thing to advocate. I have two big reasons. First, while a few people might be fairly respectful of the land, a lot won’t be. Having dirt wash out from a few widely spaced holes is one thing, but a few thousand holes is something completely different.”
– bmorepanic

“Kudos to the author for trying something out that is local, seasonal, and different! However I agree with bmorepanic – most urban soils are contaminated due to an array of sources including ineffective sewerage, underground tanks and previous industrial land uses.”
– FunTymer

“I wouldn’t worry too much about more than a handful of adventurous eaters occasionally digging up these and other roots and greens. Surely not enough to cause a erosion issue. While I admire Marta’s zeal I prefer to do my foraging at Eddie’s.”
– discer

“That kind of digging up vegetation is not foraging, that is stealing! I take a clear ethical stance against. On the contrary, I support and have participated in “guerilla landscaping” where one adds plants to beautify otherwise neglected public spaces. In the case of Burdock, however, it is the kind of non-native invasive species that Park Rangers ask volunteers to help clean out so native species have a better chance to multiply.”
– Marta Hanson [Note: The Baltimore Urban Forager, aka Marta, is working on some Principles of Ethical Foraging. Here’s a draft.]

“The #wildfood trend of 1936: recipes and reflections in this @BaltimoreBrew article on burdock foraging in #Baltimore.”
– Dylan Gordon‏ @KnowWildFood via Twitter
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Flickering treasures: in search of Baltimore’s lost movie palaces

“Historians far into the future will learn a lot about twentieth century Americans by the movies we watched and the playhouses and ‘movie palaces’ in which we watched them. Baltimore will be well-represented; its architectural cinema gems are up there with the very best.”
– alanreal

“This is a wonderful article. As the daughter of a former neighborhood theater owner/manager, I was fortunate to have heard Amy being interviewed on the Dan Rodericks show and contacted her. My interview with her led me to recover some old pictures and stirred wonderful memories of my childhood spending time going to my Dad’s theaters like the Park, New Horn, and others.”
– ewalderman