A week or so ago, Bank of America announced it would put a hold on its foreclosure proceedings while it reviewed the processes that moved the foreclosure claims past lawyers, whose signatures were required. Other financial institutes followed suit. The decision came in the midst of growing fears that the foreclosures on tens of thousands […]
Maryland Schools Strive To Green Their Lunches
Last week on the blog “Audacious Ideas” (sponsored by the Soros-funded Open Society Institute of Baltimore that the MKCREATIVE blog featured earlier this month) Jill Wrigley wrote about establishing “a garden in every school.” Her ambition is to establish gardens that become fields of learning such cognitive skills as science (chemistry, biology), math (areas, fractions, […]
#Philanthropy: Baltimore’s Long Tradition Of Civic Philanthropy Unbroken By Great Recession
Baltimore likes to call itself the ‘City of Firsts,’ which has given it a proud heritage of innovation, civic uplift, and educational creativity. The city has struggled, like so many others on the eastern seaboard and in the upper midwest, with declining industrialization and population shifts to exurbs and to the Sun Belt. And yet, […]
George Soros Enjoys Close Ties With Charm City
George Soros has made billions – yes Billions- of charitable donations over the years, and he has most recently given over $100 million to Human Rights Watch (HRW) in an effort to encourage its autonomous status. His wealth comes mostly from his work as a co-founder of the Quantum [Hedge] Fund through the 1980s, but […]
Baltimore Continues To Revitalize Inner Harbor With Residential Park
The revitalization of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor began in fits and starts as early as the late 1950s by Mayor Thomas J. D’Alesandro, Jr. Though technically a ‘harbor,’ the specific area known as the Inner Harbor was always too shallow for ocean-bound vessels, oven those built in the early nineteenth century. The Inner Harbor thus served […]
Baltimore Finding Ways To Urban Renewal That Do Not Adversely Dislocate
In so many ways Baltimore spent much of the second half of the twentieth century as a city that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory: A vibrant industrial and trading city with a notable financial sector as well (in the decade after World War II), a city of some 2 million people who enjoyed […]
‘Resilient Baltimore’ Probably Needs Resilient Housing Market
Economists, reporters, politicians, and bloggers have all proclaimed and/or wondered if The Great Recession is over. Our blog has followed some of these statistics and claims at the national level, but today we want to look specifically at the situation in Baltimore and its housing market. Many (weak) signs suggest bottoms have been found in […]
Baltimore’s ‘Parks And People’ Plans Organizing Efforts for Block Projects
We wanted to remind you of an informative and important meeting sponsored by Baltimore‘s Parks and People Foundation this May 13th. We tweeted the event a day or so ago, but it is worth a posting here as well. The Parks and People Foundation has been hosting a series of meetings and workshops entitled ‘Community […]