Our editor’s picks for stories that impacted the Baltimore area in 2023. Photo of former Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, left, and current Police Commissioner Richard Worley, right.
Baltimore police chiefs Is the Baltimore Police Department ready to return to internal management? That’s the bet Mayor Brandon Scott made when he tapped 25-year veteran Richard Worley to lead the department after the resignation of Michael Harrison.
For the past decade, with the exception of Darryl De Sousa’s three-month stint before he resigned and was later sent to federal prison, the Baltimore Police Department has been led by commissioners brought in from other agencies.
Harrison, who spent four and a half years in office after a career in New Orleans, was seen as a calming force focused on reform even as the homicide rate remained at record levels.
In Worley, Scott went with a trusted ally who goes back to his roots as a councilman representing Northeast Baltimore when Worley was the Northeast District Supervisor.
Less polished than his predecessor, Worley came out of the gate but can point to a 20 percent drop in homicides — the first since 2014 — with fewer than 300 victims in the first year.
– Justin Fenton The photo shows three performers in a drum line. BOPA You may not have known the name before, but chances are you’re all too familiar with BOPA, Baltimore’s advertising and arts agency, after some high-profile battles this year.
The arts council, which works with the city to organize major events and support local creators, lost its leader in January after Mayor Brandon Scott called on Donna Drew Sawyer to resign after the organization failed to host the annual Martin Luther King Jr.
day parade The organization then found itself back in the unwanted spotlight when city council members publicly grilled them about their performance, the board’s decision to give Sawyer a big severance package, and their failed attempt to trademark Artscape.
The free outdoor arts festival is finally back in 2023 after an all-too-long hiatus, but not before last-minute headliner Kelly Rowland and the entire day’s program were canceled due to rain.
But despite everything, Artscape is back. Perhaps BOPA’s good reputation in the community it serves will follow. – Hallie Miller The photo shows a round CFG Arena logo next to a photo of Bruce Springsteen performing in front of an audience. (Laila Milevski/The Baltimore Banner.
Original photos: Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner) CFG Arena The 61-year-old downtown arena got a new lease on life thanks to a $250 million privately funded renovation that landed it on Billboard magazine’s list of the best venues to hold less than 15,000 people.
The arena, which opened in 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center, has gone through several name changes but has not been renovated since 1986, when city leaders debated whether to tear it down and build a new one.
Enter Oak View Group, a California-based development and management company that signed a 30-year lease with the city.
The company gave the arena’s futuristic googie exterior a cleaner look, adding three dozen new suites, removing obstructions and adding club-level bars and dining.
It also made it easier to set up actions. Bruce Springsteen memorably rocked the house on opening night on April 7, and Lionel Ritchie, Earth, Wind and Fire, Janet Jackson and New Edition stopped by later.
The arena is back on the “radar” of concert organizers, according to its general manager. – Norman Gomlak The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsor.
Become one. David Bramble is pictured with a view of the Harborplace Pavilion in the background. (Laila Milevski/Baltimore Banner. (Original photos by Kylie Cooper and Paul Newson/The Baltimore Banner) David Bramble If you know David Bramble, you know he goes by Bramble, not Dave.
A Baltimorean is trying to seal Baltimore’s most ambitious deal: Baltimore’s renewal. Blackberry is the head of MCB Real Estate, which officially took control of the city’s aging Twin Pavilions in the Inner Harbor in April and bought them out of bankruptcy.
Blackberry announced redevelopment plans this fall at a press conference attended by Mayor Brandon Scott and Gov. Wes Moore, but a group of architects rejected the initial plans. In 2024, Bramble faces several hearings, including several board meetings and a citywide election question that is important to his plans.
What can go wrong? – Giacomo Bologna Photo by Michelle Hines, Krystal Gonzalez and Katika Travis. Starring: Krystal Gonzalez, Michelle Hines, Katika Travis READ MORE Rabbi Hampden in “Miracle on 34th Street” reports anti-Semitic vandalism Rabbi Hampden on 34th Street reports anti-Semitic vandalism 24 December 2023 This year, the mothers of the shooting victims, many of them children, shared their pain in heartbreaking ways.
Grieving the death of her 18-year-old daughter, Krystal Gonzalez interrupted a city council meeting during the Brooklyn Day shooting in September. Gonzalez, whose daughter Aaliyah was one of two teenagers killed in the mass shooting, spoke of the lost promise of a bright future.
He highlighted the inaction of the Baltimore Police Department when crowds swelled into the hundreds on Brooklyn Day, many of whom were said to be armed. He challenged mayors, “Is this normal?” Katika Travis, who lost her 16-year-old son Bryson Hudson in August when he was shot in Northeast Baltimore, gave him this message:
“I would take that pain for you.” The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsor. Become one. Michelle Hines, whose 16-year-old son Izaiah Carter was shot near Patterson High School in March, channeled her grief into action and called for changes in the school system.
Hines said, “I don’t want to hear that another kid was killed when he should have been in school.” – Ben Conark Photo of Lamar Jackson in uniform, helmet in one hand, other arm outstretched. (Laila Milevski/Baltimore Banner.
