Part of our "100 Years: The Twelve Events That Shaped Baltimore" series
Just over a generation ago, tens of thousands of Baltimore workers were set for life (or so they thought) with well-paid unionized jobs and benefits at leviathan companies like Bethlehem Steel and General Motors.Yet by the 1980's, as industrial jobs and corporations withered, employment opportunities for many of the region's residents began to vanish, too.At its peak in 1959, Beth Steel...
Still down after last year's playoff loss? Here's how to get ready for the new season.
Few defeats in Ravens history have been as devastating as last year's playoff loss. The defense was championship caliber! McNair was on fire! The O-line was nigh impregnable! And then the Colts broke our hearts . . . again.
We lost 15-6; man, even the score was pathetic. We figured folks would need a little more help than usual recovering from that abrupt conclusion to the season (or, for that...
Part of our "100 Years: The Twelve Events That Shaped Baltimore" series
On November 26, 1996, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke stood at a podium at downtown's federal courthouse and choked back tears. "I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, everything tells me this is the right thing to do," he said, to raucous applause among elected officials and education leaders and advocates.Schmoke was formally announcing the creation of a city-state partnership—one...
Everyone wants the Chesapeake Bay to get cleaner and healthier. Making that happen has proven to be a tough, thankless, and even confusing mission. Here’s what we need to know if we want to save the Bay.
First, a personal confession: A few years back, the business of being a good environmentalist seemed, to me, a straightforward affair. As I weighed one issue after another, the world could be seen in just two colors—green and ungreen—which corresponded to two moral states: good and ungood. It was easy to distinguish one from the other. My thinking would run along lines like this: Trees are...
Part of our "100 Years: The Twelve Events That Shaped Baltimore" series
The trial that took place in the courtroom of Judge Eugene O'Dunne on Tuesday, June 18, 1935, barely registered on Baltimore's radar. It didn't draw much attention that day, or the day after, when it was finally reported in The Sun with a mere 100 words, wedged down low on Page 11, amid local news.It was the following weekend before the ruling in the civil case of Donald Gaines Murray...
Here it is: Your ticket to a pretty darn fun summer in greater Baltimore. How much are you willing to pay for all that excitement? You name the price. From arts and cultural attractions and outdoor activities to great food and lively downtown festivals, our annual City Guide gives the lowdown on cool stuff to do at any price you choose—free, cheap, or fancy.
Arts & Culture
Summer's a great time for baseball, the beach, backyard barbecues, and—here's where the alliteration ends—art and culture. That's because, as the weather warms, the number of outlets for music, film, theater, and even visual art increases as doors open and blankets are spread across the ground. Suddenly, Pimlico hosts concertgoers, as well as race fans; Federal Hill...
Part of our "100 Years: The Twelve Events That Shaped Baltimore" series
The first plate-glass window was smashed around 5:30 p.m. at the Fashion Hat Shop in the 400 block of N. Gay Street.Half an hour later, roving bands of black teens, itching for more action, looted their first business, Sun Cleaners, at Gay and Monument streets, spiriting away clothes wrapped in plastic bags. At 6:15 p.m., they set their first fire, torching the Ideal Furniture Company in the...
Having a baby used to be one of the most dangerous, least predictable, and stressful events in a woman's life. To find out how much things have changed, we took an exclusive look at the state of modern childbirth at the region’s most popular obstetrics hospital.
On a far-from-tropical January day, Kristen Vanneman-Gooding sits under a poster of a palm tree in the waiting room of her obstetrician's office at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC). It is exactly a week to the day before her scheduled cesarean section, and she is filled with anticipation. This delivery, she suspects—and hopes—will be entirely different from her last one.Five...
Part of our "100 Years: The Twelve Events That Shaped Baltimore" series
It seems like he should have been there: chasing the vans down the street, shaking his fist in anger, cursing Bob Irsay's name deep into the Baltimore night. But, in fact, then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer remembers how he heard the news that the Baltimore Colts had packed their belongings into a fleet of Mayflower moving vans and unceremoniously left town.
"I heard it on the radio," he...
Part of our "100 Years: The Twelve Events That Shaped Baltimore" series
Picture this: It's World War II. Approximately 900,000 people live in Baltimore City. The Bethlehem Steel yard in Sparrows Point is pumping out 10,000 tons of steel per day. Across the harbor, shipyards manned by 47,000 workers are using much of that steel to build ships, many of them the gray Liberty cargo ships that ferry supplies to the war in Europe and the Pacific.
A few miles up...
