One of my earliest childhood memories is that of being lost … in New York City’s Pennsylvania Station. It was only a brief time that my four-year-old self was separated from my mother, but I certainly felt then and remember ...

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The recent tragic events in Atlanta have had me thinking about a consulting assignment I undertook in the region about 15 years ago. The Atlanta Regional Commission, the regional planning entity with responsibility for a 10-county metro area, was assessing ...

Tagged with: Joe Nathanson

Among his earliest childhood memories, Brian McLaughlin recalls riding his little bike and playing in the green spaces afforded by his Columbia, Maryland, neighborhood. I had a chance to interview McLaughlin recently after hearing him speak about his new role ...

Tagged with: Joe Nathanson

Schoolchildren stranded as they wait for a bus to get home from school. Workers constantly risking loss of a job due to lateness as they encounter unreliable transit connections. Persistent reports of buses out of service due to mechanical breakdowns, ...

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We know it has been a tough year, but as 2020 comes to an end and we enter the new year, we have been receiving a flurry of announcements of major development projects suggesting that we may be coming out ...

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Gov. Larry Hogan’s recent announcement of grants totaling $19.3 million for eviction prevention benefiting communities around the state is a welcome recognition of a looming crisis. The funds include $2 million for Baltimore city, $3 million for Baltimore County and ...

Tagged with: Joe Nathanson Maryland covid-19 response

If you were to take a look at the map of the United States through the lens of our current political polarization, you would notice some unmistakable patterns in blue and red. Whether you were to view a map showing ...

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Back in the early 1970s, while a relatively new member of the staff of the Regional Planning Council (a predecessor to today’s Baltimore Metropolitan Council), I had occasional interaction with the chairman of the council, Milton H. “Mickey” Miller. The ...

Tagged with: Joe Nathanson

If you were to have accessed the website of Baltimore City’s Department of Housing and Community Development in late August you would have seen a number of notable images – the welcome page with the smiling face of the housing ...

Tagged with: Joe Nathanson

ack the 1960s, at another time when the nation was reckoning with issues of race and racism, a series of landmark laws were passed: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending segregation in places of public accommodation and barring discrimination ...

Tagged with: Joe Nathanson