Midday

When Johnny Olszewski ran for Baltimore County Executive he talked about growing up in the shadow of the steel mill, Bethlehem Steel. This steel mill is long gone and today we are discussing Eastern Baltimore County’s ongoing economic recovery, which has been at least partly due to the Tradepoint Atlantic development on the old Bethlehem Steel site.

County Executive Olszewski joined Midday from Chicago, where he is attending the Democratic National Convention, to discuss the economy in the eastern region of the county.

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Today is the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Democratic delegates officially nominated Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for vice president this week.

Cory Vaillancourt joins Midday from Chicago to discuss the latest news in national politics. He is the politics editor for the Smoky Mountain News, headquartered in Waynesville, North Carolina amid the the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Vaillancourt is also a contributor to several public radio stations, NPR and the Washington Post.

Could rural voters be the key to victory in 2024? Analysts say Walz and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, were chosen in part due to their supposed appeal to rural voters, particularly rural white voters. Other than geography, what about the pair do their respective parties hope appeal to these voters?

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The death of an employee of Baltimore City's Department of Public Works worker led to an outcry from labor advocates. Now, city councilmembers are reacting, too. The City Council is scheduled to meet August 22 to examine the working conditions at the department.

On August 2, Ronald Silver, 36, died of heat sickness after working his trash collection route when Baltimore City was under a Code Red heat index. His death, which his family has called “entirely preventable”, is currently under investigation by the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health and the Baltimore Police Department.

At a press conference two weeks after his death, family and friends remembered Silver for his sense of humor, devotion to his family and a love of superhero movies.

WYPR reporter Emily Hofstaedter was the first to report the death of Silver and spoke with eyewitnesses. She joins Midday and WYPR News Director Matt Bush to look ahead to the council hearing and discuss the latest.

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The Baltimore Orioles are set to finish a series in New York City against the hometown Mets today. Afterward, the O’s come back home to start an important four game series tomorrow against the Houston Astros. The O's play the Astros without a star pitcher following yet another injury.

Kyle Goon is a sports columnist for The Baltimore Banner, and he joins Midday to give up an update on the Orioles as the postseason approaches.

(Photo by Keith Allison, via Wikimedia)

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This year, the Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) is on track to hit a record $1 billion in issuance of construction and general bonds.

In fact, over $700 million in public and private transactions involving state bonds are expected to close within the next month.

J. Thomas Sadowski, the Executive Director of MEDCO, joins Midday to discuss how he plans to oversee this $1 billion initiative.

(Photo Courtesy of MEDCO)

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The redevelopment of Harborplace downtown continues to be at the center of debate and speculation. The masterplan for this site's redevelopment will go before the city's planning commission this Thursday.

Harborplace was sold to the private Baltimore developer MCB Real Estate in 2023. MCB unveiled new designs for the site which require a change in usage to allow two additional residential towers. City voters will be asked on Nov. 5 to consider a referendum question to allow that change on, what for decades has been considered, public parkland.

The Inner Harbor Coalition is a group of residents, architects, stakeholders and others who are vocally against the referendum. Two members of the coalition join Midday to share their perspectives:

• Ted Rouse, local developer and son of Harborplace visionary James Rouse.
• Michael Brassert, Director/Producer at Houpla, Inc. and Federal Hill resident.

We invited MCB officials yesterday to participate in this discussion, but they did not respond.

P. David Bramble of MCB Real Estate joined Midday in May of last year to discuss his ideas for Harborplace. You can listen to the interview here:

Reimagining Harborplace, and other city development projects

Photo Credit: AgnosticPreachersKid via Wikimedia Commons 

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Human have long looked into the night sky and searched for signs, for meaning, in the lights twinkling above us.

And through the years, humankind developed tools to become better stargazers; from Galileo’s astronomical telescope to the Hubble Space Telescope launched into near-Earth Orbit nearly a quarter century ago.

And a couple years ago, the James Webb Space Telescope followed. Webb has high sensitivity instruments making it able to view celestial bodies much farther away than Hubble could see, and has been sending us photos and measurements leading to ground-breaking discoveries. These discoveries are shaping how the Baltimore-based scientists of the Webb Mission Office, and all humankind, understand of our cosmos.

Astrophysicist Dr. Macarena Garcia Marin joined Midday to talk about Webb’s recent discoveries. She is a European Space Agency Instrument Scientist and Project Scientist in the Webb Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute here in Baltimore.

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Baltimore’s sewage system is one of its oldest assets, and its decay has plagued the parts of the city for years.

Sewage backups caused by extreme weather or broken pipes leave residents with a costly clean up that can imperil their health.

Aman Azhar is a reporter for Inside Climate News. He joins us to discuss the city's sewage infrastructure, its plan to help residents and a call from advocates to invest in a climate resilient future.

According to the Department of Public Works, between 2018 and 2021, there were at least 8,860 reported residential sewage backups in Baltimore caused at least partially by conditions in the city’s portion of the pipes.

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The neighborhoods surrounding the Inner Harbor are some of the fastest growing parts of Baltimore. Now the population of the harbor is growing with the addition of turtles, mallards, a pair of river otters and a school of Atlantic silverside fish — all members of the Chesapeake Bay’s native ecosystem.

The animals and sea life are drawn to the harbor by a new 10,000-square-foot “floating wetlands,” a series of artificial islands set up by the National Aquarium between piers 3 and 4.

Charmaine Dahlenburg, the National Aquarium's Director of Field Conservation joins Midday to discuss the development of this ambitious harbor project.

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Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday to share a review of a pair of local theatre productions.

Soft Power continues at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., through September 15, while Beautiful: The Carole King Musical continues at Olney Theatre Center through August 25.

(DJ Corey Photography)

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.