Without a tape measure, it’s hard to tell exactly the distance separating Ed Anderson’s backyard and the chain-link fence cordoning off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. But Anderson says he’s sure it’s no more than 65 feet. All right, maybe 100 feet. The point is, it’s close. And needless to say, that’s not what Anderson wants, not for the backyard of his corner townhouse in South Laurel, which is one of several battlegrounds in one of the thorniest transportation conflicts since Governor Larry Hogan canceled the Red Line four years ago.

By 2030, it’s entirely possible that a massive train will be hurtling by Anderson’s house several times a day. Not just any train: a 311-mile-per-hour superconducting magnetic levitation train. For almost 10 years, Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail (BWRR)—a private group helmed by Wayne Rogers, former chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party—has worked to import the latest high-speed rail technology from Japan. Commonly known as maglev, this proposed train utilizes powerful electromagnets instead of steel wheels. Rubber tires guide the train inside a concrete guideway, but once it reaches 90 mph, built-in magnets interact with others on the guideway, enabling the train to literally hover several inches high and reach speeds exceeding 300 mph in less than two minutes.

The model for BWRR is a 27-mile-long maglev line in Japan. Operated by the Central Japan Railway Company, it’s merely a testing track for the company’s ultimate goal—a 272-mile-long maglev line between Tokyo and Osaka hoped to be completed by 2037. The first leg of this line, connecting Tokyo to Nagoya, is slated to begin running in 2027.

As it so happens, 2027 is also the date when BWRR hopes to welcome passengers aboard the first leg of its own maglev line: Washington, D.C. to Baltimore in 15 minutes, with a stop at BWI Airport. If that comes to pass, Anderson might have a front-row seat to a superfast train buzzing by atop a 50-foot-high viaduct within a football toss of his house. It may be less noisy than a regular train, but that’s of little comfort.

“I definitely would never want that eyesore,” Anderson says on a bristling hot May afternoon. “You think I would’ve bought this property knowing that?”

Since 2016, as part of an environmental and engineering review, Rogers’ group, in tandem with the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, has whittled a potential 14 routes for their maglev train down to two. Each proposed route hews closely to Route 295—one to the east and one to the west. Close to three-quarters of either route would be out of sight in gargantuan, 45-foot-diameter tunnels, but that still leaves about 10 miles of maglev line that needs to travel along bridges. Meanwhile, three locations in Baltimore are being considered for the terminus: one in Inner Harbor, one in Westport, and another in Port Covington. Meanwhile, three locations in Baltimore are being considered for the terminus: one in Inner Harbor, one in Westport, and another in Port Covington. The years-long review process, however, has done little to assuage the concerns of opponents along the route, as well as those in Baltimore, who prefer public transit dollars be put to local projects. “In Baltimore we have not built any new infrastructure in 40 years,” says state Delegate Robbyn Lewis, who represents District 46 in the city. “What the hell are we talking about maglev for?”

“You think I would’ve bought this property knowing that?”

Yet maglev’s supporters think opponents fail to see the bigger vision, one that might link the northeast cities unlike ever before. As the first way station, Baltimore has an opportunity to eventually draw people, business, and investment from up and down the East Coast, one of the world’s busiest rail corridors.

“We’ve lost an entire generation of letting our infrastructure in America deteriorate,” says Rogers. “We have to turn that around.”

In Maryland, the concept of a maglev line has a crucial supporter in the Governor’s Mansion. After riding Japan’s maglev test line while on an international trade mission during his first term as governor, Hogan was hooked. This was 2015, and shortly afterward his administration agreed to sponsor BWRR through the environmental and engineering review process currently underway. Beyond that, state support in the General Assembly and among the general public remains nominal.

Before Hogan even left for Japan, Rogers had laid the groundwork for a maglev train in the northeastern U.S. He knew Torkel Patterson, a Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) board member, from their time together at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972. After a series of meetings in Tokyo, the company promised to waive its technology licensing fees if Rogers started a firm to bring maglev to the states. Convincing others of maglev’s potential is the task, especially given the full extent of what BWRR is trying to accomplish. “Who would think of driving two hours in their car from Baltimore to D.C. when I could jump on a train in 15 minutes?” says Rogers. “It’s going to change the way people think, where they work, and where they live. We’re convinced.” Rogers exaggerates the drive time a bit—70-90 minutes for a trek to Washington is more common—but he makes a point. Who can afford the cost of that round-trip ticket is another question.

“The real goal is shrinking geography between Washington and New York so that we bring 50 million people within one hour of transportation,” he says. Because of that ambition, all of the new infrastructure proposed for the Maryland stretch is on a scale that could accommodate the millions of annual riders Rogers believes will be drawn to a high-speed transportation option.

Yet maglev trains remain unproven in the commercial sense, despite JR Central developing the technology close to five decades ago. To date, there are only two such trains operating, and both are considered “demonstration trains.” In China, a maglev train that launched in 2002 shuttles people from Shanghai’s airport to the city’s business district in just eight minutes. The other is the current test track in Japan. The reason is simple enough: money. Estimates of the cost to lay down one mile of maglev rail can range up to $100 million, a cost that grows exponentially when tunneling is involved.

“I have objections to…do[ing] something exotic when cost-effective alternatives are at our fingertips.”

In Japan, the final build-out of the Toyko to Osaka line is expected to cost $80 billion, which offers a sense of how much a maglev train running from D.C. to New York City will cost. Passengers, Rogers suggests, will likely pay a price that’s competitive with Amtrak’s Acela line—somewhere between $50 and $100, depending on deals and time of day—but other officials have said it will cost more.

So far, according to the Maryland Public Policy Institute, BWRR has raised only $5 billion of the estimated $12-15 billion to build its D.C. to Baltimore line. “I don’t have technological or philosophical objections to maglev. I do have objections to the frame of mind that says we have to do something exotic when cost-effective alternatives are right at our fingertips,” says Del. Lewis. “It costs a lot of money but won’t move a lot of people.”

In Baltimore, where finding reliable bus service can be like playing a game of roulette, transportation exists in the realm of reality, not concept. People need buses and subways that run, and on time, Lewis says. Plus, the MARC commuter train already exists between D.C. and Baltimore. Why not expand service and build an additional rail so MARC trains don’t have to share space with freight rail and Amtrak’s passenger trains?

Rogers parries these sorts of questions. Studies done by BWRR say a maglev could accommodate one-tenth of the nearly 120 million trips taken between the two cities annually. He is also quick to highlight the estimated 74,000 construction jobs the project will create, the very thing that won over support for the project from local leaders of the state conference of the NAACP in June.

Meanwhile, some of the strongest opposition to the project continues to come from residents such as Anderson who live near the routes under consideration. The luster of a high-speed maglev train wears off when they consider the impact construction might have on their homes: boring machines chewing earth, trucks hauling off tons of dirt, tunnels beneath their streets, and ever-present viaducts supporting trips north and south every 10 minutes, as BWRR hopes to do. An independent analysis found the proposed routes affect 916 total parcels of land. “I hate the word NIMBY, because this wouldn’t be in our backyard,” says Gary Stone, who lives about 10 minutes away from Anderson. “This would be in our front yard.” Dennis Brady, former leader of Citizens Against This SCMaglev (SC for “super conducting”), remains skeptical that private financing will cover the cost. “We point out that there isn’t a major transportation system in the world that isn’t supported by their government.”

Meanwhile, maglev true believers are still trying to win over hearts and minds. In late May, it’s standing room only as about 65 people try to find space inside the small town hall of Riverdale Park, located in Prince George’s County. Most people are equal parts dismayed and flummoxed, even close to three years into the review process. Should they worry about their homes’ property values, assuming a visible viaduct is a hundred feet away? Will underground vibrations disrupt neighborhoods and streets? Is the train loud? And what is the real cost in the end anyhow?

David Henley, project director of the proposed maglev train, takes each question in turn: The cost is north of $12 billion, but BWRR is looking into low-interest, long-term loans for financing, so, no tax dollars. The vibrations are minimal, so minimal that you won’t even feel them. Noise? It’s rubber tires, not steel wheels, and then the train is on air. He stresses no homes are being taken to make room for a train. As for property values?

“I don’t think it’ll do anything [to the] land value at all,” he says later.

Still, Rogers admits questions remain unanswered. What about the ridership—will ticket prices cover the operating costs? On that, he equivocates a bit. “It’s like telling you what your monthly payment of your mortgage [would be], and you haven’t built the house yet,” he says.

And how about the money required to extend the line to New York City? “We don’t know yet,” he admits. “There’s too many variables in it.” Call this the wait-and-watch stage. And here’s a plot twist: It could be that the Federal Railroad Administration ultimately says its recommendation is to not build a maglev at all.

A draft Environmental Impact Statement identifying a preferred route is due later this year, followed by five public hearings, including one in Baltimore. The next year will determine whether the rubber meets the guideway, if you will, as the environmental statement is finalized, a route is picked, a full ridership and revenue report is released, and, optimistically speaking, construction begins in 2020. “I guarantee when people are landing at BWI and getting into Washington in eight minutes, the people in New York and Philadelphia are going to want the same thing,” says Rogers.

For now, all Maryland folks can do, irrespective of their position on maglev, is wait for the review process to finish unfolding. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.

“Hello sir, how can I help you?” the man dressed like a conductor asks from just inside the front door of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. He’s John La Costa, a 69-year-old, semi-retired electrical and systems engineer.

Since the mid-1970s, he and small group of volunteers have spent much of their free time here, keeping alive the history of Baltimoreans’ primary form of public transportation during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Normally, La Costa would talk to visitors while riding aboard one of the museum’s dozen or so authentically restored vintage passenger vehicles. But today, he’s relegated to providing a tour of a few parked train cars inside a covered three-track wide garage as a result of a terribly ironic accident in March.

La Costa, the museum’s vice president of engineering, was on vacation in Germany when he received an email with the news that an empty, modern CSX freight train derailed from the curved line of working rail that spans the museum’s plot of land at 1911 Falls Road. A train car slowly crushed the electrical substation that powers the museum’s historic cars and destroyed more than 500 feet of suspended overhead wire that carries the 600-volt charge to run them.

“It was a great start to that part of the vacation,” La Costa says with a laugh. “I would have liked to be here to try to help.” It could have been worse—no one was injured and the streetcars were spared damage—but the necessary infrastructure repairs meant the museum’s main attraction, the running of those living time capsules, would be closed until further notice and resume only after thousands of dollars in repairs.

Thankfully, CSX offered to pay the bill, and the museum’s visitor center reopened soon after the accident. The museum is planning a grand reopening as soon as its track is operational, but “that still doesn’t help the whole feeling that it was destroyed,” says Ed Amrhein, the museum’s administrative vice president.

“Most of the people at the museum itself have taken it pretty hard,” he says. “We volunteered a long time to build a lot of this stuff, and to watch it disappear in a couple hours was heartbreaking.”

The proposed loop put forth by Elon Musk and his Boring Company would oversee the building of two 35-mile tunnels connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and make the commute time between the two cities 15 minutes. Sure, on paper, that sounds exciting. But given rising concerns related to climate change and a Baltimore transit system that needs and has the mechanisms for improvement, it might not be the solution for right now.

“The idea of us spending billions of dollars on some rich guy’s vanity project when people are in desperate need of mobility options right now, and we have those options and don’t have to invent them—that is just the height of irresponsibility,” says Del. Robbyn Lewis, who represents District 46 in Baltimore City. “Preparing for climate change means building mass transit that works.”

While Musk’s idea is big and bold and would serve a purpose in theory, many across the city are worried that it fails to address what they see as its actual needs, essentially putting the cart before the horse. “People in the greater Baltimore region need affordable, reliable, and efficient access to jobs,” says Brian O’Malley, president and CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance. “We can’t chase a shiny object and neglect that. We would be wiser to say, ‘What are we trying to accomplish and how much do each of these cost? What is being asked of us, and what do we get in return?’ And then choose the combination that gives us the best deal.”

As for opponents who say the loop is “fixing” a problem that doesn’t exist considering the already effective MARC Train service, an assessment on the project zeroes in on the potential speed and convenience it could bring: “As an all-electric transportation system, the Project would provide a high-speed, zero-emissions transportation option connecting Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.”

But Lewis, a staunch opponent of the project, calls the loop “a waste of time, money, and mental energy.” She echoes O’Malley’s sentiments, emphasizing the need to focus on “the basics,” which means expanding existing rail systems and the city’s mass transit system as a whole. There is also the immediate concern over the environment, and as worry and imminent danger grows, one of the extensive changes being proposed is an investment in infrastructure: removing cars off the road in an effort to reduce pollution and carbon emissions.

With Musk’s proposal, too, there are also major concerns that extend into its logistics from cost to construction to anticipating potential problems that could arise on a day-to-day basis. In total, the project has been met with more than its fair share of skepticism and even ridicule—something that sounds like a fun thought when said aloud, but loses steam when all the different variables are considered. “What if there is a slight misalignment in the tubes?” wonders Samuel Jordan, president of the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition. “What happens with an accident? What happens when [the skin on] the tube itself is punctured?”

Jordan is also concerned with what this proposal and those like it say about the focus of those in charge of policy. That these are the types of projects being given credence, he says, shines a light on exactly whose interests are being prioritized. “We’re looking at a system that is actually going to promote more income inequality and aggravation that it already has caused,” he says. “With respect to transit equity, this is a system that continues to express the annuities in the transit system we already have. We need a transit system to get people to work and other places where they need to go.”

But it’s these same city leaders and those who share their views that are working toward other solutions. The Central Maryland Regional Transit Plan, led by MDOT MTA, is striving to define what is says is a “25-year vision of mobility . . . [defining] public transportation goals for Central Maryland.” This includes increased funding, access points from one area to another, reliability, and other areas that would create a convenient and improved transit system across the area. As Lewis says, oftentimes the best solution is to look inward before looking outward.

“We need to use the infrastructure we already have and improve on it,” she says. “And then we can worry about a moonshot.”

On Monday, ten days after a CSX train derailed from a span of track above Falls Road near the Baltimore Streetcar Museum—several empty freighters and a tanker dangled then slowly fell from the overpass above, destroying the power source that runs the museum’s antique streetcars, ironically, on a different line of track below—a small construction crew continued work on the cleanup.

From the looks of it, contractors are about halfway through building a new gray cinderblock building for an electric substation, the structure that was destroyed March 15 in the accident. That’s true, says Ed Amrhein, administrative vice president of the all-volunteer museum, but there’s much more to the recovery than that.

The power is back on in the museum’s visitor center, which has been operating since 1977 and reopened on Sunday. But the live jewel for the organization—the running of the electric streetcars themselves that used to take Baltimoreans to and from work in the late 1800s and early 1900s—likely won’t happen again until the end of June.

“At the moment, the track has to be repaired,” Amrhein says, “and the big thing is all of the overhead wire that was torn down by the car falling on top of it. That’s going to take a couple weeks, and we still haven’t heard from the people who said they were willing to do it what the price would be.”

CSX, the freight train behemoth with a market cap of nearly $60 billion, has offered to pay for the cost of repairs, and the museum’s leadership certainly plans on sending them the bill. How much it will be for remains to be seen. Amrhein says the rectifier that converts BGE-supplied AC power to 600 volts of DC current to run the streetcars—did not get destroyed, but he’s unsure exactly how much damage it took.

“We’re thinking we can save it,” he said, “because if we have to buy another one, forget how much it’s going to cost CSX, it would be nine months or more away, just waiting for that one piece.” The price tag would be roughly $800,000.

Money aside, the incident could have been a lot worse. No one was injured. No hazardous materials were on board the derailed train, nor were any passengers. And Jennifer Gwynn, who cleans the museum and was in her parked car when she heard a loud bang from above, was able to get away safely even after one of the cars that derailed knocked over a telephone pole that landed on her minivan.

Hundreds of people found their way to the scene near the Howard Street Tunnel to see the mess of metal and downed power lines, and surrounding streets were closed for hours.

Probably the deepest impact is the emotional cost paid by the museum’s 300-plus volunteers.

“Most of the people at the museum have taken it pretty hard,” says Amrhein, who works as a plumber. “It’s their hobby. We volunteered a long time to build a lot of this stuff, and to watch it disappear in a couple hours, and that we can’t run the streetcars for people, is heartbreaking. But, we’ll survive.”

Outside West Baltimore’s Shake & Bake Family Fun Center, 15 brand new, all-terrain Department of Public Works litter vehicles line the sidewalk. Courtesy of a $500,000 Keep Maryland Beautiful grant from the state, the fleet of golf-cart size street sweepers is being unveiled this morning as the Cardinal Shehan school choir—of Good Morning America fame—kicks off what is billed as Governor Larry Hogan’s “regional cabinet meeting” inside the iconic roller rink.

“Cardinal Shehan school choir—incredible. Wow. I mean they put me in a hard spot,” a beaming Hogan exclaims after a rousing rendition of “Rise Up.” “I’m not sure how you follow anything like that choir.”

The governor has brought his top officials with him, including Pete Rahn, head of the Department of Transportation, and Ken Holt, the state’s housing secretary, but the event has the unmistakable feel of a crowd-for-hire campaign rally. Those cramming into the Shake & Bake—mostly white, largely made up of Maryland government employees in suits and dresses sporting state ID badges—break into applause and standing ovations during the governor’s remarks, while he touts administration efforts in the city. Even the majority of the police officers on hand appear to be from Annapolis.

Tellingly, before Keiffer Mitchell, the former city councilman and current senior advisor to the governor, introduced Hogan, he began his remarks by describing the black renaissance history of Pennsylvania Avenue and the story behind the roller rink, which was started decades ago by former Colt Glenn “Shake & Bake” Doughty.

Neither “The Avenue” nor the roller rink needs an introduction to West Baltimoreans.

It would be easy, in other words, to dismiss the entire orchestration as mere political theater (Hogan implied it was a historic occasion). It is, after all, taking place on the first day of early primary voting, and the governor, without a Republican opponent, is spending the entire day in the heart of Democratic Baltimore, taking headlines away from the opposition. Except, the handful of invitees who live or work in West Baltimore and speak on the governor’s behalf are clearly impressed by Hogan’s outreach and sincerity, including Shionta Somerville, principal at nearby Carver Vocational-Technical High School. Not just today, but over the past four years.

“After his second visit [to Carver], people asked me, ‘How is the Governor?’” Somerville says. “Not people at school but friends of mine outside of school,” she adds with a smile, garnering nervous laughter from the audience, which is fully cognizant that a white Republican governor isn’t likely to engender much affection in heavily Democratic West Baltimore. “I say he’s just down to earth and very charming. I’ve never been very big on politics, but I’m big on people.”

As unlikely as it would’ve sounded at this time four years ago, when he trailed Democratic nominee Anthony Brown by double digits in the polls, Larry Hogan—a first-time Republican elected official in one of the bluest states in the country—is now the second-most-popular governor in the United States. According to a Morning Consult poll this summer, 68 percent of Maryland voters approve of the job Hogan is doing. Only Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, another Republican in a blue state, is more popular, by a single percentage point.

Of course, despite Somerville’s affection and kind words, and Hogan’s genuine talent for retail politics and relationship building, he is not going to carry Baltimore City this November. The overwhelming 10-1 Democratic registration advantage, and his original sins in the eyes of many in the city—cancelling the $2.9 billion Red Line transit project, breaking the decade-in-the-works $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment deal, holding back school funding weeks after the Freddie Gray uprising—are simply a bridge too far.

Also: Larry Hogan doesn’t need to win Baltimore. He didn’t in 2014. With broad support in the state’s suburban and rural counties, he just needs to mitigate the damage. So when Baltimore’s second-highest-ranking elected official, City Council President Jack Young, refuses to answer a reporter’s query about whether he will support the incumbent Republican governor or the Democratic nominee—it should ring alarms among the Democratic party faithful hoping to elect nominee Ben Jealous.

“You heard what people said. Look at his poll numbers,” Young says after offering words of praise for the governor in the lobby of the Shake & Bake as the Hogan event winds down. “I don’t have to tell you [who I’m voting for],” adds Young, suggesting he’s either a genuine fan of the governor, intimidated by his approval ratings, or both. “Who are you voting for?”

By now, most Maryland voters at least know the outline of Larry Hogan’s backstory. That his father, Larry Sr., was a U.S. Congressman and Prince George’s County Executive (also a former FBI agent and one of the first Republicans to come out against Richard Nixon after Watergate). That Hogan worked for his father and held a top appointment in the Republican administration of former Governor Bob Ehrlich, a friend since the pair were in their early 20s. That he was—and still is—the owner of a successful real estate company (while serving as governor, Hogan turned over leadership of his company to his brother and put his assets into a trust). And that he’s a self-described workaholic who didn’t marry until he was 48.

Less well known when he ran four years ago was that he’d run twice for his father’s old congressional seat and lost, which—silver lining here—meant he didn’t have to defend a voting record on Capitol Hill. It also effectively allowed Hogan to position himself as a political newbie in 2014 and an Anne Arundel County “small businessman.” He was anything but, obviously. He served as Maryland chairman of Youth for Reagan and four times as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, displaying sharp political instincts and a knack for savvy messaging from the outset of his stunning upset campaign. Hogan Companies have completed more than $2 billion in real estate deals since they were founded in 1985 and the governor has made roughly $2.4 million in combined corporate earnings and government salary since taking office.

Hogan had begun planting the seeds of what ultimately became his campaign when he launched a Facebook page in 2009 with the name Change Maryland and started trolling Governor Martin O’Malley—“Owe Malley” in red circles—over increases in state taxes, tolls, and fees, and the cost of regulations to businesses. That was five years before he announced his intent to run for governor. “Just a genius use of social media,” says Eberly, political science professor at St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. “I can’t think of anything like it before or since.”

In a recent interview at the Governor’s Mansion, Hogan says he was just frustrated at the time by the direction in Annapolis and didn’t necessarily intend to run for office himself. Borrowing from the opposition playbook, he took to Facebook after witnessing the Barack Obama’s groundbreaking use of social media. “It started to grow very quickly,” Hogan recalls. “I couldn’t find anyone I thought could win. [So], I decided to [jump in].”

Later, Hogan memorably—some would say cynically—dubbed an EPA-mandated, storm water management fee initiated by O’Malley “the Rain Tax,” honing his anti-tax message down to a three-word mantra. Avoiding hot-button social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage that could potentially plague a conservative candidate in Maryland, Hogan—an Irish Catholic who personally doesn’t support the right to choose and says he has “evolved” on gay marriage—simply declared the subjects settled.

Hogan also vowed not to go after the new gun-control laws passed in the state under O’Malley in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and he has kept those promises. He even went further after the Parkland school shooting announcing he would support a “red flag” bill that would allow judges to temporarily require people to surrender firearms if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Four years later, in his reelection campaign, he’s plugging positive job growth numbers in the state (although Maryland’s unemployment rate remains above the national average and neighboring Virginia and Pennsylvania), and his successful efforts to roll back tolls and push the first day of public school to after Labor Day.

“It’s been a pendulum swing from O’Malley,” says Jennifer Duffy, of the Cook Political Report, a national independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections. “Hogan doesn’t have an enormous record of accomplishment, and he’s not putting forth a grand vision for the second term, but he’s not raising taxes and he’s focused on deregulating rules for businesses. Maryland’s one of the wealthiest states in the country, has high-ranking public schools, and that’s enough for a lot voters who see no reason to change course.”

The attacks on O’Malley and the Rain Tax have also returned. The Maryland road signs Hogan changed after taking office still say, “We’re Open for Business.”

Hogan’s political success as a Republican governing a blue state is also something of a phenomenon, rarely seen in recent years outside of New England. (See Massachusetts governors Charlie Baker, William Weld, and Mitt Romney; Vermont Gov. Phil Scott; and New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu.) It has put him on the radar of the national Republican strategists who ponder the possibility of a Hogan presidential run—should a more moderate post-Trump GOP ever emerge.

“Larry Hogan is an interesting guy to watch,” says Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican strategist and author of Everything Trump Touches Dies. “He may not be on the radar of the average voter outside Maryland, but political nerds know him.”

“He’s charismatic, he’s a people person, and he loves to talk. He’s been that way for 35 years.”

To understand how Hogan ascended to the stunning position he’s in, which includes a 22-point lead over Jealous in last week’s Goucher College poll, it is worth remembering that he was not really known—think Q rating terms—even after he was first elected. In a low-turnout year, he won by garnering roughly 19 percent of the voting-age eligible population. Ordering the National Guard into Baltimore in the midst of the Freddie Gray uprising 97 days into his first term raised his profile, but he still was not a well-defined figure outside the political class.

That changed two months later when he held a press conference, his wife Yumi by his side, and informed Marylanders he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after discovering a lump on his neck during a trade mission to Asia. Staying on the job despite the tough rounds of chemotherapy—his bald pate a visible testament of the battle—the newly elected Hogan, gregarious and self-deprecating by nature, proved more than just relatable to the average Marylander, but courageous as well. “The best news is that my odds of getting through this and beating this are much, much better than the odds I had of beating Anthony Brown,” Hogan joked during the announcement.

Now, there remains a narrative that Hogan’s bout with cancer, fraught as it could’ve been, remains at the core of his statewide appeal. Undoubtedly, it provided a sympathetic boost and a turning point in his approval numbers. But to credit his record popularity three years later to mere goodwill would be not just unfair, but a mistake.

“Let me preface this by saying I don’t think a cancer diagnosis is ever a good thing, for anyone, ever,” says Mileah Kromer, a Goucher College political scientist and pollster. “That said, a lot of people in the state didn’t really know who Larry Hogan was up until then—they hadn’t had time to fully shape an identity around him—and then that did it. Every family has been affected by cancer. His approval numbers were in the 40s at the time, and they shot up. That is all true. But to focus only on that is to miss Hogan’s gifts as a politician.”

Those gifts include Hogan’s remarkable skill in navigating a General Assembly with veto-proof majorities in both the state House and Senate, and dancing, on a nearly daily basis it seems, around the chaotic presidency of Donald Trump, the face of his party, just 35 miles down the road.

Democrats in Maryland, which Trump lost by 26 points, would love nothing more to tie Trump like a lead weight around the governor. Mostly, however, Hogan nimbly sidesteps the Twitter barrage and controversial policies coming from the other Pennsylvania Avenue—the one in D.C. But he has also taken some questionable positions and made some questionable statements for the leader of a blue state.

He remained mostly silent in the wake of the president’s Muslim travel ban and called efforts to limit state cooperation with ICE’s ramped-up deportation of immigrants “absurd,” for example. (In his first year in office, Hogan told the federal government Syrian refugees were not welcome in Maryland.) Two of his officials signed off on the state’s participation in a controversial Trump Administration effort probing alleged voter fraud. He joined embattled U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on a visit to a Montgomery County school, but declined to comment on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, a pick many legal observers believe could imperil Roe v. Wade.

Most of these potentially polarizing episodes don’t stick to Hogan, however, and his ability to defuse problematic issues and appear pragmatic and reasonable have become a hallmark.

Hogan makes walking the difficult tightrope between the president’s words and deeds in more liberal Maryland almost look easy, says Richard Vatz, a professor of rhetoric and communications at Towson University. Stylistically, says Vatz, he’s able to alleviate middle-of-the-road Democratic voter concerns while not alienating the Republican base, by presenting himself as “not Trump” rather than “anti-Trump.” “When he does agree with the president’s agenda,” Vatz adds, “he goes out of the way to say he supports the policy, not necessarily the person behind it.”

“The real ‘Trump effect’ is that he is making Hogan look like a moderate,” Kromer says.

The General Assembly did override Hogan vetoes to pass a paid sick leave bill and higher renewable energy benchmarks, among other legislation, but overall he’s proved adept at avoiding losing fights in the state legislature, the importance of which he learned from his stint in the combative Ehrlich Administration. He maintains a solid rapport with powerful Senate President Mike Miller, who has known Hogan, through his father, since the governor was a teenager. “I let a lot of pitches go by,” Hogan says. “Where there is common ground, we work together.”

Hogan has let an automatic MVA voter registration, Planned Parenthood funding, and oyster sanctuary bills become laws without his signature to avoid veto override fights. He worked with the legislature to prevent Marylanders from losing their health care coverage following Trump Administration policy changes related to Obamacare and to oppose EPA cuts to Chesapeake Bay restoration funds. He collaborated with the General Assembly in putting together a $5-billion incentive offer to lure Amazon to Montgomery County.

But Hogan has also developed a knack for getting behind popular legislation he initially opposed. The fracking ban and the education lockbox amendment to the state constitution—which he now refers to as the “Hogan Lockbox” in a television ad—were first put forth and pushed by Democratic legislators. This week, Hogan began displaying a red apple, the trademarked logo of the 80,000-member Maryland State Education Association, on social media and campaign materials even though the teacher’s union has endorsed his Democratic opponent.

Hogan’s greatest gift as a politician, however, apparent to anyone who has crossed paths with him on the boardwalk in Ocean City, walking in Dundalk’s annual Fourth of July parade, or mingling at the Shake & Bake for that matter, is not his flair for branding or his political agility, as remarkable as those skills are. It’s a rare combination of personality traits for politicians: Hogan is not just an astute political animal, he is a happy warrior on the campaign trail, fun to be around, and disciplined off it.

No one has to ask the governor twice to pose for a selfie.

“He’s charismatic, he’s opinionated, he’s a people person, and he loves to talk,” says his old boss Ehrlich, who now works for the D.C. office of law firm King and Spalding. “He’s been that way for 35 years. Not all politicians are outgoing, but it helps, and he’s very outgoing.”

Hogan makes walking the difficult tightrope between the president’s words and deeds in more liberal Maryland almost look easy.

None of this, however, matters to progressive Democratic leaders and activists in Baltimore.

When Hogan brought his team to the Shake & Bake, local lay minister Glenn Smith, vice president of the Baltimore Equity Transit Coalition, led a small protest on Pennsylvania Avenue. Hogan’s spiking of the shovel-ready 14-mile, $2.9 billion Red Line transit project remains an issue because the lack of reliable public transportation remains the biggest impediment to employment in many neighborhoods, Smith says. “This was 13 years of planning, working with community leaders and community associations, and then just to come in and call it a ‘boondoggle,’ instead of, ‘How can we fix this? What can be improved?’ And to send $900 million back to the federal government—who does that?” says Smith, whose organization is trying to revive the once-in-a-generation initiative. “It felt punitive and mean-spirited.”

The governor admits no formal review document of the project was ever produced. State funds that would have been spent in Baltimore were diverted to highway projects in other parts of the state with higher concentrations of white residents, precipitating a civil rights complaint from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU, which the Trump Administration dismissed shortly after taking office.

At the same time, Hogan did green-light the Purple Line transit project, connecting suburban Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. Those two decisions together seemed to underscore a shift in the power structure in the state from Baltimore City to the booming D.C. suburbs.

Subsequently, the Hogan Administration’s $135 million effort to improve the MTA bus system in Baltimore has failed to become the “transformational” public transit system he promised. According to a study by the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, on-time scores have not improved, and access to all jobs has marginally decreased since the change. More recently, an independent review after a four-week closure of the Metro Subway over potentially dangerous and long-ignored safety issues found troubling problems with the state transit agency, including poor inspection and maintenance practices and a failure to follow industry standards. Baltimore region commute times rank among the worst in country, surpassing even Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Hogan, who says there are no new plans to address transportation woes within Baltimore City, has backed two high-speed rail projects, the Northeast Maglev and Elon Musk-pitched Hyperloop initiative between Baltimore and D.C, which further agitates some Baltimoreans. “The big problem for Baltimoreans is not getting to Washington, but getting across the city. Moving east-west has been a problem since the 19th century,” says former Johns Hopkins professor and Baltimore City historian Matthew Crenson. “The Maglev and Hyperloop make me furious.”

When Hogan opened his Baltimore City campaign office on North Avenue, City Council members Brandon Scott, Zeke Cohen, and State Delegate Brooke Lierman organized a counter press event across the street.

“There is a record here, and it is not a good record for Baltimore,” Lierman told the Real News Network, highlighting the Red Line, as well as the $1.5 billion redevelopment of State Center, now mired in lawsuits after Hogan’s decision to pull out of the deal. “I’m on the Appropriations Committee. Every year, it is a battle to make sure we are funding the priorities in Baltimore,” she added in an interview with the Real News Network. “Whether that’s the Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative, whether that’s funding for the Enoch Pratt, every year he cuts those initiatives out of his budget, and the General Assembly has to put that money back in and find money.”

Cohen, a former Baltimore City teacher and chair of the City Council’s Education and Youth Committee, said Hogan has underfunded city schools “somewhere in the range of $290 million to $360 million per year, depending on what study you follow” and alleged that when city school boilers “were bursting across the city and the children were in freezing classrooms . . . Governor Hogan was nowhere to be found.”

Cohen also called out Hogan for referring to unionized teachers as “thugs.”

Dave Werkmeister, a 34-year-old IT sales professional and Patterson Park Neighborhood Association member, voted for Hogan four years ago. Hogan won the city’s first district, the geographical bottom of the so-called “White L,” and may very well do so again, but Werkmeister says he’s been disappointed in Hogan’s actions related to Baltimore. “[The Hogan Administration] put out a map of all the major transportation projects in the state, and literally Baltimore City had been removed from the map,” Werkmeister says. “Symbolically, that said everything to me.”

The low point, in terms of Hogan’s rhetoric toward the city, probably came during the trial of the first police officer in the death of Freddie Gray. On WBAL Radio’s C4 Show, Hogan expressed “concern” that while people were venting their frustration over the death of Gray, who had died in police custody, no one was protesting about the 330 other people murdered in city. As City Councilman Brandon Scott responded, that was not just factually wrong—given the 300 Men Marches, Enough is Enough rallies, Citizens on Patrol Walks, and litany of vigils and efforts—it was disrespectful to the thousands of residents who want nothing more than to quell violence in the city.

It was also dismissive of the troubling and criminal problems within the Baltimore Police Department, highlighted by a Department of Justice investigation and punctuated by the recent convictions of eight members of the department’s Gun Trace Task Force.

In 2015, Hogan’s top housing official, Kenneth Holt, told a gathering at the annual summer conference of the Maryland Association of Counties that he was looking to loosen state lead paint poisoning laws, suggesting current statutes could motivate mothers to intentionally poison their children in order to receive free housing.

“Larry Hogan may be doing a great job for other parts of the state,” Werkmeister continues. “And I am not about to tell someone who lives in another part of the state, in another county, that he’s not. I don’t know that. I live here.”

At some point, pollster Kromer believes, one way or another, the city’s high crime and poverty rates, criminal justice problems, school funding shortages, and lack of reliable transportation, affordable housing, and living-wage jobs—will have to be addressed by Hogan. If for no other reason than Jealous, whose parents have Baltimore roots and who needs a big turnout in the city for the race to be close, will bring it up.

Hogan would rather keep the focus on the State of Maryland than the state of Baltimore, Kromer says. “But Baltimore will be litigated.”

We’ve all been there—our destination is too far to walk, but not far enough to drive. In times like those, using a ride sharing service like Lyft and Uber may come in handy, but you’re still dealing with Lombard Street traffic.

Bird, a California-based company, is hoping that Baltimore residents will see its electric scooters as the next best option.

“It’s clear there’s an urgent need for additional transit options in Baltimore, and Birds are a great solution for short ‘last mile’ trips,” said company spokesperson Rebecca Hahn. “As summer heats up, Bird offers a convenient alternative to sitting in traffic or sweating through a walk or bike ride.”

What is Bird?
The pilot launched in Baltimore last week with more than 60 electronic scooters placed throughout the Inner Harbor, Harbor East, and Fells Point. Unlike the city’s current Bike Share services, these scooters are completely dockless. Riders can just leave them anywhere when they’re done, and someone will collect it. They can be rented for just $1 to start, plus an additional 15-cent per minute using the mobile app.

Each scooter is calibrated to go a maximum of 15 mph and can travel up to 15 miles on a single charge. After facing regulatory issues in San Francisco with scooters popping up everywhere and littering the streets, Bird decided to remedy this problem in other cities moving forward by only allowing rides during the day. The cut-off every night is sunset, when scooters are collected and charged overnight and are redelivered the next morning at 7 a.m. to various “nests” around the city.

Who collects them?
Bird has a similar model to Uber and Lyft when it comes to employing local residents to become “chargers.” A charger is a person who collects the scooters each day and charges them overnight. A charger can make anywhere between $3 to $20 per scooter, and it typically will only cost them 8 to 15 cents to charge. If hired, Bird will mail all equipment needed to charge the scooters.

“Becoming a charger is a great way for someone to make extra money while they sleep,” Hahn said. “People can pick up as many Birds they want on any given day—or none at all.”

How do the scooters work?
While the scooters are pretty simple to operate—just a few pushes and it’s good to go—there are some rules and restrictions that come along with them. For example, the rider must by 18 years or older, have a valid driver’s license, and wear a helmet while riding (Bird offers them for free on their website).

Residents in other cities have also been concerned with reckless driving of the Birds, but the company has added safety regulations. Riders must obey traffic signs and laws and restrict the use of the scooter to designated bike lanes—never the sidewalk. The same consequences (traffic tickets and fines) apply.

“Right now, more than a third of cars trips in the U.S. are less than two miles long,” Hahn said. “Since launching here, we’ve been inspired by how people throughout the community have adopted our environmentally friendly transportation solution to get where they need to go, which is reducing traffic and cutting carbon emissions.”

What does Bird mean for Baltimore?
Bird launched in September 2017 and is led by a former Uber and Lyft executive Travis VanderZanden. According to Bloomberg, the startup is raising $150 million in financing that will value the company at $1 billion. So far, fleets of scooters have popped up in several cities including San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Atlanta.

Although the Baltimore City Department of Transportation (DOT) was not involved in the rollout of the program, it is supportive of alternative means of transport in the city.

“[We] support multimodal alternatives and believe that this technology can expand transportation options to the residents, businesses, and visitors of Baltimore,” said DOT communications officer German Vigil in an email. “We also see the potential of a new mobility pilot project and are in the process of investigating the effectiveness of a program such as this.”

Baltimore will soon get a new train station that will serve as a southern gateway to the city, replacing a “temporary” facility that’s been in operation for more than 25 years.

Construction is scheduled to begin this fall on a $7.2 million terminal next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, with completion expected by mid-2019. The station will replace a low-budget structure that was built quickly to serve rail passengers in time for the 1992 opening of Oriole Park—two prefab trailers covered by a space frame roof.

Designers offered a first look at their “preliminary concept” for the replacement station during a recent meeting of the Maryland Stadium Authority board of directors. Their renderings indicate that the building will not be a retro version of an old-fashioned depot, but it won’t look futuristic either.

Predominant materials will be brick and steel, as they are at Oriole Park. But painted surfaces likely will be gray, rather than the Camden green used on the ballpark. A 35-foot-tall pylon will help make it visible from blocks away.

“Contextual” is the best way to describe the design approach, said architect Paul Diez, of AECOM Technical Services, the firm working on the project. “One of the things we were told is that [the clients] want it to look like it’s been there. Not a ‘look at me’ building, a contextual building.”

In terms of the architecture, “our goal was to take some of the elements of the stadium complex” and use them to set the tone for the train station, Diez told the stadium authority board. Common elements include brick walls, steel supports, a standing seam metal roof, and a stone base. “That became our vocabulary,” he said.

The station will be constructed just east of the B&O Warehouse, on the same site as the current facility. It’s expected to provide a new entrance to downtown for rail passengers who take the Camden Line of the Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) service, which connects Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

The station is a joint project of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Mass Transit Administration, which operates the MARC line, and the stadium authority, which is serving as the project manager. It’s fully funded, with $6 million coming from the Federal Highway Administration and the rest coming from the State of Maryland.

“The MARC Camden Station serves as the entry point for commuters as well as visitors to Baltimore,” said Kevin Quinn, MTA administrator, in a statement. “We are thrilled that a new cutting-edge facility will soon be serving our customers at Camden Yards.”

The stadium authority looks forward to a “new station that complements the historic and iconic Camden Yards sports complex” said chairman Tom Kelso.

Philip Hutson, the stadium authority’s associate vice president for capital projects and planning and project director for the station, told board members that construction is scheduled to begin shortly after the 2018 baseball season ends, and be complete by May or June of 2019, shortly after the 2019 baseball season starts.
Hutson said rail service will continue at Camden Yards while construction is underway and pedestrian access will be provided to the trains just outside the fenced off construction site.

Diez said the station will be a one-structure, with clerestory windows to let in natural light. The roof will be standing seam metal, most likely with a zinc coating that will turn gray as it weathers, he said. The station will be able to accommodate about 90 passengers at one time, with seating for about 30, and it’s being designed to include a ticket purchase area with live agents, not just machines. The station will also have room for a police substation and vending machines for food.

Oriole Park gained attention as a new-fangled, old-fashioned urban ballpark that combined traits found in historic venues with amenities that fans have come to expect from contemporary stadiums.

Some early studies for a permanent MARC station, developed in the 1990s by HOK Sport and others, suggested that the state build an old-fashioned train depot as well. To have a station in place in time to meet the 1992 opening deadline for Oriole Park, the state ended up building a utilitarian structure that didn’t harken back to the past.

In AECOM’s presentation, one rendering depicted the replacement station as having bricks that were darker and grayer than the red-orange bricks on the B&O Warehouse, almost like the ironspot bricks on the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Diez said the actual color has not been chosen, but the goal is to come close to the color of the bricks on the warehouse and other Camden Yards buildings.

A 35-foot-tall pylon has been designed to rise beside the main building, serving as signage and a wayfinding device that can be illuminated after dark. “This becomes a beacon, a lantern at night,“ Diez said.

Hutson said the Baltimore Orioles have been advised about the plans and provided some feedback. He indicated they would like to see some refinement of the north façade, which presents a largely blank wall to the historic Camden Station a block away.

Funding for the new station includes $6 million from the Federal Highway Administration and $1.2 million from the state. The Maryland Transit Administration is taking the lead on planning and design, and the stadium authority is providing project management. Barton Malow is providing pre-construction management services.

While the footprint of the replacement station will be the same as the current building, at least one trait will be very different. The current station was always meant to be replaced eventually, but the designers of the replacement station are working to make sure it lasts for generations, Diez said. “It’s designed to have a 100-year life.”

“To: Driver, From: Seatbelt,” the sign over interstate 97 read on Valentine’s Day. “I think we click.” This is just one of many overhead signs we’ve noticed in recent years that add a tinge of irreverence to our otherwise frustrating commutes. We wondered who is responsible for these messages?

Turns out, it’s Joseph Sagal and his team at the office of Coordinated Highway Action Response Team (CHART).

“We realize a little bit of humor goes a long way,” Sagal said. “Ultimately what we’re trying to do is grab people’s attention and save lives. If this is a way that we can be innovative and creative, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”

CHART is under the umbrella of the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) and these cleverly worded warnings are known technically as dynamic message signs (DMS), and have been on display for about three years. 

There are 85 DMS signs across the state of Maryland with more appearing every year in strategically placed locations. Each message—humorous or not—is attached to specific safety campaigns that typically run a week at a time and can range from seatbelt safety to driving under the influence. Although the fun messages are eye catching, media relations manager of MDOT Charlie Gishclar says that during rush hour people are more interested in the important things like travel times and incident reports.

“People are relying on the barebones information, like if there’s a crash ahead,” he said. “During off-peak hours, it’s a great opportunity to grab the attention of drivers momentarily, just to get into the person’s head, to give them something to think about it.”

Messages like “there’s nothing super about jail” on Super Bowl Sunday and “only reindeer can fly, watch your speed” around Christmas appear on signs during holiday seasons or around large events to promote safe driving. But coming up with a meaningful, creative message can pose some challenges when there’s only three lines with 18 characters per line to work with.

“There are limitations with trying to do so much with so little,” Sagal said. “It’s like the original version of Twitter with 140 characters. You have to be very conscious about what we are saying and how much time we are taking the motorists’ eyes off the road.”

Sagal says his team has monthly brainstorm sessions to come up with new messaging ideas, and are inspired by the dozen other states around the county who fun similar campaigns. (A recent personal highlight for Sagal was the cheeky Valentine’s Day message).

By implementing this new style of safety initiatives over the last few years, the MDOT SHA has been trying to keep up with the times while stressing the importance of safety on the roadways.

“If we were to have this conversation 10 years ago, I was probably a little more geared towards traditional transportation engineering and highway safety messages,” he said.  “We’ve really come to the point where we need to be innovative and think outside the box in an effort to provide awareness and education as safely as possible to our motorists.”

Baltimore’s transportation hub is getting a facelift and we couldn’t be more excited. Penn Station is scheduled for redevelopment with construction set to begin as early as this year.

Penn Station Partners—a Baltimore-based team—will be working with local companies including Beatty Development, Armada Hoffler Properties, and Gensler among others to refresh the more than 100-year-old train station. The new mixed-use development could bring as many as 1.6 million square feet to the area. Some preliminary ideas include a hotel in the station head house, as well as residential and office space connected by an expanded concourse with new retail shops.

“Baltimore Penn Station is the eighth busiest station in our national network,” said Bart Bush, Amtrak’s VP of real estate stations and facilities in a statement. “This important step underscores Amtrak’s continued efforts to significantly enhance the station experience and amenities for all travelers.”

While the designers are drafting up plans, we have a few things to add to the list:

A movie theater
Things happen and trains get delayed. Unless you are totally into people watching, passing the time while waiting is no fun. Cincinnati Union Terminal got it right with their onsite OMNIMAX Theater. Catching the latest flick or feeling nostalgic during a classic is better than staring at the wall or draining your phone battery playing Candy Crush. 

Charging stations
This is self-explanatory. While Penn Station finally got around to updating its Wi-Fi system that was installed in 2010, the connectivity is of no use to us if our phones are dead. The more outlets, or even USB portals, the better.

Enclosed garden patio
Imagine running into the train station during a rainy Baltimore day and sitting in an enclosed room full of beautiful wildflowers and lush greens. In the Madrid Atocha Train Station, lush palms reach toward the sky and turtles swim in the indoor pond. Sounds pretty tranquil, right?

Mini museum
Penn Station is right in the middle of Station North Arts District and the MICA campus with talent bursting at the seams. A museum of local artwork inside the train station would be an awesome opportunity to showcase our up and coming artists. We could take a cue from this train station in Lakewood, Colorado that installed a permanent, colorful installation outside (and seems to be way less controversial than the Man/Woman statue).

Dining & Bars
No, we don’t mean a Cinnabon or Dunkin Donuts—although there’s nothing wrong with either—we’re thinking more like R.House or Mt. Vernon Marketplace. The train station could be a place where visitors can grab a good, quick meal at an affordable price. We were inspired by Union Station in Denver with its beautiful Terminal Bar and bountiful restaurants for brunch, coffee, or ice cream.

Live entertainment
WTMD already has a program where musicians play at BWI baggage claim and BSO musicians play at Penn Station around the holidays. But what about the rest of the year? Union Station in Los Angeles has monthly shows in its terminals to keep travelers in high spirits as they go about their day.  A little smooth jazz or a festive Mardi Gras celebration is sure to elevate your experience.

The first new street in Port Covington runs 190 feet. And it is closed to traffic, technically making it a pedestrian walkway.

Still, the unveiling of Rye Street, the naming of which required legislative approval from the Baltimore City Council, marked a significant moment Monday, according to Sagamore Development Company officials and the city leaders on hand yesterday.

“A small road, but a big step for us,” Marc Weller, president of Sagamore Development, said of the privately funded walkway.

Sagamore’s 235-acre master plan for Port Covington—for the most part, a large industrial brownfield for the past few decades—envisions 14.1 million square feet of mixed-use development, 2.5 miles of restored waterfront, and 42 acres of accessible parks and green space for city residents.

Broad, pedestrian-oriented Rye Street links East Cromwell Street—the main thoroughfare in Port Covington—to the waterfront. It also passes directly between Sagamore Spirit Distillery and the new Rye Street Tavern, which is scheduled to open in the middle of September. The tavern, which includes waterfront views and outdoor seating, will have a capacity of about 400 people and emphasize American cuisine and Maryland seafood. James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Carmellini and the New York-based NoHo Hospitality Group will run the restaurant’s operation.

City officials at the unveiling included Joan Pratt, the city comptroller, Bill Cole, president and CEO of Baltimore Development Corporation, Jim Smith, Mayor Catherine Pugh’s chief of strategic alliances, Frank Murphy, acting director of the city Department of Transportation, and City Councilman Eric Costello, whose district includes Port Covington.

“It’s exciting for me to see,” Costello said of the Rye Street unveiling. “A growing Baltimore is a strong Baltimore. I look forward to visiting often.”

Rye Street, he added, “is the first of many more to come,” noting the success of City Garage, the nearby innovation hub which recently opened a second campus as part of a collaboration with Betamore, and the opening of Building 37, Under Armour’s new waterfront headquarters in Port Covington.

In fact, Sagamore officials said, Rye Street is the first of 16 planned new streets, 66 new intersections, and 47 new blocks for Port Covington. Sewage and water line construction is expected to start late next year.

A bike path that will connect Federal Hill and Locust Point to a recently completed Port Covington 1.4-mile bike lane is also in development.

Phase I of the Port Covington project, which will include 4.1 million square feet of mixed-use development, is expected to take 5-6 years. The overall effort, as currently designed, is expected to take 20-25 years.

After nearly two years of planning and development, Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) launched BaltimoreLink on Sunday, June 18. The $135-million overhaul of the transit system in Baltimore City and surrounding areas is an effort to modernize and simplify outdated routes, and provide riders with a more reliable means of transportation around town. 

“BaltimoreLink is more than reconfiguring a bus system,” said public information officer for MTA, Paul Shepard. “It provides customers with a faster, more reliable way to get around the region via public transit.” 

West Baltimore native, Willie Mary Brown, says that her commute has changed so much, she’s not sure what time to leave for work in the morning.

“It has been awful this week,” she said. “I think they should have left the schedules alone.”

We know that change is hard—a new logo, name, and 24-hour, color-coded routes have all been a big adjustment for riders. So we’ve rounded up some helpful tips to make the transition smoother while traveling with the new BaltimoreLink.

Patience is key.
Be patient with the bus drivers, since this is a new process to them as well. “We didn’t see the new routes and schedules until May 25,” said David McClure, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union. “Operators don’t know the routes—we are still figuring it all out too.”

Allow extra time.
Under the new system, buses are scheduled to run every 10 minutes, but with all the new changes, things may fall behind. Be sure to give yourself some extra time when traveling. You can also track the bus by simply texting the stop ID number to MTAMD­­—although kinks are still being worked out there, too.

“The GPS tracking on the buses is still not as accurate as it could be,” McClure said. “It says the bus is in one place when it’s sitting in front of you. 

Walk, bike, or ride the Circulator.
Because some of the routes have been relocated, you may have to travel a little farther to get to the bus stop. There are now bike-share stations at six MARC Train, Light Rail, and Metro Subway stations to promote environmentally friendly means of transportation. The Charm City Circulator also connects with most CityLink routes if walking or biking isn’t your thing.

“I’m still working out the formula of catching the Circulator with the new buses,” Brown said. “It’s going to take some practice.”

Rush hour is no longer an issue.
The Maryland Department of Transportation and MTA partnered to dedicate “bus only” lanes on downtown’s busiest streets like Pratt and Lombard to minimize travel time during rush hour.

“The bus-only lanes are helpful, but it sometimes places drivers in dangerous situations,” McClure said. “If the lane is on the right side of the street and the next turn is left, it’s a task to get back over.” 

Transit signal priority (TSP) has also been implemented at key intersections to reduce the wait time. The buses are now equipped with a device that connects with sensors on traffic signals that extend green lights and shorten red lights to improve reliability.

It’s free until the end of June.
The MTA understands that this is a confusing process and is offering free rides for the remainder of the month so riders can become acclimated to the new routes without losing money.

“It’s nice that it’s free,” Brown said. “But I wish I had more extra time to just ride the bus and figure out the routes.”

There will also be teams of workers at major bus stops until the end of June to answer any questions and assist customers through the change. 

Known for its annual, sold-out Black & White party, the Pratt Contemporaries is more than just an organization that throws a great shindig. The nonprofit, now in its 10th year, has raised more than  $1 million for child and teen literacy programs at the Enoch Pratt Free Library since its inception.

Over a decade ago, library members under the direction of Carla Hayden approached two volunteers, Kate Powell and Chris Espenshade, to create an organization that would bring young donors into the library.

“At the time, I really didn’t know what that was going to look like,” said Powell, who is now the co-founder of Pratt Contemporaries. “We didn’t know each other. We’ve become best friends since, which has been such a perk of this whole thing.”

The two women began the process by forming a committee of 12, including former director of communications Roswell Encina, who was also instrumental in getting the group started. At that first meeting—held at the former Red Maple space in Mt. Vernon—the committee decided that individuals could purchase a membership for just $40, and have access to the library’s events throughout the year.

“The idea behind it was to engage younger people to have them learn about the library,” Powell said. “There’s this huge gap in time when people use the library. So part of the mission was to get people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to just use the library.”

At this year’s annual meeting, held on June 1, Pratt Contemporaries unveiled its new logo and awarded $180,000 to 12 different literacy and improvement initiatives for the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

But deciding which specific programs to fund is never an easy task, according to board chair Jacob Hodes. The board tasks the librarians at each branch to come up with a list of programs that would be beneficial to the patrons and then Pratt Contemporaries members vote town-hall style.

“It’s like choosing your favorite child—they are all great programs,” Hodes said. “You can’t fund everything, there are a limited amount of dollars in every budget.”

Ned Courtemanche, board vice chair of Pratt Contemporaries, said that no matter what programs are chosen, they are making a tangible impact for the community.

“Personally, I always love STEM program funding,” Courtemanche said. “The second one always surprises me, because it’s so important but you don’t think about, is money for transportation. It’s something that is surprisingly expensive.”

One of the greatest obstacles for the library is actually getting students to the locations. For the 2018 year, $27,500 will be allocated to provide free buses to solve that problem. The STEM program—focusing on science, technology, engineering, and math education—will receive $20,000 for year-round programming, another $25,000 will go towards branch improvements, and a whopping $50,000 is reserved to go towards the renovation campaign of the central branch on Cathedral Street.

“The Pratt Contemporaries mission is to bring people into the library that wouldn’t otherwise come,” Hodes explained. “We want people to really see the benefits, learn about the programs, and really become ambassadors of all the great things that Pratt is doing.”

Over the years, that initial committee of 12 became a board of 18, and the Pratt Contemporaries now has more than 300 members. Members pay dues depending on their level and also get special perks, like first dibs on tickets to the famed Black & White Party every January.

“The party has really been the leader on the membership side. Becoming a member is really the only way to guarantee a ticket,” Hodes said. “We’re lucky that it’s a nimble way that we can raise funds and capital for the library.”

When Powell and Espenshade began this endeavor, they never imagined it would blossom into what it is now. Powell said that she is pleased with the direction the organization has taken and is excited to see what the future holds.

“Chris and I have really stepped back from being a part of the leadership. We are just members now,” Powell said. “The coolest thing about starting something is when you can leave it in really good hands and watch it continue to grow. It’s incredible.”

On July 1, Hodes will pass the baton over to Courtemanche and he will begin his leadership role as board chair. His goal for the group hasn’t wavered from a decade ago—to empower young professionals to get involved with the progression of the city.

“We can always remind people that the library is not just the responsibility of the city,” Courtemanche said. “The people of Baltimore really have to step up and make sure we take care of something that is essential to the growth of Baltimore.”

In February, the long-awaited study regarding the future of Pimlico Race Course—antiquated and in
need of a major overhaul—was finally released. The price tag for necessary renovations? About $300 million. While the fate of this hallowed horse track remains uncertain, we hope it makes a comeback and continues to carry on the Charm City tradition of the Preakness Stakes, which will run for the 142nd time on May 20. To help them get started, we’ve devised a wish list of some realistic—and, okay, some unrealistic—places to start. 

New entrance. We’re not sure what font that is, or what decade it was created, but let’s just say the entrance is not working. How about something grand and inviting, with hints of history and modern flair, like the cathedral that is Churchill Downs. 

Bathrooms, bathrooms, bathrooms. We will repeat this so that we never repeat the toilet fiasco of 2015. Also, just a thought, but those fancy restroom trailers are actually pretty nice. Plus, they’re less dangerous to run across than Porta-Potties. 

Enliven the lines. If we can’t streamline the wait—at the entrance, the bathrooms, the betting windows—perhaps we can add some in-line entertainment (aka interactive games and beer peddlers) to make it seem faster, at the very least.

Curtail the cops. We heartily support the Baltimore City Police, but as soon as you walk in, their heavy presence makes Preakness feel like a trip through the TSA line, without a tropical vacation as your happy ending. 

Lose the litter. A good start would be more trash cans and recycling bins, or maybe even use all of the aforementioned BPD to enforce some fines. Ultimately, we know it’s hard when thousands of slightly intoxicated people are traipsing across your parking lot, but let’s clean up the trash. 

Cocktails. With the pomp and circumstance of this 142-year-old event, we need fewer light beers and cheap wines and more classic cocktail options. In addition to the Black-Eyed Susan, we welcome all Triple Crown concoctions, including the Mint Julep, Southside, Bourbon Smash, and Belmont Breeze. And in larger cups, please.

More Mug Club tents. Or else the $80-120 wristband isn’t worth the price.

 InfieldFest:

•  A little more Springsteen, a little less pre-teen.
•  Astrodome roof. We know it’s a lot to ask, but there’s nothing worse than getting stuck outside during a thunderstorm. 
•  That being said, turf, instead of dirt, or at the very least, a mud-washing station. After a few hours of hip-bumping, booty-shaking, or even mosh-pitting, we’re in need of a bath, and that’s on a sunny year. 
•  Free water fountains. Hydration is key.

Make-your-own derby hat stations. There’s nothing worse than showing up to the party underdressed, or envious of another woman’s opulent, oversized hat.

Instagrammable mementos. It might sound cheesy, but we’d really like some of those silly cutout photo ops that make it look like you’re a jockey and your date’s a horse. You know the ones.

Enough with the bikini contest. It’s 2017. This is Baltimore, not Daytona Beach. 

Parking, solved. The parking situation might be a nightmare, but rather than fix it with high-rise garages, extended lots, or more shuttle buses, we suggest that The Pimlico of the Future discourage driving altogether, due to the copious amount of drinking done on its premises during Preakness. See below for automobile alternatives.

Light Rail to the rescue. Let’s have a chat with Governor Hogan. We don’t see why the train can’t come all the way to the track.

Ride-share accessibility. In this on-demand economy, more designated lines for Uber and Lyft pickups are an absolute must. Currently, it’s a total you-know-what show. 

Updated app: While the current handheld version features breaking news, event schedules, and horse information, we’d like to put the race right in our hands with a live stream mobile option. Whether you’re 5’6” or 6’5”, it can be hard to see the horses, especially from the infield. 

After months of fighting fingerprint requirements, ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft were able to strike a deal with the Maryland Public Service Commission last week. In order to get a waiver of the fingerprint requirement for their drivers, the companies must undergo an alternative background check process laid out by the commission.

The new background check requires that ride-share companies rerun background checks annually, require drivers to report arrests and convictions within three business days, look back through entire adult history of its applicants, require the driver to return the company’s car and decals if they become permanently deactivated, and file annual reports to the commission detailing any complaints or deactivations.

“We find that the alternative background check processes we approve are as comprehensive and accurate as the fingerprint-based background check,” the commission stated.

Although the validity of fingerprints in forensic cases has come under fire in recent years, other licensed professionals in Maryland, including taxi drivers and medical providers, must still have their prints examined against state and FBI databases.

Understandably, taxicab advocates were a bit let down with the decision. According to The Sun, Dave Sutton, speaking on behalf of the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, said his group was “disappointed Maryland hasn’t chosen to require fingerprint background checks to protect passengers, but heartened to see incremental tightening in the requirements”

Uber Maryland, on the other hand, was ecstatic with the decision. “For more than five years, Uber has helped Marylanders with access to reliable, affordable transportation options and flexible work opportunities,” the company said in a statement. “Today the Maryland Public Service Commission made a positive decision that ensures that the Uber you know and love can continue to operate in Maryland. With your support, we were able to show the PSC Commissioners that the service provided through Uber is a safe and viable option.”

Of course, this could all be obsolete if Uber’s self-driving pilot program—which just moved from San Fransisco to Scottsdale, Arizona—gets off the ground.

With messy winter weather forecasted this week, driving on slick roads can be hazardous. Due to this, AAA is urging motorists to take every precaution when traveling in potentially dangerous conditions.

We spoke with Ragina Cooper Averella, public and government affairs manager at AAA Mid-Atlantic to find out the safest ways to travel in this crazy Baltimore weather.

“The first rule of thumb during severe winter weather, particularly icy conditions, is not to drive unless it is absolutely necessary,” Averella says. “We are echoing the warnings of law enforcement officials in advising motorists to stay off the roads until road crews have treated the roads for ice and then not until conditions are favorable to drive.”

If you do have to drive, she says, be sure that your car is ready. This means your tires should have excellent tread and are capable of handling slick conditions. Additionally, new windshield wipers and a full wiper fluid reservoir are essential for visibility on those snowy trips. If your car is good and ready and you must hit the road, here are the best winter-driving tips.

Bridges Freeze First

“They also melt last,” Averella adds. Therefore, use extra caution because the roadway leading to a bridge may appear clear but the bridge itself may be a sheet of ice.

Accelerate and Decelerate Slowly

This is the easiest way to regain traction and avoid skidding. Accelerating slowly will increase the tire’s grip on the road. Remember, it takes longer to slow down on icy roads, so brake gently. Slamming on the brakes in snow or ice drastically increases your risk of losing control of your car. It’s also good to know what type of braking system your car has. With anti-lock brakes (ABS), the pedal should be held down—do not pump, as the system will do that for you. If your vehicle isn’t equipped with ABS, then apply the brakes firmly. If the brakes begin to lock up, slowly release the pedal until the tires are no longer skidding.

This Isn’t Talladega

Speeding on slick roads is a sure-fire way to cause an accident. Everything takes longer when driving in snow and icy conditions. Take your time. Driving at safe, slow speeds may take a little longer, but at least you will make it to your destination one piece. Also avoid using cruise control and tailgating, allowing more time to react to road conditions. This leads us to…

Allow Extra Space

According to the National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA), during normal conditions, the acceptable distance between cars is about three to four seconds. Everything takes longer when driving in the slippery weather, like stopping and turning, so this will ensure that there’s sufficient time to brake for a sudden stop. Also, be sure to drive in the clearest lane on a highway and avoid changing lanes or driving over built-up snow on the roads.

Beware of SUV Overconfidence

“Motorists should remember that cars and ice don’t mix,” Averella says. “Driving a car on cold, slippery surfaces is an extremely dangerous activity.” Having four-wheel-drive is great for winter weather because it does a good job of gaining traction on slick roads. However, once those SUVs are on the move, they face the same difficulty with stopping and maneuvering as other vehicles. They are also far more prone to tipping over, especially when traveling at higher speeds.

Distraction Free is Key

This rule applies to driving during normal conditions as well; it is important to drive with a clear and distraction free mind. “We found that looking away from the road for just two seconds doubles your risk of being in a crash,” Averella says. If you are traveling with a passenger, have your passenger pull up that Waze app or Spotify playlist. If you’re traveling alone, it can wait.

Emergency Road Kit

“It is important for motorist to be prepared in the event of an emergency,” Averella says. “We urge motorists to store a winter weather kit in their car.” Your kit should include: a blanket, flares, ice scraper, flashlight, batteries, jumper cables, paper towels, a bag of salt or cat litter, a shovel, and a fully charged cellphone.

Kevin Quinn, director of the office of planning and programming for the Maryland Transit Administration, highlighted the potential of the bike-share system to help integrate the city’s broader public commuter network. “It extends the reach of our current transportation system,” Quinn said. “It connects to the subway, light rail, and buses.”

Jon Laria, an attorney with Ballard Spahr and chairman of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, said building out the city’s bicycle infrastructure is an important component in moving Baltimore forward. “Bike commuting is economic development, it’s tourism, it’s transportation, and it’s business climate,” Laria said.

Along with a number of City Department of Transportation officials and bicycling advocates on hand for the announcement, Laria also made a pitch a for local businesses and institutions to step forward and sponsor additional bike stations in hoping of expanding the bike-share network.

Bike-share programs are operating in almost 60 U.S. cities, with more in the “pre-launch” phase. As of the spring of 2015, bike-sharing systems are now functioning in at least 855 cities worldwide, according to The Washington Post. Capital Bikeshare, considered the most successful programs—and one of the first in the U.S. when it began in 2010—now has more 3,500 bikes at 400 stations in D.C., Arlington County, Alexandria, VA, and Montgomery County, adding up to more than 11 million trips since its start.

A Google map of bike-sharing programs around the world can be found here.

Liz Cornish, executive director of Bikemore, the city’s nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization, like Laria and others, urged Baltimore’s business community and institutions to step up with sponsorship of stations and bike-share operations to help grow bike-share beyond its current 50-station, largely downtown hub. She also encouraged everyone to take one of the new bikes for a road test.

“Try biking,” Cornish said with a smile. “Give it a shot.”

6:53 a.m. With the exception of the smooth jazz that plays over loudspeakers at all MTA stations, the Mondawmin platform is quiet. Even the escalator is quiet, since it is out of service. I scrawl “no rats so far” in my notebook.

6:59 a.m. I get onto my first train car of the day, headed outbound toward the terminus at Owings Mills. At each of the line’s 14 stations, an automated voice announces the current stop, the next stop, and the ultimate destination of the train, along with a description of any connecting buses.

7:01 a.m. One other announcement is sometimes added to the mix: A friendly warning that “for your safety and comfort, this vehicle is being monitored. Please be mindful of MTA’s prohibited acts.” This warning will be repeated roughly eight times per loop, meaning that I will hear it around 40 times today.

7:14 a.m. On reaching Owings Mills for what will be the first of six visits today, I switch cars, allowing me to face forward. This is a four-car train—the D.C. Metrorail system, in contrast, usually runs six- or eight-car trains. I would feel a sense of inferiority when comparing the two systems, but that would be pointless, like comparing the Nationals to the Bowie Baysox. For a minor-league transit system, the MTA does pretty well.

My previously nearly empty car—which is now inbound toward the city center and Johns Hopkins hospital—fills up with well-dressed commuters. The doors open and close four times in quick succession, and the train begins to move. The woman in front of me is telling her seatmate about an elderly relative. “She was able to walk, but she wasn’t able to clap.”

7:26 a.m. There’s still enough space in the train to allow a guy to chat across the aisle: “That place out on Reisterstown Road, they make the pineapple upside-down cakes, but only on Thursdays.”

7:29 a.m. They’ve moved on from cakes to cupcakes. “I don’t like how they let them just sit there sometimes.”

7:46 a.m. At Charles Center, the inbound train loses most of its passengers. That’s good because this is the most stuffed car I’ll be on all day, with standing passengers crowded in the aisles. As the automated voice reads off more than a dozen bus connections, I find myself wondering for the fourth time how many of those buses run on old streetcar routes.

***

A NOTE ON STREETCARS: Unlike Boston, New York and Philadelphia, Baltimoreans didn’t build a subway until near the end of the 20th century, preferring instead to rely exclusively on an extensive network of streetcars, and later, buses.

There was good reason for the city to be proud of its streetcar system. According to the book Baltimore’s Streetcars and Buses, the city was the home of the first electrified streetcars, starting in 1885. Some cars ran on elevated tracks, as with a line on Guilford Avenue. Others ran in traffic.

Early streetcars were as much of a real estate device as a transportation tool: Roland Park is often considered America’s first planned “streetcar suburb,” while other areas of the city were less planned but also dependent on streetcars, with “traction” magnates building lines to benefit their own land holdings.

In my neighborhood of Hampden, you can still see the ghosts of streetcar rails under some of the streets, including Falls Road and Chestnut Avenue. And, right nearby is the Baltimore Streetcar Museum if you want to ride on one of the relics.

***

8:17 a.m. On that subway, I notice that someone has brought along a Specialized Rockhopper, which is the mountain bike I lusted over as a kid. It is now covered in duct tape and looks fairly pathetic, but it’s still probably a good way to get around. I struggle to find a subway analogy there, but our metro car is spotless, fast-moving and in great condition. There’s no metaphor to be had.

8:41 a.m. People behind me are talking about the inscrutability of the Irish accent. “Those two people are clearly speaking a different language.”

8:43 a.m. As if on cue, announcements have been replaced by a faint buzzing. I’m guessing that when I last switched cars, I got a dud. This is not entirely unpleasant, however.

9:01 a.m. A guy is rapping to his headphones. While this is common on MTA buses, it’s the first time I’ve seen it today. Other passengers roll their eyes.

9:15 a.m. I’ve been craving eggs since my second stop at Johns Hopkins, so I get off at the Lexington Market station. While the market has a reputation as one of the larger open-air drug markets in Baltimore, it also has a stall with one of the best breakfasts I’ve encountered. I buy the “super platter” of two eggs, three sausages, four pieces of toast, and a mess of potatoes, which costs me the grand sum of $2.12.

I take my breakfast up to the market’s balcony to eat, looking down over a bookstall. They have a special on paperbacks: “$8 – 3 for $10. We ship to prisons.”

10:46 a.m. Back on the train, I notice that the rail yard near the Rogers Avenue stop appears to have a lot of extra capacity. I wonder to what extent it was built for a larger system that never came to pass.

***

A NOTE ON PROGRESS: The rails on which I’m riding were not constructed without a fight.

Transit fans in Baltimore may already know most of the story. As time went on in the middle of the 20th century, Baltimore’s streetcars slowly fell victim to trends including badly maintained—and often intentionally neglected—infrastructure, alongside discriminatory state transportation policies that emphasized sprawl.

Baltimore’s single-route Metro system—conceived around the same time as the designs for the Washington, D.C. subway system—was originally supposed to fill that transit gap with several lines of heavy rail, extending outward from downtown to places like Morgan State University and the airport. Except that most of that system was never built as subway, which leaves the metro line on which I’m riding as Baltimore’s only underground intra-city transit line.

***

11:20 a.m. A heavy-set woman in front of me has a dragon tattoo that’s entrancing me as I sit in a food coma. It bobbles and ripples on her arm as the train changes speed and bounces minutely. She smells of cinnamon—is she a worker at the Fractured Prune donut shop in Owings Mills, where she got on?

11:25 a.m. She gets off at Lexington Market before I get the chance to ask her. Dammit. Now I want some donuts.

11:41 a.m. The car is half-empty and lacks conversations. I draw a cartoon of a rat pulling a train. It’s not very good: It looks more like a cat peeing on a series of tables. (I still haven’t seen any actual rats so far.)

12:06 p.m. This donut craving is getting really strong.

12:13 p.m. The train is at Old Court. The robot announcer thinks it is at Mondawmin.

12:16 p.m. The train is at Milford Mill. The robot announcer thinks it is at State Center.

12:18 p.m. The train is at Reisterstown Plaza. The robot announcer thinks it is at Charles Center.

12:20 p.m. The train is at Rogers Avenue. The robot announcer thinks it is at Johns Hopkins.

12:39 p.m. After changing cars at the actual Johns Hopkins terminus, I find myself looking at a sign on the wall, telling me that a third of adults are pre-diabetic. I briefly doubt the wisdom of a donut-and-smoothie lunch.

1:11 p.m. Screw it. I want some fried sugar. I get off at Owings Mills and grab my donut fix. Owings Mills is quickly becoming my happy place.

***

A NOTE ON HAPPY PLACES: Despite the cancellation of the red line, there is indeed some good news on Baltimore’s transit scene.

The transit-oriented development at Owings Mills is one of these bright spots. After years of “coming soon” signs, a large, mixed-use development of apartments and shops is mostly open at the end of the line, complete with a branch of the county library system.

Further into town, there’s some indication that the long-stalled State Center project might be starting to move again. That project would add thousands of residential units and a bunch of retail to what is currently a Soviet-style office block of Brutalist architecture.

Finally, there are developments like the Maryland Avenue cycle track, the arrival of Zipcar in Baltimore, and the recent creation of protected cycling lanes on Roland Avenue. While these changes aren’t directly tied to the subway, they have the cumulative effect of nudging the city away from a car-dependent lifestyle, creating a ripple effect for transit.

***

1:52 p.m. Back on the train, a woman is selling body wash and shampoo to passengers. “I had a full sack of these when I started,” she says. “You have to know how to carry yourself.”

2:07 p.m. As our train plunges below the earth near the West Cold Spring station, I find myself wishing Ben Folds had never written “Underground.” It’s been stuck in my head for most of the day—especially the line “hand me my nose ring.”

2:15 p.m. The shampoo lady has left. This train is utterly quiet, with the few remaining passengers abstaining from conversation.

2:25 p.m. I draw a cartoon of a rat shaped like a baby kangaroo holding a train car. It’s no better than my other cartoon. It looks like a tyrannosaurus with a wooden arm. I still haven’t seen any rodents of any size.

2:34 p.m. A man who got on at the Shot Tower station is now soliciting passengers quietly as they arrive from Lexington Market.

“Anybody need a job?”

“Anybody need a job?”

“Anybody need a job?”

He gets at least one taker.

2:34 p.m. We’re not at rush hour yet, but at the Upton Avenue stop, this train is starting to fill up again, with some passengers standing in the aisles.

3:00 p.m. At the Owings Mills terminus for the sixth time, I switch from an out-of-service, four-car train to a newly formed six-car train. They’re clearly getting ready for rush hour.

3:25 p.m. I arrive at Mondawmin. I have taken five loops around the system, listened to dozens of surveillance announcements, heard hundreds of intersecting bus-line numbers, and consumed more than a thousand calories.

Putting aside some misplaced directional announcements, the trains seem to have functioned pretty well during my marathon of user testing. They have been clean and fast. No doors have opened randomly mid-trip. No kangaroo-sized rats have made appearances. Nobody has evangelized me, nobody has gotten sick near me. In other words, this has been the equivalent of a pleasant homeward commute—just longer. A lot longer.

But the time of day and the extra calories are having their effect. I shake myself from my afternoon stupor, get off the train and begin waddling home, happier than ever to be on foot.

The efficient movement of people, goods, and services is central to the function of any city—forever facing new challenges and demanding new solutions. Baltimore’s been moving forward in recent years in terms of public transportation with efforts including the Charm City Circulator, which continues to add routes and ridership, expanded MARC Train service, and the proposed Red Line project, a 14-mile light rail connecting Woodlawn to Bayview.

Penn Station

Originally opened in 1911 and named Union Station, serving the Pennsylvania Railroad and Western Maryland Railway, the Charles Street Beaux Arts-style hub was renamed in 1928. Over the last three years, more than $7 million in improvements have been completed at the eighth-busiest station in Amtrak’s national network. More than one million passengers passed through Penn Station in 2012.

What’s in a Name?
There are several “Penn Stations” in the Northeast, all named after the Pennsylvania Railroad Co.

Streetcars

Last fall marked the 50th anniversary of the end of streetcar service in the city. After 104 years of service, the last two lines to operate, the No. 8 (Towson-Catonsville) and No. 15 (Overlea-Walbrook Junction) both ceased operations in the early Sunday morning hours of Nov. 3, 1963. The last car to run that day is in the Baltimore Streetcar Museum’s collection.

General motors, 1955

From 1935 to 2005, the Broening Highway GM factory built Chevrolets. Today, a White Marsh plant makes Chevy Spark electric motors.

By The Numbers

The Light Rail

Airport Modernization

In 1950, President Harry Truman dedicated Friendship International Airport, later renamed Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in 1973 after the state of Maryland purchased the airport from Baltimore City for $36 million.

That was then, this is now

Bicycle Reboot

Streets in Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern cities predate the automobile and were initially paved at the behest of bicyclists. None other than H. L. Mencken called bicycling “a great and urgent matter” at the turn of the 20th century when Baltimore boasted more than 80 bike stores and dozens of bicycle clubs. Today, bicycling as transportation is rebounding, with the Charm City Bikeshare program scheduled to launch this year. There are also several infrastructure projects underway, including a protected Maryland Avenue cycle track that will run
between The Johns Hopkins University and Pratt Street.

Memories

Carvey Davis, 90

Streetcar Operator

“I was an operator with the transit company in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a nerve-racking job, really, especially the one-man cars when you had to do both jobs—collecting the fares and operating the car. I worked almost all the lines; my favorite was the No. 26, which ran from downtown to Sparrows Point, the last bridge was over Bear Creek.”

Seaworthy

Water Taxi

Fittingly, the Baltimore Water Taxi’s blue-and-white fleet is the oldest, public water-based service of its kind in the country. An integral part of Inner Harbor transportation, Baltimore Water Taxi is now 39 years old, offering service to neighborhoods such as Fells Point, Canton, Federal Hill, Locust Point, and Fort McHenry. In a tragic accident in 2004 involving Seaport Taxi (no longer in operation), a water taxi capsized, killing five of the 25 passengers.

Mark Schmidt, who keeps a pair of binoculars on his file cabinet, jokes that he has “the best view of the harbor in the city.”

On a recent afternoon, his sunny water’s-edge office offers the perfect vantage point. But the 22-year Port of Baltimore veteran isn’t admiring tall ships or checking for pretty girls aboard the water taxis. As manager of the Seagirt Marine Terminal, he’s focused on seven 110-foot cranes—and the dozens of truck drivers and longshoremen swarming around them—that are simultaneously loading three massive container ships eventually headed for China, the Middle East, and South America.

“The best view, except for the noise,” says Schmidt, with a smile, as he glances over to an Evergreen Line ship scheduled for 1,355 “moves”—container loads and discharges—during its 13 hours in port. “And maybe the heat”—July and August temperatures reach toward 110 degrees off the concrete here.

“That’s the ‘spreader,'” says Schmidt, pointing to a crane’s monstrous steel claw as it plucks a 40-foot container from a flatbed.

Trucks line up three deep as crane operators, seated in sky-high cabs with joysticks in the armrests, lift and lower one giant metal box after another. Aboard the ships, the length of three football fields, longshoremen lash the outgoing cargo to the deck and make sure each corner “shoe” of the containers, stacked four high, is locked into place.

The energetic Schmidt seems the ultimate problem-solver as he fields constant calls from longshoremen and drivers. (“Is it okay to ‘boom down’ the crane for repairs?;” “Can I drive my truck in?;” “Is the new construction guy on the visitor’s list?”)

But the height of his career may be just unfolding: being a key player in the construction of the new 50-foot-deep berth—one of just two on the East Coast—designed to accommodate the super-sized ships expected to arrive via the expanded Panama Canal in 2014.

But that project is just one of the reasons that the trading world is starting to sit up and take notice of a massive facility that most Baltimoreans are barely aware of.

It wasn’t that long ago—your grandfather remembers—that Baltimoreans understood that their port was the region’s most important economic hub. They even made a local TV series about it in the ’50s, The Port that Built a City. (Okay, granted, with only three fuzzy, black-and-white channels, your choices were The Ed Sullivan Show and I Love Lucy.)

But somewhere along the way, the relevancy of the port seemed to wane in the public consciousness. Maybe smoke got in our eyes from heavy industries like cars and steel and spices, or maybe it was the smell of ether from a rising health-care scene.

But if you thought the port went the way of the rotary telephone, think again. Gradually, then suddenly, it’s regained its status as an economic juggernaut. And if six degrees of separation works (it’s probably closer to four in Smalltimore), then you’re likely connected to someone who works there: There are 40,000 people at work directly or indirectly because of the port.

Rebounding since its decline in the 1980s, when Baltimore began losing business to other ports, notably Norfolk and New York, the port saw a 15-percent increase last year in cargo handled, the largest increase of any major U.S. port.

Baltimore also now ranks as the top U.S. importer/exporter of automobiles. In 2011, Baltimore also ranked first—among all 360 U.S. ports—for handling farm and construction equipment, imported forest products, imported sugar, imported gypsum, and imported iron ore, according to the Maryland Port Administration (MPA). And the port ranked second nationally for exported coal, imported salt, and imported aluminum. But it’s not just about cargo: Even the cruise business is booming, setting sail with a quarter-million passengers last year, a Baltimore record.

If, however, there’s one symbol of the broad public and private efforts to ensure the 300-year-old Port of Baltimore thrives for a fourth century, it was the sight of four massive 1,700-ton cranes—manufactured in Shanghai and 40 stories when fully erected—ducking beneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge in mid-June on their way to the new Seagirt berth.

“The Seagirt private-public partnership was the first of its kind; two major financial publications named it the logistics project of the year,” MPA executive director James White says. “We couldn’t have done it without a commitment to the long-term success of the port. We want to maintain the business we have, and, at the same time, grow the port.”

Seemingly, all of Baltimore’s oldest institutions trace their roots to the port. It was Jamestown’s Capt. John Smith who led the first European expedition into the upper Chesapeake Bay, mapping the harbor’s Patapsco River basin, among other local waterways, in 1608. Ninety-eight years later, the Maryland Colonial Assembly named Locust Point the official entry port for the tobacco trade with England—predating the incorporation of Baltimore City by two decades.

In 1730, English Quaker and carpenter William Fell purchased a marshy piece of land on the shores of the Patapsco. The deep water there soon provided anchorage for shipping vessels and, later, Fells Point became a shipbuilding hub, notable for its renowned Baltimore clippers.

“Shipping out tobacco, wheat flour, in the 1700s, that was the beginning,” says Helen Delich Bentley, a former Maryland congresswoman, former chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, and co-author of The Great Port of Baltimore: Its First 300 Years, 1706 to 2006.

If you took a time machine back 150 years, you’d recognize some of the names during roll call at the monthly Moose club meeting:

They’re the fat cats who got rich on the port, including Johns Hopkins and George Peabody, who were traders, as well as William Walters of The Walters Art Museum family, notes Bentley. The McDonogh School was established by John McDonogh, who was in the shipping business, Patterson Park bears the name of William Patterson, who’d started shipping wheat to England, and Enoch Pratt—who left his money to build the library system—was a trader, too. And our ethnic neighborhoods, like Little Italy, were built by immigrants arriving at the port, the second busiest U.S. entry point at one time after Ellis Island.

A number of port businesses from those early days remain ongoing enterprises, notes Bentley, who started as a port reporter for The Baltimore Sun during World War II and also hosted The Port That Built a City, beginning in 1950.

Domino Sugar, for example, opened its Baltimore harbor refinery in 1922. Proving business is still sweet, it received its largest shipment of raw sugar ever of 95 million pounds—taking two weeks to unload—earlier this spring.

Founded in 1889, McCormick & Company built its “House of McCormick” at the harbor in 1921. In 1927, W. G. N. Rukert, a tough, charismatic entrepreneur known as “Cap Rukert,” convinced McCormick to sell him Jackson’s Wharf.

A stevedoring and warehousing company, Rukert Terminals now handles metals, ores, alloys, and other dry bulk and cargo. In a good year, Rukert’s handles 1.5 million tons of cargo. And during winter storms, thank Rukert for making sure you don’t slide off the road and find yourself in a snow drift: More than 600 trucks per day pull tons of salt from Rukert’s warehouses for delivery to icy roads.

Percy Cox, a labor foreman with the International Longshoremen’s Association 333, started working in 1963 when there were two longshoreman locals—a black one and a white one.

“This is a hustling job, always has been,” says Cox, an African-American. He recalls standing in line in West Baltimore in those days, hoping to be picked for a day’s job. “Back then, if you didn’t work hard, when you’d go down to the union hall, they’d tell you not to come back.

“There’s always been ups and downs here,” he continues. “Some weeks, you’d check in with your badge and then turn right around and check out with your badge, not moving a thing.”

Kenneth Powell, another longtime ILA member, has ridden the same roller coaster. He says the early ’90s were the worst personally, when the port looked like it might never fully rebound. “I was starving to death,” Powell says. “I had to get a part-time job at the post office.”

Today, however, with “ro-ro” volume—roll-on, roll-off cargo like cars, trucks, tractors, and front loaders—at record levels, Cox and Powell are plenty busy. “Right now, you could work everyday if you have seniority,” Cox says.

But it was not that long ago that another series of factors threatened the port’s future as one of the city and state’s leading economic engines. Management-labor issues, as well as a poor labor reputation at the time, combined to take a further toll on the port’s business.

As the city struggled with the loss of its manufacturing base, particularly on the southeast side of town at places like Bethlehem Steel, General Motors, and Martin Aircraft, hopes dimmed for the port as a source of good-paying blue-collar jobs.

“Baltimore’s [port] reputation in those days was that it wouldn’t work in the rain,” Bentley says, alluding to the critical cost of delays—companies pay thousands of dollars per hour in fuel, docking fees, and wages to operate their ships.

“In 1988, Gov. [William Donald] Schaefer got so agitated [about labor difficulties] that he was ready to shut down the port and turn it over to developers.” Port, business, and labor officials finally agreed to sit down. “We began mediation on Nov. 22 of that year and we ran every day—except for Christmas—until Jan. 8, 1989. Since then, there’s been no labor strife.”

New labor agreements didn’t change the course of the port overnight, but set the stage for a business model in the mid-1990s that’s driving the port’s current success.

“We looked at our geographic advantage [8 million people in the Baltimore-Washington area and the nearest Atlantic port to the Midwest], and looked to a more diversified operation,” says port director White. “We’re closest to the automobile manufacturers, the farm-equipment manufacturers, like Caterpillar, Case, and John Deere, and started to develop that market. We had to make decisions about taking down dilapidated warehouses or rehabilitating them. But at the same time, we needed to keep an eye on the container business. We knew we had a great facility at Seagirt.”

At about 10 a.m. on a recent Friday at the Dundalk site, NYK line Port Capt. Scott Senko reports ILA workers have driven 350 cars aboard in the past three hours. If that sounds like a low-tech way to load ships, it is.

But low-tech is good news, in this case: Automobile, farm, and construction-equipment operations are especially significant because they translate into jobs. And the Dundalk Marine Terminal, a former airfield, includes acres needed for the storage of thousands of vehicles, another sector where we’ve gained a clear advantage over other ports.

Over 24 hours, more than 1,900 cars—many Toyota Avalons and Sequoias built at Midwestern plants heading for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait ports—squeeze onto the ship, a floating, 12-deck parking garage with ramps, orange cones, and a 12-mph speed limit, capable of stowing up to 3,500 vehicles. Ceiling heights beneath the deck adjust for farm and construction equipment. During loading, an enormous—and loud—ventilation system sucks carbon monoxide out while blowing fresh air in.

Bob Cooke, who came down to the port for a summer job after graduating from Mount Saint Joseph 33 years ago, plays a Noah-like role on Dundalk’s steamy, sun-baked lot, checking his “bible,” as he calls his manifest, for how many cars, make and model, to send onboard as he coordinates traffic.

“The number of cars we load on a ship in a single day would’ve taken three weeks in the past,” he says, referring to old “hoist” operations. He says his wife worries about melanoma, but he can’t imagine life at a cubicle desk. “I like being outside—I’d be like an animal stuck in an office,” he says. “When I’m off, I like to fish and hunt. It’s just who I am.”

Winter at the port can be a trip, too. “It’s been so cold with those things [ventilation fans] sucking the snow in,” port captain Senko says. “Inside the ship, it doesn’t melt—we’ve had drifts in here.”

It’s another world at the Port of Baltimore since the bad old days of a recalcitrant union and the ineffective management of the 1980s.

Senko and Doug Wolfe, general manager for Ceres Marine Terminals, a private stevedore company unloading Senko’s company’s vessel, highlight the port and union’s concentration on performance, and monthly meetings that bring together port, business, and labor leaders to address safety, quality, and efficiency concerns.

Wolfe says Baltimore’s moving times are among the nation’s best. But the port’s turnaround did not all pop at once, White acknowledges.

“Back in 1996, we said we wanted to be number one in automobiles, and that didn’t happen until last year. But that was the turning point, 1996.” Similarly, a concerted effort was eventually made to go after cruise business.

“In 1996, we probably had a dozen cruises leaving the port, that’s it,” White says. This year, it’s 100. “We knew we had a great market and we asked them [the cruise lines] what they needed. We didn’t have our cruise terminal then—we had an ad-hoc warehouse at Dundalk. We had to get people away from the cargo, and relocated our cruise terminal to South Locust Point and did more dredging. Now, we had a new asset to sell and we stayed after it. We went to the cruise lines and said, ‘We’re going to build a facility—help us build it.’ We thought they’d want the Taj Mahal, but no, they wanted something bare bones, very functional.”

The cruise lines, White learned, just want passengers to board quickly, without hassle, so they can get cracking spending their money on the ships.

It looks like clear sailing for now, but the port will always have to look over its shoulder to stay competitive with ports such as Philadelphia, Wilmington, and even Fort Lauderdale.

The New York Harbor and the Port of Miami are moving forward with their 50-foot berth plans (though the Big Apple has some low-bridge issues); Charleston and Savannah, among others, are studying the viability of similar efforts. Baltimore and Norfolk’s early advantage receiving Panamax ships won’t last forever.

But more vexing is a unique Baltimore disability that relates to getting the mega ships’ 14,000 TEUs (that’s Twenty-foot Equivalent Units to you landlubbers, the size of a single cargo container) onto local freight trains. The reason is a bottleneck dating to the 1895 construction of the Howard Street Tunnel: It’s not tall enough for today’s freight trains, which double-stack containers. For that reason, says Ports America Chesapeake president and CEO Mark Montgomery, 99 percent of containers moving at the port come and go by truck instead of rail—something that needs to change.

But, hey, this is America, so just fix it, right? Well, not so fast. If you remember the hour-long nightmare on the Jones Falls Expressway every day for a month last spring, when the city closed lanes to patch up the highway’s soft underbelly, then get out your abacus and calculate this: The cost of that highway repair was $2 million. To address the Howard Street Tunnel problem, a job that would mean tearing up light-rail wiring above the tunnel and city sewers below, multiply that times 500, not just in money, but in time, traffic jams, and general aggravation. That’s right, $1 billion, at a minimum.

CSX owns the Howard Street Tunnel and, with the MPA and state, is now proposing a transfer station, which would allow adding a second cargo container atop freight trains after they pass beneath Howard Street. Once completed, it would link to the $850 million National Gateway project, a public-private partnership that will create a double-stack rail corridor between Mid-Atlantic ports and the Midwest.

But construction of a transfer station in Elkridge, Jessup, or other suburban sites appears stalled. In April, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake pressed CSX to seek an appropriate Baltimore City site, saying the project’s delay was “threatening one of Baltimore’s strongest pillars of economic growth and job creation.”

Other issues on the horizon include upcoming union contract negotiations and finding money and land for ongoing maintenance dredging. And when it comes to harbor-floor mud laced with a century of heavy metals and other pollutants, there’s a NIMBY attitude toward having it dumped anywhere near a residential area. Environmentalists, in any case, fear that where ever it is dumped, it will leach into the bay.

Coke Point, near the former Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrows Point, has been proposed as a site to replace the recently closed Hart-Miller Island dredging depository at the mouth of the Middle River. Potentially, 25-30 years down the road, a Coke Point dredging facility could convert to another marine terminal, but a Maryland Department of the Environment report calls the 2,300-acre Sparrows Point steelmaking area “perhaps the most complex environmental clean-up site in the Chesapeake Watershed.”

While people like Ports America Chesapeake’s Montgomery are convinced that the $105 million Seagirt construction project to accommodate the huge Panamax ships is coming at a perfect time, there are some who doubt the Panama connection will be an instant panacea.

Hofstra University shipping expert Jean-Paul Rodrigue says it remains to be seen if ports like Baltimore can gain a substantial bump in container business from the rush to build 50-foot-deep berths.

“The Panamax ships may come or they may not, it’s too early to tell,” Rodrigue says, adding that the mega-ships passing through the canal may decide to unload at Panama’s Port of Colon, or a number of other Caribbean ports, transferring their cargo to smaller ships for travel up the Atlantic. Rodrigue sees some, but limited, potential for Baltimore.

But Montgomery sees a huge upside at Seagirt, and growth in cargo that might include new distribution centers not only in the city, but also in Harford and Cecil Counties. Baltimore County sees potential, too: A Sparrows Point Partnership committee to study port-related opportunities was announced by Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamentez in June.

Right now, Montgomery says, Baltimore is grabbing just 650,000 TEUs out of 3.1 million TEUs of cargo bound for Maryland on an annual basis—meaning after they’re unloaded elsewhere and sent by truck or rail. He agrees with the mayor that the key is CSX. “We could grab the bulk of the Maryland freight with big-ship economics,” Montgomery says. “We need to finalize a suitable site for the intermodal transfer facility and go get this business.

“We can grow organically, without doing too much, three percent a year,” Montgomery says of the port. “But as a citizen of Maryland, and also because it’s my job, I want us to do better. These are real jobs.”

Port Authority

Jobs: 40,040 jobs in Maryland are generated by port activity. 14,630 of those represent direct employment generated by cargo and vessel activities at the port, including railroads, trucking companies, terminal operators, cargo handling, manufacturing, towing, pilots, ocean carriers, and agents.

14,470 are what the MPA calls “induced jobs,” or those supported by the local purchases of goods and services by direct employees. These jobs—including sales clerks, mechanics, teachers, and government employees—would be lost in the short term if the direct jobs were lost.

10,940 are indirect jobs, or those supported by the business purchases of the employers who create the direct jobs. These include those who provide office supplies and equipment, utilities, communications, repairs, and legal and financial services.

In addition, 68,300 other jobs in Maryland are directly related to activities at the port, including those at manufacturing firms, distributers, coal mines, and automobile dealers who ship through Baltimore.

Broader Economic Impact:The most recent numbers, from 2010, show the Port of Baltimore was responsible for $3 billion in personal wage and salary income, generated $1.7 billion in business revenues, $1 billion in local purchases, and $304 million in state, county, and municipal tax revenues.

On a rainy Tuesday, with only 30 minutes to spare, Kathy Patterson dashes out of her office into the streets near the University of Maryland Medical Center looking for lunch. Walking at a brisk clip, she bypasses any number of sandwich and fast-food joints before she reaches her destination: The Gypsy Queen Cafe.

This is a tradition she looks forward to every week, she explains, as she takes her place in line behind several other diners to order. But this is no ordinary cafe. It’s a 27-foot truck painted with psychedelic swirls of purple, green, and pink, a mobile eatery that changes locations every day, keeping diners apprised of where it will be via social media. And the menu offerings are decidedly unlike the ho-hum hot dogs and plastic-wrapped sandwiches found at a typical sidewalk cart or construction-site trailer.

Instead, there are crab-cake tacos with Old Bay aioli, sweet-corn hush puppies in a waffle cone, and black truffle sliders. This is street food with a decidedly gourmet twist. As Patterson waits for her Santorini beef wrap with Greek dressing, she shares how happy she is about the gourmet food trucks popping up all over the city.

“Food trucks really add something to the lunchtime scene here,” she says. “We’re tired of chicken salad and ham sandwiches and want a variety of interesting foods.”

Baltimore has long been an outdoor food kind of town. From the pit beef at the Sunday JFX Farmers’ Market and the downtown hot dog carts to the loncheras or taco trucks stationed around Fells Point, there are a number of places to grab a quick bite and eat in the open air. But the gourmet food-truck trend, so popular in cities like Los Angeles, Portland, OR, and New York, has largely evaded Charm City. That is, until two years ago, when Kooper’s Chowhound Burger Wagon came on the scene, soon followed by several other food vans.

The city wasn’t quite prepared for the food-truck influx, and there was a brief skirmish over regulations. The mayor and her staff ironed out the issues in May by establishing rules about permits and setting up food-truck zones.

Now, at lunchtime, you’re likely to see diners lined up at more than a half-dozen gourmet food trucks—in areas like Harbor East, Mt. Vernon, and Charles Village—cooking up everything from juicy bison burgers and vegan chilled cucumber-and-avocado soup to cookie-dough cupcakes and crêpes Suzette.

The mobile eateries not only offer variety, but they’re an event, says Shawn Smith, the co-owner of Curbside Cafe, a burrito truck that started making the rounds in Baltimore in May 2010. “Food trucks create a feeling of excitement,” he contends.

But what distinguishes one food truck from another? And how do you know what to order? Here’s what you’ll find when you belly up to the window and place your order at one of the city’s growing fleet of gourmet food trucks.

Oh, before we begin, a few things to note about food trucks: Many don’t take credit cards, so bring cash. And although most trucks try to maintain regular days at certain spots, check the whereabouts of your truck of choice through Facebook or Twitter before hitting the streets.

Kooper’s Chowhound Burger Wagon
www.kooperschowhound.com
Twitter: @BRGRwagon
Concept: Freshly handmade and grilled beef, bison, turkey, and veggie burgers.
The Scoop: A few years back, when Patrick Russell, owner of Fells Point’s Kooper’s Tavern, Sláinte, and Woody’s Rum Bar, was looking to expand his restaurant business with director of operations Bill Irvin, the nation was in the throes of a recession and getting a loan to open another restaurant seemed impossible. Instead, in fall 2009, they decided to take Kooper’s popular burgers on the road. The snappy yellow-and-brown food truck, splashed with images of Kooper the yellow Lab, is considered the first in the city’s wave of roving food trucks and draws crowds with its build-your-own burger menu. Favorites include The MacGuinness, a one-half-pound Angus beef and bacon cheeseburger, and Elvis Got the Blues, which comes with apple-smoked bacon and Maytag blue cheese. Choose your toppings and sauce. The crisp fries—sweet potato and regular—round out the meal. Prices: $8-10.

Gypsy Queen Cafe
www.gypsyqueencafe.com
Twitter: @thegypsytruck
Concept: Baltimore street food with gourmet flavors.
The Scoop: Truffles. Maryland crab. Braised pork with espresso barbecue sauce and caraway slaw. You’re not hallucinating if some of the items on the Gypsy Queen Cafe’s extensive menu remind you of Helen’s Garden, the now-closed Canton restaurant owned by Tom Looney and Ed Scherer and where Annmarie Langton was executive chef. They’re back to serving Baltimore diners, only this time from their mobile food truck. Instead of being stashed back in the kitchen, Looney and Langton can chat with diners and sing karaoke while cooking. “I’ve always wanted to be on the road, and food trucks have a connotation of cowboys and chuck wagons,” Looney says. “They are independent and cool and quirky, and Baltimore is famous for being like that.” From the tender crab-cake tacos with smoky chipotle Old Bay aioli to the crisp fried flounder po’ boy and waffle cones of mac and cheese with bacon “bling,” the menu is filled with regular items and specials that are satisfying, yet vibrant and fun. “What we’re trying to do is make good food and meet great people,” says Langton. “I love the fact that I can see the smiles on people’s faces when they walk up to the truck and look at the menu. I missed that when I was in the kitchen.” Prices: $6-10.

Icedgems Baking
www.icedgemsbaking.com
Twitter: @icedgemsbaking
Concept: Some 60-plus varieties of cupcakes, with about 20 kinds offered per day on the truck.
The Scoop: Just over a year ago, baker Christine Richardson was working out of a rented commercial kitchen when she realized that her refrigerated delivery van could be used for more than dropping off cakes to clients. So she filled it with 500 cupcakes and sent it out into the streets of Baltimore. Before long, the white van with the pink polka dots was selling out of cupcakes daily. “It’s just a little treat,” says Richardson, who opened a storefront bakery in Reisterstown last September. Icedgems has excellent basic flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet, but their more creative cupcake varieties really shine. Try the rich s’mores cupcake with its chunks of graham cracker, chocolate chips, and marshmallow frosting; the cookie-dough-stuffed Cookie Monster; or the dainty Elizabeth, a lemon cake filled with raspberry preserves and frosted with lemon buttercream. “We cook from scratch,” Richardson says. “Our cupcakes may have calories, but they are good calories.” Prices: $2.50 per cupcake, $12.50 for six, $24 per dozen.

Curbside Cafe
Facebook: Curbside Cafe Baltimore
Twitter: @Curbside_Cafe
Concept: Gourmet burritos.
The Scoop: Shawn Smith and Lesa Bain got the idea to start a food truck after they found themselves swooning over the grilled-cheese sandwiches and sweet-potato fries that a sidewalk vendor was selling from a cart to the late-night bar crowds in Hampden. “Burritos are the perfect food,” Smith says. “You can do anything with them, and you don’t even need a fork.” The burritos they sell from their petite red-and-white truck are filled with your choice of Cuban-style chicken with a citrus chipotle marinade, spicy chana masala, black beans, seasoned Black Angus steak, or a combination. Toppings can include cheddar cheese, sour cream, corn salsa, lettuce, red onion, and avocado, and a choice of Heartbreaking Dawns condiments, including jalapeño pineapple and habañero mango. Or grab a pineapple Jarritos soda and an order of Plantain Delight, a heap of hot, starchy fried plantains loaded with whatever toppings strike your fancy. Prices: $5-9.

Creperie Breizh
Facebook: Creperie Breizh
Twitter: @CreperieBreizh
Concept: Authentic French crêperie on wheels.
The Scoop: “We just wanted to offer something different from your everyday fare,” says Missy Coatrieux, who co-owns this mobile crêperie with her chef/husband Eric. Breizh is the Breton name for Brittany, where Eric is from, and where crêpes are taken very seriously. The plain crêpes and buckwheat galettes (thin, flat cakes) that Eric whips up on the navy-blue trailer’s two Krampouz crêpe irons are the real deal—thin and crisp, the perfect wrappers for such savory and sweet filling combinations as the Provençale (tomatoes, Gruyere, and pesto), the Loire Valley (goat cheese, strawberries, and baby spinach with honey Dijon), or the Bananatella (sliced bananas and Nutella). There are weekly and seasonal specials, too. What’s the most popular crepe? “It depends where we are,” says Missy. “At Johns Hopkins, it’s the Provençale with chicken; at Loyola, it’s the Normande, which is chicken, apples, and Brie. And at MICA, they like to come up with their own creative combinations.” Prices: crepes, $3-6.

Souper Freak
www.souperfreaks.com
Twitter: @SouperFreaky
Concept: Homemade soups, sandwiches, and salads from around the world.
The Scoop: As a kid, Irene Smith traveled internationally with her family. Wherever she went, she ate soup. There was beer-and-cheese soup in Ireland, gazpacho in Spain, white-bean soup with vegetables in Portugal, and back home in Potomac, MD, there was the chicken soup with fluffy matzo balls made by a friend’s grandmother. “Soup is healthy and delicious and just makes you feel good,” says Smith. So the former civil-rights lawyer decided to try her hand at serving soup and sandwiches from a 27-foot-long bright-orange truck. The menu changes daily, and has five soups, three salads, and four sandwiches, including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free offerings. Among the favorites are a posole, filled with chicken and hominy and topped with fresh salsa and tortilla strips; a variety of gazpachos; and a shrimp melt that combines crab-imperial-stuffed shrimp with melted cheese on flatbread. Ask for a sample of soup before you order to help you decide. Smith recently told a customer as she doled out a taste of Tuscan ribollita, “Just try one of my 600 other soups, and I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll love.” Prices: $3-7.

Miss Shirley’s Café
Facebook: Miss Shirley’s Cafe
Twitter: @missshirleys
Concept: Gourmet Southern food.
The Scoop: It didn’t take long for Miss Shirley’s Café to become a go-to place in Roland Park and the Inner Harbor for decadent Southern-inspired breakfasts and lunches. A third restaurant is slated to open in Annapolis in the fall, and, in the meantime, the Miss Shirley’s Café truck aims to bring their stacks of buttermilk and blueberry pancakes, bowls of gumbo, and overstuffed Alonsoville sandwiches (smoked turkey, Brie, apples, and honey mustard on ciabatta) to diners in the streets. The truck’s menu isn’t as expansive as the restaurant’s but includes many Miss Shirley’s classics, such as fried green tomatoes, the California Chicken BLT, and sweet-potato fries with mango ketchup and citrus aioli. Prices: $5-19.

And don’t miss these food trucks:

Cazbar On the Go (www.cazbar.pro, 410-528-1222): Succulent kebab and döner sandwiches, crisp falafel, creamy hummus, baba ghanoush, and other mezes come to you courtesy of the popular Mt. Vernon Turkish restaurant Cazbar. Find the cheery red truck serving lunch and dinner around town or call, and they’ll come to you.

Dangerously Delicious Pies (www.dangerouspies.com, Twitter: @BaltoPieTruck): Grab a slice of a Berger-cookie-stuffed Baltimore Bomb; a slab of sausage, tomato, and fennel; or a piece of crumb-topped mixed berry at this sleek black pie truck, founded by baker/rocker Rodney Henry of Dangerously Delicious Pies.

The Silver Platter (410-274-2619, Facebook: The-Silver-Platter). Lobster mac and cheese with truffle essence, seared scallops over fresh local corn cooked with thyme and cream, Baltimore pit-beef sandwiches, and New England lobster rolls are just a few of the treats that executive chef Chris Cherry and managing partner Damian Bohager are cooking up at this shiny silver truck. Find them parked at 421 Central Avenue in Harbor East from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and at local festivals on weekends.

The Great Cookie, Mobile (www.thegreatcookie.com, Facebook: The Great Cookie, Twitter: @thegreatcookie): Rich and buttery snickerdoodles outsell chocolate-chip cookies at a rate of five to one at this truck, an offshoot of Jason Fruman’s Owings Mills-based chain of seven cookie shops. Also, stop by for many other freshly baked cookie varieties, including oatmeal raisin, butter crunch, fudge chocolate chip, white-chocolate macadamia, and brownies.

Tacos Jalisco: For more than a decade, this silver truck stationed at the corner of Broadway, between Bank and Gough Streets, in Fells Point has been doling out delectable tacos stuffed with beef, lamb, and tongue; chicken gorditas; tamales; and other Mexican favorites. The truck serves from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day but Thursday.

RECIPIES

Gypsy Queen Cafe’s Crab-Cake Tacos with Red Chili and Old Bay Aioli

For the crab cakes:
2 pounds lump crabmeat
2 eggs
½ cup homemade or store-bought mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Old Bay
1 cup cubed white bread
2 tablespoons butter

For the tacos:
Corn tortillas
Shredded cabbage
Cilantro sprigs
Red Chili and Old Bay Aioli (recipe follows)

Carefully fold all crab-cake ingredients together. Form into small balls and lightly flatten.

Melt butter in a cast-iron skillet on medium heat and cook the crab cakes until golden brown, about three minutes per side.

To assemble, warm each corn tortilla in a hot pan or griddle, fill with crab cakes. Add shredded cabbage and cilantro sprigs, and drizzle with Red Chili and Old Bay Aioli.

Red Chili and Old Bay Aioli

1 cup homemade or store-bought mayonnaise
1 tablespoon crushed fresh garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 tablespoon chipotle in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon Old Bay
¼ cup fresh cilantro

Mix ingredients together in a small bowl.

—Recipes courtesy of Annmarie Langton, Gypsy Queen Cafe

Curbside Cafe’s Black Beans

1 (10-ounce) can black beans
1 ½ tablespoons ground cumin
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
1 ½ tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
3-4 sprigs fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Drain beans, rinse, and place in large pot. Add enough water to just reach the top of the beans. Mix in remaining ingredients, cover, and heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until boiling. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring often. Remove cilantro sprigs.

To serve, drain bean mixture with a slotted spoon and wrap in a corn or flour tortilla with rice, topped with lettuce, onion, avocado, tomato, chopped cilantro, cheese, and hot sauce, or serve as a side over rice. The beans taste better the next day after the flavors have had a chance to develop, and they freeze well.

—Recipe courtesy of Shawn Smith, Curbside Cafe

Icedgems S’mores Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
¾ cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup water
1 cup graham crackers, broken into dime-sized pieces
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
Marshmallow frosting (recipe follows)
Large marshmallows and squares of chocolate for decorating

Blend together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, oil, vanilla, and water, and beat until well-mixed. Stir in graham crackers, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

Scoop the mixture into cupcake tins lined with paper liners, and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until cake springs back to touch. Set out to cool. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Marshmallow Frosting
1 pound unsalted butter, softened
1 pound, 4 ounces powdered sugar
Milk, optional
Marshmallow Fluff

Blend butter and sugar, adding milk if needed for a smooth consistency, and mix on medium speed for 5 minutes. Stir in an equal quantity of Marshmallow Fluff.

Pipe frosting to decorate tops of cooled cupcakes. Add a larger marshmallow and a piece of dark chocolate to top for garnish. Brûlée the top of the marshmallow with a kitchen blow torch.

—Recipe courtesy of Christine Richardson, Icedgems Baking

Creperie Breizh’s Buckwheat Galette Stuffed with Dijonnaise Mushroom

For the buckwheat galette:
½ pound buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon oil
2 eggs, beaten
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups water
Butter for cooking galettes

For mushroom Dijonnaise filling:
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter
½ pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
Salt and pepper
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

To make galettes, place flour in a bowl, and make a well in the center. Add oil, beaten eggs, and salt in the well. Mix with a spatula, starting in the center and working toward the outside of the bowl. Add the water gradually while beating the batter to obtain a smooth batter, free of lumps. (An electric mixer on low speed works fine.) Let the batter rest for a couple of hours.

To cook the galettes, heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat until well heated. Add a little butter, and heat until melted. Pour a little bit of batter into pan and let cook until you can slide a spatula under the galette and flip it over to finish cooking the other side just as you would with a crêpe. It should have a nice golden color. Garnish with shredded Swiss cheese or cheddar, let melt, add the filling, and serve.

(You can make the galettes ahead of time. Then, reheat them in a non-stick frying pan, garnish with cheese, and fill with the mushroom mixture.)

To make mushroom filling, in a skillet, heat oil and butter over medium heat. When butter is foaming, add mushrooms, salt, and pepper, and sauté for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Mix cream with Dijon. Pour the mixture over the mushrooms, and mix with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat slightly, and let the cream thicken for about five minutes.

To assemble the galettes, add filling and roll them like a cigar, or place filling in the middle and fold the sides of the galette toward the middle, letting the filling peek out in the center. Garnish with chopped parsley if desired.

—Recipe courtesy of Eric Coatrieux, Creperie Breizh