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WYPR's Senior News Analyst opines on recent Maryland news.

Smith: A Strangely Quiet Baltimore

One returns after a weekend away to a strangely quiet Baltimore.

Quiet save for the gunfire.

We need a countervailing story, a new narrative. You want comeback in the headlines.

Changing the story grows more challenging every day. A pall of anxiety and concern refuses to lift.

We’re peppered by the downside: A protest-driven traffic jam-up greets plans for a new youth prison (Great timing on that one.) The grand jury indicts six police charged earlier. Governor Hogan’s decision to keep ex-offenders off the voter roles – and further removed from positive particiopation in the community. Reports on a U.S. Justice Department crackdown on Cleveland police, suggesting similar action in Baltimore.

What’s happening – or not happening now – could matter even more for her. As they say: Never let a good crisis go to waste.

The mayor, the governor and the state’s congregational delegation need to find some comeback symbols – accelerated school re-pair or new building in Sandtown, for example.

Something like that while they look for real answers.