Buzz

Baltimore's twitterati were busy last week. So, even though we were on vacation, we saw a few we knew had to be on this week's TOTW list.

BRAC is coming and so are the jobs, hopefully this tweet from @MDBiz  will help you land a new gig! "A primer for BRAC job-seekers: MD's Mike Hayes on security clearances, timing & whether you need a college degree. http://bit.ly/c3Lf3K"

We're sooo looking forward to Artscape and this makes it even better! @WeightlessOne tweets, "There's a stoop storytelling workshop and performance for free on Saturday at #Artscape. http://bit.ly/d47peW."

@OpenSociety tweeted two really good questions, "How would you define "open society"? We often talk about the idea, but what does it mean to you?" and "Audacious Idea: What would Baltimore look like if everyone had a home? http://bit.ly/djyENV"  Send us your answers on Twitter!

Have you heard? @ABC2NEWS needs volunteers! "Top Stories: Extreme Home Makeover volunteers needed - The Extreme Home Makeover crew is calling on Baltimore area r... http://ow.ly/184Znd"

Dogs are always a winner! @BaltimoreMD "Doggies playing in the fountain outside our Visitor Center. #HappyPlace http://twitpic.com/23vfk0"

Want a chance for your tweet to make our list? Follow us @bmoremedia and @bmoremediame! You can also send us your favorite tweets on Twitter or via email.

When then-Mayor Martin O'Malley announced plans to redevelop a large swath of East Baltimore that would require the displacement of more than 500 families, it was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. Flash forward and the plan is being hailed as the model for other cities.

Here's an excerpt:

"The question is: Can we Americans be more sensitive than we were after World War II, when "urban renewal" forced inner-city residents - mostly black - to abandon their neighborhoods? The prime excuse then was to "eradicate blight." But the uses of the lost neighborhood land often told a different tale: flashy public projects, real estate opportunities for developers and massive freeways that plowed through low-income and minority areas.

Notwithstanding redevelopment around the Inner Harbor, much of Baltimore's inner city was a poster child for deindustrialization. It saw riots in the 1960s, a massive middle-class exodus, waves of drugs, crime, property "flippers" and slumlords.

The Casey Foundation was initially skeptical when Baltimore's mayor, now Gov. Martin O'Malley, asked for help with a $1 billion-plus plan to acquire and demolish hundreds of homes in the Middle East neighborhood, just north of the Johns Hopkins campus. The idea was to create an 88-acre community for life sciences research facilities, retail development and market-rate housing."

Read the entire op-ed here.

Maryland's Federal Facilities Advisory Board, the officials who will pave the way for cooperation between federal, state, government and private companies meet last week to discuss the plans to bring the U.S. Cyber Command and the Defense Information Systems Agency move from Arlington.

Here's an excerpt:

"Everyone focuses on BRAC because that's the big animal, the 800-pound gorilla ... but growth at Fort Meade is a bigger issue than BRAC ... As we looked at this growth over a five- to seven-year time frame -- let's go out to 2013 -- we saw 5,695 [jobs] from BRAC; we estimated [another] 4,000 [new jobs] at NSA [National Security Agency] ... The magnitude of the growth is what really counts here ... At the beginning, this is going to be a mass assault on the transportation system around Fort Meade." -- Robert C. Leib, the Anne Arundel county executive's special assistant for BRAC and education"

Read the entire post here.

Just in case you couldn't make it to the TEDxOilSpill conference held in Washington, D.C., here's what the event's two founders, Dave Troy and Nate Mook, had to say about it.

Here's an excerpt:

"There's sort of this void right now with information coming out of the Gulf," says Nate Mook. "Something catastrophic has happened. Most people don't understand the underlying issues that led to this happening. They're really not aware of the all of the complexities behind their getting into their car and driving � it's brought to the forefront a lot of things that have been on the sidelines for a long time � with our oceans, with how important the marine eco-system is, with where we are getting our energy, what are we putting at risk, and � new technologies being developed."

Read the entire post here.

Baltimore's public schools aren't the only schools teaching the city's young people about healthier eating. Charter schools like Baltimore Stadium School are also helping to spread the word.

Here's an excerpt:

"Although Michelle Obama and her Let's Move Campaign call for major top-down food policy reform, Dixon takes a different approach. While reforming food policy is of course a long-term goal, Food Is Elementary has a more immediate priority: educating kids about healthy eating by working within existing constraints and regulations. Major policy changes face a tremendous number of barriers: the federal reimbursement rate for the school lunch program, for example, has not increased since 1973. In contrast, Food Is Elementary's bottom-up strategy could lay the necessary groundwork for changes to take place and serve as a model for other nutrition programs with similar goals."

Read the entire article here.

The economic downturn has hit many industries hard, forcing employers to lay-off employees. The healthcare sector hasn't been immune, but seems to be coming back with Johns Hopkins Hospital hiring some 400 workers and Bravo Healthcare hiring 40.

Here's an excerpt:

"Johns Hopkins Hospital has 400 job openings.

It was scorching hot in Baltimore last week, but Charm City's tweeters kept the the tweets coming! Here's what caught our eye while we tried to stay cool!

@walters_museum has a great way for art lovers to stay out of the heat and get their cultural fix at the same time, "We're always adding art to our online collection. Did you know that, as of last week, we have 7,884 works of art online? http://ow.ly/21UhC"

Is it too hot to ponder big ideas? We don't think so! @bmoreconnected tweets, "what does an independent baltimore mean to you?"

@wrappedinsaran tweets that she "Love spending time in original northwood for my sewing class. cute little neighborhood." We love it too!

We love the free transportation and if it uses hybrid technology, we love it even more! So you know we loved these tweets...

@fulyag tweets, "Took the Charm City Circulator today,made the morning commute fun but still don't understand why there is not 1 route going down to Canton."

@annieksong tweets that she was "Waiting for the Charm City Circulator to take me to Penn Station. The Baltimore public transit beats SF Muni by miles. http://twitpic.com/1"

Let the invasion begin! @BeerInBaltimore tweets "Maryland beer invades the Great British Beer Festival! Details: http://j.mp/9gL1Uc"

Trying to keep it cool? Here're some cost-saving tips from @baltimoresun, "High temps got you down? These incentives and discounts help Marylanders save on electric bills.http://bit.ly/dqAtBW "

@RockinBrock poses this question, "Urban knitting. A new form of graffiti?: http://tinyurl.com/5wa4uz #guerrilla #art" What do you think?


Don't see your tweet? Follow us on Twitter @bmoremedia and @bmoremediame. Or nominate your favorite tweet for a spot on our list!

Vacationers will now be able to travel to Bermuda and the Eastern Caribbean from Baltimore year round on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas.

Here's an excerpt:

"Today is a big day at the Port of Baltimore as Royal Caribbean debuts its first year-round sailings from the city.

The industry giant's 2,252-passenger Enchantment of the Seas is replacing the smaller, 1,950-passenger Grandeur of the Seas, which only sailed seasonally out of the Baltimore port.

Enchantment of the Seas initially will sail a series of five-night Bermuda and nine-night Eastern Caribbean roundtrip itineraries from the city."

Read the entire post here.

Ever wonder why Baltimore has so many murals and where they are? This blogger answers the why and points the way to the where.

Here's an excerpt:

"I'm starting a regular feature to highlight them and this will allow me to mention other aspects of art in the process. Baltimore, Maryland has a Mural Painting Program that I did not know about. Evidently, this has been ongoing for 30 years! In 2008, through the program, CityPaint, there was a push to get 20 murals painted."

Read the entire post here.

Second Chance, a Baltimore-based non-profit, is making a name for itself by salvaging what might normally be thrown away and repurposing it.

Here's an excerpt:

"Where does stuff salvaged from old homes go? To answer that question, I drove an hour north to Baltimore Saturday to check out four warehouses run by Second Chance, a non-profit training group.

The warehouses, open to the public as retail outlets, are brimming with sofas, antiques, fireplace mantels, stained glass windows, chandeliers, old church pews, appliances, cabinetry, bathtubs, doors and lumber taken from dozens of houses and sold at low prices."

Read the entire article here.

Whether it was the mid-summer like heat or one of many other fun events happening around Baltimore last weekend that kept you from the African-American Heritage Festival, you're in luck! You can still get a taste of what the festival had to offer.

Here's an excerpt:

"This weekend the African American Heritage Festival was held in downtown Baltimore and we had the opportunity to see some stars come through. Here' some video of Robin Thicke, Fantasia & Marsha Ambrosious peforming."

Watch the videos here.

Summer break has officially begun! That's great for the kids, but can be rough on parents eager to get their children out of the house to burn off some of that excess energy. Geocaching could be just the thing according to this the Examiner's Outdoor Recreation blogger.

Here's an excerpt:

"We, as a family, have recently discovered geocaching. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game, one where seekers equipped with GPS devices go out to locate hidden containers, called geocaches. Given the coordinates and a few clues found on-line at one of the geocache websites, you seek out hidden caches placed by other gamers."

Read the entire post here.

If you're like us you spent most of your time last week trying to get and stay cool! Here're the tweets that caught our attention whiel we cooled down!

Thanks @SlowFoodBmore! We were wondering what do with the 4 lbs. of peas we bought for $10 at the JFX Farmers' Market "Read our blog post on how to make the best use and storage of your Farmer's Market goodies! http://ow.ly/1Zkdc"

Still looking for something for your kid to do this summer? @prattlibrary tweets, "Swe-eet! Nearly 5,000 kids have already registered for Summer Reading 2010! Have you registered yours?"

Big congrats to @bad_decisions who got some great news! "just got a call from food network. my ugly mug might be on tv soon. #OMGWTFBBQ!" and then later this tantalizing hint..."thanks for the well wishes everyone! its for an episode on, you guessed it: bacon!"

We've put on our thinking caps...how about you? @GBTC  "Please RT: Okay Bmore, get those creative juices flowing & enter the TechNite 2010 Naming Contest! http://ow.ly/21r6Q"

This we had to see to believe! @BeerConnoisseur tweets, "The World's Largest Rolling, Soon To Be Flying, Beer Mug is complete! Had my bro, Tim, stand next to it for... http://fb.me/zZOpC00d"

Don't see one of your tweets? Then follow us @bmoremedia and @bmoremediame, or send us your choices for the Tweet of the Week!

Cycling enthusiasts shed a tear when the Tour Du Pont bike race hit the brakes more than a decade ago. They'll be pedaling for joy soon, if state officials and the Tour Du Pont's former promoter manages to bring a new weeklong cycling event to Maryland.

Here's an excerpt:

"Fourteen years after the annual mid-Atlantic cycling race Tour Du Pont abruptly ended, state officials and cycling enthusiasts are trying to bring a race to Maryland in 2012 that could generate as much as $40 million in annual spending.

Tour de Maryland would be a seven-day cycling event covering roads in all five regions of the state � Southern, central and Western Maryland; the Eastern Shore and the capital region, according to Terry Hasseltine, the state's director of sports marketing who is trying to position the race as a mid-spring precursor to the Tour de France."

Read the entire article here.

It's a gardener's paradise -- .that is if you enjoy walking through acres of carefully maintained formal gardens surrounding a beautifully maintained mansion -- Baltimore County's Ladew Gardens is a must.

Here's an excerpt:

"Open for the season, the Garden Rooms range in styles from the grand Great Bowl and the impressive Iris Garden (with its 400-foot stream) to the serene Water Lily Garden. The historic manor house, open for tours, boasts an amazing array of English antique furnishings and equestrian-themed paintings, all collected by Ladew.