Canton : Buzz

Baltimore gotten some serious foodie cred, according to Fodor's Travel. 

From swanky joints like Ouzo Bay in Harbor East and farm-to-table restaurants like Fleet Street Kitchen, Baltimore is undergoing a culinary renaissance, Fodor's writes.

"Chefs are embracing the farm-to-table movement, working with growers from across Maryland and Virginia to incorporate locally grown ingredients on their menus," Fodor's writes.

Fodor's also mentions the Food Market in Hampden; Waterfront Kitchen in Fells Point; Pabu and Wit & Wisdom, both located in the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore; and, Woodberry Kitchen. It also mentions Canton's the Fork & Wrench, whose owners are opening another restaurant in Fells Point. Read the entire story here. 

Business Insider has featured a list of the 15 Best Startups to Work For in America and two Baltimore companies made the list: Parking Panda and Groove Commerce. 

Creative digital agency Groove offers 100 percent benefits and free Friday lunches, Business Insider writes. The company also recently moved into a 10,000-square-foot office in the Fallsway Spring building near Little Italy. 

Parking Panda hosts retreats at the beach and outings in restaurants. 

Office design company Turnstone partnered with University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Professor Peter Cappelli to come up with the list. Turnstone asked for nominations and then judges selected the 15 best based on four criteria: Business goals and impact, leadership, the culture and office space, and success potential, a measure of the business's ability to grow and how that growth could contribute positively to the community.

See the whole list here. 

USA Today has published a list of the 51 Great Pizza Parlors in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, based on recommendations from local foodies and writers.

Highlandtown's Matthew's Pizza — known for its deep-dish pie — makes the cut in Maryland. 

"In Baltimore, everybody loves Matthew's Pizza," USA Today writes. "It's just a hole in the wall, but it dishes out pies with volume: thick, with soft-but-chewy crust, rich tomato-y sauce and the right amount of gooey, salty cheese."

USA Today notes that the pizza joint has been around since 1943. Local writer Mary K. Tilghman chose the spot on behalf of the publication. You can see the entire list of favorite pizza joints here. 

Advertising Age has named a female executive at Baltimore's Millennial Media on its list of "Women to Watch."

Mollie Spilman, the Canton mobile advertising firm's chief marketing officer, is one of 25 successful females on this list.

The former chief marketing officer at Yahoo tells Ad Age that Baltimore acts is a weekend respite for her and her two kids after spending her work week traveling to far-flung destinations like Paris, London, Los Angeles, Germany and Singapore. 

In spite of her achievements, she tells Ad Age that she has mixed feelings about being labeled a successful female executive.

"You don’t want to be singled out as a special case, as if there should be some different threshold for women.”

Read the entire story here.

Pennsylvania brewer D.G. Yuengling & Son is putting the spotlight on Baltimore.

It's filming a number of TV ads in Baltimore that promote Yuengling Lager and Yuengling Light Lager in Baltimore, Shanken News Daily writes. Shanken in a daily email news service that covers the wine, beer and spirits industry. 

"Yuengling’s upcoming set of ads includes five new spots currently in production in Baltimore, focusing on the brewery’s Yuengling Lager and Yuengling Light Lager brands," Shanken writes. "They will target the 21-34-year-old age group that represents the company’s core consumer. The new ads follow a recent push in Yuengling’s home market of Philadelphia, aimed toward reinforcing its status as a household name amid an 'influx of new, competitive beer brands.'" 

You can read the rest of the article here. 

And you can read about the commercials' filming in Canton here. 

Now that Michael Phelps has retired from competitive swimming after winning 22 Olympic medals, you might wonder what he's going to do with his time.

It turns out that most decorated Olympian is going shark diving with his South African competitor Chad Le Clos. He told NBC's Bob Costas in a post-race interview that he's fascinated by the creature and plans to go diving in South Africa with the swimmer who has long regarded Phelps as his idol.

“That’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and Chad (Le Clos) and I were talking, and Chad said ‘why don’t you come to South Africa?’ So I said ‘let’s dive with great whites together.’ And he said ‘OK, let’s set it up,’" Larry Brown Sports writes. 

He also talks about taking up golf to maintain his competitive edge. 

But will the Olympian stay in Baltimore after selling his Fells Point condo for a $400,000 loss? A source tells WBAL News that he purchased another property in Canton. 

Washing your car. Everybody does, but few think about its impact on the environment. A local entrepreneur is on the cutting edge of the carwash industry with his green carwash in Canton.

Watch the video:

While Baltimore's tech community, local business leaders, government reps and citizens make a push to be the lucky city chosen to recieve Google's ultra-highspeed broadband network, it seems our fair city is already pretty darn wired, according to Forbes' list of America's Most Wired Cities.

Out of 20 cities, Baltimore ranks no. 8 on the list just three spots behind the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia-area, the only other city in the Mid-Atlantic region to make the list. The ranking does take into account the estimated 66 percent broadband adoption rate in Baltimore, the 18 broadband providers and 10,141 people per wi-fi hot spot. It didn't count the citywide Wifi, Clear, available in Baltimore using WiMax technology.

Here's an excerpt:

"...we compiled the list by computing the percentage of Internet users with high-speed connections in a particular city and the number of companies providing high-speed Internet in that area. Since many urban residents access the Internet by wi-fi, we also measure the number of public wireless Internet hot spots."

Read the entire article here. Read the Baltimore blurb here.

Baltimore's grassroots effort to be one of the lucky city's chosen as a test ground for Google's ultra-fast 1-gigabit per second broadband deployment is just one of several currently taking shape in city's across the country. See what the other cities competing for the prize doing...

Here's an excerpt:

"Broadband-starved cities and towns across the country are going to great lengths to grab the attention of Mountain View (Calif.)-based Google, which in February said it will set up a network that can deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second, about 20 times faster than the speediest ones sold by Verizon Communications (VZ). Google will spend "hundreds of millions" on the effort, Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, said in a recent interview with Bloomberg News.

To set themselves apart, some municipal officials are naming cities after Google, owner of the world's largest Web search engine. The city of Greensboro, N.C., is preparing an "Operation Google" gift package for delivery to Google headquarters and has earmarked $50,000 for promoting a Google broadband effort."

Read the entire article here.

Otis Rolley III, president and chief executive officer of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, admonishes readers of the Sun who object to surface portions of the Red Line along Boston Street in Canton and Edmonson Avenue to consider the infeasibility of a subterranean route there and to participate in talks with city planners about alternatives.

An excerpt from the letter reads:

The Maryland Transit Administration has stated it will study traffic mitigation and parking management plans for both Edmondson Avenue and Canton. It will examine streetscape enhancements and environmental sustainability strategies and work with residents who are impacted by the Red Line route.

That's an open invitation for critics to become part of the solution rather than remaining part of the problem. It's the way other cities with light-rail projects have proceeded: They listened to opponents' critiques and sought to find acceptable solutions. The results there have been highly positive. We must hold the Maryland Transit Administration to its stated commitment and make sure everyone is part of the process.

From my experience as a former Baltimore City planning director, the Red Line process has been the most open and inclusive of any transit project in Baltimore's history. The number of public meetings and hearings has been extensive, even before Maryland submits a plan to the Federal Transit Administration.

Read the entire letter here.

Home sales in the Baltimore area rose for the second straight month, giving residents a hopeful sign that the housing market here is strengthening.

An excerpt from the article reads:

The number of homes sold in July throughout Greater Baltimore rose 10 percent to 2,240, up from 2,038 during the same month last year. That's according to Rockville market research firm Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

Meanwhile, the median sold price in the Baltimore area � including Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties � declined by 6.5 percent to $259,950.

Both home builders and economists have said the uptick in sales could be linked to first-time buyers taking advantage of the government's $8,000 tax credit and overall better real estate prices. Units sold in June rose nearly 2 percent, marking the first year-over-year increase in Greater Baltimore in more than two years.

Read the entire article here.

Baltimore people on Twitter love their city and aren't shy about telling all twitterdom in 140 characters or less. Check this space every week as we comb Twitter for the best of what they're saying. And follow Bmore on Twitter here.

@Tawilkins says she feels sorry for people outside of Baltimore who have not experienced the pleasure of a summer snowball.

@Petote, affected by her trip on the cultural side, says the visionary art museum in baltimore was so interesting, but also, disturbing, it wouldnt get out of my nightmares last night

And that leads us to our Tweet of the Week, from @Ayakobing, who just wants everyone to know that B-more rocks! RT @hollisthomases: I am very proud to say that so many Baltimore peeps "get" Twitter. Baltimore rocks!!

Feedback from Twitter on our recent launch was very supportive. Thanks for the love, and here's a sampling:

MissMktr who tweets that if @RyanatMGH Need a reason to move to Union Square?, then Read @bmoremedia's article http://bit.ly/UG9su

DanieljGross sees a future for the 'zine @BmoreMedia just checked out the site that was recently launched. I think it could definitely catch on. Can't wait to see its growth!

GBMCMedia cosigned on Erica Mechlinski's tweet, announcing both had signed up for our e-newsletter, have you? RT @EricaMechlinski New fan of @bmoremedia. Just signed up to have it delivered to my inbox weekly. http://bit.ly/YD2Ts so did I :-)