Baltimore City’s nationally recognized summer jobs program, YouthWorks, continues to grow in popularity, increasing the need for employment opportunities this summer. In response, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has committed $500,000 and offered a second $500,000 as a challenge grant to be matched by the private sector. These funds will create more than 650 five-week summer jobs for city youth and young adults. But more money is needed in order to offer employment to all youth who have completed their registration.

Site Selection, March 2016: The magazine of corporate real estate strategy and economic development.

BALTIMORE'S NEW FRONT DOOR by Patty Rasmussen

The full article is available via this link to Site Selection (starting on page 208).

In a 2014 op-ed piece in The Baltimore Sun, then Maryland Secretary of Planning, Richard Eberhart Hall wrote, "Redevelopment provides environmental benefits by reinvesting in buildings and infrastructure, focusing growth where services exist rather than creating new developments on tracts far from population centers. People know it when they see it: downtowns bustling with activities and special events, a variety of housing types near places of employment, wide sidewalks that beckon to pedestrians and well-tended storefronts."

Bill Cole, CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), loves to tell the Baltimore story.

"We're the 4th fastest growing millennial population in the US and we have the 8th largest millennial population overall. You add in Under Armour, you add in John's Hopkins University, the University of Maryland and two rapidly growing bio-parks and all of a suddent you have this young vibrant workforce.

Of the 25 largest metros, in the past 5 years greater Baltimore has experienced the 3rd fastest growth of education degrees, 4th fastest growth of science and engineering degrees, and 5th fastest growth of business degrees amount 25 to 39 year olds.

Greater Baltimore has increased startup activity by 7.4% since 2010 compared to 3.1% nationwide.

U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) President Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued the following statement on U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and his Connecting People to Opportunity Initiative. “The U.S. Conference of Mayors commends U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx for his leadership in focusing public attention on how past investment decisions have harmed low-income families and neighborhoods -- people and places that too often have been asked to carry disproportionate burdens in the siting of major transportation facilities.

Every year I celebrate Women’s History Month in March. One of my personal programs is titled Inspired to Inspire. This year’s theme is Champions & Visionaries. We reached out to the city and encouraged men and women, young and old, to write an essay about the woman or women who inspire them most.

I was delighted to receive numerous essays written from the heart about women from all over the city, with varying backgrounds and cultural histories. Each one was an inspiration in its own right.