Baltimore Fishbowl covers the region’s important day-to-day news and the stories of people who make this city a unique and heartening place to live.
Executive Editor David Nitkin and Senior Editor Marcus Dieterle looked back at the stories we covered in 2022 and gathered their top choices for readers to revisit. Here are our Fishbowl Editors’ Top Picks for 2022, in order of publication date:
Baltimore’s changing media landscape
Baltimore Fishbowl celebrated our 10th anniversary last year. As we look ahead to our next 10, we wanted to reflect on changes among our fellow local media outlets. Tim Swift’s article, which ran Feb. 16, examined the launch of the Baltimore Banner; the return of the Baltimore Beat; cuts at the Baltimore Sun; and other developments in Charm City’s news ecosystem.
A church’s efforts to build a more inclusive faith community
After LGBTQ+ individuals, divorcees, and other parishioners have been turned away from the Roman Catholic Church, a new Baltimore church is trying to bring them back into the faith with the promise of an inclusive and judgment-free community. Members of the budding Our Lady Undoer of Knots church shared their stories in Marcus Dieterle’s article from March 30.
Community hub at Mondawmin Mall
Whiting Turner CEO Tim Regan bought the former Target store at Mondawmin Mall with plans to open a new community “hub.” Adam DeRose explored what that will mean in this April 21 article. (JP Morgan Chase also opened Baltimore’s first community branch at the mall in December.)
A stately country house in North Roland Park was once the site of Happy Hills Convalescent Home for Children. Happy Hills later moved to a larger home and was renamed the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital. Linda West writes about its history in this article from April 25.
A rollercoaster year for Artscape
Artscape was on for this year — then it was off. Baltimore City Council members questioned the head of the Baltimore Office for Promotion and the Arts, the agency that puts on Artscape, about its budget, staffing and more. Unsatisfied with the answers to those questions, the council members moved to temporarily withhold $196,000 from the agency’s fiscal year 2023 budget until they received sufficient responses, a decision that Ed Gunts covered in this June 14 article.
‘Late to the Party,’ or right on time?
Baltimore rapper Kotic Couture, a rising star from the city’s club music scene, this summer released her new album, “Late to the Party,” ranging from a song about the death of her father to more humorous tunes. Ed Schrader sat down with Kotic to discuss listening to pop-punk music in a small town, coming out to relatives as a trans woman, and more in this Aug. 4 article.
The Maryland tennis club that trained a U.S. Open semifinalist
Maryland native and tennis star Frances Tiafoe made it to the semi-finals of the U.S. Open this year, becoming the first Black man to do so since Arthur Ashe in 1972. In this Nov. 2 article, Karuga Koinange wrote about the tennis club in College Park, Maryland where Tiafoe trained while growing up.
In Columbia, the planned community in Howard County, some members of the Columbia Association Board of Directors considered ousting the association’s CEO – the closest thing the community has to a mayor or city manager. David Nitkin wrote about the troubles brewing in the Columbia Association in this Nov. 10 article, followed by updates from one of the Columbia village boards and the denial of the association CEO’s request to challenge her evaluation.
Growth and improvements at Morgan State
Latrice Hill wrote in this Nov. 14 article about Morgan State University’s efforts to improve student housing and academic buildings, as well as the university’s collaboration with community members to restore nearby neighborhoods.
This Dec. 21 article by Karen Nitkin highlights 19-year-old Darron Thompson, who is a natural at shucking oysters just one year after learning the trade. On a busy night at True Chesapeake Oyster Co. in Clipper Mill, Thompson might shuck 1,000 oysters.
