Taking to the street

Hot and sunny today, but not very humid. Cooler tomorrow, with clouds and the chance of rain.

community

Last night, city leaders, police, and neighborhood residents came out for National Night Out gatherings across Baltimore.The yearly community event comes during one of the most violent streaks in the city’s history, with 45 killed in July and 119 since the start of May. In Waverly, Dwayne Elliott, father of McKenzie Elliott, the three-year-old shot and killed on her front porch last summer, addressed the crowd.

Elliott: “Can we make a change? Of course we can, but it will take me and probably a 100,000 more people.”

city

Workers demolished an entire block of abandoned rowhouses in east Baltimore’s Berea neighborhood, as part of the city’s Vacants to Value program. Residents complained that the empty block was dangerous and dragging down the rest of the area. One concern: there still aren’t plans for the newly-cleared space

cityhall

In an interview with 98 Rock’s morning crew (sure, why not), Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she won’t quit, despite relentless criticism of her handling of April’s unrest and the ongoing violence in the city.

Rawlings-Blake: “I work very hard to make our city better. I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to resign.”

tech

ZeroFOX’s CEO James Foster is defending the local cybersecurity firm’s decision to send city leaders a crisis assessment report labelling peaceful protest organizers as physical threats. Baltimore Rex came across the report last week, after CityExplainer made a large archive of city emails related to April’s unrest available.

Foster says ZeroFOX was just trying to help the city, and was not contracted for the report. He noted that while human analysts compiled the report, algorithms determined the threat actors. Foster did not apologize for his company’s systems targeting demonstrators, or suggest any improvements that could be made to prevent this from happening again.

ravens

Yes, people are still talking about Deflate-gate. Newly-revealed documents suggest that the Ravens warned the Colts about New England’s suspiciously-deflated footballs.Previously, Ravens officials denied this ever happened.

business

A pop-up shop selling only goods made in Baltimore will open in Station North this weekend. Organized by the Industrial Arts Collective, the month-long pop-up’s goal is to highlight local manufacturers, artists, and food vendors.