Your Complete Guide to Inner Harbor Baltimore Restaurants, Hotels & Events.
Inner Harbor is the crown jewel of Baltimore, Maryland with our restaurants, hotels and THE historic seaport vacation destination that attracts millions each year.
Whatever brings you to Inner Harbor Baltimore, there is something for everyone. From hotels and restaurants, live music on the pier to a haunting ghost tour on Fells Point, you will not be disappointed at the array of activities offered.
Some of the more frequented attractions include The National Aquarium, Port Discovery, The Gallery, Little Italy, Maryland Science Center, USS Constellation and Harborplace. There truly is something for everyone!
News
Mike Young, who played 6 seasons for the Orioles in the 1980s, dies at 63
Mike Young, an outfielder who played six seasons for the Orioles in the 1980s, died of a heart attack Sunday while visiting his wife’s family in Brazil, the team said. He was 63.“We are saddened to learn of the passing of former outfielder Mike Young,” the Orioles wrote on Twitter on Monday evening. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time.”AdvertisementYoung played for the Orioles from 1982 to 1987, appearing in 520 games and patrolling all three outfield spots. He was one of Baltimore’s best hitters in 1984 and 1985, finishing fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in the former and blasting a career-high 28 home runs in the latter.Across his eight-year career with Baltimore, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Cleveland, Young hit .247 with 72 homers in 635 games.AdvertisementYoung, an Oakland, California, native, was drafted No. 11 overall by the Orioles in the secondary phase of the 1980 January draft. He made his MLB debut at 22 years old on Sept. 14, 1982, against the New York Yankees. He entered as a pinch-runner for Rich Dauer in the eighth inning, advanced to third on a single from rookie Cal Ripken Jr. and scored the game-tying run on a single from Eddie Murray. The Orioles won the game, 5-4.Orioles outfielder Mike Young grimaces during morning workouts at Miami Stadium in February 1984. Young died of a heart attack Sunday while visiting his wife’s family in Brazil, the team said. He was 63. (GENE SWEENEY, JR. / Baltimore Sun)He batted just twice after his call-up in September 1982, mostly serving as a pinch-runner. He was promoted again in the summer of 1983 and appeared in 25 games that year, mostly as a defensive replacement and base runner. Young spent September on the Orioles’ expanded roster, but he wasn’t on the playoff roster that won the club’s third and most recent World Series.Over the next four seasons as a starter in Baltimore, Young hit .255 with 70 home runs and 214 RBIs. He became the fifth player in major league history to hit two extra-inning homers in one game on May 28, 1987, in Baltimore’s 8-7 win over the California Angels at Memorial Stadium. He entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning, hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 10th to tie the game and then blasted a two-run walk-off long ball to win it.The Orioles traded Young to the Phillies before the 1988 season, which he split between Philadelphia and Milwaukee. He played for Cleveland in 1989 and then for Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan in 1990, his final year in professional baseball.Attempts to reach Young’s family Tuesday afternoon have been unsuccessful.This story might be updated.
Baltimore City Council probes staffing increases in mayor’s office, elsewhere on first day of budget hearings
Baltimore City Council drilled down Tuesday on personnel issues and spending in the mayor’s office with City Administrator Faith Leach during the start of a week of hearings on the proposed budget for next year, the first for which the council can exercise new budgeting powers.Questions for Leach, who has held the city’s No. 2 role for only six months, touched upon a swath of long-running issues, such as trash, blight and problems with 311 system residents use to lodge complaints.AdvertisementBut it was city staffing — be it in the mayor’s office, working for the council members themselves or vacancy issues citywide — that commanded much of the council’s attention.Council President Nick Mosby questioned the logic of adding positions, as suggested by Mayor Brandon Scott in his proposed $4.4 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2024, when so many current openings are unfilled. Scott, Mosby and all of the council members are Democrats.AdvertisementBaltimore has a roughly 13% vacancy rate across about 14,000 budgeted positions. Scott’s budget proposes additions of jobs in the Department of Public Works to staff additional trash collection crews and in the Office of Infrastructure Development, among other places. It also proposes freezing some positions that have sat vacant.Mosby noted that as many as 189 positions have remained vacant for more than two years.“The money really should be reallocated to go after and fix up some of the infrastructure, some of the one-time system costs, some of the problems that have been raised ... as opposed to just sitting there, idly standing by, while we’re also creating new positions,” Mosby said.[ Shantay Jackson, director of Baltimore mayor’s public safety office, to resign ]The council has a month to consider Scott’s proposed spending plan, which includes $3.5 billion in operating costs and $888 million in capital expenditures. The proposal would hold the line on the property tax rate and includes a $79 million boost in education spending required by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.For the first time in more than a century, the council has the ability to cut and add spending amounts, a new dynamic in a process that typically favors the mayor. Previously, the council could cut but not reallocate funds within the budget. The new power, approved by voters via a charter amendment in 2020, does not allow the council to exceed the total of Scott’s proposed budget.During Tuesday’s hearing with Leach, which lasted more than three hours, council members probed the growing size of the staff in the mayor’s office, as well as in Leach’s office. Councilman Eric Costello, who chairs the budget hearing process, said the mayor’s staff has grown from 76 positions paid $11.4 million in fiscal year 2021 to 103 positions that would be paid $17.1 million in the proposed spending plan.Costello called the increases “somewhat frustrating” when council has been limited in what it can pay its own staff.Leach defended the expansion of the mayor’s office. Some positions were added due to the reorganization of offices and agencies, she said, while others are grant-funded. Thirteen positions are being created in the new Office of Infrastructure Development, she said, which will be dedicated to trying to secure federal infrastructure money.Advertisement“If we want to recruit talented people to manage projects, we’re going to have to pay them over $100,000 to do that,” she said.[ After EPA order, Baltimore says it will finish reservoir projects by the end of the year ]Leach’s own position has been the subject of council scrutiny this year. A coalition of four council members initially blocked Leach’s appointment to the city administrator post in March, citing complaints not about Leach, but about the role of a city administrator within the executive branch. The position was created in 2020 via a charter amendment spearheaded by Scott when he was a council member. Voters overwhelmingly approved the position via a ballot question.Maryland Policy & PoliticsWeeklyKeep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials.Under intense pressure from the Scott administration, council members reversed course just days later to approve Leach’s appointment. But Tuesday’s lengthy hearing on Leach’s office — more than twice the length of the 2022 hearing on the subject — signaled the council’s continued interest in the position.Leach opened her remarks by presenting a crowded organizational chart of the mayor’s office. She noted that 80% of the 25 most-populated cities the United States employ professional managers or administrators.Councilman Mark Conway, one of the councilmen who initially voted against Leach, complained Leach’s budget is not segregated from the mayor’s in the budget materials, making it difficult to discern how much the office has grown.Under Leach’s leadership, the city administrator has a deputy paid $215,000; a special assistant making $114,000; two assistants paid $129,000 and $147,961, respectively, and a director of external partnerships paid $104,910. Leach makes $197,676, according to a memo submitted to the council earlier this year.AdvertisementConway questioned whether Leach wants to further expand the office in the image of Washington, D.C.’s administrator, who has significantly more employees. Leach said she hopes to develop her own model in Baltimore. The initial two-person operation, established by Leach’s predecessor Chris Shorter, was not large enough, she said.“I don’t think with the types of issues we are expected to tackle and address and reform, that we are expected to implement as a government, that is sufficient,” she said. “What we have now is a really solid staff with a top-tier team that is the envy of any other city manager’s office.”The council’s budget hearings will continue through June 6. A final budget must be approved by June 26.
Sports
Mike Young, who played 6 seasons for the Orioles in the 1980s, dies at 63
Mike Young, an outfielder who played six seasons for the Orioles in the 1980s, died of a heart attack Sunday while visiting his wife’s family in Brazil, the team said. He was 63.“We are saddened to learn of the passing of former outfielder Mike Young,” the Orioles wrote on Twitter on Monday evening. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time.”AdvertisementYoung played for the Orioles from 1982 to 1987, appearing in 520 games and patrolling all three outfield spots. He was one of Baltimore’s best hitters in 1984 and 1985, finishing fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in the former and blasting a career-high 28 home runs in the latter.Across his eight-year career with Baltimore, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Cleveland, Young hit .247 with 72 homers in 635 games.AdvertisementYoung, an Oakland, California, native, was drafted No. 11 overall by the Orioles in the secondary phase of the 1980 January draft. He made his MLB debut at 22 years old on Sept. 14, 1982, against the New York Yankees. He entered as a pinch-runner for Rich Dauer in the eighth inning, advanced to third on a single from rookie Cal Ripken Jr. and scored the game-tying run on a single from Eddie Murray. The Orioles won the game, 5-4.Orioles outfielder Mike Young grimaces during morning workouts at Miami Stadium in February 1984. Young died of a heart attack Sunday while visiting his wife’s family in Brazil, the team said. He was 63. (GENE SWEENEY, JR. / Baltimore Sun)He batted just twice after his call-up in September 1982, mostly serving as a pinch-runner. He was promoted again in the summer of 1983 and appeared in 25 games that year, mostly as a defensive replacement and base runner. Young spent September on the Orioles’ expanded roster, but he wasn’t on the playoff roster that won the club’s third and most recent World Series.Over the next four seasons as a starter in Baltimore, Young hit .255 with 70 home runs and 214 RBIs. He became the fifth player in major league history to hit two extra-inning homers in one game on May 28, 1987, in Baltimore’s 8-7 win over the California Angels at Memorial Stadium. He entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning, hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 10th to tie the game and then blasted a two-run walk-off long ball to win it.The Orioles traded Young to the Phillies before the 1988 season, which he split between Philadelphia and Milwaukee. He played for Cleveland in 1989 and then for Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan in 1990, his final year in professional baseball.Attempts to reach Young’s family Tuesday afternoon have been unsuccessful.This story might be updated.
Parkville hires Ben Thompson, who led Gerstell to 2 MIAA B Conference titles, as boys basketball coach
Two years after stepping down as Gerstell’s boys basketball coach, Ben Thompson is scratching his itch to return to the sideline by taking over the helm at Parkville.Thompson replaces coach Josh Czerski, who guided the Knights to their first Class 4A state championship in March before taking over at Loyola Blakefield later that month.AdvertisementThompson spent seven seasons from 2014 through 2021 at Gerstell, where he went 99-92 and led the Falcons to back-to-back Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference titles in 2018 and 2019. He stepped down to accept an administrative position at Gerstell, where he will continue to serve as Head of the Lower School.Before his stint at Gerstell, Thompson spent five seasons at Christchurch School in Virginia, going 97-53 and leading the team to Virginia Prep League championships in 2011 and 2012 in addition to a Virginia Independent Schools state title in 2013.AdvertisementParkville has hired Ben Thompson, who went 99-92 and won two MIAA B Conference titles in seven seasons at Gerstell, to replace coach Josh Czerski, who guided the Knights to their first Class 4A state championship in March before taking over at Loyola Blakefield. (Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun)Thompson is excited to return to coaching and accept the challenge of maintaining the success at Parkville.“It’s great to come in following the recent success with the state championship and there’s obviously a winning culture here,” he said. “But really what I was impressed with most was the emphasis on the continued development of the boys as a whole as far as student-athletes.”Said Parkville athletic director Jeff Markle: “We’re excited about the hire. He has the educational component and he knows the game of basketball. Obviously, his track record proves that he wins where ever he goes, and that’s what we want to continue here at Parkville.”Czerski, a 2007 Towson Catholic graduate, went 116-33 in his six years at Parkville, capped by this past season’s 27-1 campaign that brought the program’s first state crown. The Knights also claimed three region titles and the 2021-22 Baltimore County championship under Czerski.Thompson hopes to carry on the team’s success.“One of the things that I’d like to continue at Parkville is playing with great passion. There’s expectations with the recent success they’ve had, so we want to continue to compete. Our teams will be cohesive and united,” he said. “I think what really stuck out to me, too, was a level of humility. One of the things the principal [Maureen Astarita] shared with me during the interview process was how the kids carried themselves the right way, how proud the school was of that group.”
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