The long road to restore the Port of Baltimore

Make Me Smart June 10, 2024 Transcript

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Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, let’s do it if everybody’s good to go.

Amy Scott 

I’m all right with that.

Kimberly Adams 

Hello everyone, I’m Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.

Amy Scott 

And I’m Amy Scott in for Kai Ryssdal. Thank you so much for joining us on this Monday, June 10.

Kimberly Adams 

Today, we are going to do some news and then get to some smiles. We will, of course, start with the news. Amy, go ahead. What’d you got?

Amy Scott 

Okay. Well, today is June 10, which by my calendar, was the day that the main shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore was expected to be restored after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in late March. The US Army Corps of Engineers says the timeline is a little shaky right now. They’re still expecting to open the channel, the main shipping channel, within the next few days, but as I headed into the studio, they were still waiting for the final underwater survey results to make sure there weren’t any unexpected hazards. But you know, this is a really big deal. It’s obviously been a huge deal in Baltimore, but also for global shipping to have this major port out of business. A reminder that the bridge collapsed when a cargo ship crashed into a support column after losing power. Six construction workers who were working on the roadway, on the bridge, were killed, and basically all shipping traffic into and out of this major port ground to a halt. There has been a narrower channel open for a few weeks after the container ship was moved, the dolly, but it won’t be until this main federal channel opens that shipping can return to normal. And even then, folks I’ve talked to say it’ll be a few months before, you know, traffic really picks up because it takes a while for companies who had switched to other ports to start booking container ships to Baltimore. So, as I was, you know, kind of writing up my notes about this, I saw one other related shipping story, which is just that the price of shipping containers is expected to go way up because there’s just a crunch. Not just from, you know, what’s happened in Baltimore, but with ships taking longer routes to avoid the troubles in the Red Sea and some bad weather in Asia as we’re getting into peak shipping season, that’s pushing the price of containers up. So, another thing that businesses shipping to Baltimore are going to have to deal with as this port reopens.

Kimberly Adams 

I feel like we’ve all become such experts on the global supply chain last five years.

Amy Scott 

Right, after COVID?

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, it was never part of the lexicon for so many folks. And then all of a sudden, it suddenly mattered the, you know, for an average person, what was going on in the shipping container industry and how prices were.

Amy Scott

Yeah, totally.

Kimberly Adams

You know. And then, of course, we have this, which is a much more domestic impact. But, yeah, I just. Have you felt it in Baltimore? Like, I know Stephanie Hughes has done a lot of reporting for us on sort of what it’s like down at the port, but I wonder, just sort of living there, how much people are talking about it? How does it affect, you know, moving around in the city and stuff with the bridge?

Amy Scott 

Yeah. Well, I’ve heard from people who have longer commutes where they’re on the highways a lot, that traffic is a lot heavier, kind of everywhere as a result. I haven’t personally experienced it just because of where I live, but I have interviewed some businesses that rely heavily on the port. Shipping companies or trucking companies, logistics companies, and it’s been really hard. I mean, they’ve gotten some grants to keep their workers busy and paid while they’re waiting for traffic to resume, but it’s just going to be a huge relief for everyone. And then, of course, it’s going to be years before that bridge is rebuilt and replaced, so the disruption is going to be long-term.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah. And thinking about that bridge being replaced, and also there was a road collapse, I think out west.

Amy Scott

Oh, yeah. In Wyoming, yes.

Kimberly Adams

Yes, in Wyoming. And a lot of this infrastructure was built in a time when there was a lot more public support for funding big infrastructure projects, and as hard as it is, and I know the infrastructure law recently passed, but as hard, as hard as, as hard as it is to get funding for infrastructure projects, and how much more expensive it is to build big projects, I just wonder what the process and the cost of that is going to end up being and how they’re going to rally enough public and federal support to get it done in a timely manner. Okay, speaking of the federal government. Man, this New York Times story just floored me because I generally follow, you know, what’s going on with campaign finance, but this was really surprising. So, the headline is, “With a Democrat’s Help, the F.E.C. Goes From Deadlock to Deregulation.” Something to know about the Federal Election Commission is that it has six members. Three Democrats, three Republicans. And because of that, it has typically been deadlocked for ages and barely anything gets done. It’s been sort of like a running joke in Washington that the Federal Election Commission doesn’t get much done because Republicans and the Democrats can’t agree. Well, that is starting to change because there is one Democrat of those three who has started siding with the Republicans on a lot of decisions that are impacting this campaign for November. And so, here’s a section of the New York Times reporting on this: “One decision this spring that is already reshaping the 2024 presidential race allowed super PACs and campaigns for the first time to work together to plan and execute costly door-to-door canvassing operations. Politicians had previously been forbidden from coordinating strategy with super PACs, which can raise unlimited amounts of money, to restrain the influence of mega donors on candidates. But the commission ruled that canvassing work was exempt because it did not amount to ‘public communications,’ freeing politicians and super PACs to work more closely than ever.” Another, and I’m just going to skim here. “Another ruling permitted federal candidates, for the first time, to raise unlimited money for state-level ballot initiatives.” Other decisions about wealthy donors allowing more money in politics. So, campaign finance and advocates for less money in politics are really freaking out about this. Because, I mean, if people remember that very famous Stephen Colbert super PAC example, about like what coordination looked like, and how fake that barrier between the campaigns and the super PACs, you know, already was. Now, this is an area where they are legally being allowed to coordinate, and the whole idea behind them not coordinating was to keep more dark money out of politics. And so, this is a really interesting article in The New York Times. They did talk to the Democrat in question. Her name is Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, and she says that she doesn’t see herself as moving the needle, or, you know, doing much earth shattering that she thinks that she’s, you know, just following the law. And I’ll leave it to folks to read it, and to make their own conclusions. But definitely read this New York Times piece. It has a lot of information about how the F.E.C. works, how it has been working, and how this is impacting this campaign cycle.

Amy Scott 

Yeah, it’s excellent reporting. And like you said, really shocking how much as has changed. I mean, it’s like the idea of reforming money in politics, which used to be a very bipartisan popular idea has just, you know, disappeared.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah. yeah. You know, I talked to the folks over at OpenSecrets quite a bit, and they track money in politics, and it’s sort of becoming. It’s becoming less and less interesting what’s happening with the money that we can see, right? The disclosed money, the stuff that gets into F.E.C. filings, and more and more of what’s interesting and what’s really meaningful and moving the needle is happening in all of this money that we’re not allowed to track, or that the law doesn’t permit us to track, which you know about with anonymous donors and things like that. So yeah, there we go. Okey, dokey. I know that’s a little downer for a Monday, but we are going to turn to our smiles and feel better.

Amy Scott 

That’s what the smiles are for.

Kimberly Adams 

What’d you bring, Amy?

Amy Scott 

Well, I have another Maryland story, which some of you may have seen over the weekend. It got some attention that earlier this month a woman named Bailey Anne Kennedy was crowned Miss Maryland, USA. Not something I usually follow, but she is the first transgender woman to win the pageant in the state, also the first Asian American. She’s going to go on to the National Miss USA pageant in LA later this summer, where she’ll try to become not only the first trans woman, but at 31, she would be the oldest woman to win the national title if she does. You used to have to be no older than 28 to compete. Trans women have been allowed to compete in Miss USA for the past decade. The first to win her state’s competition was Miss Nevada. Kataluna Enriquez in 2021, but this is the first person in Maryland. And I was just moved by what she said, which was, “The work that I will do for the remainder of my life is to make sure that children who feel like me will never have to worry about the consequences of being who they are.”

Kimberly Adams

Oh, that’s great. Good luck with the contest.

Amy Scott 

Yeah. Good luck. How about you? What made you smile today, Kimberly?

Kimberly Adams 

This Wall Street Journal piece about TikTok influencers, Gen Z TikTok influencers, who are basically amping up blue-collar jobs, and they’re going online and just showing that you know you can be an electrician or a plumber or a construction worker and live a good life, be happy, make a good money and be an influencer. And it reminded me of some reporting. I know you’ve done some of this, and I’ve done some of this as well over the years about trade schools and the shortage of people in the trades across the country, especially with all of the money flowing into infrastructure and electrifying America and improving the grid. There are not enough skilled workers to do these jobs. And part of that is because, you know, we’ve been pushing college is the answer. College is the answer for years and years and years. And, you know, great college can work for a lot of people, but there are a lot of ways to make a lot of money that do not require a four-year degree. And I think it’s good to see younger folks seeing that and respecting those jobs as well, because one of the things that came up a lot when I was doing reporting on this was the frustration that folks had with the condescension they often face when they’re trying to convince people that jobs in the trade are a viable option. And I remember one woman who worked with a trade school out in Maryland that I know you’ve been to visit also was telling me, you know, everybody wants their kid to go to school to be a doctor, but they don’t necessarily want their kid to go to school to be a plumber, but we want to make it so that that is just as viable of an option and as respected an option because there’s a lot of classism that goes into it.

Amy Scott 

Yeah, and often parents, as you said, are the biggest hurdle. It’s like, the kids may want to do it, but the parents are like, oh, but you know. But yeah, I saw someone recruiting, I think it was high schoolers into the trades. And he was like, you know that the guys with the big house on the shore, those are plumbers, you know? Welders, people with really good paying jobs.

Kimberly Adams 

And no student loans.

Amy Scott

Yeah, exactly. And no student loans.

Kimberly Adams

Yeah, the kids that I was talking to were spending half their time in high school, half their time at this paid for trade school that the electricians guild or something was paying them to attend. They had paid part time jobs, making way over minimum wage. They were guaranteed a job when they finished the trade school, and then they were guaranteed on a path to make like, $27 an hour within a year. And I was just like, did we do the right thing, Amy?

Amy Scott 

Yeah, well, I spent a lot of time asking that question when I was covering education. I think in many ways, we did a disservice to the whole blue-collar profession and to the kids who maybe would have been better off pursuing the training. I think that’s starting to be corrected. More high schools are bringing back shops and programs like the one that you featured are growing, but we need those workers for everything. As you know, I cover housing now, and I’m seeing that the result of that is part of the reason that we don’t have enough homes and that homes are so expensive.

Kimberly Adams 

Right, because we don’t have people to build them well. And I also see on TikTok and Instagram Reels and wherever else, all these videos about new built construction that is just falling apart as soon as it’s put up because when people don’t have access to high quality trades folks and they still have to put up a house, they just sort of make it work. And that’s not ideal.

Amy Scott 

Oh my gosh, Duct tape can only go so far,

Kimberly Adams 

Only so far, but that is as far as we are going to go today. I hope everyone will join us tomorrow for our weekly deep dive. Sabri Ben-Achour and I will be digging into the rise of originalism, which is the idea that the meaning of the Constitution should be understood as it was understood at the time it was written. And we’re going to be talking about this idea with the legal scholar, Madiba Dennie. She has a new book out called “The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back.” Don’t miss it.

Amy Scott 

Oh, I won’t. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s program is engineered by Charlton Thorp. Ellen Rolfes writes our newsletter. Our intern is Thalia Menchaca.

Kimberly Adams 

Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital.